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 40, I've lived in the UK all my life and I've never seen non mixer taps here. Where are all of these non mixed taps?

"No, you have to make sure you invited to BOTH events. Some are only invited to the ceremony, some only to the reception and then some to both"

I did put "mostly"

I've only seen on here about people being invited to the ceremony & not the reception!

Well, lots of us don't actually mind bungalows that much, but they don't make much financial sense on an overcrowded island. Land is so expensive here that a bungalow can cost as much as a 4 bed townhouse in the same county. It might be interesting to compare us with Japan which has similar constraints.

Although really interestingly this doesn’t convert to apartment living as seen in similarly densely populated places - a house of any description is the goal for most people I’ve found, even if the house has nearly no outside space. It’s always surprised me that a more European model of purpose-built apartment living with spacious rooms didn’t catch on apart from a brief flirtation with mansion flats, when you consider the relative ground footprint of a single house vs an eighth of an apartment building for the same square footage.

Where are all of these non mixed taps?

shudders

The fuckers who renovated this place in 2010 were careful to have them in every room, and over the bath.

School testing (I still can't wrap my head around the testing schedules)

I have to keep explaining that I don't have GCSE... As majority of the world! We don't do exams like that. We get our grade reports twice a year. With actual grades. Then when it's time to go to college you either get offer based on your last year or so or you do entry test. Then we get the same like NVQ, Alevels. But we also do entry tests to get into unies. So if you don't do amazingly on your alevels you still have a good chance. At least that's how it always was.

A foreign poster a while ago started a thread about kids menus and why children eat separate food in Britain and she was absolutely destroyed. Called a snob and a racist! It was awful. Because she was true! The kids menu thing here is weird and the food is awful.

I find the British passiveness very hard to navigate because I’m from a very direct country. It’s like a secret language that you have to encode. I tried to figure it out but now I don’t really care and my friends have learned not to be offended by me saying what I mean.

The heating one is huge. On, off, on..... My DP is a PITA on this.

Oh two more...

Bbqs... the planning... the buying... the anticipation! I say this as an Australian, you lot are crazy for a bloody BBQ
Parking... you park facing oncoming traffic. Parking there in general makes my brain explode, I'm in part awe (ima shit driver and have dyscalculia - so spatial awareness is not my thing) and terrified by all the CF parking threads on MN. Learning to drive on wide Aus country roads just does not translate well to driving in U.K.

Australian in England here. So many things I still find strange after several years:

-asking 'you alright' when no one ever says no to the question
-YY to the tiered wedding thing, why not just invite less people if money's an issue?
-in work meetings I'm used to just saying bye and leaving, here everyone seems to linger and chat for several minutes as a matter of course
-bloody roundabouts, is there anywhere you won't put one?
-never saying anything directly but getting upset when people don't pick up on your indirect reference
-constant obsession with accents (definitely a huge obsession with class!)
-names of places never being pronounced how they're spelt (Reading, Worcester)
-calling people from the subcontinent 'Asians' when Asia is such a huge continent!
-curry sauce on chips
-crisps with anything and everything (though I've come to love this!)

Heaps more but I'll leave it there for now

"That’s the bit others can find weird and actually quite insulting."

I can see that-especially if it's not local!

A couple of friends of mine invited my parents to the evening bit only.

My parents weren't close enough to have been invited & were pleased to have been thought of at all.

Plus it was walking distance for them

I think for example a lot of people might invite work colleagues and parent's friends to an evening do which seems Ok to me.

Sorry x post

Where are all of these non mixed taps?
7 out of 11 properties I lived in in the UK had them

My house has WALLPAPER ON THE CEILINGS (previous owner).
That's very British I think.

Cheese.. how you cut it. Why do you not have cheese slicers as a standard?

You've clearly never had the pleasure of a really good, strong, crumbly Cheddar with slightly crystalline bits in it, or the pain of dividing it up into even vaguely equal-sized chunks. Believe me, slicers do NOT work on this stuff, or on Caerphilly/Wensleydale. You end up with a heap of cheese crumbs reminiscent of a catastrophic South Coast landslip.

They're still delicious though.

Ha! @Lingering it took me two years to decipher this! You are not really supposed to answer "You alright". It's modern how do you do. So
It goes:
Them "You alright"
You nod "You alright"
They nod.

"asking 'you alright' when no one ever says no to the question"

I suppose it's the modern equivalent of "how do you do?"?

I think for example a lot of people might invite work colleagues and parent's friends to an evening do which seems Ok to me.

I know, I’ve been the evening guest more than once and know it’s generally meant kindly. But I would feel so incredibly rude if I did it myself - sort of hi! We don’t want to pay for you to be at any of the meaningful parts of our wedding but you’re welcome to come for a dance and a soggy bacon sandwich. By the way, you’ll need to buy your own drinks.’

I know it’s a perfectly normal tradition here - but it will never feel anything but awkward to me!

We had an open bar at my (London) wedding. The guests didn’t know quite what to do with themselves and I think actually held back!

Overall, this country and culture is lovely, and I love the politeness and overall friendliness of people, but there are some weird quirks:

• The endless talking about people's gardens/other unnecessary fluff as menioned upthread as well before getting to the point (get to the point!)
• Mindless following of traditions and never questioning them (e.g., wearing of the engagement ring AND wedding ring (WTH?), no engagement rings for men);
• Buying bread that has to be toasted to be edible;
• Not keeping to the left when running/walking/cycling;
• Cycling with the saddle ridiculously low (I have never seen that anywhere else, I always wonder whether because it's women doing that thinking they are somehow training their gluten because it feels so uncomfortable, it doesn't train your glutes, you are just slowing yourselves down));
• Flats without balconies. I used to think that these were just office buildings, but it turns out balconies are not required by law so builders don't put them on. The government must really hate poor people.
• Dogs mostly off he leash as soon as a blade of grass or a single tree comes into view;
• Drivers thinking they can turn left without giving cyclists/pedestrians priority, see rule 170 of the highway code).

Surprised so many people think it's weird to have kids' tea separately. Toddlers and v young children need to eat about 5/5.30 in my experience.

Very weird not to eat as a whole family in a lot of places outside the UK. And the putting kids to bed at 6pm or 7pm. Then the parents complain the kid wakes up at silly o'clock in the morning.

Flats without balconies. I used to think that these were just office buildings, but it turns out balconies are not required by law so builders don't put them on. The government must really hate poor people.

Most I saw without balconies were certainly not priced for poor people😱

I think for example a lot of people might invite work colleagues and parent's friends to an evening do which seems Ok to me.

Increasingly it seems like it's an excuse to pisstake, with people sending out save the dates for evening do's, expecting guests to travel and stay overnight just to attend a poxy evening go and sending requests for cash gifts to evening guests.

Also the going abroad for holidays thing rather than travelling in your own country when there is so much to see.

British weather.

The first British wedding I went to had “carriages at midnight” in the invitation. Dh absolutely wet himself laughing when I couldn’t see any carriages arriving to take us home. I had been looking forward to horse drawn carriages since the invitation arrived.

The weather is so changeable in the UK that you kind need the forecasts as a sunny warm morning doesn't mean you won't need your big coat or a brolly by the afternoon.

We never ate separately as a family when I was young, it was always around a table together. I was also never allowed to have different to the adults.
I know I'm biased but pub culture is great and I really missed it when I lived abroad. The equivalent in other countries just isn't the same to me.

@PenOrPencil what does it mean??