American Reacts 10 Reasons Why The UK is The Best Country in the World
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video I react to 10 reasons why the UK is the best country in the world! I must say, as an American I wasn't disappointed, maybe a little jealous. The reasons shown in this video made me realize just how much I didn't know about the United Kingdom. It's awesome.
The scenery is beautiful, the history is amazing, crime is low, the climate is great, healthcare is free and you even have four unique countries to explore under the UK flag. Wow! It takes a lot to truly be the best, but I wouldn't blame the British people for claiming that the UK is the best country in the world. There is no doubt in my mind it has to be one of the greatest.
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this reaction please give it a thumbs up, feel free to comment your thoughts and click the subscribe button to join me on my journey to discover the UK.
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Even in my family we had so many accents. Mum was Welsh, her dad was Scottish. My dad was Cornish, his dad was from Bristol. Ive been brought up in southern England. My brother lives in Devon and has a strong Devon accent. Back in the day when we all got together, it was accent chaos!!
Jam first 😉
@@gavinhall6040 Yep!! Definitely 😂
Same... My dad was Northern Irish.. my mom was English but born in Birmingham yet had more of a RP accent, Me and my siblings were born in Birmingham...my 3 eleat siblings have a different mom but was brought up in the same area yet they have a brummie accent whereas me and my 3 other siblings don't...its really weird because its the same for the entire area they either have a brummie accent or more of a RP accent
Scotland gods country
@@gavinhall6040 butter first - then it doesn't matter 😄 not here in 🏴 anyway 🤣🤣🤣
OK, so this is gonna be another long one from me!
You're correct in your assumption that was an old passport at the start there. Our new passports (since leaving the EU) are a dark blue colour, and obviously don't contain the European Union name. We'll be having a new passport update in coming months/years, with a change to the internal wording to reflect there now being a King instead of a Queen.
The islands you mention are mostly part of countries within the UK, and therefore belong to the UK. The Shetland Islands are part of Scotland; as are the Hebrides and the Orkney Islands. The Isle of Man (between England and Northern Ireland on the maps there) is a self-governing British Crown Dependency (as are Jersey and Guernsey which are located in the Channel Islands), and a bit of an interesting situation. It is not part of the United Kingdom itself, however it is part of the wider "British Isles" (the overall collection of islands in the area, including Great Britain, Ireland, etc), but the UK government are responsible for its defence and foreign affairs.
That clock tower is what most people know as Big Ben, however its actual name is the Elizabeth Tower. The name "Big Ben" refers to the bell found within the tower, rather than the tower itself.
As for the weather.... It does rain a fair amount, but its not like we suffer from rain 365 days of the year! We've been getting increasingly hot weather during our summers, with highs this year reaching 40C (104F) in some places! How I usually explain the British weather to Americans is: "Imagine Seattle was a country" - we share a lot of similar weather with the PNW!
10. Accents - We can usually find a completely different accent within a 20-30 minute drive. I'm from "The Midlands" in the UK, and there's a huge variety just within a 30 minute drive of my house! You have to remember that the UK is tiny compared to the US - imagine scaling the US down to the size of Alabama, but still keeping the variety of accents you guys have, and you're about there!
9. Scenery - Obviously, not everywhere in the UK is *that* beautiful, but we have such a wide variety of beautiful areas! If you want to check out some stunning landscapes within the UK/Ireland, look at the Lake District, The Jurassic Coast, The Yorkshire Dales, The Scottish Lochs, The Giant's Causeway, The Cotswolds....
8. Different Countries - Its definitely a sibling rivalry! We have our issues with each other, but its mostly just gentle ribbing, with some exceptions!
7. London - One thing I will say, is that London isn't representative of the UK as a whole. A lot of people, when they come over here to visit, just visit London. And whilst London is a great place to explore as a tourist, you wont get the full UK experience! Its very much an international city!
Sports - definitely Rugby, Football (Soccer), Cricket, Cheese Rolling.... OK, that last one is definitely more of a niche, jokey suggestion, but you can check out a video (CHEESE ROLLING COMPILATION 2018HD - BESTOP) to discover the hilarity that is the Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling!
6. Safety/Climate/Wildlife - The fact we have basically no deadly animals in the UK always seems to be one of the most shocking discoveries to our friends across the pond! We have one venomous snake that's native to the UK, but bites are not common enough to consider it that deadly! We're more likely to get charged by a bull in a field whilst out walking, that encounter anything deadly!
As I mentioned above, we're a very similar climate to the PNW.
