UK vs North American Cultural Differences

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  • mikey1976
    mikey1976 Posts: 1,005 Member
    UK > We have Chavs
    US > You have Hicks

    Aus...we have bogans

    In Ireland they call em knackers, in Boston hoodratz lol.
    Neds in Scotland

    Originally from Ireland, was born there, know all about the knackers! Stepdad is from Glasgow, know about the Neds too lol!


    ok this might be silly but what the heck was just said i think i understand hick = back woods man or redneck more common. i'm probly wrong. pm if you can exsplain thank you
  • brittknight828
    brittknight828 Posts: 29
    We still seem to weigh ourselves in pounds - but we generally use stones/pounds. I only know my weight in pounds from being on this site - otherwise I'd refer to my weight as 9stone 8 to my friends.

    For milk we have whole milk, semi skimmed and skimmed which does equate to your percentages I think?

    Hershey's chocolate tastes really weird me to. But then so does Cadburys now that I only eat plain dark choc.

    I believe whole milk is 2%, reduced fat is 1%, and skim (more commonly known as 'fat free' nowadays') is 0%.

    I agree with you about Hershey bars. Sometimes they are just kind of flat tasting to me if that makes sense. But I love chocolate especially dark, so I wouldn't hate you if you gave me some. Favorite candy would probably be a Snickers. Probably still crap to UK standards, but it hits the spot.
  • skinnyinnotime
    skinnyinnotime Posts: 4,078 Member
    There must be somewhere in UK we can get ranch, I've tried all the ones claiming to be but they taste horrible! I think sour cream & chive or soured cream is the closest.

    Hello from the Steel City! I can confirm ranch dressing is (still) not a thing here. What is it, anyway? Salad cream is evil in a bottle. Hellmans mayo is where it's at.

    I found salad bars hard to find when I lived in England. But when I did, I saw some unlabeled ranch and I was so excited. Turned out it was salad cream and it was vile!

    I get Ranch from Costco

    I wrote in the bloody quote box again
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    Cost of housing depends on where you live here in the US. Here in the Los Angeles area you might be able to find a small townhouse for $380k. Prices have gone down over the last 5 years, but $380k will still only buy you a cardboard shack in Malibu.

    come on now! there is NO way you could get a cardboard shack for $380K in malibu. you can't even buy a parcel of land large enough to turn in a circle on for that price!

    you can buy the shack for 380k but you have to move it because the ground it sits on is $1 million :)

    My parents have a 3-bedroom house with a half acre of land and were trying to sell it for $60k. This is in small town NY. Oh, for those who don't know, New York is a State, not just a city! I get that a lot when I travel. I remember in Vienna I had someone say, "Wow! Vienna much be so small to you!" When I responded that I'm from a town of six THOUSAND people, they were speechless, haha, so I found myself explaining that NY is a state, not just one giant city :tongue: Now when I travel I just say I'm from Niagara Falls, since that's the closest landmark people recogniz(s?)e.

    I want to add to the geography point here too. I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York (near Niagara Falls/Canadian Border) and now live in New York City...about an 8 hour drive. Every single time I went on vacation as a kid, no one seemed to remember that New York state, not just the city. Even living here, I need to explain that Buffalo mannerisms are closer to midwest america than New York City. And it's not upstate NY, it's western NY lol.

    But I can add that as something we have in common with UK, cause I know different regions have difference dialects and mannerisms too.

    When I was younger, I didn't realise that buffalo was a place. When I saw "buffalo wings" on the menu in restaurants, I was very confused

    buffaloes don't have wings....
  • mcfc4tony
    mcfc4tony Posts: 107 Member
    Another way to describe being drunk in the UK 'Off your face' or 'Paralytic'.

