American Who Has Been Living In The UK For The Last 10 Years Shares Things That Are ‘Still Weird As Hell’ (26 Pics)
Welcome to the land of the weird and the beautiful—the ancient sceptred isles, where people drink their beer by the pints, celebrate mysterious Bank Holidays that occur several times a year, and toss their trash out the first time they see a bin. Bins are holy there and the chance to do so comes very rarely, if ever.
But according to Jessica Rose, an American who’s been living in great Blighty for the past few decades, the list doesn’t end there.
Recently, Jessica listed all the “weird as hell things” Brits do in a thread that amassed 64.8K likes and went viral with people praising how spot-on it is. Let’s get ready for the quaint and quirky ride in the land of Britons.
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Bored Panda reached out to the author of this viral thread, Jessica Rose, a woman in her 30s who works in the technology industry. After 10 years, Jessica still lives in Birmingham, UK and says that she really likes most things about life in the UK.
When asked what British things Jessica really likes, she said that as an American, she finds the National Health Service “mind-bogglingly amazing.”
“I also really love the public transport here. And almost everything about Birmingham. Am I allowed to mention it's the best city in the UK? I don't think there's much I dislike about living here, some things are just still weird after 10 years.”
It's called courtesy. No harm in being polite, and it brightens the drivers day to know he is appreciated. Happy drivers are less likely to hit the curb
But that doesn’t mean that Jessica doesn’t miss the American way of living. “It seems like a silly thing to miss, but as my days get really busy, I miss shops being open as late as they are in the states,” she told us.
Jessica also believes that “a lot of the misconceptions of and stereotypes about the British mistakenly group all of the UK into a homogeneous lump while the UK is really a massively diverse group of people across our 4 countries (N. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England).”
This is the case with the famous English breakfast. “For example, people from outside the UK often think of the English breakfast as something singularly British, while overlooking the (far superior) Scottish fryups,” Jessica said.
Please, oh please, cure us of that one! (Not that you're much good at picking rulers,)
The difference is in the smell and sticking to your shoes intensity. Dpg poop is extremely disgusting. Horse poop not so much.
We go to the counter and let them know what is wrong. We very rarely have to ask for it to be corrected as the person behind the counter usually offers to fix it and offer options.
Jessica didn't expect her Twitter thread to go as viral as it did. “I half hoped a few people would see it as I was quite proud of the phrase 'sugared houseplants.' I hope folks liked it!”
"After you." "No, after you." "No, dammit, I SAID AFTER YOU." "Look you little f***face, I said after you!!!"
the old-fashioned SWEET shops have some of the best sweets out there, tbh
Actually, This is an irish thing, Also a British thing but we will slam dunk you if you don't complete your round in ireland.
Classical music played by classically trained musicians. Outdoor , elegance at its finest
It was actually introduced during the war when water could be cut off or there were many shortages. Filling up a bowl uses half the amount of your sink. People just carried on using them as saving water is always a good idea. Remember our tap water is our drinking water too.
As a Brit I think this so so funny. I guess we are a little eccentric but no more than any other culture. We just have 2000 years of history affecting our language, customs and the way we interact with each other.
What strikes me how monocultural this is. "I come from Someplace, USA and therefore am the de facto background; anything different is a Britishism"... No, it's often just different from the majority of the US.
2000 years? Much more than that!
"As a Brit I think this so so funny. I guess we are a little eccentric but no more than any other culture" I beg to differ, the Uk has a very rich culture( especially with the additions of the 70 years). differences can observed by travelling a few miles( eg accents). I've lived overseas and everyone i've interacted with whom have gone to the UK( even my wife) are sometimes bewildered/fascinated by the differences in different parts of the country
As an American I don't find this strange at all. I grew up in a house that had a wash bowls or you made dish water. I still use a wash bowl every now and then. I don’t see how this is Strange.
Why is it called expat when someone is from America, but immigrant when someone’s from Pakistan or Poland? That’s stupid. ——— Edit: Title got changed, expat removed. So my question is pointless now.
The fked up racist world we live in. Americans shouldn't be allowed to use the words illegal immigrant
Completely agree. Everyone's ancestors were immigrants.
Enter any country illegally with the intent to stay and you are an "illegal immigrant". The USA has the same right as any sovereign nation to determine who may enter and who may not.
Tiari, they're called ex-pats by themselves and their fellow people from their home country. They're called immigrants by the people of the country they've moved to. So they're called both.
An immigrant is usually someone who intends to stay in their new country, where an expat does not. An expat is defined as someone who is more or less invited to stay and work for a while.
'invited to stay' ?? By whom?
Immigrants are usually defined as people who have come to a different country in order to live there permanently, whereas expats move abroad for a limited amount of time or have not yet decided upon the length of their stay.
