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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

999 replies

Burntmybiscuits · 08/04/2020 13:00

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!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
phoenixrosehere · 09/04/2020 14:10

Exactly 😂@OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow

My dad did the same thing because he needed to plug in his hair clippers. We do a lot of grooming in the loo.

banivani · 09/04/2020 14:12

Oh I have to chime in on loads of things now.

Windows used to open out here in Sweden too. Then they made it standard to have them open in so people wouldn’t fall out and die when washing them. Now I never wash them anyway because I have to clear everything off the windowsill and clear a metre into the room to do it. Angry And I can never just open a window quickly. I love windows that open out.

If I had only one sink I’d probably use a bowl too, very sensible. Swedish standard used to be two fairly big sinks. Sadly in these days of freedom and choice and liberation from big brother standardisation they are disappearing. Stupidity I say. Two sinks is the civilised option!

Schools start at 8.15-8.30 normally. A normal bedtime is 20.00 I’d say. Families eat together, I think there’s been a shift so people eat at say 18.30, when I was little people ate at 17.00. Parents in Sweden might take turns in starting work very early so they can finish earlier and vice versa.

Since we’re veering into the more controversial differences, I have to tell you that Swedes are convinced that British homes are poorly built and of a poor standard. You cannot sway them on this - they will admit exceptions but that’s it. If you asked a swede they would say that’s why you don’t have plugs in bathrooms. (They conveniently forget that it wasn’t long ago that building regs here didn’t allow them either haha)

I’ve read interior design articles from the UK with tips like “to spruce up your bathroom, cut a nice linoleum to size and put it over the flooring” - Swedes think this is the maddest thing. All the dirt and wet being able to get in between the old floor and this new loose bit of lino. I can quite like the UK (and Irish for that matter) easier approach to renovations. In Sweden it’s very much do it properly and expensively.

phoenixrosehere · 09/04/2020 14:17

The cake thing could be because cake here is different to where I'm from. Like it's much dryer here and has fondant on top often. A moist cake with buttercream like I'd have back home wouldn't survive in a napkin. I've seen this cake here a bit but British cakes are just much more...solid than I'm used to.

Agree. You have to get a sponge cake to get a cake that is moist here.

turnandfacethenamechange · 09/04/2020 14:20

I think the "children's food" thing can be a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy...

I remember DM constantly assuring me I "wouldn't like" things like olives, shell-fish etc. when I was small and wanted to try everything. What she really meant was SHE didn't like them and we were constantly fed beige things in batter. To this day I can't look a chicken Kiev in the face!

HoldMyLobster · 09/04/2020 14:25

I have sash windows in my US house built in the 1980s. Double-glazed, wood frames. You can tilt each window towards you to clean the outside. They're very common here.

StCharlotte · 09/04/2020 14:46

meat pies with pastry

Because a loaf of bread filled with soup is perfectly logical!

(And just as delicious)

StCharlotte · 09/04/2020 15:50

Fish on Fridays harks back to religion and the crucifixion and I'm sure all good Catholics will be fasting tomorrow (as it's Good Friday).

Do I have to explain everything? Grin

rayoflightboy · 09/04/2020 15:55

I'm Irish and I don't understand the children's menu.Often it's just as cheap to buy an adult main of what the kids actually want.Than 7.50 for sausage and chips.

And the eating at different times.Here we don't get hoteals in school.And they finish earlier,so no way would my kids last till 7 for dinner.

rayoflightboy · 09/04/2020 15:56

Hot meals

Davros · 09/04/2020 16:10

I think children's menus are brilliant. When we went to Paris with 5 year old DD we couldn't get smaller (cheaper) portions for her, it cost a fortune. I'm not thinking of nuggets and chips necessarily but places like Wagamama, Pizza Express etc

alloutoffucks · 09/04/2020 16:25

@banivani That kind of tip sounds like it is aimed at someone who is pretty poor. Everyone I know is tiling floors. Sweden is a pretty rich country with low levels of inequality so they perhaps don't understand how poor some people are in Britain. And that doing it right and expensively is simply not an option for some people.
I do think modern homes in Britain are pretty poorly built. But I think homes in New Zealand are very shoddily built.

YippieKayakOtherBuckets · 09/04/2020 16:33

Fish on Fridays harks back to religion and the crucifixion and I'm sure all good Catholics will be fasting tomorrow (as it's Good Friday).

