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 love the translations! I was on holiday in Europe this week and didn't realise why people kept giving me puzzled face; turned out I was wearing my Very British Problems tshirt apparently the true meaning of 'Let's agree to disagree' was a shock to many....

Crisps. So many crisps. Why such a reliance on crisps?
True. I am in the UK for the summer and I've never eaten so many crisps. See also: chocolate bars everywhere you go.

verybritishproblems.teemill.co.uk

Oh, I've got another one.

Religious ethics being compulsory in schools. It seems to me to be one of the more pointless subjects crammed into an already pressured curriculum.

You think learning about religious/ethical concerns which affect culture, law making, politics, health decisions etc are ‘pointless’?

It's possibly the way it's being taught to my two, or even the way it's being reported as taught!

Oh dear. I'm involved in a thread in AIBU which is reinforcing your point about religious ethics admirably.

If it's about educating about different religions to help promote understanding and tolerance at all. . .

I’m British, no issues telling other people’s kids off but I’ve had awful things said to me by the parent of said naughty child. Mouth worse than a sailor (I swear a lot so it’s not the words but the venom in their use from a four year old) and when her parents would stand and watch while she hit my kid I had to do something so I would tell her to stop. If my kid is being a dick I expect them to be told off, people don’t seem to like it but if they were parenting their own child I wouldn’t have to. I don’t think our bedtimes are too early actually, mine go to bed around seven, and are five and four. Five year old on weekends can stay up til 11pm if she wants though. But they are up early for school so it makes sense right?

That’s not say my kids are asleep though, I let the four year old run about in her safety sleeper throwing herself in fits of giggles until she goes to sleep, and the elder one can look at books and if she’s being quiet play until she is ready to sleep. I’m quite relaxed about it while still having some sort of routine.

In my experience the problem with the direct speaking is it often comes with the direct behaving, I.e. total unwillingness to accommodate other people or compromise on what to do and where to go.

I was born here but from an immigrant family and we struggle with:

• lack of emphasis on extended family, many British nuclear families are very insular

• lack of seasoning in food

hippo

I'm so confused by your post, the total opposite to my experience in Germany. I always found places to eat after 10 but in the UK, it's almost impossible.

I'm still working my way through this thread so I haven't read all of the comments but I'm finding it really interesting reading and not remotely offensive (except for the comments on baked beans - that's just taking it too far).

Pre-kids I travelled a lot and lived for a few years in a couple of other countries so I'm fairly familiar with other countries perceptions of the British. My dh hasn't really traveled further than Benidorm really and has just recently started a job working with people from across the world.

Dh on week 1 - "had to have a meeting with some Americans today. They were really direct; it was a bit rude actually."
Dh on week 2 - "had to have a meeting with some Americans today. They were really direct; it was a bit rude actually."
Dh on week 2 -

Fuck posted that when I was trying to copy & paste!

Dh on week 2 - "had to have a meeting with some dutch people today. They were really direct; it was a bit rude actually."
Dh on week 3 - "had to have a meeting with some people from Germany today. They were really direct; it was a bit rude actually."

It was a little while before he realised being indirect is probably not the norm and not particularly helpful in meetings.

When dh first moved here many years ago, the weirdest thing for him that they struggled with was the lack of cleanliness. Where he was from, people don't bathe in the same water - they wash the dirt off first before soaking in a bath. When he got here, there was more concern if he'd cleaned behind his ears properly rather than if his body was actually clean, and everyone actually sat in their dirty bath water, rather than washing the first off first (not so many showers in his area when he first moved here). No problem with indirectness etc, but then he'd moved up north so i guess they're more direct than southerners? He learned the idioms, and they weren't too different from where he came from so all this problem with weird ways of saying things that mean other things wasn't ever really a problem.

The Kreuzberg area of Berlin is full of brilliant eating places. But then it is more arty than the tourist areas.

theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/kreuzberg-s-top-10-sights-visiting-berlin-s-hippest-district/

You will know about the many eating places, in that case. We loved its multicultural vibe.

I’m not sure about actually living there - our hotel was elsewhere - but it is great for brilliant and stylish interiors shops.

Ah. I understand. And no, you don’t sound like an old fuddy duddy! I loved Berlin the one time we visited and really hope to get bank there one day.

back there

@Davros very true, I notice that most of people that are direct talkers, don't take so well when somebody talks directly to them. It just nice excuse to be rude to everybody.

Things that really confused me when I came over (I live in Scotland now)

• Orange parade - I though that the mobile operator 'Orange' is doing quite well to have parade every year,
• basins in sinks to wash dishes. Like why?
• not cleaning dishes after using detergent and putting them to dry (could be just my dh though....)
• macaroni and cheese - that thing is just awful
• limits on pub openings - didn't decrees amount of people having alcohol problem, but still kept (I do not drink alcohol btw, but think it is bizarre)
• crisps as part of lunch - doesn't matter if adult or child. Who managed to swing that and made it norm

However I love british humour, and indirectness was easy to understand for me, except 'I would do that'. Every time my co-worker used that I though he volunteered to do something, not telling me that I should do it. It lead to quite few confusions before we realised why we are in constant state of misunderstanding :D