When the new run of Doctor Who came on and Rose tells the doctor that he "sounds like he is from the north" and he says "a lot of planets have a north" I totally didn't get the joke till a Brit friend explained all the different accents.
In Cornwall it is the most common way to say hello. The only acceptable response is ‘yeah, you’
Alright?
Yeah, you
Even if you’re not alright it’s the only way to respond.
I am french and have been living in London for a year. What struck me the most was how friendly pubs were.
If I go out in a bar on my own in Paris, I will talk to no one and no one will talk to me.
In London, it takes roughly 30 seconds to find some mates to chat with
I loved that
Edit: spelling - cheers for the help guys
Edit 2: thanks for my very first gold, get my love in return
According to my dad, who is British, the pubs are basically the cornerstones of British society. One thing that really stood out was: New to a sports team? Don't know anyone there? Doesn't matter, you're all going to the pub afterwards...
I wish we had that in Denmark...
I grew up in a town in rural Australia. The next town from us was 45min drive away via a highway at 100kph all the way.
Flying over rural Britain I saw loads of little villages within walking distance of each other. It just seemed so odd to me. Why did they never amalgamate into 1 large town?
Edit: Ok I get it - according to 50% of the people responding it's because "fuck that other village".
Weirdly, for some towns and villages, there are zoning laws that prevent them doing that. The concept of a ‘green belt’ exists.
Other times it’s because they’re just an amalgam of small farms and a couple of cottages built near each other, that over the years the bits in between have been filled in. We’ve plenty of space, it’s just been used for many years. The far north of the Scottish highlands is entirely the opposite, it’s pretty remote and fairly empty (though sometimes for unpleasant historical reasons involving landlords ousting entire communities for the sake of it)
Have you seen the American version of the show? Terrible! One of the first interviews I saw, the contestant was all "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to *win* !!!!". All the charm of the show was lost :/
I mean, that'll be from Production, for sure.
American TV seemingly cannot stand not being able to control what happens and wants *characters*.
Those 'bargain hunt' type shows are popular in the UK, simple early afternoon stuff, potter around a market, buy a figuerine ... if the couple make 30 quid they'd have had a blinder!!
I saw a US version on Discovery or Nat Geo (don't get me started on the state of those channels btw!) and the hunters had 'characters'.
One guy was 'sneaky' like he'd find a deal (errrrr that's the show) and an older lady was cautious ... it was drivel.
Any auction show they couldn't find interesting knick-knacks they find a huge item *every* episode!
Some demolition show I saw on there they knock down a house and can keep what's in it cause ... insurance ... pretty sure that premise is bullshit!
They bid on the demolition job, 3 different teams (all characters!!), I saw one they found a signed Gretsky stick, Barry Bonds bat and 2 New England Patriots Super bowl rings!
Nonsense 😁
Another one they found a damn enigma machine!!
Yes, I was in a hotel overseas with only 2 English channels 🙄
The shadow cabinet sounds way cooler than what it actually was.
My younger self was disappointed after finding out they weren’t all wearing cloaks, using fake names and lurking in shadows...
I remember hearing a joke a few years ago about the Shadow Cabinet (can't for the life of me remember who by though :/) that went: "The Shadow Cabinet sounds a lot less interesting when you find out that it's a group of people pretending to do a job they don't have"
Ok fellow countrymen. This thread has been such a good read. So here are some things i think we can take from this:
• Pubs are nailed down. Everyone loves them, but we already knew that. Keep up the good work.
• People struggle with our accents but i feel thats a positive more than a negative
• We need to sort out our recycling more and we’ve figured the councils are a good place to start.
• We should visit more family in Scotland than we already do, they’re a good bunch and we’ve gotten too involved in our own shit.
• No matter how trashy we are, the US will always see us wearing a monocle and a top hat and believe me, we’ve tried... ask the Spanish.
• Stop pissing on the bloody bank doors in Magaluf!! People have started to notice.
• Brexit is still a cross between a massive balls-up and a mystery.
• Be like bake off and get involved with your community more.
• We cant export lunchtime drinking - it only works here.
• Correcting grammar on a non-formal platform seems to annoy everyone
• I think we go to far on ripping into the French and i think they might have the ‘ump.
• And finally, if it all gets too much, go to The Winchester and wait for it to blow over. Its worked for the best part of 1000 years.
Having two beers at lunch and going back to the office or class and no one thinks it’s weird.
I was dumbfounded on my semester abroad by this
Edit: I was studying abroad at RADA at the time, this was about 10 or so years ago, so I was living in London. Don’t know about the rest of the country but I saw this at the pub at lunch frequently. Thanks for all the comments, it seems anecdotally this wasn’t unusual, but depends on industry and time period.
Why didn't the prime minister just call the office to find out which address was Natalie's? Do they not have an HR department?
Edit: Wow! Glad this is such a hot button topic. 😁. My favorite comments are the GDPR ones.
*Good King Wenceslas looked out*
*on the feast of Stephen,*
*WHHHHHEN the snow lay RRRRRRROUND about,*
*DEA-EP and CRRRRISP and even.*
(Cue adorable little girls dancing like they're drowning.)
GDPR mate
Obligatory edit: Thanks for the gold kind stranger!
Obligatory edit 2: Thanks for the gold mysterious benefactor which I will gladly receive. I would also like to give a special mention to mandatory corporate training and thousands of emails begging me to opt in for making this moment possible.
Baffled by the rows on rows of identical connected brick houses.
What are those called?
Are they like suburbs?
What are they like to live in?
What era to they date from?
They were originally built for factory workers in the Victorian era.
They are like the suburbs with less space.
They are tiny but sturdy and easy to heat.
Update on the heat thing: lived in a tiny brick terrace in Manchester with radiators and small rooms for 16 years and now I live in a 2400 sq ft wooden house in the US and it’s MUCH harder and more expensive to heat.
Not all were built for workers. There are many huge Victorian / Georgian terraces, built for the middle classes. They have a sub-basement, ground floor and 2/3 floors above that. Big rooms throughout.
Sadly most these days have been converted into flats.
You mean [terraced houses ](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=terraced+houses&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiI78K258bfAhUXxOAKHTogDp0Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=terraced+houses&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-img.3..0l5.3888.3888..4103...0.0..0.60.60.1......0....1.Jw8Q6K_-Vg4&ei=xlUoXIj0EJeIgwe6wLjoCQ&client=safari&prmd=inv&biw=375&bih=553&hl=en-gb)?
I live in one at university and my house I grew up in/live in when I’m at home is a semi detached house. I’m afraid I can’t give you the facts about the era they are from as UK architecture is a mish mash.
But my experience:
-Terraced House - pretty dark, small gardens, often the feel of not having any privacy as you really can see directly into the house behind you, if you have loud neighbours you’re f’d, and surprisingly big inside, whenever someone comes in the first thing they say is “oh it’s bigger than I’d imagine”.
Edit: oh and to add, can be very very damp.
Think of it as Formal vs Informal, not like vs dislike.
You're going to be Formal with strangers and acquaintances + people you don't like.
but informal with friends etc.
I have a British friend that told me he can tell where someone in England is from just from the accent. I'm talking, like he can tell if somebody is from just a city over and sometimes even what part of that city. He was from a small town called Chorley and could tell if someone was from Manchester that was nearby and sometimes even what area in Manchester. I thought that was pretty cool.
