Soccer student hails from England

When people find out Sean McCann, junior finance major, is from Liverpool, England, they expect to hear his British accent. The problem with that expectation: he doesn’t have one anymore. After years of living in the states, he has taken on an American accent.

McCann was born in Runcorn, England, living there with his family for most of his childhood. Then, his parents were offered jobs in the states, so he and his sister moved with them to Pittsburgh while the rest of his family stayed in England. He attended high school in the states and only visits his home in England about every other year. His brother currently attends a college in England.

McCann said he learned about Waynesburg because of the soccer program, which was the main reason he decided to pick the university.

While searching for colleges, McCann visited Waynesburg University and was given a tour of campus with head men’s soccer coach Brad Heethuis.

“I liked what I saw,” McCann said. “I could play soccer, I could get a college degree and it basically had everything I wanted.”

McCann said another reason he decided to go here was the small size of the school and area.

Although the U.S. and England have many similarities, McCann said they do hold their differences. Space is one of those differences.

“There is a lot more space here in America,” McCann said. “My house I have now, I have a front yard, a backyard and part of a side yard. In England, a lot of houses are put together in rows with very small front and back yards.”

Because of how much more space is here, McCann said, people must use cars to travel to most places easily, whereas people in England can get to almost all the stores and other places they need or want to go just by walking or biking.

“The towns are a lot closer to each other. In a town, you have everything you need next to where you live,” McCann said. “Even here in Waynesburg, it would be difficult to walk all the way to Walmart and all the way back.”

In addition to more space, McCann also mentioned the abundance of job and internship opportunities located in the states, which he thinks is the reason for his parents’ move.

There is not much difference in how English people interact with one another, McCann said, other than that English people might be more direct in communicating with each other. But, there is quite a difference in how people speak to one another, due to the large variety of accents and dialects people have in different areas of England compared to the states.

Although he has mostly lost his accent, McCann’s parents still have accents so thick that McCann said he sometimes has to relay to his friends what they say. He said English people also use different words for items.

“We’ll call fries, chips and potato chips, crisps,” McCann said. “We’ll say trolley instead of shopping cart, we say boot instead of trunk.”

McCann says he enjoys the outdoors in the states, as the rural places present many opportunities to explore and participate in other outdoor activities in his free time. After graduation, McCann said he thinks he will return to England for graduate school.