To ask overseas folk what British quirks they think are weird/funny?

[Burntmybiscuits]

Us Brits are always on our high horse, making light humour over the habits of other countries (particularly the U.S!), so I thought it would be funny to see what people overseas find 'unique' about us!

I'm irish. I find English funerals and funeral etiquette bizarre.

I find that English weddings finish very early imo.

My Arab students have been shocked to learn that if staying with a UK family they'll have to share a bathroom. They are also horrified not to have a hose for washing after going to the loo.... toilet paper used for drying. A lack of a dishwasher and putting clothes out to dry on the washing line is also seen as something strange.
Though British but having moved around a lot, I still can't understand why mixer taps aren't as common as other countries.

A reason for having the washing machine in the kitchen - it's usually nearest the garden (so can put it on line). Who wants to trudge up and downstairs to w/machine in bathroom??

lalafafa What is a banana sandwich????

Don't forget "Ice Cold in Alex" and "The Great Escape" . . .

Both of which were on last week!

So many:

Head counting for parties
Switching the television off when guests come round
Going out for a "drink"
Grown up children moving out as soon as they turn 18 or straight after university
Not speaking to 'school mums' once kids leave the school
The idea that close friendships can only be made in specific places at specific points in ones life.

@ladyhummingbee when I did my training, we were all told to wash meat especially chicken because when the poop and intestines and such is removed from the chicken, it can be transferred onto the surface of the meat. If you keep the water on low and hold the chicken low, it won’t splash everywhere. Then obviously you have to be thorough cleaning up afterwards. If you’re careful, there should be no issues. I don’t know anyone who does not wash their chicken

What is the benefit of washing chicken anyway?

Signs on countryside walking paths that say "public bridleway" but not where the path actually leads to

Lots of things already mentioned. I have been in England for many years now so have got used to a lot, but things I initially found strange were -

• the amount of alcohol people drink and how common it is. This is always denied though if you mention it as an English trait. It is not even young men, but in all levels and ages of society.
• how people do not say what they mean and you have to guess what they mean. And how people think you are rude and get offended if you don't guess rightly. So if someone says oh just pop round sometime for a cup of tea. If you knock on their door two days later and you say you have popped round for a cup of tea, they will think you are rude.
• We have a washing up bowl now as DP eventually just went out and bought one as he said we needed it. I still don't see the point.
• How class ridden England is and how everyone denies it. But as an outsider it is so obvious.
• What an enormous deal Christmas is even if you are not religious. I understand celebrating Christmas, but everything basically shuts down, not just on the day but for days. And how it is apparently the worst thing in the world if you can't see your children for the whole day.
• How so little is expected of children and how often people state that child development means a child of x age can not do something - when loads of kids in my family do. I mean bring out your children how you want, but there seems so much certainty that certain things that are routine elsewhere, are physically not possible. This puzzles me.
• How you have to make an appointment to visit close family. Where we used to live I would walk past my SILs house on the walk back from the shops. It is rude apparently to just ring the bell. Instead I have to phone her and she will say something like - pop round for a coffee next Tuesday at 4 pm. Very very strange and unfriendly. This one I still do not really understand. I know what to do, but I still think the English way is extremely unfriendly and a bit rude.
• How much you get worked up about petty things. Shoes on/shoes off, the exact words a teacher uses to say your child is badly behaved, etc. Lots of you seem fixated on tiny things and make a big drama out of them. I have come to the conclusion that this is because because for most of you your life is fairly easy. Either that or you just need to relax.
• Having separate kids menus and insisting that decent quality food is wasted on children, or children would not like quality food. I mean anyone given pizza, burgers and chips from tiny would choose that, that does not mean they would not like other types of food as well. Also how fussy children are here about food, with very restricted diets being incredibly common, usually with much insistence that this is natural and nothing can be done about it. Again such restrictive diets are rare in other countries I know. Of course they exist, but they are pretty exceptional.
• How selfish most people are.

In spite of all this there are lots of things I love. I would miss pub so much, the range of high quality museums, theatre, dance, etc. That you have houses not flats. It is relatively easy to make friends as your family bonds are much weaker. The beautiful scenery. I think you don't always appreciate just how beautiful a country you live in.

What's the thing with sockets in UK?
(Pic from google as I don't have any pic of my parent's bathroom, but we have socket same distance from the sink)

Paying for fuel after you have put it in your car. In the USA you pay first

But how do you know how much it will be? Until you've filled it up, you've no way of knowing how much you can put in.

