UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A

[Pipbin]

Continuation of the previous thread where posters from the UK ask questions like 'what the hell is going on with the gaps in US toilet doors'; and posters fro the US ask things like 'what is with wearing stripes'

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a2149133-to-think-there-is-something-wrong-with-Americans?msgid=48969042#48969042

My cousin had to have a roommate at uni but this was about 15 years ago and I think it was unusual then. It sounds truly horrible having to have a roommate. I'd rather just have a smaller private room! Can you have your own room is there an option?

You can also choose to room with someone you know, which is what I did. It was my best friend from my hometown. We met a girl down the hall and then they roomed together the next year as I didn't go back to college. The three of us are still great friends. :)

A lot of people I know met some of their life long friends as college roommates. Others have had really bad experiences and have had to get staff to intervene or have had to move out.

why do Americans like British accents so much?

Why does coffee cake not taste of coffee but of cinnamon

Why not call it cinnamon cake

It's meant to be eaten with coffee, FreudiansSlipper.

I assume teacakes aren't tea flavored?

I think we like British accents because to our ears they sound nice, polished, and educated, as well as just being unusual.

It's only certain British accents - I wouldn't know the difference, but there's only one type that's really heard on American television.

I don't like all the accents I hear on British television - I can't understand them.

Is it allowed to "live out" i.e. not stay in a University dorm if you don't want to? Do any college students stay at home with family? The idea of sleeping in the same room as another student would have been horrific to me - would have interfered seriously with my student shagging for a start!

Oh I see

I thought it was like coffee cake we have

Quite nice shall have it next time with coffee

I am always getting told what a lovely accent I have but then again people are very forward with their compliments here even if they are not all to be believed

Makes me want to love out here :)

Live out here not love

You can live off-campus, finding an apartment on your own outside the college - it's actually a lottery to even be placed in campus housing at all, not all students will be given a place. If you're in a local university, you'd probably live at home, unless you had money to throw out for the "dorm experience".

Last year, I was placed in a single room, no roommate, in a two bed townhome (like a terrace home), in a block owned by the university - I had two roommates who shared the other room. I put a single as my preference and was given it in the lottery, though I did pay more than the other girls (but almost nothing out of pocket due to scholarships and grants).

This year, I didn't get a single room in the lottery, as well as not being given as much financial aid, so I turned it down and I'm renting a house with a lot of friends off-campus, which will work out cheaper.

The saddest thing about USA is the lack of double cream. For that reason I don't think I could settle there long term.

And no oat cakes or good cheddar

I always bring my own tea which my dad's wife keeps offering lovely English tea to guests what they do not have they can not miss

AlpacaMyBags

Entree - why do you call it an entree when it is a main?

The kind of accent most Americans hear is called RP I think. We aren't exposed to as much of your TV as you are of ours so accents are exotic. :) That is changing a bit though with Harry Potter, etc.

I can understand most accents except for very broad Scots. I think part of it is my time spent here and reading books by UK writers... I understand more than some Americans do because they're trying to puzzle out both the words and the accent. I know the phrase even if I've never heard it spoken, so it makes me "hear" it more easily iykwim. This may be my only talent. :o

Wow, I love this conversation. I just worked 13 hours straight so I'm in no condition to participate but wanted to say thanks very much to BitterAnd (too tired to even have retained your full nn, sorry ) for bringing my question about class back up. I'll reread the class comments tomorrow when I have more time and can think clearly, it's a really fascinating issue to me.

This They look about two bites of each thing and asked for the rest to be boxed up. It was like they were doing a weeks shopping made me laugh out loud, as did Jessie's comment above that moving into a dorm would have interfered with her sex life! Students here would say the opposite, by and large I know I'm generalizing but normally everyone is eager to get out of their parents' houses and into the dorms where they can have some fun!

It is not hard to make friends if you're not in a sorority, no. Well, depends on the school, a bit if it's 80% Greek or something then you may feel somewhat left out if you don't pledge somewhere. But I think it's more usual that people just gravitate to the people they have a lot in common with for some types of people, that means gravitating to a sorority/fraternity; for others, it doesn't, and it works out either way.

