Things that baffle you about another country

[Soubriquet]

America:-

Why are the gaps in the toilet doors so wide? Do you really enjoy an audience?

Why can’t tax be included in the price? If I want to buy something for a dollar it should be a dollar! Not dollar plus tax!

Australia:-

Still weird that you have Christmas in summer.

Wonder if they have different Christmas songs there.

Can’t see walking in a winter land being a big hit.

More like hiding from a hot heatwave

@knitnerd90. Drying laundry outside also depends where you live.... take Fl and other hot states. Great for the whites but colored clothes would be destroyed within half hr!

DH is Polish. He's lived here in the UK a long time now but is still annoyed as hell by the lack of plugs in bathrooms. When we went on honeymoon to Mallorca I had forgotten a convertor plug and he wired my hairdryer directly into the outlet in the bathroom wall which is probably insane mind.

I don't know why you're getting so upset about it 😂 I'm from a tropical climate, so think I am qualified to say that yes, it does get quite hot here, and for quite a few months. Where do you live? Scottish isles?

The average temp in the UK in the warmer SE, is 18-23 deg C. IF you're from a tropical climate and you think 18-23 is HOT, there is something wrong with your internal thermometer.
Objectively, the UK cannot ever be described as a hot country.

@redsquirrelfan

I agree with the questions about opening Christmas presents on 24th. I think that would ruin Christmas Day for me.

The fun bit is December 24th in lots of countries, and the 25th is the churchy bit.

"There are aspects of the British education system that I'll never in a million years get comfortable with:

Turned 4 on the 31st of August? Come on, uniform on, off you go to school, it'll be trigraphs and multiplication for you next year. 1st of September? Yeah, you go play in the mud for another year and enjoy your childhood. Likewise the frequency of testing."

That's the English education system. Wales used to have the same system as England, but early years is play focused now.

"And at the other end, UCAS and uni admissions. Conditional and unconditional offers, only applying to five universities, the cult of Oxbridge at all costs."

That's obviously only for a minority and not the norm at all. If anything I'd say we're

" I imagine it's for practical reasons - you undress before getting into the shower/bath and put your clothes directly into the washing machine."

Eh? It's because there's water access there, surely?

But nobody actually classes the UK in with the rest of Europe, there are too many differences. Least of all the Brits themselves, haven't we just spent the last 5 years learning that the Brits are very much not European?

Speak for yourself. Half the country did class themselves as European. But we were told that we didn't matter. Come the census I will be recording European British as my nationality.

And far from it anyway - someone up thread said re America Every country hates the country that is culturally closest to them. But I certainly don't feel that America is culturally the closest to me. Personally I would probably say Scandinavia.

Every country hates the country that is culturally closest to them. But I certainly don't feel that America is culturally the closest to me. Personally I would probably say Scandinavia

Are you a country? Scandinavia is not culturally closest to Britain. You as an individual can't identify with an entire country.

"And at the other end, UCAS and uni admissions. Conditional and unconditional offers, only applying to five universities, the cult of Oxbridge at all costs."

At one time, back in the early 1960s when there were many fewer universities UCAS didn't exist (it was called UCCA back then anyway) and you could apply to as many universities as you liked, but the universities got fed up with it all and brought in the co-ordinated system to make it more efficient.

Spain, how do you manage to have supper at 11pm and still get up and go to work the next day. And how come your kids aren’t murdering each other by 9pm out of sheer hunger driven anger? ( respect, by the way)

I am from Spain originally but after living in the UK for more than 10 years, I find the luch times there crazy now. 11pm is not standard though, I would say 9pm is.
Kids are not going hungry, completely different lunch times, you cannot compare it to the UK. They have breakfast, then the main meal of the day which is around 2pm (2 courses most of the time), another meal at around 5pm (merienda) and then dinner, why are they going to be hungry?