As you say, fish on Fridays isn’t unique to the UK but if we’re looking for quirks then an interesting one is that as of 2011 the Church in England and Wales reintroduced the expectation that Catholics should abstain from meat on Fridays. Catholics in Scotland can substitute an alternative act of penance if they really fancy a steak Grin

KayakingOnDown · 09/04/2020 16:36

Shame that so many people took this thread as an opportunity to sneer at the Brits and be offensive.

The worst comment was about Brits being inward-looking and parochial. That's just hilarious, because everywhere I've been in the world I've found that people are inward-looking and parochial.

Re the washing machine in the kitchen, it makes total sense to me because i dry the clothes on a clothesline in the garden outside the kitchen. It would be horrendous having to lug a basket of wet clothes through the house every time I did the laundry. I also love being able to chuck dirty tea towels and dishcloths straight into it.

Some of the stuff on the thread is bizarre. Cake is only sent home at birthday parties if there is extra or if children didn't want it because they were full from jelly and ice cream.

I always rinse dishes, in fact I wash them all under a running hot tap. But I also like my washing up bowl and find it hugely practical for many different things.

Re walking, right of way in Britain is far more extensive than in other places such as ROI and NI. Bridleways are a fantastic thing.

phoenixrosehere · 09/04/2020 16:47

Shame that so many people took this thread as an opportunity to sneer at the Brits and be offensive
The worst comment was about Brits being inward-looking and parochial. That's just hilarious, because everywhere I've been in the world I've found that people are inward-looking and parochial.

The majority of these post are what people actually experienced or didn’t understand. The question was asked and even OP said as their first post that Brits also say things about other countries. This thread has been pretty mild imo compared to the Americanism thread.

RuggerHug · 09/04/2020 17:08

TomPinch I said that as an Irish person based on my experience of British people when I've been there and what I've had said to me here.

mous · 09/04/2020 17:08

@Falcor

Aw, just a thousand or so miles out Grin fyrirgef[thorn]u!

mous · 09/04/2020 17:12

*Eth not thorn! Very rusty....

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 09/04/2020 17:17

. I can quite like the UK (and Irish for that matter) easier approach to renovations. In Sweden it’s very much do it properly and expensively.

Properly doesn't have to mean expensively. As someone who dealt with aftermath of British DIY, I am with Swedes on this🙈 Damn the love of gloss paint in here😂

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 09/04/2020 17:20

We have fish on Christmas Eve as a tradition. I think that comes from the religious side too.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/04/2020 17:26

A now Briish thing (which I hate) is an American import - the "lucky bags"or whatever they choose to call them now, that children get given to take home after a party.

They are a bloody nightmare! - and some kids just spend all the party wanting the bag and won't join in anything.

If I find out who thought they were a good idea and brought the schemes over here, I will personally stick her head in a vice and pluck out her nostril hairs one by one . . .

MrsSchadenfreude · 09/04/2020 17:26

Just to be clear, greeting on arrival/meeting:

Awright?

And on departure:

Be lucky.

TreestumpsAndTrampolines · 09/04/2020 17:27

We had some friends round once and did a full roast beef. It was like some kind of documentary as we brought out the yorkshires - they were all fascinated by the idea of what seemed like a puffed pancake with a slab of meat! Oh, and a trifle for pudding - not as popular that.

Oh, and I once had an Indian friend (abroad) ask about chicken recipes because she was having some other English people round for dinner and wanted to cook them something they'd like - when I suggested roast chicken (salt, stick it in the oven for 20mins/lb) she was scandalised and shook her head at the idea of not cooking it in a sauce of some kind. I don't think she really believed me.

Lincolnfield · 09/04/2020 17:31

On the other side - my son went to university in the Netherlands and there were some American students there. He couldn’t get over their obsession with their teeth. Whitening, flossing and wearing tooth moulds overnight.

pallisers · 09/04/2020 17:35

A now Briish thing (which I hate) is an American import - the "lucky bags"or whatever they choose to call them now, that children get given to take home after a party.

This is an American import to the UK? We were given take-home gifts at every birthday party when I was a kid in Ireland in the 60s and 70s.

phoenixrosehere · 09/04/2020 17:36

A now Briish thing (which I hate) is an American import - the "lucky bags"or whatever they choose to call them now, that children get given to take home after a party.

We call them goodie bags in the States. Never heard it called lucky bags.