Hoping to set the scene without over explanation

Photo by Amjith S on Unsplash — thanks to the photographer for providing the picture

I perused an article on Medium recently where the author challenged the reader to provide a sample of said reader’s work and he would endeavour to identify the country of origin and other facts regarding the reader by having the sample analysed by AI (with a suitable prompt).[1]

This started me thinking. I am British which I guess is reflected in my writing and the subjects I choose to write about. Sometimes I forget that references which I take for granted may well be unfamiliar to people from other countries.

Once I made a comment underneath someone else’s article relating to the American War of Independence (Revolutionary War) saying that the wrong side won. It was meant to be a jokey quip but some folk took it seriously. I had to explain that I was from the UK and meant the comment in a spirit of humour.

Nowadays if I use a turn of phrase which is British English or even regional British English, I attempt to make the meaning clear. Sometimes I will add a footnote if I cannot smoothly integrate an explanation into the body of my text.

Then I don’t want to overdo things. Were I to say:-

“What ho, here in merry old Blighty[2] we are looking forward to the month of May and dancing around the jolly old maypole …” that might really seem over the top — and a…