As others see us

[skirtyscot]

Some American posted this on Facebook recently. Apparently it's gone all famous and viral. Thought I'd spread it further, as he seemed to quite like it here. He's been pretty thorough. Where is he right? Where is he wrong? What has he missed out?

"Cake is one of the major food groups" lol.

"I was in England again a few weeks ago, mostly in small towns, but here's some of what I noticed:
* Almost everyone is very polite
* The food is generally outstanding
* There are no guns
* There are too many narrow stairs
* Everything is just a little bit different
* The pubs close too early
* The reason they drive on the left is because all their cars are built backwards
* Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms.
* You'd better like peas, potatoes and sausage
* Refrigerators and washing machines are very small
* Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter
* People don't seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government
* Their paper money makes sense, the coins don't
* Everyone has a washing machine but driers are rare
* Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?
* Pants are called "trousers", underwear are "pants" and sweaters are "jumpers"
* The bathroom light is a string hanging from the ceiling
* "Fanny" is a naughty word, as is "shag"
* All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.
* There's no dress code
* Doors close by themselves, but they don't always open
* They eat with their forks upside down
* The English are as crazy about their gardens as Americans are about cars
* They don't seem to use facecloths or napkins or maybe they’re just less messy than we are
* The wall outlets all have switches, some don't do anything
* There are hardly any cops or police cars
* 5,000 year ago, someone arranged a lot of rocks all over, but no one is sure why
* When you do see police they seem to be in male & female pairs and often smiling
* Black people are just people: they didn't quite do slavery here
* Everything comes with chips, which are French Fries. You put vinegar on them
* Cookies are "biscuits" and potato chips are "crisps"
* HP sauce is better then catsup
* Obama is considered a hero, Bush is considered an idiot.
* After fish and chips, curry is the most popular food
* The water controls in showers need detailed instructions
* They will boil anything
* Folks don't always lock their bikes
* It's not unusual to see people dressed different and speaking different languages
* Your electronic devices will work fine with just a plug adapter
* Nearly everyone is better educated then we are
* If someone buys you a drink you must do the same
* There are no guns
* Look right, walk left. Again; look right, walk left. You're welcome.
* Avoid British wine and French beer
* It's not that hard to eat with the fork in your left hand with a little practice. If you don't, everyone knows you're an American
* Many of the roads are the size of our sidewalks
* There's no AC
* Instead of turning the heat up, you put on a jumper
* Gas is "petrol", it costs about $6 a gallon and is sold by the liter
* If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always
* You don't have to tip, really!
* Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries
* Only 14% of Americans have a passport, almost everyone in the UK does
* You pay the price marked on products because the taxes (VAT) are built in
* Walking is the national pastime
* Their TV looks and sounds much better then ours
* They took the street signs down during WWII, but haven't put them all back up yet
* Everyone enjoys a good joke
* There are no guns
* Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere
* There are no window screens
* You can get on a bus and end up in Paris
* Everyone knows more about our history then we do
* Radio is still a big deal. The BBC is quite good
* The newspapers can be awful
* Everything costs the same but our money is worth less so you have to add 50% to the price to figure what you're paying
* Beer comes in large, completely filled, actual pint glasses and the closer the brewery the better the beer
* Butter and eggs aren't refrigerated
* The beer isn't warm, each style is served at the proper temperature
* Cider (alcoholic) is quite good.
* Excess cider consumption can be very painful.
* The universal greeting is "Cheers" (pronounced "cheeahz" unless you are from Cornwall, in which case it's "chairz")
* The money is easy to understand: 1-2-5-10-20-50 pence, £1-£2 coins and £5-£10, etc bills. There are no quarters.
* Their cash makes ours look like Monopoly money
* Cars don't have bumper stickers
* Many doorknobs, buildings and tools are older than America
* By law, there are no crappy, old cars
* When the sign says something was built in 456, they didn't lose the "1"
* Cake is is pudding, ice cream is pudding, anything served for desert is pudding, even pudding
* BBC 4 is NPR
* Everything closes by 1800 (6pm)
* Very few people smoke, those who do often roll their own
* You're defined by your accent
* No one in Cornwall knows what the hell a Cornish Game Hen is
* Football is a religion, religion is a sport
* Europeans dress better then the British, we dress worse
* The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable
* Drinks don't come with ice
* There are far fewer fat English people
* There are a lot of healthy old folks around participating in life instead of hiding at home watching tv
* If you're over 60, you get free tv and bus and rail passes.
* They don't use Bose anything anywhere
* Displaying your political or religious affiliation is considered very bad taste
* Every pub seems to have a pet drunk
* Their healthcare works, but they still ***** about it
* Cake is one of the major food groups
* Their coffee is mediocre but the tea is wonderful
* There are still no guns
* Towel warmers!
* Cheers"

[pleated]

* There are no guns

[Gregg1100]

Yep, that's us- about right, lol

[skirtyscot]

What is Bose?

