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!

@ladyhummingbee an excellent idea! I knew there had to be more household uses to my Domestos than merely killing aquatic life 👍

@mous

"and in Russian text books about England they are taught that we eat 4 meals a day. I think it was:

breakfast
second breakfast
lunch
afternoon tea.

I had a great deal of trouble convincing people that that was nonsense, and not even something people used to do, just basically incorrect. But they had all been taught it as gospel."

Have the Russians confused us with hobbits??

Leaving the dishes with soap on them to dry …
Very small handwash basins at the size of a bird bath ?
Hot and cold tabs … an expectation of mixing the water in the bowl, so odd.
The birthday cake not eaten in parties and even in weddings, it is the entire reason I am there for?
Dad and son shaking hands when they see each other - it is too cold and formal…
Not very close family relations and wanting your kids to move out as soon as they are adults,
Funerals almost a month after someone dies,
Obsession with DIY and house programs,
Obsession with weather and all the chat about it,
"if you had an accident at work" adverts,
"gambling" adverts
Not talking to strangers on tubes, bus … in general no interest in strangers,
Always asking "how are you" and almost never being interested in hearing a real answer... for example if you don't say "fine" instead say something like "not great, I didn't sleep well" , "not well, my grandmum died" , people get a bit surprised.
Giving someone a bday car in person ? card is sent, shouldn't be given?
And then just writing inside the card, "happy bday" only, no personal message?

and many more....

You guys are so weird … but it makes you interesting/unpredictable and challenging … I love it...

That looks exactly like my eating schedule in lockdown, tbf

Having two tiers of guests just isn’t even an option in our weddings so you don’t consider it

That’s interesting, @JassyRadlett. People don’t find it a bit strange to be invited to the ceremony of someone that they’re not that close to then? Attending a wedding can be expensive and inconvenient, I think some people I would invite to a wedding reception would find it a bit odd to be invited to the whole thing! I agree with you that the reception can sometimes not be great though.

Where are you from, if you don’t mind me asking?

Perhaps getting an electric shock by dropping your hairdryer in the bath has much more serious consequences in the Uk because of this, so we have no plugs or switches in the bathroom.

I don't want to sound mean but if you drop your plugged in hairdryer into a bathtub you sit in, not intentionally, it's just a simple natural selection...
One English electrician did tell me it's to protect stupid when I tried to get him do 1 for me😂

I’m Australian. Basically - if they’re not close enough/important enough (in whatever sense) to have at the ceremony or the main reception, they’re not close enough to come to your wedding at all.

Talking about electricity. Lights in my 1930-40s semi are infront of windows, not in the middle of the room. Apparently that was done because many couldn't afford proper black out blinds so if the ceiling light was by the window, you had light, but people wouldn't see your shadow. I think that's incredibly smart if that's truth

That's actually amazing @OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow

@Mirada with Corona virus this is even more prevalent.

I'm not uk, so really don't have a say about your way of doing things. But may I suggest, you have a designated bucket of bleach for dipping your chicken? Chlorinated US chicken has been a big thing on the Brexit threads and that must be the ultimate rinse winkgrin.

My mum rinses chicken with water despite me telling her how unhygienic it is, never used bleach nor have I ever heard or seen such a thing done growing up so was absolutely baffled by the bleach thing mentioned during Brexit.

@JassyRadlett

I never really thought about it much to be honest. I think I was taught that it was for washing chicken grot off, and to do it veeeery carefully so salmonella didn't splash everywhere. But I'm happy to change habits. Especially if it means one less job in kitchen in kitchen and less raw meat handling. Urgh.

Also I think we should have an Mumsnet 'Dinner for One' film night for all the Brits who have never seen it, which is all of us, and our international friends . Skal!

Basically - if they’re not close enough/important enough (in whatever sense) to have at the ceremony or the main reception, they’re not close enough to come to your wedding at all.

Same in the States.

People don’t find it a bit strange to be invited to the ceremony of someone that they’re not that close to then?

I was baffled to be invited to a wedding of a classmate I grew up with and ignored it. He was an absolute knob to me in secondary school the last time I saw him and enabled his friend who was even worse.

However, if I do know the person, not really close, but friendly, I’m honoured to be invited.

@phoenixrosehere the Brexit threads were my first encounter with Chlorinated chicken too .

Leaving the dishes with soap on them to dry …

What on earth do you use to wash dishes with? I've never heard of anyone in New Zealand rinsing dishes - and they DON'T taste of soap suds, surely someone would have noticed by now if they do. Australians - do you rinse your dishes?

Also don't understand the thing about carpets and hot and cold taps - both are common here.

So I'm going to let the Brit side down. Fully British here, never even been abroad
I hate tea
I hate milk on cereal
I absolutely positively despise baked beans and ketchup

• Hands in British citizenship

It took a lot longer than I expected for this to get to ‘if you don’t like it fuck off!’

I am pretty pissed off that you have interpreted my post that way and then written a long ppost about Brits hating foreigners.

If you had bothered to read the rest of my post you would have seen that I was lighthearted cmoparing allsorts of things eg that some cultures find we never get to the point, but other cultures would find us very direct, it all about your starting point.

As a Brit who has lived most of her adult life overseas, who is married to a non Brit, I very much did not in any way say 'fuck off' and I find it bloody annoying that you have taken it that way, instead of reading the whole post.

That we have a dessert after a huge meal. A dessert is often an afternoon treat in lots of EU countries, like tea time but with cream.

That we have a hot meal for our dinner/ last main meal of the day I call that normal

That we call our kids cat & dog names I kid you not! I live in Germany and this was thrown out there like a handgrenade

That we don't say what we mean

That we are offish to one another Brits abroad true true true and judge the pants off them (my adding)

That it doesn't take much for us to get down to T-Shirts and shorts

That our handwriting is unordered/ non curvasive / essentially messy (I concur)

My favourite is that we study nonsense (again just to re-iterate, I live in Germany and anything that comes to mind is spoken, I am realising).

and suggesting that the poster outraged at people daring to say they didn’t like the bread

but there was not one trace of outrage in there at all. You added that.

@eaglejulesk- Yes, Aussies I know (me included) rinse suds off, or have a dishwasher!

Yes, I have tasted soap suds in a cup of water my MIL in the UK gave me. I spat it out then vomited! This is the 2nd time this has happened to me when the suds are left on.

You don't put shampoo in your hair and leave it there- so why leave suds on washing up?

@Hagbeth sorry everyone I know rinses dishes!

I don't want to sound mean but if you drop your plugged in hairdryer into a bathtub you sit in, not intentionally, it's just a simple natural selection...

to be fair, when I was growing up, a lot of houses were cold. (probably why there is all the heating on/off angst)

bathroom could be freezing, and it was not uncommon to have an electric bar heater on the wall in the bathroom, with a pull cord to turn it on. (never worked, as it is high up, and you were down low in the bath and heat rises...)

apparently, it was quite common for people to take plug in heaters into the bathroom, and balance them somewhere due to lack of space, eg on the basin, and then have an accident when they fell in the bath.

As a Brit who has lived most of her adult life overseas, who is married to a non Brit, I very much did not in any way say 'fuck off' and I find it bloody annoying that you have taken it that way, instead of reading the whole post.

I did read the whole post, thanks. Most of it was, as you say, that everyone finds everyone else a bit odd. But then you were pretty rude and shopping from the same school of tropes that goes from ‘you’ve chosen to live here so you just have to get used to it, we like it, don’t moan’ to ‘if you don’t like everything here, go home’. I pointed it out - directly! I paraphrased and yes, exaggerated for effect.