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

I think it was called The Tourist Trap, Pipbin - that was a really interesting programme but hardly anyone seems to remember it. Never seems to get mentioned in things about the early days of reality TV.

English, Japanese, Americans and Germans I think - don't remember any French.

I remember the tourist trap.

They should show that again.

www.windfallfilms.com/show/1178/The+Tourist+Trap.aspx

I remember watching the Tourist Trap! It was on in 1998 I think.
Maybe there should be a remake.

Bertie I do think "bloody hell" is practically the perfect expletive. I have to be careful using it though, or the dcs repeat it.

I did say "ya'll" once or twice when I first moved here. Dear god, the ribbing I got from that lasted YEARS. Never ever again. I've curbed (kerbed?) that particular habit.

Can anyone from the US explain the terms "Summa cum laude" and "Magna cum laude" to me when referring to graduating from high school/college (I don't know which!)

If this helps...

Definition of 'Summa Cum Laude'

An academic level of distinction used by educational institutions to signify an academic degree which was received "with highest honor". Summa cum laude is the highest distinction of three commonly used types of Latin honors which are recognized in the United States, the other two being magna cum laude and cum laude.

Thanks Alice. So is it equivalent to the UK "class" of degree? Here you get a first, an upper second (2:1), a lower second (2:2) or a third class degree, depending on your final mark. Do you have similar as well or is it just defined by the cum laude levels?

We live in the US and my husband habitually calls other adults ma'am or sir, especially if he doesn't know their name. It's just him being polite and it's perfectly normal here - not just something expected of children.

One of my children's teachers asked them to call her 'Miss firstname' rather than 'Miss lastname'. I loved that.

And quite a lot of my southern colleagues used to refer to me as 'Miss firstname' which I also loved, but then I loved almost everything about my southern colleagues. I'm way north and it really did feel like another world down there. Most of them (especially the women) are very warm and friendly.

The summa, magna, etc. designations are similar but also a bit different from the degree classes in UK universities. Degrees themselves don't have class designations, but in most universities, there will be an additional designation for doing very well: cum laude (with honors); magna cum laude (high honors); and summa cum laude (highest honors).

Laude is pronounced "law-day" which leads to a prevalent joke, especially in the South, where people say "I graduated Oh Lawdy," a play on the Southern exclamation Oh Lordy. If you graduate Oh Lawdy, that means you barely made it.

The university DD1 graduated from had a distinction between honours and the rest as far as I could see at her graduation. No different 'cum laude' classifications.

I think the cum laude, magna, etc classification vary from institution to institution. US universities tend to use the numerical score of 4.0 - being perfect grades (like all As) downwards. Some places a grade point average (GPA) of 3.2 would be "cum laude", magna would be above 3.5 and summa would be 3.8 or greater. When you are looking at a recently graduated students resume (=CV) you look at their GPA. We always found 4.0 GPA types a bit scary. a GPA of 3 or so would probably be equivalent to a 2.1 and a GPA of 4 would be like a First class degree.

The whole "Honours" thing doesn't exist in the US and TBH I don't really understand it here.

What Moanranger describes is exactly how it works at the university I graduated from, except that to get magna or summa, you also have to do a Seniors Honors thesis, so, for example, some people with a 3.8 would get cum laude because they did not do a thesis.

This explains the UK classifications www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Degree_Classifications

As for how the two systems compare - surprise surprise, it's not straightforward but www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=267968 give the following approximation:

GPA = UK class
3.7-4.0 = 1st
3.3-3.69 = 2:1
2.7-3.29 = 2:2

I find that my US colleagues tend to describe anything in superlatives. you know, like: "Oh you absolutely MUST go see that town, it is simply AMAZZZINNGG! Takes your breath away! So much history!! Stunning! Incredible!!"

So at first I was expecting really to see the 8th wonder of the world every time and was always disappointed that the places never lived up to my expectations. Then I understood that I have to translate the description into European and what they really said was "Well, you could go see that town, it's quite nice, there's a house there that's more than 100 years old".

So when you are used to the American ways, do you Americans find that Brits and Europeans in general are very 'meh' about anything and never get excited?

I probably do that. But then I hear some Brits become very enthusiastic about things too. I think it might be more of an individual thing. Maybe?

I swear, every single American I know does it. Recently had one over, showed her the house (average 3-bed), and judging by her enthusiastic comments you would think we lived in Versailles.

I'm always worried I'm hurting their feelings, when I just say 'that's nice..'

I got the impression when I lived in the US that when it came to historical buildings, the guides would go into far more detail than here (lectures on the nails used in the woodwork figured more than once) - but I think that was largely because they had less to work with. A house in the 'colonies' was simply never going to be as big and grand and well-furnished as a stately home in the UK - more like a manor house here maybe. It was ok once I'd made the adjustment, and some of what we might overlook here was interesting. There was a certain charm to sampling a medicinal quantity of cider in a 'historical inn' in ... forget whether it was Lancaster or York PA - thinking I'd never been in an NT equivalent... and then realising that in England, there were inns far older still functioning as inns serving pints. (Absolutely loved Plimouth Plantation btw, thought that was really well done)

I loved seeing historical stuff when we lived in the states, but I just cannot compare it to the historical stuff here in the UK. So much older, so much more history. I can't imagine ever getting tired of it or not being impressed by it.

HazleNutt Maybe you should post pics of your house, and some of us Americans can reply, so you can compare the responses.

Yes, me too (in case that wasn't clear!) - there's some really interesting places, I think we visited more in two years than any of our US colleagues had!

My favourite historical site was properly old though - Walnut Canyon near Flagstaff.

I think we're just more used to it? Walking through an old village street in Germany with some Americans they expressed amazement at the place, whereas for me, my home town is medieval, it's normal to me to be surrounded by old buildings, architecture etc. It's lovely and I can appreciate the beauty of it but it's not surprising or amazing in that sense.

There was also a line in The Fault In Our Stars which made me think, it was something like "Imagine living in a place where all of the buildings were made before anyone you ever knew was born." I can't imagine living in a place where all of the buildings are so new. And I'd never thought anything of that before. It's easy to forget that the US is so young in comparison to other countries.

Depends what you mean... the USA is older than many modern European states. And people have lived there for a long time - but without leaving much physical evidence, Walnut Canyon being one of the exceptions.