    And Cabbaged, Trollied, Garbaged and Niss as a pute :drinker:
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    whole milk is about 3.4% fat. semi-skimmed 1.5%(closest to 2%) and skimmed is 0%. Homogenised means the milk is subjected to a process which spreads the cream through the milk - you don't get it floating on top. All milk in plastic cartons is homogenised, but if you get a glass bottle from the milkman you can still see the cream floating on the top.

    Just to confuse matters further, you can also still get "gold top" - the title is a relic from the days when all milk was delivered by the milkman, but its specifically milk from Jersey or Guernsey cows, which has a butterfat average above 5%. (The bottles had gold top, instead of silver for regular milk, red for sterilised - yuckkkk! - blue for homogenised and red and white striped for semi-skimmed I think). When I was little we used to get it sometimes for a treat, or if we'd been ill and off our food. The cream was soooo rich and yummy.
  • dlegros
    dlegros Posts: 162 Member
    the beer is generally not cold, which was weird to me.

    If anyone tried to chill my best bitter, I would go ape****. What y'all call beer ain't beer ;) Real beer's meant to be served at room temperature.


    NOOOOOOOOO!

    It should be served at cellar temperature which is about 10-12C

    Cellar is actually the word I meant, I was writing about rooms in my essay.

    Not even kidding, my dad is a drayman for a brewery :)

    Oh thank God for that! I can breathe again now :wink:
  • dlegros
    dlegros Posts: 162 Member
    Cheetos! They're not Cheetos, they're Wotsits!
    And it's jam, not jelly, and jelly not jello :happy:

    Cheetos are much denser that Wotsits - something more akin to Nik Naks
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    Ergh! i hate niknaks.
  • Sqeekyjojo
    Sqeekyjojo Posts: 704 Member
    Biggest difference I'm noticing right now is the number of people who believe the only way they can be get back safely from a walk or run in the US is to do it armed with knives, guns, mace and huge dogs, expecting to be cornered and fighting in a huge confrontation that they will always win. And convinced the UK is the dangerous place because our answer is 'wouldn't it be better to not get into that situation where you are cornered in the first place?'

    Maybe that is the biggest difference. The attitude. That car park I've got to cross, I'm going to choose the bit where I can see best, where there's the least cover for someone to hide behind, the easiest run out to a populated bit. Not taking the route that means you have to walk through a tunnel under the road to cross it, but taking the route where you're free to move in any direction you need. Instead of 'I've got a gun/knife/dog/mace so I'll be safe'


    And yes, I do know about the right to hear arms and form a militia. It's not having the right that is a surprise, it's the people being convinced it is always an absolute necessity everywhere in the world at all times that's the glaringly different thing.
  • LaLouve_RK
    LaLouve_RK Posts: 899 Member
    Don't even get me started on the American ineptitude and general disrespect they give to tea.

    Ugh.

    Hey! I love Tea (oOooops, i'm not american, yet in North America (Can.) ) I love all teas, but only with a lil bit of honey in it. I find milk in it is like killing the taste! Chai herbal tea and honey.... YUM!


    1 dram= 4ml
    1 ounce= 30ml
    One cup/8ounces= approx. 240ml
    I don't drink coffee

    1 cup IS 250 ml.... the term 1 cup or 1/2 a cup is a simple way to say our ml...
    I still can't get my head around how you'd measure a cup of salad ... do you weight it down or just drop it in?

    Drop in...
    If anyone tried to chill my best bitter, I would go ape****. What y'all call beer ain't beer ;) Real beer's meant to be served at room temperature.

    That's a matter of personal tastes, I personally like mine very cold (Hey I live up North! I like cold! :bigsmile: )

    .............................................

    This thread is awesome! Very educational!
    I see that here in Canada we are a mix of the US and UK and if you narrow in QC a mix of US, UK and France... WOW!

    For the coffee creamer, You have to think also that there's coffee cream, high % milk... I like a 10% cream in my coffee...