ColdCottage re: racism in the South, I just posted about this on another thread if you're interested, and Scone and some others did too www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2160210-Anyone-out-there-moved-to-North-Carolina-from-uk-Help?pg=2

Sorry for loopy emoticon-filled post.

To go back to class structure idea, I don't think that the professions (doctor, lawyer etc) would be classed as upper class, I think of that more as upper middle class. I would consider upper class as the gentry with inherited titles and estates, and the established jobs would be public service (especially politics) and the military. I don't think you can move from middle class to upper class, I think you have to born into it.

Rich Hall, the US stand-up comic, defines class as: when you go to work in the morning, if your name is on the front of the building, you're upper class; if your name is on your desk, you're middle class; and if your name is on your shirt, you're working class.

I love this thread

DH travels to America frequently and I have also visited on a number of occasions.

I don't know why but I do feel very 'at home' in your wonderful country

My question is a weird one I suppose but I have noticed that Americans seem to be much more obsessed with germs and things being 'unsanitary'

I attended a conference in London a few years ago and sat next to an American who was most disturbed by someone a few chairs down who had a cold and was occasionally sniffing and having to blow his nose (as carefully as he could into a handkerchief)

Also, a friend of mine ran a baby music class (UK) and and American mum freaked out because a fly had entered the room. She actually left a bad review on Facebook saying that the fly was 'unsanitary'

So that's my question really, why do you find normal, everyday things (the common cold, flying insects) unsanitary?

Oh and one more thing, can you all stop saying 'poop' and just say 'poo/crap/shit/turd' thank you

Keatsiepie how does a student go about having sex without the privacy of their own room to do it in then? For me the best luxury of university was being able to sleep the whole night with a boyfriend- didn't matter it was single beds, we managed. You can't do that if you have a room mate.

Tea cakes can be tea flavoured.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11608/fruity-teacake

Unless you are talking about Tunnocks tea cakes which are chocolate and marshmallow.

Maybe that is why they do it Jessie, to stop that kind if thing.

pipbin I hope you are paraphrasing some fictional uptight College Principal when you say "that kind of behaviour" since it comes across as somewhat judgy....

I agree with you. But Keatsiepie said that she laughed out loud at my thought that having a room mate would interfere with one's sex life, so I am wondering why she found it so surprising.

Very much so Jessie. That's not my opinion, I fucked my way round uni, twice.

seagull Trust me - I think that those people you saw were extremes. I can think of maybe one or two people I know in the states that are germ-phobic. (and to be fair, I can think of a few here in the UK as well) I don't know ANYONE that would be upset at a fly being in a classroom and calling it unsanitary. Bunch of flies on food? Yes, definitely unsanitary. But that's a whole different kettle of fish.

I know a number of people that go on about how people are too obsessed with antibacterial stuff and need to just let kids get dirty to build up their immunities and such. Most people I knew let their kids play out in the dirt and climb trees and get grubby - that's what childhood is for, is it not?

You memorize each other's schedules (e.g., Lila is always gone from 3 till 7 pm on Tuesdays b/c she has a class and then her weekly sorority meeting and then step aerobics)

Or, occasionally, you come home at 2 am, tiptoe crashingly through the dark room dragging your new one-night-stand or your boyfriend/girlfriend by the hand, tumble onto the bed in the dark, and pretend that the sex you are having has not woken your roommate up. Which it obviously has, b/c she's only 3 feet away and is not dead. She, likewise, pretends she is in fact dead. Unless she is really irritated b/c you are doing this too often (and/or she isn't getting to do it often enough) or the two of you just aren't getting along, in which case she will sigh loudly and throw her covers around until you are guilted into stopping. If you persist with the mad idea that you don't need to stop, you just need to be even quieter, she will get up and dramatically stomp off to the bathroom or to the floor of a nearby friend's room.

Vs. living at home -- I didn't know anyone who would regularly have sex in his parents' house. I mean, you might sneak your bf/gf in while your parents were out of town, but you couldn't just have him/her over to spend the night as if it were no big deal, and if you were caught you'd be in a lot of trouble.