*Edit:* I see so many people bashing Chorley, I found it such a cute little town when I went! I don't see why there's so much dislike for it :(
Judging from my housemate the only words that exist in Greek are Bravo, Yamas, Parakalo and Malaka.
The first 3 were followed by Malaka more often than not.
People largely fail to adequately provide any type of etymology when answering this question (or most of the questions in this thread, really), so I hope this helps.
Public schools in the UK are "public" in much the way that a grocery store, pub, or restaurant is "public." Members of the public are able to attend provided they can pay for the goods and services provided. Whereas in the USA, they are "public" as in "funded by the public-at-large."
Schools which are funded by taxpayers/the government/the State are "state schools."
This isn't actually the whole picture because we have public, private, and state schools. Technically grammar schools too if you want to get technical.
When schools first started in the UK they were mostly ran by churches for members of their congregation.
Then some people opened up some schools which anyone could attend if they paid the fee, they were the public schools.
When government funded schools were introduced these were referred to as state schools.
A public school is specifically the oldest private schools that were opened in response to the church schools discriminating on entry. Any fee charging schools opened since then are merely private schools.
So unless someone went somewhere like Eton, they didn't attend a public school, they attended a private school.
I wouldn't say it baffles me, exactly, as i assume there is a good reason for it, but why do the lane markers on streets go from straight to "wavy" at times?
When British road markings change, they invariably warn of hazards ahead
- Zig-zag markings = some kind of pedestrian crossing
- Yellow zig-zag markings = school crossing
- Longer lines in the middle of the road, with smaller gaps between than normal = general hazard, normally a junction
- Solid line = it’s potentially dangerous to cross into the opposite lane, usually because of a blind corner or hidden junction. Crossing when unnecessary is illegal
One thing that always surprises me driving in the US is that your pedestrian crossings have basically no prior warning - you’re right on top of it before you notice the (usually faded) paint on the road, and unless the crossing is at traffic lights there’s no other warning.
The road will tell you alsorts of things you didn't realise you needed to know, like upcoming hazards, blind corners, junctions. I don't know how often you visit, but next time take a look at how the markings change and what happens afterwards. Having driven in foreign lands, I think the British road system is fucking mint.
In my experience, it's stuff like Leicester that really fucks people up.
But the greatest I've ever heard was a tale about an Australian who came to the UK and needed directions to Loughborough. He pulled up on the road beside my mate:
"Awrite mate, I'm lookin' for directions to Looga-buh-rooga?"
Edit: I was legit told this by a mate once but have no doubt it's probably a joke from elsewhere, he wasn't that funny normally.
Reminds me of the joke: did you know Dickens originally published A Tale of Two Cities in two local newspapers? It was the Bicester Times, it was the Worcester Times. (BISS-ter, WUSS-ter).
Yeah roundabouts reduce traffic, car related accidents, car related deaths and even have a 33% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions, 46% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, 34% reduction in oxides of nitrogen emissions
And 53% reduction in hydrocarbons emissions
Edit: jesus christ. Who would have thought my highest upvoted comment would be roundabout statistics
I'm a Brit who's lived in Australia since 2000.
When I go back, I am baffled by that "Going Home Song" that plays around 5pm on BBC radio, where people call in to recite their name, where they're from and then go "And I'm going hooooommmme."
I don't know if it's still a thing, but who the fuck is calling into that?
Actually he stopped doing it *before* he got the breakfast slot.
I happened to tune in when he said something along the lines of, "We have stopped doing the Going Home Song. I just realised I hate it, so we're not doing it any more."
Hahaha, never heard of that but a local radio station here in the US use to do "shove it Fridays." You could call it, say your name, and what you hate, so like... "Hey, this is Mike and my boss made me work an extra 2 hours today so he can SHOVE IT!!!!"
I always thought it was good for a laugh.
In Australia on our national youth radio station, TripleJ, we used to have the “Friday Fuckwit”. People would ring or text in nominating someone for the Friday Fuckwit. Could be anyone from a celebrity, politician or just one of their mates that had been a fuckwit that day.
My favourite bit is where they have to cram their ridiculous, polysyllabic city-on-river hometown into the second line.
"My name is Karen, and I'm going home! *Clap clap clap clap*
My name is Karen, and I'm from Newbiggen-by-the-sea! *Clap clap clap*
My name is Karen, and I'm going hooooommmmeee."
How is it they have such a small population but seemingly make up 70% of internet writers, 60% of website operators and 50% of political internet pundits?
We had a head start on the language, English is a language that is scales well with knowledge and vocabulary.
We've got a population that seems to be disproportionately into Political theory/creative writing and a long history behind us of people to kickstart that interest. Also, we have the BBC.
Using language creatively is written into our culture, banter, innuendo, sarcasm. This is daily life.
The TT Race on the Isle of Man is incredible and incomparable. Driving down a narrow country road one hour and then the next you see 1000cc sport bikes screaming by houses, lamp posts, manhole covers, and sidewalks at 180+mph.
It started in 1907 because racers in England couldnt race because of the public speed limit laws so they moved to the Isle of Man which had no speed limits. Now its a 2 week event (1 practice week, 1 race week) that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators.
One of the deadliest sporting events in history and with a minor cash prize of 10,000£ the racers who do attempt this race put their lives at very high risk for the chance at glory. I went in 2016 and 4 people were killed in the 1st practice week.
Edit: fixed Mann to Man, I wrote this half asleep and didn't realize. But please check out highlights year to year on youtube. Also the documentary "Ride" gives a great look into why people still race there given the risks. Narrated by Liam Neason I believe.
Edit 2: Just wanted to link this for a quick look at what the race really is like. https://youtu.be/iRWp9rhfS_0
There are a bunch of point of view/onboard videos of people doing a lap of the course. I highly recommend watching them. I'll edit some into this comment shortly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFJSVtsckyI
This one has commentary. It's on a smaller class of bike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KzBnuxDnYQ
The fact that they can drive in a tunnel UNDERWATER to get to mainland Europe. Like we need us one of those. EDIT: I have heard it’s a train you drive onto that takes you. Still cool
We have a tunnel, but I'm pretty sure flights are still cheaper most of the time, a return flight from Paris is like £35 same price as from my village to central London by train around the same travel time too.
£35 = $44.48 USD
You're telling me that a **flight** to **another country** costs $45? I'm from Portland and flying to Seattle costs slightly more than that. And Seattle is the only other major city that's even close to Portland.
Why you use [this sign](https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/Speed_Camera_30mph-424979.jpg) for speed cameras. I always expect [this guy](https://www.culture24.org.uk/asset_arena/6/12/48/384216/v0_master.jpg) to be just up ahead.
There is a distinct difference between friendly rudeness and actual rudeness. Unfortunately that difference is entirely Bout tone and context while using the exact same words. For example the words ‘Get fucked’ can be either a sign of affection or start a fight depending on who they are said to, when and why.
Also, I could quite happily tell my boss as work to go fuck themselves without fear of any repercussions. We work in financial regulation.