    :smile:

    Typical Qc? Many of us like to dip our fries in mayo :tongue: , not sure if the rest of Canada does that and I think the US is more about Ketchup... dont ask where we got that habit...
  • shvrngrl
    shvrngrl Posts: 205 Member
    I find this thread so hilarious! My hubby is English and when we first met I sometimes felt like he was speaking a different language. I was drastically confused when he said "I'm not bothered" or "I can't be asked" And don't get me started on the whole "spanner" incident.......
  • the_journeyman
    the_journeyman Posts: 1,877 Member
    This is a great read. Same kind of thing goes for Australia, I spent a month over there and had a lot of fun comparing the US and them. Been since 1991 since I visited the UK, and that was a short trip so I don't remember a lot of the differences first hand.

    FYI - we have OZ for both weight and OZ as a liquid measure. For a liquid, it's roughly 30ML = 1OZ it's how we measure liquor shots.

    JM
  • farway
    farway Posts: 1,264 Member
    I find this thread so hilarious! My hubby is English and when we first met I sometimes felt like he was speaking a different language. I was drastically confused when he said "I'm not bothered" or "I can't be asked" And don't get me started on the whole "spanner" incident.......

    I think hubby was being polite, the actual phrase is "Can't be arsed"
  • taliasometimes
    taliasometimes Posts: 301 Member
    we have Chips and Cheese. Chips and gravy. Chips CHEESE AND GRAVY (in my island, V.popular) as meals. Chips being Fries
    (uk)
  • cityjaneLondon
    cityjaneLondon Posts: 12,724 Member
    I really love MFP for all this cross cultural stuff. It's so great to talk to people from all parts of the American continent. I now think of my weight in pounds instead of stones and pounds. A stone is 14 lbs. Kgs for my weight are really foreign to me, but I can do European dress sizes and shoe sizes as well as British and American. Great for the brain. I had to explain to one thread what "lollies" were - "popsicles"! I adore my British tea and have two large mugs first thing in the morning. We call it "builder's tea" - strong tea with milk, though I don't have sugar in it like real builders do. I drink about five or six large mugs a day and have to take my teabags with me when I go to Europe as I can't bear to be without it. French tea is an abomination - Liptons, ugh! Only P G Tips for me. I have one strong milky coffee a day, semi skimmed milk, though when I was a teenager Irish coffee with cream was all the rage.
  • laurenz2501
    laurenz2501 Posts: 839 Member
    I posted this out of a genuine interest - not to cause any offence, I hope none is taken by anyone :)

    It is interesting how we are so similar culturally and yet there are so many differences.

    Your ticker pic is HILARIOUS! :laugh:
  • laurenz2501
    laurenz2501 Posts: 839 Member
    "I'm mad about my flat" means a very different thing on this side of the pond. LOL.

    LOL!!! :laugh: love it! I knew this would be a great thread!
  • Sqeekyjojo
    Sqeekyjojo Posts: 704 Member
    Another way to describe being drunk in the UK 'Off your face' or 'Paralytic'.

    And Cabbaged, Trollied, Garbaged and Niss as a pute :drinker:

    Ratarsed and wankered, too.



    ETA: speaking English seems to be a good way to bypass any swear filter. Suppose they aren't swear words in American English.
  • LaLouve_RK
    LaLouve_RK Posts: 899 Member
    we have Chips and Cheese. Chips and gravy. Chips CHEESE AND GRAVY (in my island, V.popular) as meals. Chips being Fries
    (uk)

    Here in Canada, we call it POUTINE! :laugh: Almost a national dish! YUM!
  • bcf7683
    bcf7683 Posts: 1,653 Member
    I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, located in the Northeastern United States. I spent a year in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK when I was in college. Here's what I noticed:

    Coffee creamer was available. They just called it cream and poured it over a spoon so it rested as a thin layer over the coffee (in the fancy places, at least). As a poor college student, though, I just opted for milk most of the time. By the way, I was putting milk in my tea way before I went to England. It just seemed....right. Hot Tea with milk is nice, of course, but I really missed being able to get *Iced* Tea in a carton. I found it in a can, but for some reason, it was carbonated.

