Essential English phrases

The Arkansas River, which runs through the middle of Wichita. In Kansas it is pronounced ar-KAN-zas, with the stress on the second syllable — never like the state downstream. Saying it the other way identifies you instantly.

The airport code, used as the city's name in conversation, on merchandise and in business names. 'ICT' is to Wichita what '716' is to Buffalo.

The restored brick warehouse district east of downtown — bars, restaurants, the cinema and the Saturday farmers market. If someone says they are going out, this is usually where.

The historic district immediately west of the river across from downtown — once a separate and famously rough cattle-trail town, now Wichita's most walkable strip of independent bars, restaurants and shops.

Wichita Public Schools, the largest district in Kansas. Kansas numbers its districts, and a Wichita postal address can sit in USD 260 Derby, 265 Goddard or 266 Maize instead — which changes the schools and the tax bill and is invisible in the address.

Wichita's own name for itself — Air Capital of the World. Cessna, Beechcraft, Learjet and Stearman were all founded here, and aviation is still the reason the local economy has the shape it does.

The Keeper of the Plains, Blackbear Bosin's steel sculpture standing at the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas rivers. The fire pots around its base are lit for fifteen minutes every evening — 'the Ring of Fire' — and it is the city's meeting point.

The property tax rate, expressed as dollars per USD 1,000 of assessed value. In Wichita the levies of the city, Sedgwick County, the school district and Wichita State stack to about 111 mills — and you need the number because the assessed value is only 11.5% of market value.

Sedgwick County's outdoor warning sirens, tested on a published monthly schedule and sounded for a tornado warning. They are designed to be heard outdoors, not indoors — a weather radio or phone alerts are what wake you at 2 a.m.

The lowered, rotating base beneath a supercell thunderstorm — the thing storm spotters look for and the shape that precedes a tornado. Between April and June, everyone here learns to read the sky.

911 for emergencies. 511 is the Kansas travel information line for road and weather conditions, which between December and March is the number that tells you whether the interstate is passable.

A fizzy soft drink. Kansas says pop, not soda and definitely not coke-for-everything. You will be understood either way but noticed.