After 7 and a half years living in the uk, I can say.... 1. Weather: they love to talk about it. "This weather is sh*t" "It's pissing it down" "Why on earth did you move from sunny Spain to rainy England?" 2. Plastic surgery: no, but some get crazy about fake tan, fake nails and fake eye lashes/eye brows 🤣🤣🤣 3. Politeness: in workplaces (especially business environment), very polite. On normal situation, I believe it's more about cultural fact, maybe the lack of other polite linguistic resources (like spanish you: tu/usted) has to do with it. I quite like it tho. 4. Swearing: I've been told off so often for swearing 🤬 😂😂, but Brits swear a lot too hahaha. 5. Foggy/rainy London: you missed "smog" smoke+fog (back in 1800s). I love London weather. Rainy central London looks amazing. Walking down Tower Bridge on a foggy day is quite a lovely picture. 6. Not rinsing plates with water: yup, my ex used to fill up the sink, wash the the dishes and put them in the dish rack without rinsing it with water first, and I've seen the same to other Brits 🤔. 7. Jokes about the Queen? Hahahaha I've heard quite a few. One of the things I love from the British culture is their sense of humour. They like to joke about pretty much everything. 8. Drinking tea and pinkie out: tea yes, loads, if you're angry you drink a cuppa, if you're happy you drink a cuppa, if you're sad you drink a cuppa, if you're thirsty, a cuppa 😂😂😂. There's always a good excuse to drink tea. About pinkie? I've never seen it during this time 🤔.
I also lived in England and what I noticed was that they lie. Non-stop. They always have a second aganda which they dont talk about but it's real. What they say and do are two diffrent things. It's necessary to learn to read btwn the lines in England.
En el norte de españa como en el pais vasco, Asturias, Galicia y cantabria de ninguna manera es "sunny" se parece más al de gran bretaña que a el calor de zonas del Mediterráneo como valencia, Alicante etc
Your answer to politeness was so polite, loved it. All Brits I've met so far were always polite and tend to prefer indirectness over bluntness. Which is great, but sometimes it leaves you wondering what are they really thinking about! :)
I like how he through in all those fancy words to try and not be biased. But in the end he didn't give an answer and in the end he was very... indirect.
In my childhood many towns and especially industrial areas had fog frequently. This was because of the burning of fossil fuels both in manufacturing and for heating homes. This changed with the Clean Air Act 1956, which was brought in following London's Great Smog of 1952. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956 - Note that the song "A Foggy Day in London Town" was written in 1937 when fog was still a problem.
British people are definitely polite! Everybody helps you to carry heavy luggage. It is true!! They are so courteous, helpful and friendly! It is impossible not to feel comfortable in this country. The weather....is awful, but if you remember to take your umbrella, coat, scarf, hat, sunglasses and sun cream every morning before going out...everything will be okay. England is AMAZING. Great video Tom! Congratulations! Your jokes🤣🤣🤣!!
Thanks for sharing your experiences Gabriela. I'm glad to hear you have had positive interactions with British people. In turn I have only good things to say about Argentines. They were also so friendly and helpful to me.
Everywhere I’ve been in England, people have always been super polite - London is the only exception. I think that might be because of how tired people are of being surrounded by tourists all the time. London’s always super busy and loads of people just want to carry on with their day without being constantly asked questions. However, they will still stop and answer, it’s just a vibe you get that they’d be rolling their eyes at you if they could. Manchester? Super polite and always so friendly and willing to help you out. Kinda felt like they understood the struggle of being a foreigner. It’s not always easy to speak English with English speaking people, you might feel intimidated and judged for your mistakes right? Never happened in Manchester. Loved it up there!
In London it’s actually rude to say “hello”. As you say, it’s so busy that people are trying to maintain their own bubble and to gain eye contact is a breach of that bubble. Not so in the rest of England
People who judge others for speech 'mistakes' are ignorant and not worth bothering about. In trying to make you look small, they are exposing their tiny minds.
What you call "indirect" we in the USA call politeness. Being demanding ("Gimme that pen") without asking and saying "Please", "Excuse me", or "Sorry", is considered rude. Using "Please", "Excuse me", or "Sorry" are considered (at least in the USA) being polite. Love your channel!
Ow I can tell from my own experience that Brits people are very polite! I remember the first (and only) time I've been to England dragging my heavy suitcase and people helped me to carry it. And getting the correct directions from train station worker. Yes, it's true... If they bumped into you, they say sorry all the time. I really miss England ♥️
When you are speaking about politeness, that is what is referred to as southern hospitality in the US. Saying “sorry” to someone who bumped into you is instinctual, almost like a reflex. I don’t even think about it when I do it, so it’s not conflict avoidance, it’s just ingrained in our culture. Watching many of your videos, I’ve noticed many similarities between southern USA and British cultures. 💞
Happens all the time in Australia, Canada and New Zealand too. Not coincidentally they're the three countries most similar to the UK in terms of culture and of course a shared history through colonisation.
the assumption about politeness same as Javanese people and your answer abt that can be the answer for people who think abt Javanese politeness... it's because we, Javanese, often say something indirectly and avoid confrontation. I found the same culture here. really interesting. thanks!
Indirectness as an element of politeness is used in many other countries, including parts of Norway, especially in the southern region called Agder, where I live. We are also known for litotes, or understatement. When we find something extremely annoying, we might say something like: "I'm not sure if I like that so much." In other parts of the country, especially in the north, directness is the norm, and that can cause problems in communication. We perceive them as rude and they find us dishonest.
In Argentina, mostly in provinces, we talk all the time about weather, there's a reason too! Argetina is an agricultural country, and the weather is obviously super important, at least that's the origin. We figth about being team winter (cold) or team summer (heat). I'm team winter btw. And it's a safe conversation theme, but you can disagree 😜
The british weather is so similar to Peru ,currently the mornings are very cloudy and foggy and after some hours the sun appears and we need to open every window
You're totally right YoungTommy , when I came to Britain, they told me that you can trust everything here in the UK, even girls, but never trust the weather, no matter what ... And they were right 🙂 🇸🇸❤🇬🇧
Interesting thing : in Canada, we have the same thing with talking about the weather but different emotions associated with different type of weather : snow isn't magical, we kind of agree that we don't like it. ( The first snow of the year is sometimes magical, but all the other snowfall are not !)