Thank you for your explanation @Francoisepi. I'm Scandi and have never ever heard of this .

I don’t know anyone who does not wash their chicken
🙋 And I have food hygiene certificates...

Now I'm really curious where you're from @MrsGellar

How long do children stay at home where you're from?

I encounter this less and less but cake and jelly at children's parties is a bit gross.

Sandwiches with butter still confuses me and back around thirty years ago, sweet corn and tuna sandwiches were off to me as well as sweet corn on pizza. Now, I don't mind the sweet corn on sandwiches and pizza but I still can't do butter.

Blackcurrant is a horrible flavor to me. I can't abide it in any form.

Christmas adverts and the hoopla around the Christmas Number 1 single.

I'm glad that the trend of carpeted bathrooms is long gone but I still find houses with lots of doors a bit odd. I come from the southwestern US so keeping rooms warm with doors is something I'm not used to considering. Also, my father-in-law and his talk about the "immersion heater" and I still have no clue what that is.

This is going back a long time ago but I worked for a newspaper publication in the 90's that still had a "tea lady". On my first day, she asked me how I liked my tea. At 11am and again at 3pm every day, she brought her trolly with our tea in cups. Some people would use the time for a smoke break but it was our "elevenses" where we would take a tea break. I really loved that. They eliminated the practice a few months after I joined. It was a sad day and I think it should be reinstated! Lol

I suppose that because the British have so many days off, in comparison to Americans, so many of you prioritize holidays and "going away" is so ingrained into your culture. It's very nice. Americans don't do that because of the lack of paid time off. I can't remember the last time I went on a holiday and many of my American friends don't go away that often either.

The "sugar tax" has truly annoyed me! It's such a weird government over reach to me. I guess it just pisses me off that Lucozade, my favorite drink, now tastes gross with artificial sweeteners.

That's about it off the top of my head. I'm sure I'll come back later when I think of something else.

With regards to humour, I remember a comedian (think it was John Cleese) saying his shows always went down well in northern european protestant countries. Where as the rest of the continent were just perplexed.
Always thought that really interesting

@Ilariayaya It’s a children’s staple, mashed banana, maybe with a sprinkle of sugar in a sandwich. Pure comfort food!

It's 2020! Surely nobody washes chicken anymore. Come on!

Eating beans with toast - beans are supposed to be a side not a meal!

That reminds me of another one when I lived abroad (Canada).
I cooked breakfast for a group of friends - standard fare - eggs, toast, beans, etc. Can't remember exactly.
They were fascinated by the baked beans.
"So you eat these in England?", "How do you cook and serve them?", etc.
Er, I bought them from a Canadian supermarket, they can't be that weird.

@alloutoffucks I am absolutely with you on the class obsession thing. I wanted to write it before but wasn't sure if it would fit into the light-hearted tone at the beginning.

Wow, alloutoffucks, you’ve put quite some effort into explaining how shitty we all are. I’m glad to see you expended a little extra on damning us with faint praise: we can make friends because we have weak family links and we live in a beautiful country (but don’t appreciate it) 😂

Working in a small rural town in West Africa. Went to an outdoor bar and restaurant with a colleague. He couldn’t get over the fact I wouldn’t go over and speak to another white woman on the other side of the gardens.
No matter how much I tried to explain that I had no idea who she was, and going over to speak to a random stranger was a bit embarrassing. He thought it was really strange how stand offish I was being, given the chance we might be from the same place.

I think the Brits are very uptight and stressed. Yes, the washing up bowl thing is weird - we just use the sink rather than a plastic bowl that gets damaged by knives and can harbour germs.
Also the going abroad for holidays thing rather than travelling in your own country when there is so much to see.

The separate wedding invite thing isn't just British. We went to a French wedding. There was a small group for the legal bit at the Town Hall. Then loads of people at the church who then went to a hotel for drinks and canapes. Then about 9pm most left leaving a smaller group for a formal meal that finished around 1am. We were beginning to panic that the canapes were the only food

Also how much you all lie and only say what you think you should say. So everyone English I talk to apparently has a great diet with lots of vegetables and fruit and sweet things, pizza and cake being a treat. And yet the shops are full of things that everyone says they rarely buy. People are obviously lying. But why bother?

Also crisps. Lots of people seem to eat a lot of them. They are not that tasty. It is a strange bland food that is bad for you. I don't understand it at all.