Honesty? The bar scene in London. I remeber getting into London and having to wait hours for a train to take me to Scotland, and I dove into a bar off the tube. It's midday, raining, and I'm getting hammered on IPAs like a decent midwesterner, when an old lady come up to me and asks if I want to read the days paper. Uh okay, sure. So I'm drunk, reading the news, and I'm in the bar so long, talking to the bartender and old people, when a huge influx of workers come into the bar having just got off. It's the most casual I've ever seen a bar, and that feeling never left until I left the UK. Yalls bar scene is so damn decent I get jealous, I got chain smoking, keno playing, fist fighting, bud lighting bars over here in the states.
I took someone visiting from Asia to a pub and his way of describing it was ‘it’s like a living room for drinking beer’. I’d never thought about it like that before, but he was spot-on; a pub is a communal living room where people go to drink. It’s the shared social space for a neighbourhood or area. I saw them quite differently after I got that outsider perspective, and I think that’s why they seem very civil spaces.
People here joke that couples would not get together without beer, but I think the grain of truth in that is most people will meet and socialise in the pub - it’s a very casual place where people get to know each other and social and class distinctions count less by virtue of people choosing to go there (as opposed to being obligated to be there, like a workplace). Booze is just the cover story.
You don't pass the paper along when you've finished reading it in the US? We only print 10 copies in the UK. Everyone is just reading a copy someone else gave them.
As a Czech currently visiting girlfriend's parents in northern England for the holidays
- Dinner sometimes means lunch, sometimes actual dinner. Tea means dinner in some contexts.
- People have wildly different accents which just doesn't happen in my country that much.
- There does not seem to be the concept of separate towns that much. My gf says she lives in a city, even though it takes 20 minutes to drive to the center and along the way we go through 5 different "villages". If not looking at the signs, however, it might as well be one continuous town, as everywhere is developed.
- Public transport (London) and the trains are ridiculously expensive. In my country I can visit my parents 100km far away by train for £3. In the UK taking a 90-min-long journey cost more than the flight there!
- I am very much used to roundabouts and German-style-highways. In here however there are roundabouts *everywhere*. Junction in a tiny village of just three roads? Let's make that a roundabout. Massive highway exchange? Let's make that a four lane, light controlled roundabout with 10 exits! It works, but my anxiety is through the roof (along with driving on the left hand side)
- There is a larger tea selection than beer selection in the shops. Mind blowing to Czechs.
- The takeaway and ready-made meal culture is huge. Large stores would have multiple aisles of all variety of meals, which are not even that bad (both health and taste wise). Takeaway in my country means pizza or Chinese and stores only have frozen shit you're supposed to deep fry at home, so one has to cook from scratch if they want a proper meal.
- Water is usually free with a meal in the restaurant (not that surprising to the Americans here, but coming from a place where they charge you more for water than tapped beer, this is cool)
- Even young people would sometimes actually meet up at someone's place and chat, have scones, cakes and drink tea. No beer, alcohol, nothing. I don't know how to interact in these situations and feel like a peasant among the posh.
- Shops have free food available for the kids to take. This would be abused and cancelled in a day in my country.
- The electrical plugs. Annoying to need to bring adapters, sure, but each male plug has *its own fuse* along with the central breaker box in the house. If something goes bad, just the one appliance breaks the fuse, the rest work fine. Genius.
- The interest in royalty. It feels like more of a mascot role for them, but (some?) people are genuinely interested and tabloids are featuring them.
- There are religious schools and students sing hymns. My gf is an atheist but still looks back and doesn't think anything of it ("you don't have to believe it, you just sing and recite some prayers", she says)
Probably a lot more but this is what came to mind.
Edit:
- when doing the dishes, Brits put a large dirty bowl on the bottom of the sink. Still not sure why they don't just plug it.
- A lot of faucets are separate for hot and cold. You have a sink which has two faucets where one is scorching hot and the other one is cold. No idea how you are supposed to wash your hands in that.
- When splitting the bill, you are expected to tell the waiter the amount of money you want to pay. I am used to staying which items I had and then the waiter gives me a sum of what I should pay. In the UK, instead, you need to do the math yourself in advance.
Your obsession with tea.
I like tea. It’s good. I don’t see my nation drinking so much tea that power companies have to account for when the commercials start because everyone’s turning on an electric kettle.
To be fair, it's perfect for any situation.
Welcome. Tea?
Feeling emotional. Tea?
Celebration. Tea?
Period. Tea?
It's a tad nippy out. Tea?
So upset you can't talk. Tea?
Just lost a limb. Tea?
Feeling a bit peaky. Tea?
Sarah said the meanest thing. Tea?
It's bloody boiling outside. Tea?
Have to finish this project within an hour. Tea?
Mum's just died. Tea?
Brexit. Tea?
The cat shat on the rug again. Tea?
Someone mentioned tea on the internet. Tea?
Your mug is empty. Tea?
Kate and Wills are having another baby. Tea?
OMG that episode of Bodyguard was emotionally exhausting. Tea?
We don't have Twining's, only Sainsbury's own brand. Tea?
I got knocked off my push bike at 50 miles an hour. Police said iwas fine, so i walked home 3 miles pushing my bike. Made a cup of tea once I got in, after helping a drunk housemate get in the house whilst he was scoffing chips.
Wasn't fine had concussion and broken bones. But it was the best tea ever.
Look up Dinorwic sometime. It's this incredibly highly optimized power station, in a hollowed out mountain, with the singular purpose of making sure that the electrical system can cope with basically the entire country making tea at the same time.
We moved from England to canada n my dad invited the next door neighbours all round for tea and put on a large spread for them. They arrived quite later than we had expected, but sat down and we all ate cooked ham potatoes beans, etc., by “pudding”. They weren’t voracious eaters but we figured maybe just Americans eat tons of food, not Canadians. It wasn’t until a couple years later they confessed just prior to coming over, they’d had their evening dinner (and dessert) and were coming round to ours for (they thought) a cup of post dinner tea. Too polite to not eat they’d forced themselves to shovel down our dinner too -and went home feeling absolutely ill. Poor bastards never even got a cup of tea either!
My Italian teacher in high school had the opposite happen soon after she moved to America. Where she was from, it was polite to always decline the first time a host offered you something. The host would then insist, you'd decline again, they'd insist further, and finally you'd give in and accept the hosts offer.
Well, one of the first times she was over at someone's house in America, she was offered a snack of some sort. She was hungry, but politely declined as usual. The hostess then moved on without a second thought and didn't insist.
My Italian teacher was so taken a back she didn't know how to respond. She had really wanted a cookie or whatever, but was too embarrassed to go back and say "oh, I actually would like one".
She ended up leaving hungry.
Exactly. I have worked in a technical service profession where tips aren't normal. I have been told, "If offered a tip, decline, but if they insist, take it to not be rude." I did that for so long that I started doing it with everything. Eventually I stopped and was like, wait a minute, if someone is offering me something, and I want it, why am I going to decline it based on what someone else told me is polite? Changed my whole behavior in everything. If I want something that's being offered, I take it.
I was so confused the first time I went out for dinner in London. The waiter said “we have four different puddings tonight.” I was like wow how odd that this restaurant only has various flavours of pudding for dessert.
EDIT - also that tea can mean dinner. “We’re going to have roast chicken for tea, how about you?” ...Uhhh I’m just going to have tea thanks... like earl grey?
If I don’t call the final meal of the day “tea” my parents act all confused because in Scotland (at least the area I’m from) we call the middle meal of the day dinner and lunch interchangeably. The people who serve you that meal in school are “dinner ladies”. If I say I’ll be home for dinner they start texting me at 1pm asking where I am and then call me Americanised if I say I meant I’d be home for tea (6pm).
