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Original poster

Do emigres from the UK imagine the UK is stuck in the dark ages?

163 replies

livingunderskirt · 03/10/2023 15:41

I have quite a few relatives who have moved overseas to places like Australia, Canada and Denmark. Something that I notice when they visit is that they seem to assume that in the UK we are stuck in the dark ages, I had one relative from Australia try to explain to me recently what an ipad is and does, when I have my own ipad. My aunt who now lives in Denmark tells me about how in Denmark they are very advanced with recycling much more so than the UK because they have special bins for paper and glass/plastic. We have all that too but at the time we had food waste recycling too and they didn't. Lots of things like that, like being surprised to learn we Malaysian, Korean, Sri Lankan restaurants locally and not just Chips or Chinese places or that we have podcasts and smart watches.

Its not a big deal it doesn't wind me up or anything but I do wonder why this is? I suppose they might assume that the UK has stayed the same since they left in the 80s or 90s. I just think it's kind of odd. I have lived overseas myself and never felt this way and I sort of expect lifestyles / tech to be similar all over the developed world at this point.

I just wondered if anyone else has noticed this?

OP posts:
Mumofteenandtween · 03/10/2023 23:39

It is like my younger brother. He seems to think that he is a 41 year old man but I am fairly certain that he is actually the 15 year old boy he was when I left for university 26 years ago (today!)

willowstar · 03/10/2023 23:41

Oh this really winds me up. My mum is in her 70s and has lived abroad now for almost 40 years. The UK she remembers is completely different to how it is now, but she talks about it like it is still the same. The most recent being...'of course people in the UK don't eat salads. Salad in the UK is just a tomato and a bit of lettuce...'. What is odd is that until the pandemic she visited every year so I am not sure how she has managed to maintain such fixed views. What is even more odd is that all of her friends consider her an authority on the UK and are surprised when they visit that it isn't as she has led them to believe.

Alex54654 · 04/10/2023 00:03

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TomPinch · 04/10/2023 00:27

Davros · 03/10/2023 23:29

I read somewhere recently that the Gov.UK website/interface is admired around the world!

I renewed my DCs' UK passports a while back and was amazed at how efficient and easy it was. The only problem was that I had to send documents to Liverpool from NZ and it cost an arm and a leg.

I've noticed that senior 'systems' people in the civil service here are often from the UK.

MariaLuna · 04/10/2023 00:34

The UK has also generally been one of the global leaders in the widespread adoption of digital services like online shopping/banking.

Goodness me, the whole world has that now. Are you for real?

MrsFezziwig · 04/10/2023 00:40

Ponderingwindow · 03/10/2023 15:53

As an outsider, I do get the sense that technology came a bit late to the UK. I would never expect someone in their 60s or 70s to not be tech savvy and to have a smartphone and know how to use it to access anything and everything, but I’ve seen on mumsnet again and again the idea that it is absolutely ridiculous to expect someone that age to be fully integrated into todays technology.

That is because quite a large section of Mumsnet is embarrassingly ageist. I’ve seen comments from posters in their 30s and 40s which could be compared with 7 year olds thinking their mums are ancient.

SiennaSienna · 04/10/2023 00:45

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South Korea had contactless payments in 2008. I remember wifi on the subway and people paying with their phones. South Korea and Japan have always been miles ahead. Also Japanese friends showing us their digital cameras with preview windows for photos and videos back in 2002… our minds were blown.

echt · 04/10/2023 00:48

I’ve been in Australia since the mid-2000s and find little difference in tech/contactless, but then I’ve always been across it and live in a capital city so would expect it.

What continues to amaze me about Melbourne is all the wires looped down suburban streets instead of being underground. Looks positively Third World, but then the roads are lovely and smooth.

Agree about UK gov systems being better. Dealing with HMRC is a piece of cake; the ATO not so much.

And while I’m here, Netflix in the UK is way better than the Aussie offering, and we get BBC stuff much later, possibly because the ABC, a well- known and dangerous left-wing broadcaster, is starved of funds.

SiennaSienna · 04/10/2023 00:55

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@Alex54654 hm. Disagree on so many levels here. You’ve never seen robots cleaning airports outside of the uk and Japan?. And therefore other countries don’t have this technology? (Easily proven wrong with a quick Google search btw)
also, Broadband and fibre fastest in the Uk compared to the rest of Europe? My sister in Germany has better, faster and cheaper connectivity than my techie BIL in London. Every country has pros and cons. The UK is no different.

Oakbeam · 04/10/2023 00:58

Also Japanese friends showing us their digital cameras with preview windows for photos and videos back in 2002… our minds were blown

Digital cameras had been available in the UK for several years before 2002. I got my first DSLR camera in 2002.