    Maybe it was just the area, but I could not find any Cool Ranch Dressing for my salad anywhere, either. The only thing I could find that was even close was "salad cream" that tasted more like watered down mayonnaise than anything else. I missed my Cool Ranch Dressing. But then I discovered cucumber sandwiches! Cucumber and tuna! Cucumber and cream cheese! Fantastic stuff! When I order it state-side, I get funny looks. We Yanks are missing out on that one.

    Beans on toast for breakfast rocks. So do the stewed tomatoes, and the semi-soft boiled eggs.
    For lunch, a chip butty really hit the spot. (As a side note, we Pittsburghers are not unfamiliar with the concept. We have a tradition of putting chips (aka fries) and coleslaw right our meat sandwiches. Who needs a side when it all fits in a bun?)

    All-in-all, it was a win for me. I lived without my Cool Ranch Dressing and Iced Tea for a year, but I sure do miss those cucumber sandwiches.

    *High five* for the Primanti's reference from a fellow Picksburgian! :drinker:
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    I wonder what the calories are for chips, cheese and gravy?:noway: In some parts of the UK chips with curry sauce are popular (but not round here:bigsmile: ) and apparently in Wales it is popular to have curry with half chips (fries) and half rice.

    A friend was recently in the US and saw a sign "traditional fish and chips" on a cart - turned out the person had heard the term, but had no idea what "fish and chips" really was, so she got a portion of fish wiht some crisps:laugh: She didn't have the heart to disillusion him:ohwell:
  • Iron_Feline
    Iron_Feline Posts: 10,750 Member
    I wonder what the calories are for chips, cheese and gravy?:noway: In some parts of the UK chips with curry sauce are popular (but not round here:bigsmile: ) and apparently in Wales it is popular to have curry with half chips (fries) and half rice.

    A friend was recently in the US and saw a sign "traditional fish and chips" on a cart - turned out the person had heard the term, but had no idea what "fish and chips" really was, so she got a portion of fish wiht some crisps:laugh: She didn't have the heart to disillusion him:ohwell:

    We half half rice and chips in Liverpool. It's a popular option for all Chinese meals as well as with curry or gravy. :bigsmile:
  • Mimoki
    Mimoki Posts: 115 Member
    I wonder what the calories are for chips, cheese and gravy?:noway: In some parts of the UK chips with curry sauce are popular (but not round here:bigsmile: ) and apparently in Wales it is popular to have curry with half chips (fries) and half rice.

    A friend was recently in the US and saw a sign "traditional fish and chips" on a cart - turned out the person had heard the term, but had no idea what "fish and chips" really was, so she got a portion of fish wiht some crisps:laugh: She didn't have the heart to disillusion him:ohwell:

    I think it depends on what part of the U.S. In Boston if you go to the chippers and order fish and chips, you get fish and fries...
  • shvrngrl
    shvrngrl Posts: 205 Member
    I find this thread so hilarious! My hubby is English and when we first met I sometimes felt like he was speaking a different language. I was drastically confused when he said "I'm not bothered" or "I can't be asked" And don't get me started on the whole "spanner" incident.......

    I think hubby was being polite, the actual phrase is "Can't be arsed"

    well that just proved I still don't know what he was saying!!! Ha Ha!
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
    Milk in tea is gross! Sorry lol
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    Only gross in china tea or Earl Grey! Wouldn't recommend it in cold tea (but miners used to take cold tea into the pit, not that that is relevant!)

    Just thought of other things I've seen on recipe sites, which make no sense in the UK. I'm assuming they are ingredients but for us:

    Eggbeaters - what you use to whisk an egg, a rotary version with a handle you turn to rotate two whisk blades
    Hamburger helper - someone who helps you assemble your BBQ dishes
    Vegetable steamers - a basket/pierced holder you use to suspend vegetables over boiling water in order to steam them

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