I've had so much fun with this lesson😂!! And I've learnt some things too🤓!! Thanks Tom! And thanks to the ones who sent the videos! 👏👏👏 well done guys!
Hello Tom :) Having lived in London before, I am familiar with all these patterns. So, I can say that British people are generally polite. Whenever I needed help, they took a kind approach to me and did their best to help. But, I also saw extremely rude people in some regions of the city, especially in the east and the north. İn my opinion, it changes person to person but usually yes. By the way, I love the jokes about the queen :) I am looking forward to seeing part two ;) Have a nice weekend mate :)
Very great video, Tom! Thank you for making this video true. All the best! I just want to tell that last two semesters, I and my team had to make a video about British culture, and we chose to make British lifestyle. And this video you made was just very perfect for thay project if only we had known this one!
Haha as an American I got a kick out of your American accent! I'm from California and, true fact, I think you could easily fool me with your nondescript Southern accent.
Haha haha I have to disagree, I’m from Tennessee and his sounds nothing like a real southern US accent 😂 it just sounded like a non-southern person trying to fake a southern accent and failing at it. North Carolina accents are the closest to the accent he was doing, but still a far cry from the real thing. Also, southerners also LOVE to complain about the weather like Brits but we have no issue disagreeing with eachother over it 😂
I agree with him that we usually aren’t very good at doing a British accent.. and that they are better at doing American accents than we are at doing British accents.
@@NuNugirl, nope. It is not. There are USican dialects but there is no such thing as a USican, Canadian or African, accent. Every form of English around the world is a dialect.
I was in london 2 years ago I'm a experienced traveler and by far I found that british people are proper and polite I was very impressed it was an amazing trip !! And that example you gave about the luggage was right on. This gentleman helped me up the stairs in paddington tube with my luggage and even called me love and he was so handsome so Yeah british people rock in my book !!!!!!
Brits are very polite this is an example: my friend fell off his bike and bounced three times on the payment, suddenly, some came around to check if he was okay, they are very kind.
This is absolutely brilliant ! I live in London for 2 years now and omg I love hearing about people’s assumptions, it’s so funny ! Especially the German lady! Can’t wait for part 2🎉🎉 have you read watching the English ?
We Italians talk about the weather too with strangers 😏 I love this kind of video, your students are awesome and you're fantastic as usual👏by the way, I love A Foggy Day as well 🤗
Not rinsing the dishes! hahahahha I experienced this while living in Australia and it was extremely annoying. When I asked a British guy there "Hey do you Brits do the same??" he said "Nah, we ALWAYS rinse" lol
Do you guys more love new fashion things or old classics? My side is on old classics. One of the reasons why I love Britain so much.🙌 By the way, scenery of your countryside is beautiful. At least from what I saw on TV.😜
Hahaha, the way many-many British people do their dishes has been doing my head in for years :D They do wash with water, but so many Brits do not rinse. They fill a bowl with hot water, add dishwashing liquid, wash all the dishes in the same water, putting them straight in the drying rack without rinsing. Usually, the first items washed are covered in a layer of foam (yum!). Depending on how many dishes are being washed, by the time the last items get their 'wash', there is probably no foam left, you just have a bowl of warm greasy water (yum-yum :D); nevertheless, the dishes would still go straight on the drying rack and not get an extra rinse. Apparently, one's meant to use a tea towel if they want to get rid of the foam or grease :D Yup!
Here in Mexico, specially in smaller cities or town are kind, maybe not polite, but rather caring. We also are extremely indirect, probably not as much as Brits, but we always try to soften things, specially through diminutives: "¿Crees que te pudiera llamar en un momentito?", instead of "I'll call you back in a moment"
Oh it’s so true about washing dishes! Many Brits use water but then they don’t rinse it after and they leave the foam on dishes and put it on a dryer, terrible! Especially when you have flat mates who do that ( like me unfortunately)
I lived in the UK for more than 4 years. I can say most of the British people who I met were really polite, peaceful, self-possessed, sensible, open-minded with dignified manner. But unfortunately, it's almost common to talk behind others (just after they left!)!
My experience is that the Britts really seem very polite but agree with Tom, living among the British people for quite some time I understand that it is the way the language is used. It is normal for the Brittish to speak indirectly and it does sound very polite, however I do not believe that it is their intention in many cases :)
Hi, Tom. Great video again. Am I right that British people use a lot of understatements like "Interesting". Also, do they prefer tea to coffee and like curry very much? Thanks.
ohhh cool, the sector you were explaining whether British are polite perfectly demonstrates how hard you try to avoid any possible conflict! that's quite vivid lol Anyhow great job, this video really provide me some clearer explanations about how British think. Really appreciate that!
I am Mr.Janardhan aged about 73 years I am anxity and ambitious of English since 2003 started with challenge with my departmental colleague since he was Keralian, actually I am with Telugu medium of my HSC in the year of 1964 March with Telugu medium, but now with regular practice in English only , particularly reading the Hindu Daily since last eight years and watching English language news of CNN and BBC etc, now I am well versed with the confimity of English language like my mother tongue Telugu and regularly observation of you tubes , my impressive intention only I would like to with in the debates for more frequency and fluency eye.
Brits are super polite, you can add indirectness or not wanting any type of conflict but in the long run you are the kindest, especially to strangers. Try Paris or Buenos Aires and you'll see what I mean. In the USA people say nice things like kind greetings etc but British people always do better, I think is in your genes and it pops naturally.
One day I've been in London I checked the weather and it was really sunny. I went for a walk towards Hyde park and in two hours I was stood under heavy rain without any umbrella.
In terms of politeness, I can see why people would think that. We know when we are angry at each other. It’s like a coded up language only we understand. It’s all about passive aggressiveness and sarcasm here. It’s not open conflict, it’s venomous use of language. Also we swear every other word
British people use a bowl with some water and washing up liquid in it to wash up the dishes and put them straight to the drainer from it. Meanwhile people of loads of countries are taught to rinse them before draining them. Also wiping is not considered to be hygienic.