We been to several US states over the year. Oregon has no sales tax so the price on the ticket is what you pay which makes it easy. Alcohol laws in PA are bonkers - there's a finite number of licences available for restaurants in Philadelphia so lots are BYOB instead. A place can only apply for a licence if another place relinquishes theirs.

You can buy all sorts in a supermarket in the UK, but you have to go to a liquor store for booze in many US states and a pharmacy for paracetamol, which is called acetaminophen.

Also the amount of tip expected is around 18% in restaurants. DP was really offended when the server in one place wrote this on the bill.

"We were allowed to play for hours in our rooms as long as we didn't come downstairs.

I do this with DD (5). Bedtime is 7pm and she's allowed to read/play for an hour after that if she wants to, then she generally puts herself to bed. Is that not normal? I can't sit with her until she falls asleep!"

Other children were put to bed a bit later, closer to sleeping time and then were allowed to read in bed for a bit and then go to sleep. Playing for hours in the bedroom wasn't the norm when I was growing up. I remember our grandmother being horrified that we'd put all our toys on the bed to play with. I think she thought our bedtime was for sleep, but it wasn't. I remember a lot of boring evenings because we were put to bed too early.

[quote LifeExperience]@Gwenhwyfar According to the UN 2019 Global Study of Homicide the US homicide rate is below average.[/quote]
The discussion was about gun violence and accidents wasn't it, not homicide rates in general. And you need to compare with similar countries.

It’s little known fact that in the Eastern European countries the Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve because . . .Santa travels east to west. So he actually delivers presents in the evening and then does UK and America by the morning. :)

Actually it’s the even celebration and because of the evening Mass on Christmas even which is event me so important :)

You as an individual can't identify with an entire country.

No, but we were being told that we hated America because it was culturally closest to us. Which clearly isn't the case because there are vast differences between California and Florida for example, so while some parts might initially seem familiar other parts certainly won't. I also had American friends who refused to call themselves American while Trump was President. They have reclaimed their American heritage now.

"Also, I've lived in the UK most of my life and have never heard of invitation only funerals. What usually happens is close family and friends are notified and an announcement is put in the local paper, then whoever wants to turn up can."

Yes, I think that's the norm, but some relatives of mine did have 'family only' for some reason.

Nope we are obsessed with guns here too, but our country wasn't founded out of a fear of government so the obsession remains largely about hunting

Also the amount of tip expected is around 18% in restaurants. DP was really offended when the server in one place wrote this on the bill.

He shouldn't have taken it personally, it is just that a lot of Brits who visit the USA don't understand how tipping work.
So they either don't tip or think they are being very generous with 10%.

Sorry I meant in Canada I should've added

"Usually British generalisations come from people watching British tv shows and films, most of which are nothing like how most of us live."

If you think most people have cleaners, I'm not sure you know how most people live either.

@SushiSoozie

"British children are European."

Technically yes. But nobody actually classes the UK in with the rest of Europe, there are too many differences. Least of all the Brits themselves, haven't we just spent the last 5 years learning that the Brits are very much not European?

What rubbish. There are differences between all European countries (and within them). There's nothing special about the UK and it's not even the only European country not in the EU. Even the things that may appear to be British only like driving on the left aren't really (Ireland, Malta).

Apologies gwen (and thank you) - I wrote “British” unthinkingly, but it’s English.

Ireland does seem to take its funerals very seriously. I was surprised when I was last over there to hear them being announced on local radio. I don't think we do that in England.

Even within England customs vary - when I lived in the north it was the custom to have longish reports of funerals in the local paper followed by lists of mourners which included people who were being represented by the mourners. So your parents might attend and be said to representing you and your husband and a brother and his wife. It doesn't seem to happen in the south east.

I can remember when Sweden drove on the left.

"it does get quite hot here, and for quite a few months. "

It just doesn't though. Low to mid twenties is not hot. If the temperature goes over 30 it gets into the news! Anything under about 33 and you can cool the place down by opening the windows. We just don't need aircon.
Are you sure you're not going through the change?