Questions you have about other nationalities!

[WatermelonWaveclub]

Just for fun. DD and I were just watching a video where Americans were asking questions about the UK. What are your questions (can be for any nationality from any nationality)? And please feel free to answer other people's questions!

I'll start with some questions for Americans:

Are your grocery bags really those ones without handles? They look really awkward to carry!

Why do you not have electric kettles?

In High school films the English teacher for example always gives them some homework to do by the next day and says 'see you tomorrow' - do you have the same classes every day? We just had English twice a week or something!

Hahaha I agree, and then make that as the very special Christmas dinner as well , just for a change 😛

49 years on this planet I never spent a second thinking why is it called a Fortnight and I’m English

www.mentalfloss.com/article/642735/reason-public-bathroom-stalls-have-gaps

My DH is American and never says goodbye on a call. Drives me mad. He has live here for almost 40 years.

I don’t have any particular questions or answers, haven’t read the whole thread yet, will catch up tomorrow, but before I retired I worked with various joint British/American companies here in the U.K.
I got into the habit (and still do) of writing dates both alphabetical & numerical. Eg: 2nd October 2021 in the 🇬🇧rather than 02/10/2021 which may have been read as February 10th 2021 in the 🇺🇸.

I think this must be personal thing. I'm American and my whole extended family (I'm from Utah and my family is large) say goodbye and I love you at the end of every call.

Thanks @SenecaFallsRedux it is not slits at the bottom of doors that trouble me. It is the slits at the side, like this:

This question comes up a lot on MN. Trust me, no one looks. At least not Americans who are used to it.

On the Isle of Man you'll often hear the UK called "across" e.g "She's from across"

I’m not German but I’ve lived here a while, and yes people do refer to it as that 😆 I don’t know why either .. but guessing it’s because scheißer doesn’t have the same ring to it

That's a relief. Except British eyes are on stalks looking straight ahead. THe question remains ... why?

Do you never cook pasta? Much quicker to just boil a kettle than heat in a pan (but maybe not for you due to the voltage issue.)

The bathroom stalls question -- I heard on another MN thread that it's to discourage intravenous drug use in public restrooms. 🤷‍♀️

It is sort of mind blowing as it is so different to the English system. But I think I would of preferred less subjects to concentrate on at once and a set routine. Except if it was a subject you didn't like you'd have to do it every day rather than just not liking Monday as you had double Maths!

My son moved out at 21, to a city 1000 miles away. He had a bicycle accident, falling on a hill, and needed his knee to be rebuilt. He had no insurance and very little income, so the medical center did it at no cost. All hospitals that receive public funds, such as Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor, also have an allowance for those who need care but cannot pay. Someone pregnant with no insurance would qualify for Medicaid virtually every time, and if she didn’t, the hospital would still deliver the baby. We don’t have wards here, so she would be in a private room, semi private at the worst, and would be treated the same as anyone else. Doctors rarely know who has insurance and who doesn’t, as it is handled through a billing department,

It used to be the norm in the UK to have empty cardboard boxes available for packing the shopping, that would be 60s/70s, ironically it was recycling by the supermarkets that put an end to it. One thing, as newly weds, we always argued about was OH's habit of emptying the box then putting the box, unflattened into the bin, the old small tin bins too, no room for anything else.

Nobody would buy a kettle for the sole purpose of using it to boil water to put in a pan though.

Interesting about the similarities between the Scottish and USA education systems. There are definitely a lot of high schools in Scotland eg Our Lady's High etc. I hadn't really thought about that before.

Good thread.

A few answers and I have some questions as well.

Herb
theconversation.com/haitch-or-aitch-how-a-humble-letter-was-held-hostage-by-historical-haughtiness-97184

Short answer is herb and humble and some other words came to us with silent "H" and was pronounced that way. Then cockney started dropping "H" and to sound less "common" people added "H" to everything, even to words that never started with that sound.

Like people adding the word "myself" anywhere to sound fancier but they just sound incredibly stupid.

