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!

People being required to wear swimming costumes in saunas.
In Germany (where they'd think that gross) there's usually a sign banning them !

Dinner for One!

Never saw it until I moved to Germany!

I remember taking cake home from a birthday parties to eat at home.

I think that we often used to have the "birthday tea" last so cake was more or less cut as kids were being collected?

We always used to have jelly & blancmange & fairy cakes so bday cake as well was too much?

We've always done the cake to eat as part of the meal for the kid's parties though even though that's not how it was done for us.

@LakieLady thank you! That's really interesting! But can I just go and camp out anywhere where I wouldn't be disturbing stock or harvest? Iyswim🤔

My Dh and his family (American) find out use of cutlery fascinating. My mil particularly says it’s like watching performance every time I use a knife and fork. They cut it all up into little squares and then just shovel it in which I find weird.

YES. My (adult) American cousins all eat like toddlers. It is extraordinary.

I thought windows opened outwards so they could be used as a fire escape.

Re washing machines in kitchens, I have a small bathroom and not utility room. Where else would it go?

After reading most of these, it has become apparent that perhaps I don't actually belong here 😂

From abroad but spent secondary school years in UK. Where I quickly realised that NO ONE SHOWERED AFTER P.E. AT SCHOOL. Grubby as fuck. It's 20 years later and I can still recall the smell. Was that just my school or is it normal?

Another thing is that British people find bidets unhygienic, an attitude I find utterly baffling.

Also agree with some of those previously mentioned. Wearing shoes indoors. Carpeted bathrooms. Not rinsing dishes.

I came on to say the weird birthday cake given away after a party rather than eaten there and then. Why? It makes no sense!

I was eight when I moved here and there are still things I find odd despite being a bit of a coconut.

Food
By that I mean rubbish food being so normal, a sandwich isn’t a meal, especially when it’s often white bread with a very poor quality filling like ham or cheese. Serving hot food on cold plates.

Wearing shoes inside.

Also on food, why the need for children’s menus, they just need a smaller portion, not something shit with baked beans.

Not telling the truth
“Oh that was lovely” why do people say that in restaurants when it wasn’t lovely?!

Children being hidden away and the general lack of child friendly culture. Virtually wherever I go my son goes, the UK is very much only designed for adults.

On a similar note children being babied, my son is five in June, he showers independently, dresses, puts his dirty clothes in the basket, helps me cook, chops veg, puts his clean clothes away, strips his bed when i ask him to on bedding day. Yet I see so many parents doing absolutely everything for children who are much older than he is, yes it would be quicker for me to do it, but they’re vital skills he needs to know and use.

Parents not wanting their own children to live with them, why have them then?!

Pudding
Why is it a pie, a sponge or a yorkshire pudding?!

Formal english
In a lot of places people speak both formal and informal versions of their language, this doesn’t seem to happen in the UK.

Family members having to essentially book an appointment to visit family members.

Black pudding.

I love living here ... and even though I have lived here for more than half my life (and consider my childhood to be very English) things I just don’t get

• pub quizzes
• any excuse to drink
• baked potatoes and baked beans
• reversing in to parking bays
• breaking up journeys ... having to stop and have tea/rest even though journey is only 2 hours
• washing up bowls in perfectly usable sinks
• carpets in bathrooms and kitchens
• talking about the weather .... it is just another round about way of checking in and being friendly ... no-one gives a damn it is usually rainy or cold
• love of betting or taking a punt on anything ...

Oh also the two tier wedding invite system. I think it's awful. Either you want someone at your wedding, or you don't. I would be really offended to be invited to an evening do.

@MrsGellar Apologies

I thought windows opened outwards so they could be used as a fire escape.
You can still use window opening in as a fire escape🤔

Your perception of yourselves as reserved!
Was asked just as many intrusive questuins in the uk as i was in ireland.
Also, the perception that you all "stiff upper lip" your way through a crisis.

Resilience is not a switch that can be flicked on!

Loads more im sure.

@Grumpasaurus my uncle calls this the insult!

Do we British wear shoes inside normally? I thought that was more of an American thing. I don't think I know anyone who does this.

I don't think it's a weird British thing not to have bidets (because none of my overseas friends have them either), but I wish we did - very hygeinic!

People being required to wear swimming costumes in saunas.
In Germany (where they'd think that gross) there's usually a sign banning them !

I remember a comedian telling a story about going to a sauna in Germany with shorts on and an angry German man said to him "how dare you wear clothes in front of my wife"

UK windows are mostly chosen based on the weather - an outward top-hinged window means you can open it in rain. Inward windows tend to let the rain in, and sliders or "sash" windows are (nowadays) not used for H&S reasons.

I'm British but was living abroad for a few years... When we moved back last summer I committed a few driving faux paus in England... Namely I used both lanes at traffic lights instead of waiting my turn in one queue. My overseas friends find that strange, that we will only use one lane if it is stationary.

For those that DONT wash their chicken, what do you do with those cook-in-the-bag chicken where its pre-bagged in the shop? The ones where you put the whole thing in the oven as it. Do you take it out of the bag, wash it, then find another bag to cook it in?

Another is at any vague hint of sunshine you see people sitting in parks shirtless. This includes office workers in suit trousers, and women sitting there in their bra!!!

And whilst tapping this out, I've just had a wasp and 2 flies comes in our UN-SCREENED windows!!!

Oh also, the concept of a walk, whose primary destination is a pub/many pubs.

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

Do you know @Ilariayaya, it had never struck me before, but that is actually a bit odd. But we have the aforementioned Ordnance Survey maps, so we can see where they lead to, if we're not familiar with the area.

At my school, we were taught map-reading as part of Geography in year 8 or 9. We were sent, in small groups, into the woods near our school and picked up at the other end, approx 2.5 miles away, armed only with a map and a compass. This was long before GPS and mobile phones, and I never heard of anyone getting lost.

I wonder if this would be allowed these days?

Just asked my boyfriend who is Swedish and his main ones are.

People don’t say what they really mean.

Rubbish bread.

Good food is very cheap, but people buy expensive ready made things instead.

People drive very short distances.

Being poor is shameful.

Marmite.

Why DO you use a washing up bowl, btw?

@MrsGellar I would agree with you. There are benefits and drawbacks to both ways of living. Another benefit of the kind of culture where everyone knows everyone is that ime there is very little petty crime. I've lived in places where it was quite normal to lower a basket with change in onto the street below and some kid would go and get your milk and bread for you (we could do with that now in these days of self isolation lol!) which astounded me. Those kids would never nick your money because you know who they are and their parents and extended family and everyone who has contact with them so they wouldn't get away with it.

On the other hand I think with very close knit ways of living like you say there can be elements of coercion/control which go unchally. So while grandma wouldn't get her basket money stolen, she could well be a victim of financial or other abuse ie be facing quite big problems, but if her abuser is in a position of social power her options to challenge or seek recourse are limited.