Edit: I also got my first smartphone in 2002.

echt · 04/10/2023 01:00

Sparehair · 03/10/2023 20:59

There is a word for this which I can’t remember- it’s common to all emigrants. it came up in a conversation with a friend of mine who was saying that her Pakistani parents ( living in Surrey) are way more conservative then a similar demographic in Pakistan because Pakistan has moved on but they are still stuck in the time when they left in terms of what they think is appropriate behaviour/ values.

I lived overseas for 14 years and some things about the Uk surprised me a lot when I moved back, especially the extent of contactless. My kids were excited that in the Uk they let you use the petrol oump yourself 🤣

Show quote history

An Australian Greek friend, herself in her late 50s, made the same observation about older Greeks when compared with relations back in the old country. Greeks in Greece were amazed at the old-fashioned values of their Melbourne elders. Other Aussie Greeks I know concurred. It’s definitely a thing.

everetting · 04/10/2023 01:25

This seems to happen to all older emigrees who have not been back to their home country for decades.
I was shocked as a young adult when visiting the country they were born in to find it was nothing like they described.

everetting · 04/10/2023 01:27

Even when I went on holiday to NZ I stayed in a bed and breakfast where the woman talked about all the reasons she was glad she did not live in Britain and described a Britain of 20 years ago.
People are strange.

everetting · 04/10/2023 01:29

@TTartareistasty I agree. Its like before the pandemic people on here were claiming most people bought their groceries online. And then it turned out only 6% of people did. The stats being quoted before the pandemic included anyone who had ever ordered a box of chocolates online.
My DP is registered for online banking but never uses it.

leamington66 · 04/10/2023 01:40

I’ve only done one winter so far. Hopefully this one I’ll get out more. I think I need skates

SiennaSienna · 04/10/2023 02:30

Oakbeam · 04/10/2023 00:58

Also Japanese friends showing us their digital cameras with preview windows for photos and videos back in 2002… our minds were blown

Digital cameras had been available in the UK for several years before 2002. I got my first DSLR camera in 2002.

Edit: I also got my first smartphone in 2002.

Edited

I’m not talking about digital SLRs or other professional equipment. These were the days where everyday pocket cameras were mostly still film and didn’t have the LCD screen display on the back. It was before 2000 actually because we were all still at uni / poor. My first smartphone was a blackberry and I loved it 😊(2004)

coxesorangepippin · 04/10/2023 02:35

Actually noticed the opposite: the UK seems around ten years ahead of Canada in terms of technology

Uk is definitely backwards I'd say when it comes to tumble dryers/dishwashers and double glazing

Natsku · 04/10/2023 05:37

SiennaSienna · 04/10/2023 00:55

@Alex54654 hm. Disagree on so many levels here. You’ve never seen robots cleaning airports outside of the uk and Japan?. And therefore other countries don’t have this technology? (Easily proven wrong with a quick Google search btw)
also, Broadband and fibre fastest in the Uk compared to the rest of Europe? My sister in Germany has better, faster and cheaper connectivity than my techie BIL in London. Every country has pros and cons. The UK is no different.

Show quote history

We have a robot cleaning my local supermarket in my small rural town in Finland Grin (though at the same time we still have people with dustpans and brooms sweeping the streets)

ErrolTheDragon · 04/10/2023 10:16

Has anyone yet mentioned: 'the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there'?

Autumnunmasks · 04/10/2023 10:34

Interesting

BlastedPimples · 04/10/2023 10:54

I don't live in the U.K. anymore but whenever I come back to visit I am struck by how dirty trains / tubes / streets are, the awful state of the roads, the number of homeless on the streets and it's dentally tatty and rundown.

So yes, it looks to me that the U.K. is definitely going backwards.

BlastedPimples · 04/10/2023 10:55

Definitely tatty not dentally. Although it could be dentally too. Who knows?

Bubblebright · 04/10/2023 11:00

BlastedPimples · 04/10/2023 10:54

I don't live in the U.K. anymore but whenever I come back to visit I am struck by how dirty trains / tubes / streets are, the awful state of the roads, the number of homeless on the streets and it's dentally tatty and rundown.

So yes, it looks to me that the U.K. is definitely going backwards.

Have you thought that perhaps the whole of the uk isn’t the same? My area is nothing like you describe.

TreesAtSea · 04/10/2023 11:42

@BlastedPimples Thinking that a place is deteriorating, whether true or not, is not the same as believing it's stuck in the past, which was the question raised by the OP.

BlastedPimples · 04/10/2023 11:46

No but it's going backwards. And will be stuck in the past as a result.