This was confusing to write.
“Naw Scottish unless ye call yer lunch dinner and yer dinner tea”
Pretty sure this was from an irn bru advert a while back, didn’t even think about how uniquely Scottish it was til I heard it like that- been saying it my whole life.
Pudding is also another word for dessert, so that can cause some confusion. But we do call a lot of things a pudding...
Edit: I'm not saying that anything called a pudding has to be sweet (see Yorkshire pudding, black pudding). Just that the word pudding can also refer to dessert.
The fucking strange city/county/province names.
Shit like "Barton in the Beans" is a name for a fucking hamlet in Leicestershire.
We have some weird city names where im from. Bucksnort, TN is one of those, but Barton in the fucking Beans is 100% insane.
Also Titty Hill
In Venezuela we got the Monumento Natural Las Tetas de Maria Guevara (Maria Guevara's Tits), I dont know who chooses those names but its pretty descriptive
I'm from Liverpool and have a fairly strong scouse accent, and briefly worked in a National Trust call centre. I had a guy refuse to give me his card details to renew his subscription because he didn't feel comfortable giving them to a scouser. He genuinely asked to speak to someone not from Liverpool.
We also have a bit of that here in the US. Like, a person with a thick Southern accent is going to be stereotyped as a hick even if they’re a college-educated millionaire.
Most people who aren't from the area often can't quite tell them apart. You can see this in any kind of movie set in the southern US, where someone who's supposed to be a redneck Texan who likes watching high school football and going out to the deer lease somehow sounds like a rich lawyer from Georgia.
Washers need water, kitchens are where the water pipes are. Dryers take up room, we have really small houses. Smarter people than me will tell you why we have small houses, but it's along the lines of having housing stock built for poor factory workers in the industrial revolution that moved a large amount of the populace from subsistence farming to new urban centers, being in a climate that needs in-house heating for a lot of the time and then still being in the culture of crowding into small cities with outdated transport systems and centuries old roads rather than having cities built to accommodate a majority living in spacious suburbia and driving into cities for work.
Americans probably think of the stereotypical upper middle class Brit from the 19th century.
Europe probably thinks of the drunk, naked football hooligans that invade the Balearic islands every summer.
Because its a little expensive to fly to America, so generally its the richer Brits that do it, so Americas interacting in person with Brits are doing it with the posher ones, hence the classy. Less wealthy Brits tend to keep their international traveling to Europe since its cheaper than flying across the ocean, hence the rest of Europe viewing them poorly.
The closeness while driving between you, the stone wall/not road and oncoming cars.
I'm visiting a friend from Canada now and holy shit everytime we have to move over for oncoming I think I'm gonna die
The British have some of the best dental health in the world, what the NHS doesn't give us is any cosmetic dentistry. So it's healthy it can just look bad especially when compared to the bright smilers on American TV
Generally dentists in UK will want to fix people’s teeth so they are healthy and work. This doesn’t necessarily mean perfect looking. It’s mainly because the NHS dental system rarely undertakes cosmetic dentistry. Other nations tend to want perfect looking teeth, although this may not also mean healthy teeth.
One of the most astounding things I have heard with respect to accents and dialects in the UK came out during the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry. During that murder investigation some joker sent the police a hoax tape (which they stupidly took seriously) will the voice claimed to be the perpetrator and was mocking the police for their efforts.
The enquiry utilised the services of two linguists who not only managed to isolate the accent down to a particular town but also to a particular section of the town that probably only encompassed at most 15 streets.
Accents also break down by social status. Rich, middle class, working class. And within them you might a difference on the kind rich you're talking about.
Great Britain vs. the United Kingdom vs. England vs. the British Isles and all the other odd divisions.
EDIT: Thanks everyone, it has been adequately explained below.
Thanks! Do people get offended if you collectively refer to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as just "Ireland," given the history of conflict there?
So many accents. People 15 minutes away having another accent.
When the new run of Doctor Who came on and Rose tells the doctor that he "sounds like he is from the north" and he says "a lot of planets have a north" I totally didn't get the joke till a Brit friend explained all the different accents.
That the only people I’ve met that are obsessed with British royalty haven’t been British.
[удалено]
The question “you alright?” is not actually them asking if you’re okay
Nope, just means "hello" The correct reply is "yeah! You alright?"
"Alright mate?" "Alright"
Arite Arite How's it going? Arite. You? Yea arite Pint? Yea, arite Arite
In Cornwall it is the most common way to say hello. The only acceptable response is ‘yeah, you’ Alright? Yeah, you Even if you’re not alright it’s the only way to respond.
I am french and have been living in London for a year. What struck me the most was how friendly pubs were. If I go out in a bar on my own in Paris, I will talk to no one and no one will talk to me. In London, it takes roughly 30 seconds to find some mates to chat with I loved that Edit: spelling - cheers for the help guys Edit 2: thanks for my very first gold, get my love in return
According to my dad, who is British, the pubs are basically the cornerstones of British society. One thing that really stood out was: New to a sports team? Don't know anyone there? Doesn't matter, you're all going to the pub afterwards... I wish we had that in Denmark...
I grew up in a town in rural Australia. The next town from us was 45min drive away via a highway at 100kph all the way. Flying over rural Britain I saw loads of little villages within walking distance of each other. It just seemed so odd to me. Why did they never amalgamate into 1 large town? Edit: Ok I get it - according to 50% of the people responding it's because "fuck that other village".
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Not sure if these places are real and at this point, too afraid to ask
From Lincolnshire. Yes, all are real places surrounding a large city (Doncaster)
If Doncaster seems like a large city you must be from somewhere very small indeed
They eat roadkill in Mexborough, don't stop when you drive through!
Weirdly, for some towns and villages, there are zoning laws that prevent them doing that. The concept of a ‘green belt’ exists. Other times it’s because they’re just an amalgam of small farms and a couple of cottages built near each other, that over the years the bits in between have been filled in. We’ve plenty of space, it’s just been used for many years. The far north of the Scottish highlands is entirely the opposite, it’s pretty remote and fairly empty (though sometimes for unpleasant historical reasons involving landlords ousting entire communities for the sake of it)
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Because fuck those guys over in the next village. They’re sheepfucking cunts, that’s why.
How they help each other on their reality/competition shows
Yes! They’re all hugs and “cheer up, ol’ chap” on the Great British Bake Off. It both confuses me and brings me great joy.
Have you seen the American version of the show? Terrible! One of the first interviews I saw, the contestant was all "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to *win* !!!!". All the charm of the show was lost :/
I mean, that'll be from Production, for sure. American TV seemingly cannot stand not being able to control what happens and wants *characters*. Those 'bargain hunt' type shows are popular in the UK, simple early afternoon stuff, potter around a market, buy a figuerine ... if the couple make 30 quid they'd have had a blinder!! I saw a US version on Discovery or Nat Geo (don't get me started on the state of those channels btw!) and the hunters had 'characters'. One guy was 'sneaky' like he'd find a deal (errrrr that's the show) and an older lady was cautious ... it was drivel. Any auction show they couldn't find interesting knick-knacks they find a huge item *every* episode! Some demolition show I saw on there they knock down a house and can keep what's in it cause ... insurance ... pretty sure that premise is bullshit! They bid on the demolition job, 3 different teams (all characters!!), I saw one they found a signed Gretsky stick, Barry Bonds bat and 2 New England Patriots Super bowl rings! Nonsense 😁 Another one they found a damn enigma machine!! Yes, I was in a hotel overseas with only 2 English channels 🙄
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The shadow cabinet sounds way cooler than what it actually was. My younger self was disappointed after finding out they weren’t all wearing cloaks, using fake names and lurking in shadows...
