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!

The thing about young kids having to eat at 5 -5.30 pm. That kind of viewpoint seems so common in England. Young children need x and that is the way it is so, we have to do y.
As I said before I don't care when you all feed your kids or what you feed them, but I do wonder why so many have such fixed ideas of what children can and cant do. Do you never look at other countries and see children doing things some here insist is impossible?
I mean plenty of countries very young children routinely eat later and eat food that would be considered not suitable for children here. So it obviously is possible.

If I had to load a washing machine located three metres from the wet bit of the bathroom, I'd either be hovering in the air above a garden in the next road or embedded in next door's outside wall.

More to the point, to have a washing machine in the bathroom, I'd have to climb over it and master the art of taking a dump from a height of 1840mm from the floor with one foot in the sink. UK bathrooms are usually just big enough to fit a toilet, a small sink and a bath if they've been purpose built - larger ones in older houses have often been converted from a bedroom at some point in the 1960s-70s.

Yep, I figured out after a while that no one was implying I wasn't alright and that no one actually expects an answer to the question! I still find it a bit weird at times though

Also, why is it such a crime to chuck a sickie, as we Australians call it? At my work you actually get an extra leave day if you go the whole year without a sick day, which just seems cruel to me and incentivises coming into work sick! No wonder signing off with stress is a thing (also never heard of before moving here!).

Venusflytart

e.g., wearing of the engagement ring AND wedding ring (WTH?)

Why wouldn't you wear them both? My engagement ring is my favourite thing in the world. Why would I stick it in a box and just wear my wedding ring? Genuinely bemused.

I am old and in 1950s/1960s at least there were not any evening parties with weddings. Anyone was free to join a wedding ceremony without invitation. If you did receive an invitation it meant you were invited to the reception afterwards.

Re the washing chicken: I can remember my grandmother (whose father was a butcher) instructing me on how to pull the little bits out of the chicken cavity (that should already have been properly removed by a competent butcher but she told me they were not properly trained these days) and then WASH the chicken out. She had the added qualification of having been sent to domestic science college by her father (I think that would have been before, or at the start of, world war 1).

I understand there are building regulations, but surely electricity works the same way in Europe, and I've always had washing machines in bathrooms. You know, the places where you take off your dirty clothes?

Am I strange for liking separate taps?

Have a mixer one in kitchen but all the bathrooms they're separate.

I also think it’s abit of a shame to give kids dinner early and pack them off to bed. Our Spanish and Italian students would ask where our two had gone when I did this when they were little and were baffled at kids being in bed so early. There everyone ate together.

I also don’t like the whisking away of birthday cake. So bossy and overbearing. I’ve always let kids eat it there and then they only take home if they can’t manage it. It blows people’s minds. Think I would fit in far better in Spain tbh. Maybe in my next life 😁

Bloody foreigners

@PetitTorteois haha I think you're eating the wrong cakes love

@OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow

Windows opening out is a safety thing- people will instinctively push at doors/windows to get out in an emergency.

@Longtalljosie

Are you in Austria? I lived there and had never seen dinner for one (I’m British) and suddenly found myself having to watch it every NYE and no one Believed I hadn’t seen it...

Is having crisps and wine for dinner one of our quirks or is it a covid 19 worldwide coping mechanism?

WeBuiltThisBuffet I still remember the glorious cheer that went up when my mate went full on flying, tray and all, in the school canteen

@Chiyo666 It means that the party ends at midnight. Another very strange concept!

The way as a nation the British seem to pride themselves on being so polite, as they say sorry so much. Seems to ignore the fact that we can all read a face which often says something very different with little attempt to hide the contempt.

I remember being astounded at how rude the customer service was virtually everywhere (albeit in London) when I arrived here. My first day I arrived I was told off at the supermarket for removing my debit card from the machine at the till prematurely. And not so much as a ‘hi, how’s your day?’ (Am no, I’m not American).

the toilets are just too much work.

Please can someone elaborate on this!?!

Is the knife and folk predominantly British? We were on holiday in a resort catering to the American market and I could see them surreptitiously watching DH & I eat with cutlery through the meal.

I have a washing up bowl, and non-mixer taps.

Is the knife and folk predominantly British?

No, all Europe knows how to use cutlery.

@QuestionableMouse but then that instinct should apply to the rest of the world?😱 I am not being bitchy. I am really just curious. I would assume safety would apply similar.

My Italian friend always says how awful carpets are. She is wrong. I love a good carpet. Due to extreme boredom in lockdown I have been lying on my living room floor a lot. Couldn't do that with wood.

If the windows opened in they'd interfere with the blinds and windowsill trinkets.

Re children's menus... I've found them similar in all the countries we lived in. (Actually... British ones seemed healthier than German ones... Spaghetti covered in ketchup for example. However that is a limited sample of countries.

@Quarantino we do an afternoon snack and dinner together 6:30/7. I’ve never known an American to feed their younger children (aside from babies of course) an entirely separate meal hours before the rest of the family. Not to say they don’t exist but it’s not the norm. Friends in the UK had provided an entirely different meal. Usually a more kiddie meal. Which is fine...no judgement! Just an observation.