Bernaaaaaard
In the northeast of America there's lots of struggle between French and English pronunciations (and probably as other have mentioned bits of Dutch and Yiddish and other influence). The French influence is why we say Bernaaaard and Garaaaaage. Incidentally, why do you say GAR-age?

Hot Water Bottle
For aches? We just take a long shower with our three jets pounding us at once (unless we live in CA or AZ or another drought state) or we take some of our giant bottle of aspirin/paracetamol/ibuprofen. :-)

Question House Switch
What on this green earth is going on with house switching? Sometimes it sounds like people get on a list of public housing and put in their criteria and then beep boop boop you get a flat with your specs and somebody gets your flat? And is this with furniture?

Then it sounds like people are buying and selling in the switch but they have to happen at the same time (in America this is a "contingency" - if you have to sell a house first, you have that contingency and it's less attractive to buyers and they may not choose you.). But you can't lie about this stuff or change it. We put in earnest money in escrow. But in UK it sounds more flopsy?

Question - Partially Asked and Answered - Was Sat
Why is this good grammar? I was sat looking after my child, etc. Also "learnt" is another one we have moved on from in America and would not pass as professional- but it's correct and from a Brit it's A-OK and even expected.

Thank You
A Sincere Thank You for Telling me about Headlines. I'm sure my UK friends want to scream at me but are too polite. So Thank You.

Yes, we cook pasta occasionally. We just heat the water in the pot.

Plus, we don't really have room for an electric kettle sitting out on the counter, especially one that we would not use very often. The space is already taken up with an air fryer, the coffee maker, a toaster, and a KitchenAid mixer.

Good question :) I’m not Spanish but South American and our cultures are very similar.
living in the UK for 13 years I would never imagine myself having dinner at 5pm, and login to bed around 9pm :(
We also have dinner very late, the reason behind it is because we work long hours, the traffic back home is horrendous so, around 8 is when you showered and is ready for dinner. If you so happy hour like I used to do, nearly Monday-Friday, dinner is even later when you get back home.
it’s just that we are used to enjoy more life and the day after work. That’s all :)
Of course life takes over and we had kids, is not the same anymore, I am used to eat at 6pm and bed at 9, but over there everybody follows the same dinners time, 7-8pm then bed for the children and adults enjoy a bit more :)
We don’t have kettles as well, is very hand I must admit and I love a fast ready coffee.
we just boil water on the job and make a proper filtered coffee, we made a whole jar and keep drinking along the day in our mini coffee cups like in Italy….miserable size I know lol
Im not a tea person, I love large cup of coffees.

The term "high school" in the US comes directly from the Royal High School in Edinburgh.

With the distinction between College (undergrad only) and University (offers post grad) in the US, do both Colleges and Universities do research or are Colleges teaching facilities only?

In the UK our universities generally offer undergrad, postgrad and do research, so I am not sure how the research could be split out.

Thank you for that - very interesting.

Faculty members of colleges are expected to publish so, yes, they do research.

Another use of the word college is for a particular division within a university. So there might be a college of liberal arts or a college of engineering, although often the word school is used. Another example is an undergraduate college within a university. For example, Harvard College is the undergraduate division of Harvard University.

Question for English women please:
Why some women speaks in a way that they drag the end of each word as if they are singing ?
I find it extremely irritating. Is this some type of “posh” talking or what ? Do they realise they are doing this ?

Why in the UK people get in contact with you, text you saying we should meet up but never make the time for it, and then say it again, and never happens. I feel confused, I started to loose the trust in people / don’t care anymore to be honest. Is sad.

Is calling someone “hun” ok ? Please explain :) kkk

Is saying “bloody” … something really bad ? Or just a way of speaking about something when you are very angry and Ok ish ?

Why there’s no special meal for Christmas dinner when you already had roast the whole year ? Haha

Why girls dress the bare minimum clothes to go out at night in the winter knowing that will be extremely cold ?

Why kissing and hugging basically everybody when you say hello or goodbye is like a sin? Lol

sorry for so many questions, it’s been a long time I’m stuck with them and this is a great forum 👍🏻