This was fun to watch. Didn't stop me from rambling on in my comment... XD But I just felt like reacting, as someone who lives in Britain - but was also born outwith Britain - and tends to have a somewhat different view on things than the majority. (Not always, just uh.... more often than not.) Brits talk about the weather almost all the time and it's painful. "Oh, it's cold outside." (I know, I've been out there, you don't need to tell me.) "Look, it's raining... again." (Well, this is Scotland. Were you expecting droughts?) "It was snowing last night. Now it's all just mush. Eugh..." (Oh? Don't say. Living a whole mile away from you, I actually had clear skies and no percipitation whatsoever. Totally. And the temperature was in the high twenties - Degrees Celsius, I mean.) PLEASE DO NOT START A CONVERSATION WITH "Oh, BuT iT's CoLd ToDaY". Eh, not all Brits like snow. Transport and everything goes to hell when there is more than a centimetre of snow so some people hate it. I mean, we would all be capable of mimicking the American accent if we tried... but we're lazy somethingorothers so... no. Not more than girls from Brazil, America or Korea, they aren't. Plastic surgery is a sort of marmite-y topic here - you either hate it or love it -, and I've never heard of British girls being seen as the problem children when it comes to beauty-related activities, surgery and lip fillers. There are young british actresses, there are young british sportswomen there are children - both girls and boys - that are British and have gotten some attention from "Playground Politics". You sort of need to look beyond the first thing you see on the internet about British people to know what other people have heard of Brits, both people that are and people that aren't British themselves. Other British people are polite (and non-confrontational)... 50% of the time. Until they get drunk. Then it's 0% of the time. But they do tend to be quite self-conscious and a little less confident than American's with their worldviews and ideas of themselves and others, so it's probably why the word "sorry" is something they use excessively. And yeah, they probably want to avoid conflict. Not by much, they can still be incredibly cocky, and it'll depend what sort of British company you find yourselves in. The other reason for their politeness is probably tourism. Since we rely on overseas and local tourism, it encourages the locals to be more polite to customers and the likes to keep our economy going. Not every country relies on this though. Czechs don't because they don't really have many places to turn into tourist sites and don't really have an incentive to be polite because of it. Of course, both places have their fair share of judgemental people and behind your back, they probably judge you just as much as a person from any other country would, only they're not so quick to say that to your face. Czechs would if they could, but half of them don't know English and almost no one asides from Czechs and Slovakians knows Czech. That being said, I've met rude Brits - especially children - and I don't think I'm the politest person ever myself... For that I'd have to be able to communicate in the first place. "Please", "Thank You", "Sorry" are all great words but if you can't so much as speak then you can't exactly use them and tend to come off as rude when you don't say them. You will think an anxious Brit rude if you believe words to be the only way of showing off a person's manners... and given how few Brits most tourists actually meet in their travels, it'll be quite the shock when you finally do. Like Americans, Australians, Polish and Czechs, they swear quite a lot, though Brits won't just swear out of anger or annoyance the way I tend to hear Czechs swear, but also excitement, shock, fear, or any time when they can't quite contain their emotions... But it'll also depend on the Brit - some will be completely aversed to swearing, others will speak almost exclusively in swear words. London is not a good place to base assumptions of British weather on, and neither is any one city/town. You're best taking the whole of England and the whole of Scotland and getting the averages for those two. For pretty much the entirety of my trip to London it was sunny and pleasant... but then it was also Summer, and it was only a week long trip. Aaaand of course Scotland would be wetter. Inverness is wetter than London and it's one of the drier areas in Scotland because of it's location - in terms of mountain shielding it from one side. You've never heard of anyone joke about the queen? What planet do you live on? IS RUSSEL HOWARD NOT A PERSON YOU'VE HEARD OF? And then, of course, there is every single teenager on the planet, who would at least snicker at a joke involving the queen. Half of the British population has cracked a joke or made a satirical impression of the queen at some point in their lives. She's not a goddess or a god. She's a person whose done both good and questionable things and is nice to have as an official figure to boost tourism and interest in the country, but I wouldn't even say she runs anything really and no one's afraid to have a laugh at her expense. Because we can do that without fearing insulting anyone and getting our heads lopped off over it, or garnering unwanted attention from powerful individuals, or threats... it's never been a big enough issue that non-British people would have taken a not of how we view and treat the queen, so maybe that's why you think that we don't joke... but we do joke about the queen and are free to do so. Nor do we regard her more highly than anyone else. I mean, she's not Trump so it's not like she'll go after us or complain about us spreading fake news when we talk about the reality of things under a comedic light. XD
Great Tom, as usual! Hope you won't mind but I'll probably make a video with my sts concerning assumptions in our region following yr idea I'm sure the result can't be as interesting as yrs, but we'll have great time No doubt!
I'm from the Northern Midwest in the US and talking about the weather is a common phenomenon here too and probably for the same reasons, though severe weather frequently makes local and national newscasts. But yeah, as a conversation starter weather is good. Where I'm from though and I checked we get an average of 606.321 ml of rain annually. I think that figure doesn't include snow. What I found surprising was when I visited Ireland people were always apologizing for the weather. First, this was confusing to me - it's not like you can do anything about it and second, I'm from the Upper Midwest I've seen weather far, far worse than the mild rain we had in Ireland when I was there.
If you love snow, Tome, you should move to Idaho. We are still getting snow at the end of March. By now the snow is usually melted and it's warmer. It just isn't happening this year.
I spent a whole year in Nottingham a few years ago, and I found out a few things. Mainly, the weather is sh*t and booze is prohibitively expensive. No wonder why so many Brits visit Spain during the summer for our booze and weather :D Greetings from Spain :D Edit: my experience with British people and "sorry" is explained pretty well by the following sentence: "Americans do not say it, the British do not mean it, and Canadians overdo it." nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-use-and-abuse-of-sorry-americans-do-not-say-it-the-british-do-not-mean-it-and-canadians-overdo-it This was a bit of cheeky humour. :D
Your joke about how American’s don’t say sorry is untrue. That only happens in New York and California where tourist usually go to visit but that is a poor reflection of the rest of the U.S.