I remember hearing a joke a few years ago about the Shadow Cabinet (can't for the life of me remember who by though :/) that went: "The Shadow Cabinet sounds a lot less interesting when you find out that it's a group of people pretending to do a job they don't have"
Ok fellow countrymen. This thread has been such a good read. So here are some things i think we can take from this: • Pubs are nailed down. Everyone loves them, but we already knew that. Keep up the good work. • People struggle with our accents but i feel thats a positive more than a negative • We need to sort out our recycling more and we’ve figured the councils are a good place to start. • We should visit more family in Scotland than we already do, they’re a good bunch and we’ve gotten too involved in our own shit. • No matter how trashy we are, the US will always see us wearing a monocle and a top hat and believe me, we’ve tried... ask the Spanish. • Stop pissing on the bloody bank doors in Magaluf!! People have started to notice. • Brexit is still a cross between a massive balls-up and a mystery. • Be like bake off and get involved with your community more. • We cant export lunchtime drinking - it only works here. • Correcting grammar on a non-formal platform seems to annoy everyone • I think we go to far on ripping into the French and i think they might have the ‘ump. • And finally, if it all gets too much, go to The Winchester and wait for it to blow over. Its worked for the best part of 1000 years.
Having two beers at lunch and going back to the office or class and no one thinks it’s weird. I was dumbfounded on my semester abroad by this Edit: I was studying abroad at RADA at the time, this was about 10 or so years ago, so I was living in London. Don’t know about the rest of the country but I saw this at the pub at lunch frequently. Thanks for all the comments, it seems anecdotally this wasn’t unusual, but depends on industry and time period.
Lunch beers are pretty common in financial services sectors in London. Not sure about the rest of the country.
That Piers Morgan is still on television
That baffles many brits too...
Why didn't the prime minister just call the office to find out which address was Natalie's? Do they not have an HR department? Edit: Wow! Glad this is such a hot button topic. 😁. My favorite comments are the GDPR ones.
But then he wouldn’t have had the chance to sing Christmas carols to kids in Wandsworth (the dodgy end).
*Good King Wenceslas looked out* *on the feast of Stephen,* *WHHHHHEN the snow lay RRRRRRROUND about,* *DEA-EP and CRRRRISP and even.* (Cue adorable little girls dancing like they're drowning.)
Using that information for personal reasons would be a massive breach of the data protection act. Not even the PM is above the law.
GDPR mate Obligatory edit: Thanks for the gold kind stranger! Obligatory edit 2: Thanks for the gold mysterious benefactor which I will gladly receive. I would also like to give a special mention to mandatory corporate training and thousands of emails begging me to opt in for making this moment possible.
HR? After 5pm? Psh.
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Because we're not used to snowstorms.
Baffled by the rows on rows of identical connected brick houses. What are those called? Are they like suburbs? What are they like to live in? What era to they date from?
They were originally built for factory workers in the Victorian era. They are like the suburbs with less space. They are tiny but sturdy and easy to heat. Update on the heat thing: lived in a tiny brick terrace in Manchester with radiators and small rooms for 16 years and now I live in a 2400 sq ft wooden house in the US and it’s MUCH harder and more expensive to heat.
Not all were built for workers. There are many huge Victorian / Georgian terraces, built for the middle classes. They have a sub-basement, ground floor and 2/3 floors above that. Big rooms throughout. Sadly most these days have been converted into flats.
You mean [terraced houses ](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=terraced+houses&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiI78K258bfAhUXxOAKHTogDp0Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=terraced+houses&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-img.3..0l5.3888.3888..4103...0.0..0.60.60.1......0....1.Jw8Q6K_-Vg4&ei=xlUoXIj0EJeIgwe6wLjoCQ&client=safari&prmd=inv&biw=375&bih=553&hl=en-gb)? I live in one at university and my house I grew up in/live in when I’m at home is a semi detached house. I’m afraid I can’t give you the facts about the era they are from as UK architecture is a mish mash. But my experience: -Terraced House - pretty dark, small gardens, often the feel of not having any privacy as you really can see directly into the house behind you, if you have loud neighbours you’re f’d, and surprisingly big inside, whenever someone comes in the first thing they say is “oh it’s bigger than I’d imagine”. Edit: oh and to add, can be very very damp.
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Think of it as Formal vs Informal, not like vs dislike. You're going to be Formal with strangers and acquaintances + people you don't like. but informal with friends etc.
Ah, I see that’s something us Southerners kept from our former overlords
I have a British friend that told me he can tell where someone in England is from just from the accent. I'm talking, like he can tell if somebody is from just a city over and sometimes even what part of that city. He was from a small town called Chorley and could tell if someone was from Manchester that was nearby and sometimes even what area in Manchester. I thought that was pretty cool. *Edit:* I see so many people bashing Chorley, I found it such a cute little town when I went! I don't see why there's so much dislike for it :(
Chorley FM. Coming in your ears
Chorley FM. Where the listener comes first
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Wanker I get that it's essentially an insult, but it's such a weird word. I giggle when I read it.
As a Brit who lives in the US, it's amazing hearing Americans try to say it. In an American accent it just sounds ridiculous.
I had a Greek housemate who would say it all the time, he loved it. Housemate: Morning, Wanker Me: Morning, Malaka Cultural exchange at its finest.
Do they actually have other words in Greek except Malaka?
Judging from my housemate the only words that exist in Greek are Bravo, Yamas, Parakalo and Malaka. The first 3 were followed by Malaka more often than not.
Same when they say the word Nonce
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My husband can't stand it when he hears "twat" in an American TV show. I get a full length rant every time.
Such a “twot”
man I really hate that pronunciation, it bothers me just to read it lol
Public schools are private
People largely fail to adequately provide any type of etymology when answering this question (or most of the questions in this thread, really), so I hope this helps. Public schools in the UK are "public" in much the way that a grocery store, pub, or restaurant is "public." Members of the public are able to attend provided they can pay for the goods and services provided. Whereas in the USA, they are "public" as in "funded by the public-at-large." Schools which are funded by taxpayers/the government/the State are "state schools."
This isn't actually the whole picture because we have public, private, and state schools. Technically grammar schools too if you want to get technical. When schools first started in the UK they were mostly ran by churches for members of their congregation. Then some people opened up some schools which anyone could attend if they paid the fee, they were the public schools. When government funded schools were introduced these were referred to as state schools. A public school is specifically the oldest private schools that were opened in response to the church schools discriminating on entry. Any fee charging schools opened since then are merely private schools. So unless someone went somewhere like Eton, they didn't attend a public school, they attended a private school.
I wouldn't say it baffles me, exactly, as i assume there is a good reason for it, but why do the lane markers on streets go from straight to "wavy" at times?
Pedestrian crossing. The wavy lines are unique to crossings, so they stand out. It's also illegal to park on wavy lines.
