AN AMERICAN who recently moved to Scotland to continue her studies has left social media users in stitches after admitting to using Google to understand local phrases.
Callie Phillips from Montana, United States of America has travelled over 4,000 miles with her family to Glasgow in order to study at the prestigious University of Glasgow.
The 25-year-old shared her lengthy list of Google searches earlier this week as she shared a video about moving across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
The search engine has helped the mum-of-two come to terms with local language including place names and Scottish politics.
A slideshow of searches were shared online by the history student with a backdrop of a canal outside The Auld Hoose in St Andrew’s, Fife.
As the slideshow begins, the sound of Fleetwood Mac’s mystical ‘Everywhere’ begins to play which only further adds to the hilarity of the searches.
The first of many searches on Google concerns how to do dishes with Callie enquiring as to whether dish washing up liquid is the same as dish soap.
The American admits to viewers that it took her too long to figure it out before she shares the second of her searches with viewers.
Callie admits that she has become curious about the Scots language since moving to the country and showcased her enthusiasm by searching for the word daft.
She then showed respect to her new adopted homeland by checking how to pronounce Ardnamurchan located in the Scottish Highlands.
However, Google didn’t appear to appreciate how the pronunciation should be instead offering Callie an anglicised version of the popular place.
Callie then turned her attention to politics and wondered whether she could work with a graduate visa and what the role of the First Minister of Scotland is.
The history student appears to have overheard some local lingo as her final search relates to a word defining a certain type of person.
Callie asks Google what a chav is and Google replies letting her know that it is a badly behaved young person who wears sportswear and jewellery as well as having lower-class taste.
Callie shared the video to social media yesterday with the caption: “Things I’ve Googled after moving to Scotland from Montana one month ago.”
The video received hundreds of likes and dozens of comments as many social-media users were left amused by the cultural shocks.
One person wrote: “Please watch Still Game. Stick on the subtitles, you’ll be fluent in Glaswegian before you know it.”
Another said: “Chav is more English. They’d be a ned in Scotland or a bam.”
A third commented: “That pronunciation is missing all the ‘Rs.’ Try ‘Ard-nah-mur-kin.’”
A fourth added: “’What is a chav’ gave me a proper laugh. Welcome!”
Speaking to Callie today, she said: “We moved so that I could pursue my masters degree. My interest area is ‘America – abroad’ and when I researched programs I found that Scotland offered some of the world’s best higher history education.
“I was accepted to St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow but ultimately chose Glasgow due to the Global History program itself and it being a bigger city with more employment opportunity for my husband.
“Honestly, everything felt like a culture shock those first few weeks. Where we are from is extremely rural so it was also the shock of living in such a large city for the first time too.
“It’s definitely taking us sometime to get used to the accent as well but I was surprised at just how friendly and welcoming everyone has been.
“There seems to be a lot of camaraderie amongst the Scottish people which is something very cool to witness. The quality of the food, especially fresh fruit and vegetables was notably different for us, in a positive respect.
“Everyone is very helpful and welcoming when it comes to our children. Children seem to be integrated into all aspects of life here, that’s not to say that they aren’t at home.
“It’s just more common for parents to leave their kids with sitters or family when running errands.”
