Calling all immigrants. Any aspects of British culture you struggle with?

[FishCanFly]

I will start:

• Kids bedtimes. I've been called neglectful.
• School uniforms. I could buy many more clothes within reasonable fashion.
• Film\game ratings. Like if Skyrim would harm a 12yo

I don't understand why saying "you alright" is such a crime. It just means hello.

Also park is written with a k, but brits are not that strong in spelling wink

If we are being petty, @Needadvices 'advices' isn't a word.

I was too polite - typical Brit - to draw that to her/his attention.😇

It’s good for children to go to bed early. It is what one might call responsible parenting.

mushrooms, pesto

Haha, I'm not allergic to them either and as a fully-grown adult I still don't eat those things, or tomatoes - they just taste horrible! Completely ruins a meal.

Hey guys don't take these things personally, honestly there are probably far far more many things I can criticise about my home country.

• No safety net
• Aggressive people
• high rates of crime in some areas that could see you killed if you accidentally wear the wrong colour
• money is the end all be all
• people fake enthusiasm
• lots of racism
• McDonalds attracts people addicted to intravenous drugs (hence the rule that you need to buy something in order to use the toilet)
• illness bankrupts people

And much, much more... Just saying the UK is perfect really in a lot of ways, but there are always going to be some things that can be criticised in every country.

When I lived in Japan, I really disliked the lack of individuality and pressure on students. I also didn't like that most people worked weekends, as well as stayed up late to go have drinks with the boss. It would be nice if we could take the positives of each place and combine them in an ideal world.

I don't understand why saying "you alright" is such a crime. It just means hello.

It literally asks "Are you alright?" so understanding not to take that as a question, and answer, is a cultural rather than linguistic matter. (In South Africa "Howzit" is an appropriate form of greeting - literally, How is it? You learn not to answer with "Fine, thanks".)

I'm a member of a global expat/immigrant forum, and EVERY time any person complains about any aspect of British culture, the Brits pile in within minutes, proclaiming any or all of the following:

-Not all Brits!
-You just don't understand.
-It's the way we've always done it.
-It's worse in America because of X/Y/Z (even when initial post had nothing to do with America )
-If you don't like it, leave.

Every. Damn. Time.

As a previous poster has said, people don't always get to live in the place that's most ideal for them. Jobs/families/life take people all over the world. There are things in the UK that are utterly baffling to non-Brits. It's a fact. It doesn't mean that we hate it here, it's just that these "quirks" often make life here a bit difficult.

Fat people have this weird protected status. In my cultures if a loved one is getting fat you tell them
That's pretty much what used to happen here as well. Just out of interest, do you find that approach encourages people to lose weight in Russia/China? I know obesity rates are pretty low in Japan where the direct approach is used as a strategy.

I have known people gone to boarding school including my brother reasons include, parents working away/long hours. Better education/ moving house in the middle of exams/ for my brother as an only boy with 4 sisters my parents thought it would help him socialise with boys. My mum I think regrets the boarding. (it was only a couple years.).

@Honflyr
Have you posted on the wrong thread?
What do mushrooms and pesto have that's British?

essential of course I fully understand that, but I don't understand why people have enough of a problem with it to complain about it. Surely after seeing people use it a few times, you'd realise that an answer isn't expected.

Like in my husband's country, people just hang up the phone without saying bye. I don't get annoyed about it, I just accept they have a different way.

It's not hard.

"It would be nice if we could take the positives of each place and combine them in an ideal world."

I guess it's because every positive has some negative part. The Americans are enthusiastic and positive but that often spills over into cheese and can be construed as fake. The Brits are grumpy and pessimistic but that results in great comedy. The Germans are direct and plain speaking but that can also be rude.

Every negative has some positive in it.

I find that so weird. Where I grew up, children really were raised by a community. You were just as likely to get bollocked by your neighbour, the shopkeeper, some random person on the bus as you were by your own parents.

It used to be that way too. Had my parents found out I had been scrumping apples from Mrs Down the road I would have got a bollocking. Also when I was at school teachers still 'got away with giving kids a clip around the ear and the headmaster used the slipper. If parents found out you got a bollocking at home too. Now they march up to the school and turn on the teachers for daring to ask the kid to shut up/do their homework etc etc.

Live, I think (as I read it on this thread, anyway) that it's a lighthearted observation rather than a complaint. But, yeah, some things you never get used too. I have been here over a decade and the crisp flavours are still the wrong colour packets .

*to

It's not okay to body shame people. No one ever got slimmer by having someone else tell them they're fat. Trust me, overweight people don't need it pointing out. It's rude.

The NHS is not without problems, but we get a 'hard on' about it because if we have a heart attack in the street, it's reassuring to know that the hospital won't check our insurance before treating us!

I suspect not all folk from Gods Own Country would be happy to be called "English"

They tell you like it is though. Very blunt. Speak as they find. What us down south would say is "rude"!

It's not okay to body shame people. No one ever got slimmer by having someone else tell them they're fat. Trust me, overweight people don't need it pointing out. It's rude.

Actually, a lot of people have. A lot of people hear a comment which kick-starts them to get healthy.

Telling people they're fat isn't body shaming, just like telling people they have arthritis isn't joint shaming. It's a medical problem.

Funnily enough China/Russia which a PP mentioned have much lower rates of obesity than us.

Another thing that's a little confusing... But (for the most part that I have seen) Scottish like to be called Scottish, Welsh like to be called Welsh, Irish like to be called Irish, but the English call themselves British...

That is because they are ignorant, frankly.

@WburgWanderer I think I know which FB group you’re talking about and I’m in it too! Wink wink nudge nudge.

WhIch other explanation can there possibly be?

@LegallyBritish I know and it’s a real problem too because it makes non British people automatically equate British to English where that’s not true at all. This happens a lot on MN to with English posters doing the same thing. It’s frustrating and dumb.

Plenty of people are British - Scottish dad, half English, half Welsh mum, or whatever.

English has a sort of odd stigma though - a bit like being middle aged, middle class and white - too interestingly privileged and stuffy.

No different from all the Americans you meet in Ireland in tourist areas telling long suffering tourist guides or shopkeepers how they're Irish because they have one Irish great, great grandparent - completely ignoring the other 15 great, great grandparents who were all from boring, stuffy places like England, Germany and the Netherlands...