@@joiecardenas2086 my joke is untrue? It's a joke! Of course it's untrue, it's an unfounded generalisation meant to make people laugh. Jesus, man, no one can take a joke nowadays... 🙄
No I can take a joke but I was saying I think of tourist go to other parts of the US that we all don’t act so posh and uppity like LA/California and New York people do and that is where most people go to visit. Im am saying we have good people as well and it’s to bad we get are reputation from those places. I am not at all upset just want others to know that all Americans are not rude.
When I was in Spain, I learnt quickly to stop saying ‘por favor’ all the time. I worked in a bar, and some Spanish children that were playing outside kept running in and just saying ‘agua’ (water) at me. I found it rude until the manager explained to me that ‘we don’t make the children beg’. It all made sense why they find English people overly (and perhaps annoyingly) polite.
Regarding the British politeness, my personal experience is that on the one hand British people are really very polite (they do really say "sorry" being bumped), but on the other hand they often don't make any allowance for foreigners' level of English, i. e. it doesn't occur to them to speak slower when talking to a foreigner. So it becomes a foreigner's task to understand what the say, rather then their task to communicate it clearly.
Weather all four season's in one day, Huh, at my late mother's 80th in the Scottish Borders we had all four seasons in an hour. It was in January and that scourge of Scottish summer life, midges even appeared.
Yeah.... i remember that when I was living in Ireland, it was pretty much like that.... completely different from where I live nowadays actually ( I live in Brazil)
About politness, In my view British have a great sense of respect and common sense. There are polite conventions that we Italian unfortunately haven't. Then British have a sense of humour which is so wonderful but also impolite and sharp somehow🤩
Hi Tom, i was brought up in the UK, England to be specific ;-), as you 've put as it's 1 person's opinion or observation, I study Human Behaviour myself. I find some are indirect, sarcastic (meant to be a humour) and some are polite in real. I do that myself as I was raised there. We are usually polite and nice in nature. But we certainly know how to react to a specific action or words. Comments please ;-)
Thanks for a video! I think I didn’t follow the numbers about rain... Isn’t it too small amount of rain for the whole year? I mean in milliliters. It’s just six cups of tea 😀 Btw, speaking of a fog, in the show The Crown the events behind the great fog have been displayed very detailed. Just FYI 😊
Yes Evgeny! I made a mistake, it should have read millimetres. Thanks for bringing that up! Oh and thanks for the tip about The Crown, I'll check it out.
Brits have always been very polite. In 1745 at the beginning of a battle between English and French armies , the English officier said : « French gentlemen, shoot first ». But the French officier was very polite also and he answered : « English gentlemen , we never shoot first , shoot yourself»
There are upteen to learn from your lesson regarding British culture. And I was checking something else but your lesson come in list. Then I opened it up to learn something from your lesson. I almost seen every your tuber videos especially native speaker video from TH-cam to learn something new and that's why I was set up your lesson to learn something.
I'm British I swear like a sailor, I was always told off as a child. I debate someone's opinion on the weather and I can be quite direct in how I speak.
With American accents, I noticed as a parent, a lot of little kids when play acting with friends will put on an American accent (I guess from watching TV and most singing accents are American) so I guess it’s just becomes naturally easy to do the American accent.
*Quick correction* - The rainfall statistics should be in millimetres (not millilitres)! Cheers for watching you beautiful people :)
Is it true that you iron your underwear?
You should do a podcast!! I like to listen to your videos on the train heheh
Not in the UK where rainfall is heavy.
@@MarioHernandez-ci4cc doing so would be ironic!
After 7 and a half years living in the uk, I can say....
1. Weather: they love to talk about it.
"This weather is sh*t"
"It's pissing it down"
"Why on earth did you move from sunny Spain to rainy England?"
2. Plastic surgery: no, but some get crazy about fake tan, fake nails and fake eye lashes/eye brows 🤣🤣🤣
3. Politeness: in workplaces (especially business environment), very polite. On normal situation, I believe it's more about cultural fact, maybe the lack of other polite linguistic resources (like spanish you: tu/usted) has to do with it. I quite like it tho.
4. Swearing: I've been told off so often for swearing 🤬 😂😂, but Brits swear a lot too hahaha.
5. Foggy/rainy London: you missed "smog" smoke+fog (back in 1800s). I love London weather. Rainy central London looks amazing. Walking down Tower Bridge on a foggy day is quite a lovely picture.
6. Not rinsing plates with water: yup, my ex used to fill up the sink, wash the the dishes and put them in the dish rack without rinsing it with water first, and I've seen the same to other Brits 🤔.
7. Jokes about the Queen? Hahahaha I've heard quite a few. One of the things I love from the British culture is their sense of humour. They like to joke about pretty much everything.
8. Drinking tea and pinkie out: tea yes, loads, if you're angry you drink a cuppa, if you're happy you drink a cuppa, if you're sad you drink a cuppa, if you're thirsty, a cuppa 😂😂😂. There's always a good excuse to drink tea.
About pinkie? I've never seen it during this time 🤔.
I totally agree with you. My observation's been the same.
I also lived in England and what I noticed was that they lie. Non-stop. They always have a second aganda which they dont talk about but it's real. What they say and do are two diffrent things.
It's necessary to learn to read btwn the lines in England.
En el norte de españa como en el pais vasco, Asturias, Galicia y cantabria de ninguna manera es "sunny" se parece más al de gran bretaña que a el calor de zonas del Mediterráneo como valencia, Alicante etc
@@skojigoquist9288 That's an outrageous LIE!!! 🤭
The pinkie thing is not true really we dont do that a cuppa is popular from half of peoples perspectives others hate it
Your answer to politeness was so polite, loved it.
All Brits I've met so far were always polite and tend to prefer indirectness over bluntness. Which is great, but sometimes it leaves you wondering what are they really thinking about! :)
I have the same perception en general they are polite. But at job interview they are very rude (most of them
I like how he through in all those fancy words to try and not be biased. But in the end he didn't give an answer and in the end he was very... indirect.
