Foreigners in the UK: What do you just not "get"?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I've been in the UK for 10 years now, I think. I do not understand:

• the Archers
• tea (why? why? why?)
• cryptic crosswords

Anyone else?

To go back to the OP, surely the whole purpose of the Archers is to make you question "Why?" (whilst banging your head against the too small fridge).

Tea is actually thirst quenching - don't find coffee hits the same spot, just leaves me wanting a drink of water.

Dog poo. Hate it - daily menace to us but only saw some ONCE during a five week stay in Melbourne.

BTW, my DD1 had Scarlet Fever when she was 3.

Am UK born (but have lived abroad) but love reading what you 'foreigners' hate about us!

Not rinsing dishes in water after washing with detergent. Not sure how many people do that but I saw an English lady doing that regularly at her home.

no no I disagree it is essential to know what a tombola/raffle is, otherwise you will never get to grips with English life. my (American) friend phsl about it. she says whenever you get more than five English people together they get an irresistible urge to raffle something. she was particularly amused to note that the promotional literature for her wedding venue boasted that they could provide a raffle drum.

My ds had scarlet fever too.

Chips and gravy is better than chips and brown sauce. But it has to be from the chippy.

Invisiblep... the dishes thing gets to me everytime.

Guppinbuppin, Aunt Jemimas stuff is available in Selfridges

I agree, hc, english people do feel an urge to raffle something (either normally, or via their bizarre "tombola" ritual) whenever they congregrate in groups.

Woukld like to say in defense of the tonbola and raffle that government or even local governemtn funding and support is so bad the us English peeps always turn to these methods of as tried and tested fund raisers. Just happens prizes for a Tombola ar usually donated by individual - therefore years old bars of soap. And raffles are mostly a bit more hi-spec and prizes are donated by businesses.
You non-English are so funny to read

Guppinbupin. There is a shop called Lets Eat here in the Uk that imports all the foods you mentioned and sells them - albeit at hugely inflated prices. But we always make up a hamper from there for my DH's Grandad's birthday as it reminds him of his favorite holiday destinations.
I think they have a website, but can't find it right now!

\link{http://www.letseatdirect.com/}

hope this link comes out for Lets Eat

Lets Eat Direct

I followed the instructions - how'd ya do that?

Red lorry, your link was good, you just needed to:

a) leave out the final / on the link
b) end it with a \ and a "name", iyswim. GeorginaA used "Lets Eat Direct" as the name.

Haven't read all of this, but last weekend I was taking DS to a party in a softplay centre which was very close to our well known and extremely popular local municipal dump/tip. .

As ever, there was a long queue of cars waiting to get into it. I met up with one of DS's classmates and her parents, who are Australian, and the father said "are the queing for a shop or something?" Me: "No, they are going to the dump". And they literally could not understand what I meant. So I explained. And they still could not see the attraction. They kept saying - but is it recycling? do you swap things? do you get paid for doing it?

(When I got home DS said thoughtfully. "I'll go and pick DS up from the party as there are a couple of things I want to take to the dump".)

Ah, foreigners. How can they not see how essential a municipal tip is to your quality of life.

Yup, that's definately also something I don't get.

All non-Brits. When in your native lands and after clearing out your home/garden/garage what do you do with all the broken stuff, or things that you no longer need or want?

When I lived in Warsaw, all stuff was put out by the bins at the back of the flats. I picked up a few nicely 'distressed' pieces of furniture there actually .

To be honest, we couldn't read Polish and just assumed that was what everyone else was doing with their rubbish (other than the day to day stuff that went down the waste disposal chute). They did look bemused at the strange western foreigners taking their old bits of furniture back up in the lift...

We're ALL bloody weird. Every last one of us.

I'm an aussie and know what the dump is! I'd call it the 'tip', bUT SAME CONCEPT. Woops sorry, ds playing with keyboard.

I think there are dumps in Canada? I never had a car, so they were irrelevant. There were special Big Rubbish days, a couple per year, when people could put out things like sofas.

It was just so strange the way I kept explaining and expecting that I was just going to say one thing that would make them understand. DS's friend's father said really politely "I'm sorry, I really just don't understand what you're talking about". (Bet they sneaked a look on the way home, though!)

Ah, see, but I think an English person in that situation would just nod and pretend to understand ...

Don't quite get why the central heating system is so old fashioned. The radiators are huge and take up too much room, especially given the house sizes. Also do not understand why so many people here wash their dishes and leave the soap on to drip off !! Primary school league tables are also ridiculous IMHO.

Ditto on not understanding the whole central heating and rads thing. Especially when they put them on two walls or under windows ! And I really want screens for my windows drives me nuts.

And still don't get Lamb flavoured crisps, or any savoury type really. Why? !

Pork F...ing Pies!

Mapleaf - I think I speak for most Brit parents when I say we also think primary school league tables are a load of - you know what!