Advertisement
Published: September 12th 2010
We are writing this entry together, combining our thoughts about London so far. This is sort of a continuation of the last entry.
Differences Betweeen the US and UK
We hope to not have mislead you in the previous entry that the US and UK are nearly identical. As it was said, all of the core aspects are the same: they eat much like us, their days follow the same schedules, and virtually all major aspects of their behavior match our own. However, now it is time to highlight the minor but fun differences that make them
British!
There are, of course, the obvious ones that any American would know. They drive on the opposite side of the road, and while this may seem like a fairly easy thing to grow accustomed to, we find it tricking us more often than we expected, even after living here for a full week. Imagine sitting on the top deck of a city bus looking down at a car stopped next to you when it suddenly strikes you that the car has no driver! That is the type of woah-gotcha moments that force you to do a double-take at the
other driver's
seat and realize - phew! - there is the driver.
Still related to driving, they relay a great deal more of their information via road paint rather than signs. Everything from speed limits to no parking zones are painted right on the asphalt. This certainly would not work in Michigan where snow covers the road six months out of the year! Also, street names are not to be found hanging above an intersection as we have come to know and love; instead, they are either randomly posted on the sides of nearby buildings or walls, or they may not be posted at all!
When crossing busy city streets, there are usually painted warnings on the street saying to look left or right, depending on whether the road is a one-way and in which direction it may run. We first encountered this directly outside the airport and assumed it was there to help foreigners; however, such warnings are all over the city!
Speed bumps are strange here. London has them scattered throughout the city, and instead of being thin bars that span the width of the road, they are wide humps in the center of each lane. We
'enry 'iggins
Henry Higgins restauranthave witnessed more than once a speedy BMW driving halfway between two lanes in order to almost entirely avoid the speed humps. There are also signs (one of the very few signs actually posted) that say "Humps for 200 yards" as a warning.
That brings us to the metric system. Technically, the United Kingdom uses the metric system, so Michelle expected to see little of our traditional English system. Ben, on the other hand, expected to see a lot more English than metric. As it turns out, it is a confusing combination of the two, as if they simply cannot make up their minds! Speeds seem to be in kilometers per hours, but a variety of city signs tell distance in yards. The milk we buy is in English units, but all of the serving sizes are by the gram or millileter! Bloody heck!
There are other unusual differences between the US and UK. Alcohol is more common and accepted here. It is widely sold, even in public places such as the London Zoo! When Michelle went to buy a snack bar from one of the refreshment stands, there were single-serving bottles of wine by the cash register where you would expect gum or chocolate bars to be. Also, even professionals speak often about going to pubs and getting drunk. We do not get the impression that this is a wild, alcoholic society - that's University of Michigan - but rather that it simply is not a big deal.
Perhaps the most difficult thing to get used to is their terminology. It sneaks up on you, and when you least expect it, you realize you entirely missed what someone said. The ones we were prepared for were regarding housing and transportation. Apartments are flats, renting is letting, and the subway is the tube. After that, you remember that mad is not angry but rather crazy. The British
love to say: cheers, straight away, 100%!,(MISSING) perfect, and brilliant.
On the note of the phrase "straight away," we have learned that the British do not use the word "right" in the same ways we do. Phrases like "right here," "right now," or "right away" are not in their vocabulary; most of the time, just switching "right" for "straight" will make it work during your visit to Britain. And while you are here, you do not take out trash but rather rubbish, and when you are in trouble with the beef eaters, you seek a solicitor but not a lawyer. Oh, and beef eaters, in case you do not know, are the royal guards.
There are certainly many, many other things we are forgetting to mention, but the last and most widely applicable difference in the way they talk is their accent. The British like to add and subtract the letter R as if it were nothing. "Door" becomes "dooh(r)," and "area" becomes "area(r)." Worst of all, the heavier the English accent, the more likely they are to turn the letters T and H into apostrophes. You can almost hear the accent in your head when you read the name of the following restaraunt (a real place):
'enry 'iggins. What a beau'iful name!
So yes, there are a great deal of minor differences that have entertained us during our visit. When it comes down to it, they are still familiar people living in somewhat of an American culture.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0258s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Aunt Carol
non-member comment
Enjoying your posts
I enjoy reading about your stay in London. It is great that you get to experience living in a different culture rather than just visiting for a week. I worked with a woman a year ago who was from England. She always told the kids to tidy up and called our mailboxed pigeon holes. Her kids went to school in the US for 3 years. There are a lot of differences in words and it was almost like a different language for them. I hope to go to England sometime, but will learn from your posts in the meantime. All of Europe sells alcohol everywhere. In Austria, McDonald's sells beer.