Can someone explain the reasons behind these differences between Americans and Brits?

[kurstytemple]

I've noticed that Americans greet people often with, 'hey, what are you doing?' even when it's completely clear what the person is doing, ie, picking them up from the airport, bumping into them shopping. As opposed to the British greeting, 'hi how are you?'

Also Americans can say bye ONCE on the telephone yet us British folk seem to say bye about 1 million times repeatedly whilst hanging up the phone. For example, Americans - 'it was good speaking to you, bye'. Brits - 'it was good speaking to you, okay, you too, okay, bye, bye, bye, bye, byeeeee, bye, bu-bye, byeeeee'. What is that all about?

Additionally, I've been watching a lot of teen mom 2 and the court system over there just seems so much more straightforward and fair. Not sure if that's an accurate representation. But for instance, a person can go directly to the court for custody arrangements instead of all the faffing about before getting to that point, seems to be easier to get protection orders from someone and seems to be a bit more lenient with young people, making deals with them to ensure that certain convictions don't go on their record hence not making them unemployable. I still have to declare a breach of the peace I got at 18 pissed as a fart.

Anyway there's my ramblings. Anyone else noticed this or care to explain why the differences? Or point out any of their own for me to ponder

@SnottyLottie

My American friends scoff at me buffering bread. I scoff at them for NOT buffering their bread 😆

Americans butter their bread, what on earth are they talking about?

Sometimes on these threads I feel like people in the UK just know really odd Americans

@knitnerd90

Aircon certainly isn't "Bad for your health" when it's over 35C! I didn't need it in the UK generally but it is a necessity here just like heating. Many American homes, especially in warmer climates, have heat pumps that do both heating and air-con through the same ducts. There's now a bit of a campaign going on against gas heating as it's bad for air quality and the environment--though if I lived somewhere colder I would prefer gas heating.

When we moved here I certainly appreciated window screens, again a necessity here not just for flies but for things that will bite you.

I do have a clothes drier in my yard--but because of weather, pollen season, etc there's fairly large chunks of the year where I'm very glad to have a tumble drier. I certainly would have been happy to have one in UK winter when it was wet outside and I had to dry things over radiators. I'm now Americanised enough to consider it tacky if I can see your knickers on the line over the fence, but not American enough to think it's tacky just to have the line. :)

Yes - it was 35C and 95% humidity here for the last few days. I suppose I could have tried to tough it out but there comes a point where you're just too hot to even think. I'm not sure how that's good for your health.

Given that our state bird is the mosquito, window screens are vital

I don't dry my clothes outside any more because of browntail moth caterpillar rash which regularly hospitalises people here in summer, pollen in spring, and snow in winter. I do have lots of drying racks in my basement though.

I wonder why British people don't have the basics - central air conditioning, hot-air dryers and window screens? (Totally do not understand healthy able-bodied adults not driving!) In most subdivisions here it is against the rules to have an outdoor drying line, even in your own yard. It is considered trashy to hang your undies, etc. in public view. Screens provide privacy and protection. No cats, foxes, owls or bats flying in for a visit. With central air you close your windows and don't hear your neighbors all-night BBQ sing-a-long. Seems like even if you dislike America, you might want to adopt some of our conveniences?

Wow, you have no clue about the environment, do you? Why on earth wouldn't you use the natural resources of the wind and sun to dry your clothes? What happens if someone catches a glimpse of your washing ? As for screens... I've gone 50 years without a single wild animal wandering in, I think I'll manage thanks.

I do have a tumble dryer though, because I live in wet NW England (no need for air con!), but I hang my washing out whenever I can.

But it IS a health hazard! Basic hygiene drummed into us at school, by doctors, etc, is that showing every day is an essential. I'm not sure why you think it's ok to not shower every day?

People can drum all kinds of things into you. Doesn't mean they are true! Can you tell me exactly what is hazardous about showering every other day? What hazard occurs? What did school/doctors tell you would happen?

'I wonder why British people don't have the basics - central air conditioning, hot-air dryers and window screens? (Totally do not understand healthy able-bodied adults not driving!) In most subdivisions here it is against the rules to have an outdoor drying line, even in your own yard. It is considered trashy to hang your undies, etc. in public view. Screens provide privacy and protection. No cats, foxes, owls or bats flying in for a visit. With central air you close your windows and don't hear your neighbors all-night BBQ sing-a-long. Seems like even if you dislike America, you might want to adopt some of our conveniences?'

Is this a genuine post??!!

We generally have pretty mild weather. We don't have air con generally and we also aren't set up for heavy snowfall very well. Because although it feels like a lot sometimes it's s small proportion of the year.

Having air con in all homes would be really environmentally unfriendly.