Expats haven't made the decision to stay permanently. There are some job positions that are both temporary while also being specifically open to people all over the world - e.g.foreign language schools that rely on native speakers, or scientific research tours that require a highly specialized expertise. These types of jobs can be very difficult to fill if you only consider people who live in the country or agree to move there permanently. Also, some international companies offer their employees the opportunity to work at a branch in a different country for a limited amount of time.
Tiari I so, so, so agree with your point
It's the same the world over. You have ex-pat Brits in Spain, whom the Spanish would call immigrants. It's stupid, it's xenophobic (I'm not going to say its racist because you can have the ex-pat/immigrant argument with folks moving between the likes of Ireland and Scotland - to the best of my knowledge NOT different races), and it's the world we live in. :-(
In spain we would call the immigrants because we dont use the word expat.
I find so many articles on BP about how f-d up Americans are.... and most are wrong or assume way too much about 'all' of us. It's refreshing to see we're not the only ones being picked on. Lol
But the Brits respond to this as "ha, true", where as many American's respond to the posts about them with "stop picking on me!! Why does everyone say mean things about us??"
Aliquid A - stop picking on me!
It's good to have your eccentricities pointed out to you. 90% of public arguments in the UK ARE queue related. It's mental and brilliant. As a nation we have always found humour in ourselves, it was one of the few saving graces that stopped us being the complete arseholes of the world.
I agree, you have to find humour in things like this. If a person gets stressed and upset, BP is probably not the best outlet for them.
You must be joking! Since I came on BP the amount of lies/untruths and pure S***E that has been directed against the Britons going back 1000 years, mainly from the USA because of your overpopulation of ignorant idiots
As a Brit I think this so so funny. I guess we are a little eccentric but no more than any other culture. We just have 2000 years of history affecting our language, customs and the way we interact with each other.
What strikes me how monocultural this is. "I come from Someplace, USA and therefore am the de facto background; anything different is a Britishism"... No, it's often just different from the majority of the US.
2000 years? Much more than that!
"As a Brit I think this so so funny. I guess we are a little eccentric but no more than any other culture" I beg to differ, the Uk has a very rich culture( especially with the additions of the 70 years). differences can observed by travelling a few miles( eg accents). I've lived overseas and everyone i've interacted with whom have gone to the UK( even my wife) are sometimes bewildered/fascinated by the differences in different parts of the country
As an American I don't find this strange at all. I grew up in a house that had a wash bowls or you made dish water. I still use a wash bowl every now and then. I don’t see how this is Strange.
Why is it called expat when someone is from America, but immigrant when someone’s from Pakistan or Poland? That’s stupid. ——— Edit: Title got changed, expat removed. So my question is pointless now.
The fked up racist world we live in. Americans shouldn't be allowed to use the words illegal immigrant
Completely agree. Everyone's ancestors were immigrants.
Enter any country illegally with the intent to stay and you are an "illegal immigrant". The USA has the same right as any sovereign nation to determine who may enter and who may not.
Tiari, they're called ex-pats by themselves and their fellow people from their home country. They're called immigrants by the people of the country they've moved to. So they're called both.
An immigrant is usually someone who intends to stay in their new country, where an expat does not. An expat is defined as someone who is more or less invited to stay and work for a while.
'invited to stay' ?? By whom?
Immigrants are usually defined as people who have come to a different country in order to live there permanently, whereas expats move abroad for a limited amount of time or have not yet decided upon the length of their stay.
Expats haven't made the decision to stay permanently. There are some job positions that are both temporary while also being specifically open to people all over the world - e.g.foreign language schools that rely on native speakers, or scientific research tours that require a highly specialized expertise. These types of jobs can be very difficult to fill if you only consider people who live in the country or agree to move there permanently. Also, some international companies offer their employees the opportunity to work at a branch in a different country for a limited amount of time.
Tiari I so, so, so agree with your point
It's the same the world over. You have ex-pat Brits in Spain, whom the Spanish would call immigrants. It's stupid, it's xenophobic (I'm not going to say its racist because you can have the ex-pat/immigrant argument with folks moving between the likes of Ireland and Scotland - to the best of my knowledge NOT different races), and it's the world we live in. :-(
In spain we would call the immigrants because we dont use the word expat.
I find so many articles on BP about how f-d up Americans are.... and most are wrong or assume way too much about 'all' of us. It's refreshing to see we're not the only ones being picked on. Lol
But the Brits respond to this as "ha, true", where as many American's respond to the posts about them with "stop picking on me!! Why does everyone say mean things about us??"
Aliquid A - stop picking on me!
It's good to have your eccentricities pointed out to you. 90% of public arguments in the UK ARE queue related. It's mental and brilliant. As a nation we have always found humour in ourselves, it was one of the few saving graces that stopped us being the complete arseholes of the world.
I agree, you have to find humour in things like this. If a person gets stressed and upset, BP is probably not the best outlet for them.
You must be joking! Since I came on BP the amount of lies/untruths and pure S***E that has been directed against the Britons going back 1000 years, mainly from the USA because of your overpopulation of ignorant idiots