I just discovered this channel and im loving it.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 welcome to Eat Sleep Dream English Cristel 🙌🏼
Same here, I’m obsessed
4:11 wow Amazing.
In my childhood many towns and especially industrial areas had fog frequently. This was because of the burning of fossil fuels both in manufacturing and for heating homes. This changed with the Clean Air Act 1956, which was brought in following London's Great Smog of 1952. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956 - Note that the song "A Foggy Day in London Town" was written in 1937 when fog was still a problem.
British people are definitely polite! Everybody helps you to carry heavy luggage. It is true!! They are so courteous, helpful and friendly! It is impossible not to feel comfortable in this country. The weather....is awful, but if you remember to take your umbrella, coat, scarf, hat, sunglasses and sun cream every morning before going out...everything will be okay. England is AMAZING. Great video Tom! Congratulations! Your jokes🤣🤣🤣!!
Thanks for sharing your experiences Gabriela. I'm glad to hear you have had positive interactions with British people. In turn I have only good things to say about Argentines. They were also so friendly and helpful to me.
Thanks a bunch for having us in your video, Tom! :-)
Thank you so much Tom for having us in your video!! That's so kind of you...😍Your explanation really helps! (And my name is Mihira not Hira, btw...😋)
Hai. Proud to have you in the vedio. Are you a malayali. I felt so. Anyway your english is quite good .👏👏
Everywhere I’ve been in England, people have always been super polite - London is the only exception. I think that might be because of how tired people are of being surrounded by tourists all the time. London’s always super busy and loads of people just want to carry on with their day without being constantly asked questions. However, they will still stop and answer, it’s just a vibe you get that they’d be rolling their eyes at you if they could. Manchester? Super polite and always so friendly and willing to help you out. Kinda felt like they understood the struggle of being a foreigner. It’s not always easy to speak English with English speaking people, you might feel intimidated and judged for your mistakes right? Never happened in Manchester. Loved it up there!
In London it’s actually rude to say “hello”. As you say, it’s so busy that people are trying to maintain their own bubble and to gain eye contact is a breach of that bubble.
Not so in the rest of England
People who judge others for speech 'mistakes' are ignorant and not worth bothering about. In trying to make you look small, they are exposing their tiny minds.
What you call "indirect" we in the USA call politeness. Being demanding ("Gimme that pen") without asking and saying "Please", "Excuse me", or "Sorry", is considered rude. Using "Please", "Excuse me", or "Sorry" are considered (at least in the USA) being polite. Love your channel!
Ow I can tell from my own experience that Brits people are very polite! I remember the first (and only) time I've been to England dragging my heavy suitcase and people helped me to carry it. And getting the correct directions from train station worker. Yes, it's true... If they bumped into you, they say sorry all the time.
I really miss England ♥️
When you are speaking about politeness, that is what is referred to as southern hospitality in the US. Saying “sorry” to someone who bumped into you is instinctual, almost like a reflex. I don’t even think about it when I do it, so it’s not conflict avoidance, it’s just ingrained in our culture. Watching many of your videos, I’ve noticed many similarities between southern USA and British cultures. 💞
Happens all the time in Australia, Canada and New Zealand too. Not coincidentally they're the three countries most similar to the UK in terms of culture and of course a shared history through colonisation.
I love how you mock an American accent Tom, good job that's too close 😂
the assumption about politeness same as Javanese people and your answer abt that can be the answer for people who think abt Javanese politeness... it's because we, Javanese, often say something indirectly and avoid confrontation. I found the same culture here. really interesting. thanks!
Indirectness as an element of politeness is used in many other countries, including parts of Norway, especially in the southern region called Agder, where I live. We are also known for litotes, or understatement. When we find something extremely annoying, we might say something like: "I'm not sure if I like that so much." In other parts of the country, especially in the north, directness is the norm, and that can cause problems in communication. We perceive them as rude and they find us dishonest.
In Argentina, mostly in provinces, we talk all the time about weather, there's a reason too! Argetina is an agricultural country, and the weather is obviously super important, at least that's the origin. We figth about being team winter (cold) or team summer (heat). I'm team winter btw. And it's a safe conversation theme, but you can disagree 😜
You are so funny during the last few questions such that I strained my tendon laughing loudly.
The british weather is so similar to Peru ,currently the mornings are very cloudy and foggy and after some hours the sun appears and we need to open every window
You're totally right YoungTommy , when I came to Britain, they told me that you can trust everything here in the UK, even girls, but never trust the weather, no matter what ... And they were right 🙂
🇸🇸❤🇬🇧
Interesting thing : in Canada, we have the same thing with talking about the weather but different emotions associated with different type of weather : snow isn't magical, we kind of agree that we don't like it. ( The first snow of the year is sometimes magical, but all the other snowfall are not !)
British people talking about weather:
“It’s too hot”
“It’s too cold”
“It’s too wet”
“It’s too windy”
Basically we’re just never satisfied 😂
I've had so much fun with this lesson😂!! And I've learnt some things too🤓!! Thanks Tom! And thanks to the ones who sent the videos! 👏👏👏 well done guys!
Thank you, Tom! :-) Your videos are a pleasure to watch :-) Warm greetings from Belarus :-)
Hello Tom :) Having lived in London before, I am familiar with all these patterns. So, I can say that British people are generally polite. Whenever I needed help, they took a kind approach to me and did their best to help. But, I also saw extremely rude people in some regions of the city, especially in the east and the north. İn my opinion, it changes person to person but usually yes. By the way, I love the jokes about the queen :) I am looking forward to seeing part two ;) Have a nice weekend mate :)
I went to London during the summer of 2002. It was sunny for the time I was there. No complaints whatsoever!!
You're absolutely hilarious Tom!😂😂😂
The first joke got you a thumbs up, and by the third I had already subscribed to your channel!
Loved your "American" accent! BTW, there are many different accents in the US, just as there are in the UK.