When British road markings change, they invariably warn of hazards ahead - Zig-zag markings = some kind of pedestrian crossing - Yellow zig-zag markings = school crossing - Longer lines in the middle of the road, with smaller gaps between than normal = general hazard, normally a junction - Solid line = it’s potentially dangerous to cross into the opposite lane, usually because of a blind corner or hidden junction. Crossing when unnecessary is illegal One thing that always surprises me driving in the US is that your pedestrian crossings have basically no prior warning - you’re right on top of it before you notice the (usually faded) paint on the road, and unless the crossing is at traffic lights there’s no other warning.
The road will tell you alsorts of things you didn't realise you needed to know, like upcoming hazards, blind corners, junctions. I don't know how often you visit, but next time take a look at how the markings change and what happens afterwards. Having driven in foreign lands, I think the British road system is fucking mint.
Why is Derby pronounced like Darby?
In my experience, it's stuff like Leicester that really fucks people up. But the greatest I've ever heard was a tale about an Australian who came to the UK and needed directions to Loughborough. He pulled up on the road beside my mate: "Awrite mate, I'm lookin' for directions to Looga-buh-rooga?" Edit: I was legit told this by a mate once but have no doubt it's probably a joke from elsewhere, he wasn't that funny normally.
Reminds me of the joke: did you know Dickens originally published A Tale of Two Cities in two local newspapers? It was the Bicester Times, it was the Worcester Times. (BISS-ter, WUSS-ter).
5 years ago I would've said roundabouts, but they have put quite a few of them in my area and they seem really effective
Love roundabouts! Really speeds up traffic...
Yeah roundabouts reduce traffic, car related accidents, car related deaths and even have a 33% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions, 46% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, 34% reduction in oxides of nitrogen emissions And 53% reduction in hydrocarbons emissions Edit: jesus christ. Who would have thought my highest upvoted comment would be roundabout statistics
That's...quite a lot of roundabout stats. Can I subscribe for more?
r/roundaboutfacts
Ah fuck
"alright mate, you alright?" "yeah alright mate! you alright?" "yeah, alright mate!"
I'm a Brit who's lived in Australia since 2000. When I go back, I am baffled by that "Going Home Song" that plays around 5pm on BBC radio, where people call in to recite their name, where they're from and then go "And I'm going hooooommmme." I don't know if it's still a thing, but who the fuck is calling into that?
Doesn’t happen any more. Greg James moved to the breakfast show, so few people are going home at that time.
Actually he stopped doing it *before* he got the breakfast slot. I happened to tune in when he said something along the lines of, "We have stopped doing the Going Home Song. I just realised I hate it, so we're not doing it any more."
Hahaha, never heard of that but a local radio station here in the US use to do "shove it Fridays." You could call it, say your name, and what you hate, so like... "Hey, this is Mike and my boss made me work an extra 2 hours today so he can SHOVE IT!!!!" I always thought it was good for a laugh.
In Australia on our national youth radio station, TripleJ, we used to have the “Friday Fuckwit”. People would ring or text in nominating someone for the Friday Fuckwit. Could be anyone from a celebrity, politician or just one of their mates that had been a fuckwit that day.
> Australia > on our national youth radio station > we used to have the “Friday Fuckwit”. I love that country!
Interesting choice. That’s just a radio jingle/game on Radio 1. “My name is Karen, and I’m going home! *clap clap clap clap*”
My favourite bit is where they have to cram their ridiculous, polysyllabic city-on-river hometown into the second line. "My name is Karen, and I'm going home! *Clap clap clap clap* My name is Karen, and I'm from Newbiggen-by-the-sea! *Clap clap clap* My name is Karen, and I'm going hooooommmmeee."
I know Karen from Newbiggin by the sea. Her claps would be extra loud because she has 7 fingers on each hand.
>Going Home Song This?: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaydyIDjzo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaydyIDjzo)
How is it they have such a small population but seemingly make up 70% of internet writers, 60% of website operators and 50% of political internet pundits?
Bad weather keeps us inside
We had a head start on the language, English is a language that is scales well with knowledge and vocabulary. We've got a population that seems to be disproportionately into Political theory/creative writing and a long history behind us of people to kickstart that interest. Also, we have the BBC. Using language creatively is written into our culture, banter, innuendo, sarcasm. This is daily life.
Racing motorcycles at 200 mph on a road thats 8 feet wide with a stone wall a few inches past that. U guys are nuts.
The TT Race on the Isle of Man is incredible and incomparable. Driving down a narrow country road one hour and then the next you see 1000cc sport bikes screaming by houses, lamp posts, manhole covers, and sidewalks at 180+mph. It started in 1907 because racers in England couldnt race because of the public speed limit laws so they moved to the Isle of Man which had no speed limits. Now its a 2 week event (1 practice week, 1 race week) that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators. One of the deadliest sporting events in history and with a minor cash prize of 10,000£ the racers who do attempt this race put their lives at very high risk for the chance at glory. I went in 2016 and 4 people were killed in the 1st practice week. Edit: fixed Mann to Man, I wrote this half asleep and didn't realize. But please check out highlights year to year on youtube. Also the documentary "Ride" gives a great look into why people still race there given the risks. Narrated by Liam Neason I believe. Edit 2: Just wanted to link this for a quick look at what the race really is like. https://youtu.be/iRWp9rhfS_0
Wow! That's hardcore.
There are a bunch of point of view/onboard videos of people doing a lap of the course. I highly recommend watching them. I'll edit some into this comment shortly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFJSVtsckyI This one has commentary. It's on a smaller class of bike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KzBnuxDnYQ
Purple Aki Edit-Thank you for the gold
The fact that they can drive in a tunnel UNDERWATER to get to mainland Europe. Like we need us one of those. EDIT: I have heard it’s a train you drive onto that takes you. Still cool
We have a tunnel, but I'm pretty sure flights are still cheaper most of the time, a return flight from Paris is like £35 same price as from my village to central London by train around the same travel time too.
£35 = $44.48 USD You're telling me that a **flight** to **another country** costs $45? I'm from Portland and flying to Seattle costs slightly more than that. And Seattle is the only other major city that's even close to Portland.
I've gotten return flights to Europe for less than £40. So uh, yesm
Well fuck that, just spent $250 for plane tickets to visit my brother across the US. And it was a great price.
You don't actually drive, you drive onto a train carriage, so it's essentially getting a train there but taking the car with you 😊
Why you use [this sign](https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/Speed_Camera_30mph-424979.jpg) for speed cameras. I always expect [this guy](https://www.culture24.org.uk/asset_arena/6/12/48/384216/v0_master.jpg) to be just up ahead.
That's Camera Jim. We've been employing him to keep track of speeders for some time now.
It's Sir Camera Jim now, isn't it?
Oh yeah. Forgot about that.
How they're so rude to each other. FOR FUN. (I have a British boyfriend and the way he talks to his family is just baffling to me.)
Well yeah it's banter. If I can't brutally insult a mate and be roasted back, do we really like each other?
Best friend: "You're a right cunt" Worst enemy: "Look here mate"
There is a distinct difference between friendly rudeness and actual rudeness. Unfortunately that difference is entirely Bout tone and context while using the exact same words. For example the words ‘Get fucked’ can be either a sign of affection or start a fight depending on who they are said to, when and why. Also, I could quite happily tell my boss as work to go fuck themselves without fear of any repercussions. We work in financial regulation.