Why would we need window screens? You get the occasional fly mosquito or wasp but in my part of England it's unnecessary.

Not driving in the more urban areas is fine and sensible tbh. Good transport links which are kept going as they get used heavily. Less pollution from cars. Less traffic. Aok. USA is v car car car. It's culturally a massive difference to how it works and how it's felt about in many other countries.

Foxes fly in through windows??!! They just go through the bins and wander about here!

Hanging washing out is a social norm. Why make everyone burn electricity to do what can be done for free? Sun is a disinfectant as well.

You think hanging knickers out is trashy. I think banning hanging washing and encouraging wasting energy is bizarre.

You do know that different countries have different climates and norms surely?

Absolutely. My word is final on the whole population (bangs gavel).

Air conditioning! There are typically about 5 days in the average year where I'd need to put air conditioning on. A fan is usually enough. I was still using a heated throw in May this year!

My previous post was supposed to quote this message from @WaltzingBetty:

Well you've totally undermined @NeonDreams argument.

I assume that you are entirely representative of the Australian population - just a PP's mum was representative of all Brits?

@LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag

Absolutely. My word is final on the whole population (bangs gavel).

fair enough!

@NiceGerbil, I’m in total agreement with your post.

Actually I’ve noticed your posts on FWR and tend to agree with those too. You often seem to articulate exactly what I am thinking!

I'm British and I find it quite awkward when customers ring me and ask me how I am especially as I have to deal with them during difficult times. They don't know me at all and I then have to talk to them about serious issues after they have been very polite and friendly, it just feels awkward.

[quote waterlego]@NiceGerbil, I’m in total agreement with your post.

Actually I’ve noticed your posts on FWR and tend to agree with those too. You often seem to articulate exactly what I am thinking![/quote]
That's nice- thank you!

@ahoyshipmates

It's a foreign country. The only thing we have in common is the same language.

the court system over there just seems so much more straightforward and fair
Not sure Britney Spears would agree with you on that one.

"Here are four versions:

Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language.
The English and Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.
England and America are two countries separated by one language.
The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by the same language."

@NeonDreams

It's a clothes dryer here in Australia. But we also still have the Hills Hoists in the backyard where we hang the washing.

The UK not having airconditioning really stumps me, too. The most common type of air conditioner is Split Cycle, meaning it's a heater in the winter and cooler in the summer. Hardly anyone has fireplaces in Australia. I've read on here about hospitals in the UK being so hot and not being climate controlled. In Australia, the health officials would have any hospital without air conditioning permanently closed down because not having a healthy regulated temperature in hospitals is a health hazard. I have never heard of a hospital not having air conditioning until I came to this forum. That would be dangerous for patients I would have thought. Even the really, really old buildings here have had mandatory air conditioning/climate control put into them. Same as fire alarms are mandatory in all homes.

But in some parts of the UK they only have their bins collected once a fortnight or once a month? Here, it is mandatory weekly. Even with a strike I believe the longest the bins can go without being emptied is 10 days. Even with once a week many people's wheelie bins are full to the top. Ours is collected every Friday morning, and this morning our bin was so full that the lid didn't shut. If we had to wait once a fortnight or once a month? Shudder.

So considering the lack of climate control in hospitals with sick people, and the bins not collected often, and I've read on here that some people in the UK only shower/bath every second day, I do think hygiene is laxer in the UK than Australia and the US.

Yeah but the 'really really' old housing in australia is what, 200 years old? That's every other row of victorian terraces in the UK! It would be a nightmare to try and install air con in those to only use about three times a year!

I don't see what's so unhygienic about a bin not being collected every week when there's nothing in it except non-recyclable plastics? I go through a general waste bin bag about once a fortnight, it's only got stuff like tinfoil, cellophane, maybe something like a clothes hanger or dust from my hoover or whatever in it because everything else gets recycled. Fair enough if it was used nappies or food waste but those are collected at least once a week.

Also laughing at the comment from a different poster wondering why the brits don't have 'the basics' such as window screens to stop foxes and cats 'flying in' if I saw a flying fox in my bedroom I'd have more to worry about than my air circulation!

I have other matters I can pass judgement on for my whole nation too @WaltzingBetty should you care to ask.

Every English person l know greets one another with ‘alright?’
Generally pronounced ‘oright’
Unless you come from Sheffield as l do. Then it’s ‘Orayt

@dreamingbohemian I thought they were winding me up at first. They said most Americans use mayonnaise instead of butter. Or peanut butter (and then I had to find out if peanut butter contains actual butter)

I ended up researching it (coz I’m that kind of person) and whilst I can’t find the exact link for it, I remember Evan Edinger states it is as true on one of his YouTube videos (although it might be just for sandwiches)

It actually annoys me just how much American culture leaks into the rest of the world, it’s not surprising based on movies and social media, but it’s irritating!