Beverly from Texas
Very great video, Tom! Thank you for making this video true. All the best! I just want to tell that last two semesters, I and my team had to make a video about British culture, and we chose to make British lifestyle. And this video you made was just very perfect for thay project if only we had known this one!
I bursted to laugh when you was trying to speak with American accent 😂
Haha as an American I got a kick out of your American accent! I'm from California and, true fact, I think you could easily fool me with your nondescript Southern accent.
Haha haha I have to disagree, I’m from Tennessee and his sounds nothing like a real southern US accent 😂 it just sounded like a non-southern person trying to fake a southern accent and failing at it. North Carolina accents are the closest to the accent he was doing, but still a far cry from the real thing.
Also, southerners also LOVE to complain about the weather like Brits but we have no issue disagreeing with eachother over it 😂
I agree with him that we usually aren’t very good at doing a British accent.. and that they are better at doing American accents than we are at doing British accents.
There is no such thing as a USican (formerly "American") accent. There are dialects but no accents just as there are no British or Canadian "accent"
@@KaptainCanuck AMERICAN ACCENT IS CORRECT! What the hell is this crap!
@@NuNugirl, nope. It is not. There are USican dialects but there is no such thing as a USican, Canadian or African, accent. Every form of English around the world is a dialect.
my American daughter married a Brit about twenty years ago. He's very polite and a great dad. Smart, too.
I was in london 2 years ago I'm a experienced traveler and by far I found that british people are proper and polite I was very impressed it was an amazing trip !! And that example you gave about the luggage was right on. This gentleman helped me up the stairs in paddington tube with my luggage and even called me love and he was so handsome so Yeah british people rock in my book !!!!!!
Brits are very polite this is an example: my friend fell off his bike and bounced three times on the payment, suddenly, some came around to check if he was okay, they are very kind.
This is absolutely brilliant ! I live in London for 2 years now and omg I love hearing about people’s assumptions, it’s so funny ! Especially the German lady! Can’t wait for part 2🎉🎉 have you read watching the English ?
I have to be the only one LOVING English Weather. It's perfect for me. Not too cold. Not too warm.
Lovely video hahahhaha I laughed a lot with the jokes about the Queen and with you washing the dishes, wow I never hear about the dishes LOL
Glad you enjoyed it mate and thanks again for being in it. BTW we don't actually wash the dishes like that lols!
We Italians talk about the weather too with strangers 😏 I love this kind of video, your students are awesome and you're fantastic as usual👏by the way, I love A Foggy Day as well 🤗
Not rinsing the dishes! hahahahha
I experienced this while living in Australia and it was extremely annoying. When I asked a British guy there "Hey do you Brits do the same??" he said "Nah, we ALWAYS rinse" lol
Hahaha thank you, Tom! You made my day. I can't thank you enough. This vid is super dope.
You were in his videos. Wow. Your lucky
Do you guys more love new fashion things or old classics? My side is on old classics. One of the reasons why I love Britain so much.🙌 By the way, scenery of your countryside is beautiful. At least from what I saw on TV.😜
Hahaha, the way many-many British people do their dishes has been doing my head in for years :D They do wash with water, but so many Brits do not rinse. They fill a bowl with hot water, add dishwashing liquid, wash all the dishes in the same water, putting them straight in the drying rack without rinsing. Usually, the first items washed are covered in a layer of foam (yum!). Depending on how many dishes are being washed, by the time the last items get their 'wash', there is probably no foam left, you just have a bowl of warm greasy water (yum-yum :D); nevertheless, the dishes would still go straight on the drying rack and not get an extra rinse. Apparently, one's meant to use a tea towel if they want to get rid of the foam or grease :D Yup!
Great video! In Spain we talk about weather for the same reasons. I completely agree with you about Brits politeness!
Here in Mexico, specially in smaller cities or town are kind, maybe not polite, but rather caring. We also are extremely indirect, probably not as much as Brits, but we always try to soften things, specially through diminutives: "¿Crees que te pudiera llamar en un momentito?", instead of "I'll call you back in a moment"
I have lived in London and yes Brits are extremely polite, they do not like conflict, I enjoyed my years there!!!
Hahaha, that middle finger on the cup when he drinks it "normally "😂😂😂😂😂
Great video 👍 very interesting, useful and funny, Thank you Tom!
Oh it’s so true about washing dishes! Many Brits use water but then they don’t rinse it after and they leave the foam on dishes and put it on a dryer, terrible! Especially when you have flat mates who do that ( like me unfortunately)
I lived in the UK for more than 4 years. I can say most of the British people who I met were really polite, peaceful, self-possessed, sensible, open-minded with dignified manner. But unfortunately, it's almost common to talk behind others (just after they left!)!
My experience is that the Britts really seem very polite but agree with Tom, living among the British people for quite some time I understand that it is the way the language is used. It is normal for the Brittish to speak indirectly and it does sound very polite, however I do not believe that it is their intention in many cases :)
Hi, Tom. Great video again. Am I right that British people use a lot of understatements like "Interesting". Also, do they prefer tea to coffee and like curry very much? Thanks.
Loved the video,Tom! Thanks for entertaining in these difficult times😊
jajajaja, love your videos! Thanks for being so silly sometimes and make me laught, for me
that´s the best way to learn :)
Wonderful video!! I love it 💚💚💚
Amazing class Tom ! I love it !
Of course 90% of brits are polite. I can tell, having been to the UK myself. . But the fairness can be seen from these Londoners.
Hi Tom, you are amazing! Your videos are super helpful! 1000% agree with politeness topic! How you explained it.
ohhh cool, the sector you were explaining whether British are polite perfectly demonstrates how hard you try to avoid any possible conflict! that's quite vivid lol
Anyhow great job, this video really provide me some clearer explanations about how British think. Really appreciate that!
I am Mr.Janardhan aged about 73 years I am anxity and ambitious of English since 2003 started with challenge with my departmental colleague since he was Keralian, actually I am with Telugu medium of my HSC in the year of 1964 March with Telugu medium, but now with regular practice in English only , particularly reading the Hindu Daily since last eight years and watching English language news of CNN and BBC etc, now I am well versed with the confimity of English language like my mother tongue Telugu and regularly observation of you tubes , my impressive intention only I would like to with in the debates for more frequency and fluency eye.