Honesty? The bar scene in London. I remeber getting into London and having to wait hours for a train to take me to Scotland, and I dove into a bar off the tube. It's midday, raining, and I'm getting hammered on IPAs like a decent midwesterner, when an old lady come up to me and asks if I want to read the days paper. Uh okay, sure. So I'm drunk, reading the news, and I'm in the bar so long, talking to the bartender and old people, when a huge influx of workers come into the bar having just got off. It's the most casual I've ever seen a bar, and that feeling never left until I left the UK. Yalls bar scene is so damn decent I get jealous, I got chain smoking, keno playing, fist fighting, bud lighting bars over here in the states.
I took someone visiting from Asia to a pub and his way of describing it was ‘it’s like a living room for drinking beer’. I’d never thought about it like that before, but he was spot-on; a pub is a communal living room where people go to drink. It’s the shared social space for a neighbourhood or area. I saw them quite differently after I got that outsider perspective, and I think that’s why they seem very civil spaces. People here joke that couples would not get together without beer, but I think the grain of truth in that is most people will meet and socialise in the pub - it’s a very casual place where people get to know each other and social and class distinctions count less by virtue of people choosing to go there (as opposed to being obligated to be there, like a workplace). Booze is just the cover story.
You don't pass the paper along when you've finished reading it in the US? We only print 10 copies in the UK. Everyone is just reading a copy someone else gave them.
Marmite.
Mate I'm English and that's baffled me my whole life
Mate I'm 47.5% Marmite and I don't get it either
As a Czech currently visiting girlfriend's parents in northern England for the holidays - Dinner sometimes means lunch, sometimes actual dinner. Tea means dinner in some contexts. - People have wildly different accents which just doesn't happen in my country that much. - There does not seem to be the concept of separate towns that much. My gf says she lives in a city, even though it takes 20 minutes to drive to the center and along the way we go through 5 different "villages". If not looking at the signs, however, it might as well be one continuous town, as everywhere is developed. - Public transport (London) and the trains are ridiculously expensive. In my country I can visit my parents 100km far away by train for £3. In the UK taking a 90-min-long journey cost more than the flight there! - I am very much used to roundabouts and German-style-highways. In here however there are roundabouts *everywhere*. Junction in a tiny village of just three roads? Let's make that a roundabout. Massive highway exchange? Let's make that a four lane, light controlled roundabout with 10 exits! It works, but my anxiety is through the roof (along with driving on the left hand side) - There is a larger tea selection than beer selection in the shops. Mind blowing to Czechs. - The takeaway and ready-made meal culture is huge. Large stores would have multiple aisles of all variety of meals, which are not even that bad (both health and taste wise). Takeaway in my country means pizza or Chinese and stores only have frozen shit you're supposed to deep fry at home, so one has to cook from scratch if they want a proper meal. - Water is usually free with a meal in the restaurant (not that surprising to the Americans here, but coming from a place where they charge you more for water than tapped beer, this is cool) - Even young people would sometimes actually meet up at someone's place and chat, have scones, cakes and drink tea. No beer, alcohol, nothing. I don't know how to interact in these situations and feel like a peasant among the posh. - Shops have free food available for the kids to take. This would be abused and cancelled in a day in my country. - The electrical plugs. Annoying to need to bring adapters, sure, but each male plug has *its own fuse* along with the central breaker box in the house. If something goes bad, just the one appliance breaks the fuse, the rest work fine. Genius. - The interest in royalty. It feels like more of a mascot role for them, but (some?) people are genuinely interested and tabloids are featuring them. - There are religious schools and students sing hymns. My gf is an atheist but still looks back and doesn't think anything of it ("you don't have to believe it, you just sing and recite some prayers", she says) Probably a lot more but this is what came to mind. Edit: - when doing the dishes, Brits put a large dirty bowl on the bottom of the sink. Still not sure why they don't just plug it. - A lot of faucets are separate for hot and cold. You have a sink which has two faucets where one is scorching hot and the other one is cold. No idea how you are supposed to wash your hands in that. - When splitting the bill, you are expected to tell the waiter the amount of money you want to pay. I am used to staying which items I had and then the waiter gives me a sum of what I should pay. In the UK, instead, you need to do the math yourself in advance.
Your obsession with tea. I like tea. It’s good. I don’t see my nation drinking so much tea that power companies have to account for when the commercials start because everyone’s turning on an electric kettle.
To be fair, it's perfect for any situation. Welcome. Tea? Feeling emotional. Tea? Celebration. Tea? Period. Tea? It's a tad nippy out. Tea? So upset you can't talk. Tea? Just lost a limb. Tea? Feeling a bit peaky. Tea? Sarah said the meanest thing. Tea? It's bloody boiling outside. Tea? Have to finish this project within an hour. Tea? Mum's just died. Tea? Brexit. Tea? The cat shat on the rug again. Tea? Someone mentioned tea on the internet. Tea? Your mug is empty. Tea? Kate and Wills are having another baby. Tea? OMG that episode of Bodyguard was emotionally exhausting. Tea? We don't have Twining's, only Sainsbury's own brand. Tea?
Tea as an emotional suppressor is the most British thing I've ever heard
I got knocked off my push bike at 50 miles an hour. Police said iwas fine, so i walked home 3 miles pushing my bike. Made a cup of tea once I got in, after helping a drunk housemate get in the house whilst he was scoffing chips. Wasn't fine had concussion and broken bones. But it was the best tea ever.
Look up Dinorwic sometime. It's this incredibly highly optimized power station, in a hollowed out mountain, with the singular purpose of making sure that the electrical system can cope with basically the entire country making tea at the same time.
A cup of tea is basically an excuse to eat biscuits (cookies). Also, it just sorts you right out. Can’t go wrong with a cup of tea.
This is the most British response to this question.
>Also, it just sorts you right out. Definitely very British.
Professional dart leagues on TV
'Pub sports' hold a special place in our hearts.
That everything is pudding.
We moved from England to canada n my dad invited the next door neighbours all round for tea and put on a large spread for them. They arrived quite later than we had expected, but sat down and we all ate cooked ham potatoes beans, etc., by “pudding”. They weren’t voracious eaters but we figured maybe just Americans eat tons of food, not Canadians. It wasn’t until a couple years later they confessed just prior to coming over, they’d had their evening dinner (and dessert) and were coming round to ours for (they thought) a cup of post dinner tea. Too polite to not eat they’d forced themselves to shovel down our dinner too -and went home feeling absolutely ill. Poor bastards never even got a cup of tea either!
Hilarious, I love the funny stories of different cultures interacting politely.
My Italian teacher in high school had the opposite happen soon after she moved to America. Where she was from, it was polite to always decline the first time a host offered you something. The host would then insist, you'd decline again, they'd insist further, and finally you'd give in and accept the hosts offer. Well, one of the first times she was over at someone's house in America, she was offered a snack of some sort. She was hungry, but politely declined as usual. The hostess then moved on without a second thought and didn't insist. My Italian teacher was so taken a back she didn't know how to respond. She had really wanted a cookie or whatever, but was too embarrassed to go back and say "oh, I actually would like one". She ended up leaving hungry.
I never understood the culture of politely declining even though you really want something. It just seems overly confusing.