[crfriend]

What is Bose?

Bose is a manufacturer of expensive audio kit. It's widely regarded as a "status item".

[moonshadow]

Wow.... and if you opposite everything on that list, you wind up with Tennessee!

[partlyscot]

Some of that I find quite true, some amusing, and some make me wonder where the hell he visited. (I suspect Northern England)

Cider can very enjoyable. It can be painful as well. That last is virtually guaranteed if consumed with Lager. They call that drink a "snakebite" for a reason. Scrumpy, (rough cider from Cornwall or Somerset) means that the pain can be doubled, or tripled, and you may lose your memory. Lager is not necessary, or recommended.

"Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms." Literally true. (for a good pub) The word pub is a contraction of "Public House." In older villages, the house that brewed the best beer, became the house that everybody visited, "The Public House." It became their primary way of earning money.

"Everything comes with chips, which are French Fries. You put vinegar on them" Salt, and vinegar please! And not just vinegar, but malt, vinegar. Ketchup, is becoming acceptable as well. The Belgians like to put mayonnaise on them, which seems weird, but isn't too bad at all. (They're Belgian, you have to make allowances)

"If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always" Yup, more security and traffic cameras than anywhere else in the world, one of the reasons I left.

"Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere" Cats are usually welcome anywhere as well, but being cats, they don't seem to think the same rules about being well behaved applies.

"The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable" ?? News to me....

"Their healthcare works, but they still ***** about it" Pretty much the same in Canada, it could work better, but the US system terrifies me.

[pelmut]

...What has he missed out?

We quite enjoy foreigners poking fun at us.

[Kirbstone]

I have had discrete 5+1 Bose sound systems in my drawing room and in my little cinema for some years now. I find them satisfactory, especially that in my drawing room where I have my piano. I have hoodwinked MOH a few times by sticking some piano music on at reality volume and from the kitchen she thought I was in there thumping away!

There is a lot of literature out there written by foreigners about how they see us (Irish) and not all of it complimentary. MOH, who is Home Counties English needs to 'escape' to the UK a few times a year just to brush up her accent!

Tom

[jeffreyrichards2015]

Some American posted this on Facebook recently.

* There's no dress code

Just for us

[Breezy]

Skirt it is then! haha

[Reaper_Man]

What is Bose?

Bose is a manufacturer of expensive audio kit. It's widely regarded as a "status item".

Close .... Bose is a manufacturer of overpriced crap. it's still widely regarded as a status item

[r.m.anderson]

What is Bose?

Bose is a manufacturer of expensive audio kit. It's widely regarded as a "status item".

Close .... Bose is a manufacturer of overpriced crap. it's still widely regarded as a status item

Bose a lotta noise from small boxes widely spaced to confuse the origin - Oh and how did the larger box "The Thumper" get hidden in the corner ?
First time users are impressed with the sound - now much later there are copy cat manufacturers that do much better with a great deal more for less $$$ !
The big deal now is Wi-Fi speakers (wireless) with no speaker wires to get in the way and better placement of the small speaker boxes.

[Big and Bashful]

I have only been exposed to the noise from Bose when in the old Virgin record stores, I was impressed with the sound there but it wasn't what I would call Hi-fi. I love my music to sound good and to have real power behind it so that I am not dissapointed when listening to the sound of a deep synth or the larger pipes of a real organ. My Celestion Ditton SL662 speakers and Rotel bridged power amps certainly work for me, however I doubt many wives would like having an audio set-up like mine in their front room, (or is it lounge?)
At the other end of the room I have a pretty decent home cinema set-up with 45 plus a sub-woofer, brilliant for films but not the best way to listen to stereo music, I imagine that system to be more like a Bose set-up.

Remember Bang & Olufson? very pretty, very expensive and sounded sort of ok? Whatever happened to them?

Oh, and what a wonderful looking device was the Mitchell Transcriptor turntable? Looked incredible, but having most of an LP suspended in mid air didn't help the sound, or so I have read, but Ooh! I would love to have one gently rotating in the corner!

[crfriend]

My Celestion Ditton SL662 speakers and Rotel bridged power amps certainly work for me, however I doubt many wives would like having an audio set-up like mine in their front room, (or is it lounge?)

No, they don't. I used to have a magnificent setup, designed from the get-go to be pretty flat, response-wise, throughout most of the audible spectrum, and it sounded superb. Of course it's gone now, thanks to the ex-'s cats and various other detritus that'd been piled, poured, and dropped into it, and I'll never have another one like it. But it was a grand setup, and accurate enough that not only could I easily tell the difference between a pure digital and an MP3 stream, I could also tell various MP3 encoders apart by ear.

Oh, well, long gone... At least I'm a bachelor again, but it's too late to really take advantage of it.