Brits are super polite, you can add indirectness or not wanting any type of conflict but in the long run you are the kindest, especially to strangers. Try Paris or Buenos Aires and you'll see what I mean. In the USA people say nice things like kind greetings etc but British people always do better, I think is in your genes and it pops naturally.
Hello Tom! that's was so funny especially The Queen parts 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I love this! Great video. Keep up the good work♥️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
One day I've been in London I checked the weather and it was really sunny. I went for a walk towards Hyde park and in two hours I was stood under heavy rain without any umbrella.
In terms of politeness, I can see why people would think that. We know when we are angry at each other. It’s like a coded up language only we understand. It’s all about passive aggressiveness and sarcasm here. It’s not open conflict, it’s venomous use of language.
Also we swear every other word
British people use a bowl with some water and washing up liquid in it to wash up the dishes and put them straight to the drainer from it. Meanwhile people of loads of countries are taught to rinse them before draining them. Also wiping is not considered to be hygienic.
Thanks a lot for sharing with us such wonderful information about The Great British people 🇬🇧
😂 I’m being polite
This was fun to watch.
Didn't stop me from rambling on in my comment... XD
But I just felt like reacting, as someone who lives in Britain - but was also born outwith Britain - and tends to have a somewhat different view on things than the majority. (Not always, just uh.... more often than not.)
Brits talk about the weather almost all the time and it's painful.
"Oh, it's cold outside."
(I know, I've been out there, you don't need to tell me.)
"Look, it's raining... again."
(Well, this is Scotland. Were you expecting droughts?)
"It was snowing last night. Now it's all just mush. Eugh..."
(Oh? Don't say. Living a whole mile away from you, I actually had clear skies and no percipitation whatsoever. Totally. And the temperature was in the high twenties - Degrees Celsius, I mean.)
PLEASE DO NOT START A CONVERSATION WITH "Oh, BuT iT's CoLd ToDaY".
Eh, not all Brits like snow. Transport and everything goes to hell when there is more than a centimetre of snow so some people hate it.
I mean, we would all be capable of mimicking the American accent if we tried... but we're lazy somethingorothers so... no.
Not more than girls from Brazil, America or Korea, they aren't. Plastic surgery is a sort of marmite-y topic here - you either hate it or love it -, and I've never heard of British girls being seen as the problem children when it comes to beauty-related activities, surgery and lip fillers. There are young british actresses, there are young british sportswomen there are children - both girls and boys - that are British and have gotten some attention from "Playground Politics". You sort of need to look beyond the first thing you see on the internet about British people to know what other people have heard of Brits, both people that are and people that aren't British themselves.
Other British people are polite (and non-confrontational)... 50% of the time. Until they get drunk. Then it's 0% of the time. But they do tend to be quite self-conscious and a little less confident than American's with their worldviews and ideas of themselves and others, so it's probably why the word "sorry" is something they use excessively. And yeah, they probably want to avoid conflict. Not by much, they can still be incredibly cocky, and it'll depend what sort of British company you find yourselves in. The other reason for their politeness is probably tourism. Since we rely on overseas and local tourism, it encourages the locals to be more polite to customers and the likes to keep our economy going. Not every country relies on this though. Czechs don't because they don't really have many places to turn into tourist sites and don't really have an incentive to be polite because of it. Of course, both places have their fair share of judgemental people and behind your back, they probably judge you just as much as a person from any other country would, only they're not so quick to say that to your face. Czechs would if they could, but half of them don't know English and almost no one asides from Czechs and Slovakians knows Czech. That being said, I've met rude Brits - especially children - and I don't think I'm the politest person ever myself... For that I'd have to be able to communicate in the first place. "Please", "Thank You", "Sorry" are all great words but if you can't so much as speak then you can't exactly use them and tend to come off as rude when you don't say them. You will think an anxious Brit rude if you believe words to be the only way of showing off a person's manners... and given how few Brits most tourists actually meet in their travels, it'll be quite the shock when you finally do.
Like Americans, Australians, Polish and Czechs, they swear quite a lot, though Brits won't just swear out of anger or annoyance the way I tend to hear Czechs swear, but also excitement, shock, fear, or any time when they can't quite contain their emotions... But it'll also depend on the Brit - some will be completely aversed to swearing, others will speak almost exclusively in swear words.
London is not a good place to base assumptions of British weather on, and neither is any one city/town. You're best taking the whole of England and the whole of Scotland and getting the averages for those two. For pretty much the entirety of my trip to London it was sunny and pleasant... but then it was also Summer, and it was only a week long trip. Aaaand of course Scotland would be wetter. Inverness is wetter than London and it's one of the drier areas in Scotland because of it's location - in terms of mountain shielding it from one side.
You've never heard of anyone joke about the queen? What planet do you live on? IS RUSSEL HOWARD NOT A PERSON YOU'VE HEARD OF? And then, of course, there is every single teenager on the planet, who would at least snicker at a joke involving the queen. Half of the British population has cracked a joke or made a satirical impression of the queen at some point in their lives. She's not a goddess or a god. She's a person whose done both good and questionable things and is nice to have as an official figure to boost tourism and interest in the country, but I wouldn't even say she runs anything really and no one's afraid to have a laugh at her expense. Because we can do that without fearing insulting anyone and getting our heads lopped off over it, or garnering unwanted attention from powerful individuals, or threats... it's never been a big enough issue that non-British people would have taken a not of how we view and treat the queen, so maybe that's why you think that we don't joke... but we do joke about the queen and are free to do so. Nor do we regard her more highly than anyone else. I mean, she's not Trump so it's not like she'll go after us or complain about us spreading fake news when we talk about the reality of things under a comedic light. XD
Great Tom, as usual!
Hope you won't mind but I'll probably make a video with my sts concerning assumptions in our region following yr idea
I'm sure the result can't be as interesting as yrs, but we'll have great time
No doubt!