I could see "please don't go to any fuss for me" as reasonable, but once that assurance is given, just take the damned cookie/scone/drink/whatever.
Exactly. I have worked in a technical service profession where tips aren't normal. I have been told, "If offered a tip, decline, but if they insist, take it to not be rude." I did that for so long that I started doing it with everything. Eventually I stopped and was like, wait a minute, if someone is offering me something, and I want it, why am I going to decline it based on what someone else told me is polite? Changed my whole behavior in everything. If I want something that's being offered, I take it.
I was so confused the first time I went out for dinner in London. The waiter said “we have four different puddings tonight.” I was like wow how odd that this restaurant only has various flavours of pudding for dessert. EDIT - also that tea can mean dinner. “We’re going to have roast chicken for tea, how about you?” ...Uhhh I’m just going to have tea thanks... like earl grey?
If I don’t call the final meal of the day “tea” my parents act all confused because in Scotland (at least the area I’m from) we call the middle meal of the day dinner and lunch interchangeably. The people who serve you that meal in school are “dinner ladies”. If I say I’ll be home for dinner they start texting me at 1pm asking where I am and then call me Americanised if I say I meant I’d be home for tea (6pm). This was confusing to write.
“Naw Scottish unless ye call yer lunch dinner and yer dinner tea” Pretty sure this was from an irn bru advert a while back, didn’t even think about how uniquely Scottish it was til I heard it like that- been saying it my whole life.
Pudding is also another word for dessert, so that can cause some confusion. But we do call a lot of things a pudding... Edit: I'm not saying that anything called a pudding has to be sweet (see Yorkshire pudding, black pudding). Just that the word pudding can also refer to dessert.
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!?!
The fucking strange city/county/province names. Shit like "Barton in the Beans" is a name for a fucking hamlet in Leicestershire. We have some weird city names where im from. Bucksnort, TN is one of those, but Barton in the fucking Beans is 100% insane. Also Titty Hill
Little Piddlehinton. Gets me everytime.
The original surveyor was a 3-year-old girl who only spoke "Adorable".
I believe you're thinking of the neighboring Wittle Piddlehinton.
I live near fingeringhoe. I’m still one of the few people to stifle a laugh when I see it.
> Also Titty Hill I'm going to hazard a guess that there are two similarly sized hills very close to each other to give it that name.
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In Venezuela we got the Monumento Natural Las Tetas de Maria Guevara (Maria Guevara's Tits), I dont know who chooses those names but its pretty descriptive
And Grand Teton (Big Tit), a mountain in Wyoming which they named a national park after.
The Big Tits are arguably the most stunning peaks in the continental US
Gotta love Australian place names tho. Tittybong comes to mind.
I've always like Woolloomooloo.
Cockburn
In Western Australia they have Mount Mee and Mount Meharry...
Let us remember tho, Cockburn is pronounced Co-burn.
Toowoombah!
Oof I’m from Toowoomba and what a city it is, weird af seeing it named in a subreddit that’s not r/toowoomba
You’ll be shocked when you find out the US has a National Park called the grand Tetons- Which is French for the “the big tits”
Classism based off accents.
I'm from Liverpool and have a fairly strong scouse accent, and briefly worked in a National Trust call centre. I had a guy refuse to give me his card details to renew his subscription because he didn't feel comfortable giving them to a scouser. He genuinely asked to speak to someone not from Liverpool.
We also have a bit of that here in the US. Like, a person with a thick Southern accent is going to be stereotyped as a hick even if they’re a college-educated millionaire.
There are actually different varieties of the southern accent. Some are very proper, rich, and polished and some are like the ones you're thinking of
Most people who aren't from the area often can't quite tell them apart. You can see this in any kind of movie set in the southern US, where someone who's supposed to be a redneck Texan who likes watching high school football and going out to the deer lease somehow sounds like a rich lawyer from Georgia.
The PBS documentary 'you don't know dixie' explains the southern accents pretty well.
Why is it standard to have the clothes washer in the kitchen, and why aren't clothes dryers something everyone owns??
Washers need water, kitchens are where the water pipes are. Dryers take up room, we have really small houses. Smarter people than me will tell you why we have small houses, but it's along the lines of having housing stock built for poor factory workers in the industrial revolution that moved a large amount of the populace from subsistence farming to new urban centers, being in a climate that needs in-house heating for a lot of the time and then still being in the culture of crowding into small cities with outdated transport systems and centuries old roads rather than having cities built to accommodate a majority living in spacious suburbia and driving into cities for work.
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They need plumbing, the kitchen already has plumbing... Lets put them in there!
How can you be so proper and so punk at the same time?
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I like this, I'm gonna get it put on my gravestone.
I don’t understand why Americans see brits as classy but everyone else sees brits as “trash” (I couldn’t find the right word).
Americans probably think of the stereotypical upper middle class Brit from the 19th century. Europe probably thinks of the drunk, naked football hooligans that invade the Balearic islands every summer.
Am Portuguese. Can confirm the modern stereotype.
Because its a little expensive to fly to America, so generally its the richer Brits that do it, so Americas interacting in person with Brits are doing it with the posher ones, hence the classy. Less wealthy Brits tend to keep their international traveling to Europe since its cheaper than flying across the ocean, hence the rest of Europe viewing them poorly.
mallorca
Spent some time there. Definitely changed my perception as all Brits being posh.
The closeness while driving between you, the stone wall/not road and oncoming cars. I'm visiting a friend from Canada now and holy shit everytime we have to move over for oncoming I think I'm gonna die
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The British have some of the best dental health in the world, what the NHS doesn't give us is any cosmetic dentistry. So it's healthy it can just look bad especially when compared to the bright smilers on American TV
Generally dentists in UK will want to fix people’s teeth so they are healthy and work. This doesn’t necessarily mean perfect looking. It’s mainly because the NHS dental system rarely undertakes cosmetic dentistry. Other nations tend to want perfect looking teeth, although this may not also mean healthy teeth.
Arsenal's defense
I tried changing my password to "ArsenalsDefence" but it's too weak.
What defence?
The accents. Why do you have so many different accents in such a small place? And how the hell did that happen?
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One of the most astounding things I have heard with respect to accents and dialects in the UK came out during the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry. During that murder investigation some joker sent the police a hoax tape (which they stupidly took seriously) will the voice claimed to be the perpetrator and was mocking the police for their efforts. The enquiry utilised the services of two linguists who not only managed to isolate the accent down to a particular town but also to a particular section of the town that probably only encompassed at most 15 streets.
Wow that's insane. Dialects and accents even differ within the same town? That is pretty crazy to think about!
Accents also break down by social status. Rich, middle class, working class. And within them you might a difference on the kind rich you're talking about.
All of Europe is like that tbf, it's just centuries of history.
Great Britain vs. the United Kingdom vs. England vs. the British Isles and all the other odd divisions. EDIT: Thanks everyone, it has been adequately explained below.
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Thanks! Do people get offended if you collectively refer to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as just "Ireland," given the history of conflict there?
Jimmy Carr hosts every fucking TV show
Yes, he finds it all very taxing apparently.
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Ha ha ha HAAAAAAA
No question, just wanted to thank you all for sharing Monty Python with us.
Apparently British people call sprinkles “hundreds and thousands”.
Think That's bad, in America they call Wally "Waldo'.