I thought since I’ve now lived in England for nearly three months now, it would be a great time to share with you some of the cultural differences that I have come across between here and my home country, Australia. Although the UK and Australia will always be tied together by their history of the convicts and first settlement, there are still many cultural differences despite both being developed and westernised places. I will list some of these below.
Flying into London.
Flying into Sydney.
As the majority of the convicts arrived to Australia from the UK, many of the natives here decided to call me a convict. Now as I have a good sense of humor I took this very lightly and therefore sometimes this turned into a joke. For example while looking after someone I ate the last caramel chocolate unknowingly that my client wanted it. So of course I was called a convict. I looked after a gentleman who had had a stroke and lost sight in his left eye and therefore didn’t have good vision towards his left, so one day I accidentally scared him as I walked past him on his left side and he goes. ‘Typical, you convicts jump at any chance to frighten the lives out of us poor Brits’.
As with Australia, the Brits have their slang. With words from balmy (crazy), banter (chatting), chav (bogan or rough person), chuffed (happy) and quid (British pound), you are bound to come across some funny ones, especially when put a certain way. One of my client’s sisters said to me that she was going to get her skanks on. Now I don’t know about where you are from but in Australia that either means that I’m getting my slutty clothes on or that I will start acting promiscuous.
Another great one is ‘you alright?’. In the UK that interprets to ‘How are you?’ Of course me being an Aussie I took that as if I looked sick or that I’d been crying and that she was checking to see that I was ok. So, my response the first time I heard this was ‘yes, why? Do I look sick? I just got out of bed’. No wonder I got a funny look. Or better yet in another context, someone in the shop said excuse me as I was in the way and I said ‘you’re right’ and they answered me with a ‘good thanks’. Now it was me giving the funny look without thinking!
Another difference I may add is how big Australia is compared to the UK! The Brits think it takes 1 hour to drive from Sydney to Melbourne! For those of you who aren't Australian, it actually takes roughly ten hours.
Just to make life harder (or interesting I’d say) certain words have different meanings. Singlets here are called vests; undies (Australia) are called pants in the UK. Whereas pants (Australia) are trousers and flip flops (UK) are definitely not known as thongs! Now being a live in carer of course I get these muddled up and still do today. New clients especially must think (UK terms) that I am going to put their underpants on over their trousers or a ‘thong (UK)’ on their foot! To be honest I wouldn’t put it past me.
Another thong, I mean thing that gets me all the time is chips (fries in the UK, fries or potato chips, AU) and crisps (potato chips, UK). Don’t go asking for ‘hot’ chips in the UK. They just look at you as if thinking ‘what am I going to do? Serve them frozen?!’ Ps there is no chicken salt either and they call aioli garlic mayonnaise.
Here are some facts about each nation.
Just to confuse you even more (or myself), in the UK lollies are known as sweets and lollypops are known as lollies. Lastly, just because it was funny, I got frustrated one day with something (no, not at work) and out of frustration I said ‘this is giving me the shits!’ Not knowing of course that the British take this metaphorically Australian saying literally. Of course people were around and I got some not so good looks. Again!!! This has a similar effect when Australians say to their friends ‘lets go bitch!’
Australia!
Lets talk about driving in the UK. Yes, it is similar to Australia as both nations drive on the left, however do not be fooled. The speedometer is in miles! Just remember that speeding signs that are 40 is not too slow. Also take note, the UK have national speed limit signs, without the speed limit written on it! So, for all you Aussies out there, this is NOT 100mph or 110mph! Don’t forget that like I did! Also another note, stay right, unless driving! Do not stand to your left on an elevator or when walking slowly, also you pass on your right. You should have seen the lovely dances I did when I forgot these rules.
Lets move on now to British houses. It baffles me how there is carpet in the kitchen and bathrooms. Or that there is a clothes washer in the kitchen. Oh and why not have one seperate hot and cold tap while you are at it so you either freeze or burn yourself. I must say this isn’t in the showers. Thank God! If anyone knows the reasons behind this, please enlighten me.
London
While there are many differences between the two places, there are more similarities and therefore the culture shock wasn’t as bad as my experience in Thailand. I mean I still call pounds, dollars at times (ok most times) and the weather here is definitely miserable compared to Australia, but I am having a ball and looking forward to the next couple of years being here and having the opportunity to explore Europe more. I hope you enjoyed my post. Don’t laugh too hard! Feel free to share with me your cultural differences you’ve experienced, not only between the UK and Australia, but any country.
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Very interesting! Great writeup, narrative, and photos
Thankyou. Glad you enjoyed it. :)
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Convict? Well, that's just mean...
I've spent three years in the UK and must say Australians are not the only ones having troubles .
Regarding "Are you alright" - I did need time to get used to that one too lol
Water taps - the biggest mystery of them all and when I've tried to unravel it by asking the person got highly defensive... so let's leave it as it is...
Anyway, fun read :)
Haha nah it was all good 😊 thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed it.
Great post, me as an Enlish Teacher, I am still having some sorts of difficulties to understand the different between US dialects and slangs and the rest of the English spoken countries all around the world. It is not an easy task, It demands dedication and many hours searchin information and love for my job, which is teaching. Thank for sharing this work. I upvoted and followed you. I would appreciate you do the same for me. Nice weekend my best wishes @jesusrosal2609.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
What a lovely post. Been a few times to Australia, I love the different words the Blockes are using. Staying the
countryside near the Flinders, I got some extra words for this and that.
I guess my friend @buzzbeergeek will have some fun with this.
Haha glad you enjoyed it 😊
Servus
Thats very interesting !!!
Voted
Thank you very much :)
You did an awesome job with this posts
Good luck in UK
Cheers @karliesadventure
THankyou, glad you liked it 😊
Good article, thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm an American who spent over 16 years in the UK, so yeah, I can totally "hear" you!!! Especially with that carpet in the bathroom and kitchen, I mean... w.t.f.??? :p
But there are some great things about the UK too, and I miss living there on a daily basis.
How come you went back to the US?
Many reasons, to be honest. And had I to do it again, I would have made my return tickets for a year later and probably have chosen to return - the culture shock in returning to the US was just as great, if not greater, than it was going to the UK in the first place!
However, had I gone back at that time, I would not have met my husband. :)
Thanks for replying to me and I look forward to hearing from you in the future!
True especially when you have a 15 year gap from being there. I know when I returned from Thailand when I heard everyone speaking English around me I found it weird. Only for a few hours but still weird haha.
Yep - kind of like watching a foreign film (even with subtitles) - when you're done, you almost feel like you can speak the language! Nothing like immersion to make you get a feel for the language/culture though! I haven't been to France in almost 20 years (scary, but true), but my short time being there gave me a permanent "feel" for the language/pronunciation.
Two things that were really funny linguistically - living in the UK for so long.
The things that threw me the most, though, were simple things with differing assumptions. Take "fudge" for example. In the US, if you say the word "fudge" all by itself, we assume the flavor will be chocolate. Very different than in the UK. (Again, I don't know what flavor you assume Down Under.)
Language is such a funny thing.
Indeed it is. My favourite was when I was like 'this is giving me the shits' and they took it literally... haha
Here in the US, it could be taken either way, so it was strange to me to hear that someone (like yourself) would take it only literally!
Living abroad made me:
Very interesting way of looking at the differences I am in fact born in England but for the last 17 years living & married with a 12 year old daughter in Scotland near Glasgow airport. I like the way you turned the humour around back onto the English or as they call it in Scotland "Banter"
haha I still love the English... They have all been pretty good to me (well the majority). :) Glad you enjoyed it.