I'm from the Northern Midwest in the US and talking about the weather is a common phenomenon here too and probably for the same reasons, though severe weather frequently makes local and national newscasts. But yeah, as a conversation starter weather is good. Where I'm from though and I checked we get an average of 606.321 ml of rain annually. I think that figure doesn't include snow. What I found surprising was when I visited Ireland people were always apologizing for the weather. First, this was confusing to me - it's not like you can do anything about it and second, I'm from the Upper Midwest I've seen weather far, far worse than the mild rain we had in Ireland when I was there.
This video is interesting.hope to see part 2❤️
Tom, was it you reading the extract from Dickens? If so, you should definitely do more recordings of literature and poetry! It was beautiful!
It was Martha, well spotted. I was putting on my deeper 'actor' voice lols!
@@EatSleepDreamEnglish ohhhh😯
That was fantastic Tom👌👌
I didn't recognize you😅
Best teacher Tom
#cheers mate
In Spain is also very common to talk about the weather inside of the lifts jajaja
Hi mate! Excellent as usual!
If you love snow, Tome, you should move to Idaho. We are still getting snow at the end of March. By now the snow is usually melted and it's warmer. It just isn't happening this year.
All I can say I LOVE the Brits, just like Canadians! You guys are truly the greatest in the world. I guess I am prejudiced because I speak English!
16:30 “Middle finger” drink style ??? 😂😂😂
Whattttt
I spent a whole year in Nottingham a few years ago, and I found out a few things.
Mainly, the weather is sh*t and booze is prohibitively expensive.
No wonder why so many Brits visit Spain during the summer for our booze and weather :D
Greetings from Spain :D
Edit: my experience with British people and "sorry" is explained pretty well by the following sentence:
"Americans do not say it, the British do not mean it, and Canadians overdo it."
nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-use-and-abuse-of-sorry-americans-do-not-say-it-the-british-do-not-mean-it-and-canadians-overdo-it
This was a bit of cheeky humour. :D
Your joke about how American’s don’t say sorry is untrue. That only happens in New York and California where tourist usually go to visit but that is a poor reflection of the rest of the U.S.
@@joiecardenas2086 my joke is untrue? It's a joke!
Of course it's untrue, it's an unfounded generalisation meant to make people laugh.
Jesus, man, no one can take a joke nowadays... 🙄
@@joiecardenas2086 and, according to your comment, it's not that unfounded. It's based on some piece of reality
No I can take a joke but I was saying I think of tourist go to other parts of the US that we all don’t act so posh and uppity like LA/California and New York people do and that is where most people go to visit. Im am saying we have good people
as well and it’s to bad we get are reputation from those places. I am not at all upset just want others to know that all Americans are not rude.
When I was in Spain, I learnt quickly to stop saying ‘por favor’ all the time. I worked in a bar, and some Spanish children that were playing outside kept running in and just saying ‘agua’ (water) at me. I found it rude until the manager explained to me that ‘we don’t make the children beg’. It all made sense why they find English people overly (and perhaps annoyingly) polite.
An English friend of mine bumped into a lamp post and he said 'sorry'.
Regarding the British politeness, my personal experience is that on the one hand British people are really very polite (they do really say "sorry" being bumped), but on the other hand they often don't make any allowance for foreigners' level of English, i. e. it doesn't occur to them to speak slower when talking to a foreigner. So it becomes a foreigner's task to understand what the say, rather then their task to communicate it clearly.
Now I understood the expressions I saw from my British colleagues when I disagree with the weather...haha
Lol. Loved to hear Queen’s jokes 😊 👍🏼
Weather all four season's in one day, Huh, at my late mother's 80th in the Scottish Borders we had all four seasons in an hour. It was in January and that scourge of Scottish summer life, midges even appeared.
Yeah.... i remember that when I was living in Ireland, it was pretty much like that.... completely different from where I live nowadays actually ( I live in Brazil)
OMG, there is a whole art of talking about weather in Britain 😅😍
I was doing the dishes when you started talking about it😂😂 liked the video and am waiting for part 2😁
About politness, In my view British have a great sense of respect and common sense. There are polite conventions that we Italian unfortunately haven't. Then British have a sense of humour which is so wonderful but also impolite and sharp somehow🤩
Hi Tom, i was brought up in the UK, England to be specific ;-), as you 've put as it's 1 person's opinion or observation, I study Human Behaviour myself. I find some are indirect, sarcastic (meant to be a humour) and some are polite in real. I do that myself as I was raised there. We are usually polite and nice in nature. But we certainly know how to react to a specific action or words. Comments please ;-)
Thanks for a video! I think I didn’t follow the numbers about rain... Isn’t it too small amount of rain for the whole year? I mean in milliliters. It’s just six cups of tea 😀
Btw, speaking of a fog, in the show The Crown the events behind the great fog have been displayed very detailed. Just FYI 😊
Yes Evgeny! I made a mistake, it should have read millimetres. Thanks for bringing that up! Oh and thanks for the tip about The Crown, I'll check it out.
Brits have always been very polite. In 1745 at the beginning of a battle between English and French armies , the English officier said : « French gentlemen, shoot first ».
But the French officier was very polite also and he answered : « English gentlemen , we never shoot first , shoot yourself»
One of the best videos I have ever seen, Thank you :)
There are upteen to learn from your lesson regarding British culture. And I was checking something else but your lesson come in list. Then I opened it up to learn something from your lesson. I almost seen every your tuber videos especially native speaker video from TH-cam to learn something new and that's why I was set up your lesson to learn something.
When I was a kid, I lived with the assumption that British were prim and proper. Thanks, Mary Poppins
I'm British I swear like a sailor, I was always told off as a child. I debate someone's opinion on the weather and I can be quite direct in how I speak.
John Boyega did a really great American accent in Star Wars
I think people love to talk about the weather because it is not a controversial issue .it is a great opportunity to start a conversation 😀
I love it! I hope to be in the second part.
With American accents, I noticed as a parent, a lot of little kids when play acting with friends will put on an American accent (I guess from watching TV and most singing accents are American) so I guess it’s just becomes naturally easy to do the American accent.