Expats, tell me what aspect or social norm of your new country was strange to you?

We have amazing cheese! Not in most supermarkets, but there is a cheese shop near me that sells the most delicious blue cheeses, Cheddar, Wensleydales. And my local butcher does the best bacon. If you come here and expect to be able to get excellent food from your nearest Tesco Metro you will be dissapointed, but good food does exist in Britain..

@TheDowagerCuntess

That would be those Popping In Unnanounced ahem. Don't bloody blame the potential hosts TBH.

Agree that if you're not being offered a tea of coffee in a British person's house - it's more likely to be a reflection on you, than them!

Back in England now but when I lived in America all of mine were food/ drink related - bread and milk tasted really sweet and I couldn’t get used to that. Melted (horrid) cheese on almost everything in restaurants. I also couldn’t get used to driving there, lack of indication and so much honking the horns ( I was in Boston). And obviously I missed proper tea!

Also lived in France and struggled with the weird opening hours/ banks being closed on Mondays/ offices I needed to do business with closed on Wednesday afternoons etc. This was a very long time ago though so might be different now.

British children (some anyway) are brought up that writing thank you cards is the proper way as it takes more effort than a phone call.

Exactly that. Thank you letters were an after-birthday or after-Christmas chore to be done in my childhood. If we saw someone in person it was great as then I could just say thank you to them and would be let off my thank you letter duties! A thank you letter in our house would have to be a lot more than just "Dear X, thank you for the Y, love Z". It was like extra homework. I'd have loved to just phone them up! I appreciate it now as I know how to write a nice letter and love to receive them too.

People seem to walk without paying attention to where they are going in the UK. They usually apologise after they have rammed you though!

Having said that, I think both methods have their place!

I do love a nice card every now and then, but sometimes it just feels a bit impersonal compared to a phone call where you can ask them what they're doing for their birthday, etc. If you're going to see the person IRL anyway, you may as well say thank you to them in person.

I'm not sure it's just politeness. For a lot of people cards seem to be a good way of avoiding actually having to speak to the person.

www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11573124/How-British-cheese-took-over-the-world-even-the-French-love-it.html

Obviously a biased article but the UK does so pretty impressive cheese, so coming from a country that doesn't really "do cheese it's something you'd notice. Obviously France does amazing Brie etc and England amazing cheddars... It wasn't about which one was best but what you'd notice coming from a different country. It's certainly something I've missed when abroad!

One thing I noticed in Australia was sausages are predominantly lamb whereas it would usually be pork here. I wasn't too keen on that (or cost of food in general there!) But for lamb lovers (my husband) it's definitely a good place for lamb!

@Ollena

"Yy, if you are in a Brit's house and you aren't offered a drink it's silent code for "You being here is really inconvenient and I wish I wasn't too polite to tell you that I need you to leave as I have things to do" wink"

Ah ha.... so that is why there is so much angst about people who just "pop" in unnanounced. Yay. We have an aswer!

I've never experienced (or hosted anyone) without offering them a drink in the UK, that's a massive social faux pas.

Unless, of course, you've committed a massive one yourself first (I'm thinking of a few examples like MIL calling around and letting herself in, or the weird European colleague who tried to invite themselves for dinner and then made an alarming comment about popping around for some social reason*).

(* because me sitting around in stained jogging bottoms and a too big old t-shirt doesn't quite gel with the professional demeanor I generally need to present to colleagues!)

So yes, if you called around uninvited or at a really bad time like I was getting ready to go out, I'd try my best to avoid letting you come in - and the backup plan would be to not offer a drink. Sorry.

Yolo - British children (some anyway) are brought up that writing thank you cards is the proper way as it takes more effort than a phone call. Plus it has a permanency (as much as a card can be permanent?) so the recipient of the card can keep it. For some special or meaningful gifts you might write an extra special message which you'd want the recipient to keep.

Yy, if you are in a Brit's house and you aren't offered a drink it's silent code for "You being here is really inconvenient and I wish I wasn't too polite to tell you that I need you to leave as I have things to do"

I used to love doggy bags from US restaurants, but we soon learnt to only say yes to the stuff (like pizza!) that we would eat the next day. I can't, though, get my head around offers at places like Olive Garden where you buy one meal and get one meal to take home for the next day

We live in a predominantly Catholic country at the moment, and it's very much the custom here to go to the funeral of someone that you only vaguely know, or that you never met but was the family member or friend of someone that you know. Funeral and reception details are published in the papers well in advance so that as many people as possible will attend: it's seen as a high status thing to a) have the funeral at certain places; and b) have a very large crowd attending.

Actually some of the UK cheeses are incredibly tasty, definitely rivalling those from France and Italy. Same goes for UK sparkling wine.

This is one of the most interesting threads I have read here.

Cultural differences are one thing, but I think we are more alike than we think we are when the surface is scratched!

I think the difference in the funerals is that in Catholicism you can say prayers on behalf of the dead, so the more turning up to pray for your soul the better.

In Protestantism it is more of each man for himself, so if you’re already in hell (no purgatory) there’s nothing anyone can do.

I don't care how many varieties are produced, UK cheese cannot match French or Italian cheese!!! :)

Oblada- the UK produces hundreds more varieties of cheese than France!

Certainly someone coming from America would notice the difference - when I travelled to North America "proper " cheese was in the speciality space and sliced cheese /kraft/canned cheese was more common. Of course you could get what I think of as cheese but it was expensive and less common!

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Oh yes they may not like food on you (I'd hate that) but it's really Very English to be offered tea or coffee when you go into a house. It would be very odd not to- or as YouCant says perhaps don't want you there! Even then you'd usually get offered at least one round of drinks!

@genz18
I'm sure there's something in the religion but I'm not sure what.
I was brought up a protestant and in my very rural village it would have been seen as nosey to go to the funeral of someone you didn't know. There is often a funeral meal (and sometimes quite a lot to drink ) afterwards though.

Moanranger - excuse me but did you just say 'great cheese' for the + of the UK??? Sorry can't get my head round that (French in the UK)

I'm south england and don't think I've ever been in a house and not offered tea/coffee/something when I've walked in. It's just Not Done not to offer a drink!!

Stickstick - i can only say that ime i felt i noticed a difference in hospitality from where I’m from. It just seemed/felt different and why some folk really relate to Mrs Doyle from Father Ted.

I think it is a bit wrong to say that British people do not offer refreshments to their visitors.

Agree - if they don't offer you anything then the message they are (in a very British way) sending you is 'Why are you even here?'