How To Sound Like An Ass: The Harry Potter Edition

[Note to self: when you write those Moving to England expectations, don't forget to write down "Expect a lot of sorry I'm not sorry moments"]

[Note to you: This is a funny post, I promise... Well, it's not a bitchy post like it may appear at first glace.... I can't promise that I'm that funny... I try...]

I'd like to preface this post by saying I'm not an ignorant American, especially when I'm in England. I swallow the laughter that often occurs after saying to-MAH-toes instead of to-MAY-toes, I ask where the toilet is instead of the bathroom, and I most always say "trousers" instead of "pants" (because trust me, there's a difference).

So it's rare I have those "d'uhhhhhhhhh this girl is American" moments. I try to avoid them at all costs.

In fact, the last time I felt this silly about anything remotely Americanized of me was about 3 years ago when Fiance and I were playing the "let's pronounce things and try to make the other one look like an ass" game. He asked me to pronounce Wycombe, which is a city in England. Well when you grow up in Florida and cities are often named after all things Native American (Tallahassee, Suwanee, Choctawhatchee... you get the point) , that word kind of looks like it should be pronounced why-com-bee.

Apparently it's not.

After what felt like 5 hours of Fiance rolling on the ground laughing at my epic fail, I finally got it out of him that it's pronounced WIC-om.

Oh..... MY BAD.

 So tonight, after over 3 years of being the certified Anglophile girlfriend extraordinaire, I finally sounded like an ass.

I don't know about any of you, but I called the head person at the school the "principal". I mean, that's the norm in American, am I right? And they always emphasized PAL in princiPAL, because he was your PAL! Maybe that was just my school....

Anyways, I was trying to explain a character in a TV show to Fiance that was, how I would say, "the principal" of the school. But instead of saying "the principal", I.... well.... let me just dialogue it...

Me: "The guy was... I don't know what you call it! We'd say he was the principal of school, what would you say? Headmaster maybe?"
Fiance: "Yeah he'd be the headmaster of the school"
Me: "Oh good, I thought they only said that at Hogwarts."
Fiance: [long pause] "Are you being serious?"
Me: "I don't know what you call things! I just thought because Headmaster Dumbledore--"
Fiance: [bursts out laughing for 10 minutes]

Well sorry I'm not sorry I like Harry Potter and never went to a British school!!

It's good to know that no matter what side of the pond I'm on, I can manage to look like an ass.

So how did YOU pronounce "Wycombe" when you first saw it?? I seriously can't be the only one who said it wrong!