Why is it irritating? What does it matter if any country's culture "leaks into the rest of the world"? Why do the Brits think they are so special that they can't assimilate culture from somewhere else?

Doubt it, That’s lovely thing of Britain, they tend to be far more tolerant to differences in the whole

Funniest thing I've read all day! There have been several posts on this thread, and numerous other threads, which say different.

[quote SnottyLottie]@dreamingbohemian I thought they were winding me up at first. They said most Americans use mayonnaise instead of butter. Or peanut butter (and then I had to find out if peanut butter contains actual butter)

I ended up researching it (coz I’m that kind of person) and whilst I can’t find the exact link for it, I remember Evan Edinger states it is as true on one of his YouTube videos (although it might be just for sandwiches)[/quote]
Ok sure for sandwiches Americans tend to do mustard or mayo. But for plain bread or toast it's butter. Like if you go to a restaurant there's always bread and butter on the table. So I still think they're winding you up :) it wouldn't be THAT weird to put butter on a sandwich even. Marmite is another story!

I used to put butter on my savoury sandwiches, then I moved to the US and discovered mayo on savoury sandwiches and I am converted.

I try not to allow this appalling habit to leak out to other cultures, but I'm afraid I did somehow allow my mum to spot me making a sandwich once, and she has since picked up my awful American habit and I'd imagine it is currently spreading like wildfire around the Didsbury area.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

As regards tumble dryers, my sister who’s lived in Massachusetts for 40 odd years, says (not entirely tongue in cheek) that there, hanging washing outside to dry is seen as a sign of either poverty or madness.

Which ties in with @GeorgiaGirl52’s comment that it’s ‘trashy’, given that ‘white trash’ is a term for poor people.

IMO it’s hilariously prudish to see anything wrong with hanging underwear on washing lines. That’s the sort of attitude I’d connect with a certain type of very prissy elderly person.

A posh area near me has an unofficial ban on washing lines in gardens, explained to any new owners fairly quickly. They think it lowers the tone.

TBH I have no issue with washing lines but on no occasion would I hang underwear out, it just feels too personal.

I air-dry indoors with a clothes airer rack, and anything I need drying more quickly I put on the heated electric airer with a cover over. Unless it's a sweltering day here, my washing will dry technically but not air. By airing, I mean properly bone-dry. What my grandma called aired, like her airing cupboard used to do. It's not to do with going from wet to touch-dry alone, it's the heating through that makes bedding for example feel really crisp and fresh instead of still just a little bit damp. The heated airer does it perfectly without fear of shrinking like a tumble dryer might.

@Mandalay246

It actually annoys me just how much American culture leaks into the rest of the world, it’s not surprising based on movies and social media, but it’s irritating!

Why is it irritating? What does it matter if any country's culture "leaks into the rest of the world"? Why do the Brits think they are so special that they can't assimilate culture from somewhere else?

Posters are individuals, no single poster is speaking for "the Brits" on here!

Also you are assuming the poster you quoted is a "Brit". Possibly they are, possibly they aren't.

So what kind of reply do people give to that? I'm not sure I'd know how to answer other than saying what I was doing

Something super vague, like, oh just this and that. Or oh, nothing much!

Posters are individuals, no single poster is speaking for "the Brits" on here!

Also you are assuming the poster you quoted is a "Brit". Possibly they are, possibly they aren't.

Yes, I am assuming the poster quoted is a "Brit" as that is the sort of comment some Brits have tended to make in the past. Forgive me if I am wrong.

I also realise that posters are individuals and don't speak on behalf of everyone else - I'm not thick! However, as someone who lives in another country which often gets a lot of judgement from people on MN - and let's face it, most of whom are either Brits in the UK or living abroad - I'm sick of those people who have the mentality that Britain is the best place in the world and no other country does anything the right way. I have British friends who are lovely, as many posters on MN are also, but there is certainly a subset who have the belief that they are living in the only part of the world worth living in and can't wait to tell the rest of us.

[quote kurstytemple]@Bumblenums1234 I lived in Arizona for 4 years and I definitely noticed it there. For instance if I bumped into someone in a shop, a lot of the time I would be greeted with, 'hey what are you doing?' And I never knew how to answer it as I always thought well it's perfectly clear what I'm doing. Most of the time I'd just say, 'oh nothing much, how have you been?' To move the conversation along.

Or say I had told my partner I was going out to dinner, he would call and say, 'hey what you doing' when he knew I was at dinner. [/quote]
Never heard ‘hey, what are you doing?’ but sounds similar to the Aussue greeting ‘How are you going?’