5. NHS - As someone with a chronic illness, and many surgeries under my belt, the NHS has saved my life more times than I can count. I don't have a video recommendation to hand, to answer your question on how much in taxes does the NHS cost each of us, but if you do find a video explaining it, just remember that whilst our tax costs could seem high to you, we *don't* pay out $100s each month in health insurance on top of that. Everything is all included within those taxes. One video that might be of interest to you, but isn't specifically about the NHS, but rather taxes in general, is (How Does UK Tax Work? | Income Tax Explained | PAYE - Joe Georgekutty), maybe not for a reaction, but for just personal information.
Dental is a little different. It's not specifically included in the "free healthcare" (free at point of use, paid for by taxes) system of the NHS, neither is opticians/glasses etc. With Dental, we have both NHS and Private available, but even NHS treatment still costs, its just heavily subsidised. People under a certain age, or with certain health conditions, or on certain benefits, still get free Dental and eyecare, but for everyone else there is a subsidised cost.
4. Education - yeah, he pretty much covered everything on this one, not much to add other than Oxford and Cambridge are very heavily rooted in tradition, and whilst they are the most recognisable names, I wouldn't call them the "be all and end all" of university education in the UK.
3. Castles/Ruins - honestly, the ruins are everywhere, and there's large stately homes and castles set up as tourist attractions and landmarks throughout the UK. Edinburgh Castle is a fun visit if you ever find yourself up in Scotland!
2/1. Not much to say on either of those really!
Stonehenge is in Salisbury, Wiltshire - the South of England. Its about a 2-3 hour train ride from London, if I remember rightly.
One thing to note, with regards to your comment about how people feel like they're home, when they visit the places their ancestors lived.... Most British people find it extremely weird when Americans say "Oh, I'm Irish/Scottish/etc", when what they actually mean is "my great-great-great-great-grandfather was Irish/Scottish/etc". I know its a very typically American way to refer to oneself, but if you don't want weird looks if you eventually do come over to visit, I'd stick with "I have Irish/Scottish/etc ancestry" 😂
Another fantastic video!
Wow. Thanks for taking the time to answer all those questions I had throughout the video. Comments like yours have truly helped me learn even more after the videos than before. Cheese rolling as a sport? LOL Yes, I'll have to check that out. As for calling myself English, Irish, etc, I tend to agree. I wouldn't call myself Irish or British over there. LOL That would be weird. If someone asked what ancestry I had, then it would make sense to answer Irish, British, etc. I'm going to have to read over your post maybe 3 times so I can better absorb the information you've shared. Thanks again.
@@reactingtomyroots Just a little to add about Big Ben. It was cast in the same foundry as The Liberty Bell - I'm sorry yours cracked! 🥺
@@ellesee7079 It is the crack in Big Ben that gives it it's unique sound.
Cheese rolling is just self harm not a sport 🤣😂
@@reactingtomyroots like is said above the UK is the size of Alabama but instead of 5m people there is 67m people here hence the size of cars , housing and the bloody price of them . Anyway welcome to a long but exciting history lesson but beware as a lot of Americans have found out that the American education is somewhat shall we say economical with the truth , but no worries you'll enjoy yourself and if you have a sort of British humour there are plenty of television series to look at ie " would I lie to you ". ". Gimme gimme. ". ". Inbetweeners. ". , etc etc etc
There is no hatred I'm English and all the Irish Welsh and Scottish people that I have met have been lovely people
Those tiny old churches in the middle of villages surrounded by green fields and hills are absolutely everywhere in the U.K., so you’ll be in your element if you visit.
No church is a hamlet ,
@@cdkmonkey2699 Dammit , the mild cigar , found under benches and hedges :)
@@richard6440 Hey there, @cdkmonkey you're showing your age with the Benson & Hedges ad quote. Next you'll be singing, 'Everyone's a fruit and nutcase.' 😃
@@cdkmonkey2699 you're showing your age with the Benson & Hedges ad quote. Next you'll be singing, 'Everyone's a fruit and nutcase.'
@@TheWebcrafter Do the shake and vac, and put the freshness back :)
The point is, no matter how much we pay in taxes for the NHS, no one here goes bankrupt to pay medical bills. Ever.
or pay several hundreds of dollars every month to avaricious insurance companies for health insurance.
But your Gran does die while waiting 4 hours for an ambulance..
and you will never hear an amercian say " just had my six months maternity leave still got 6 months left"
@@michaelafrancis1361 even worse is that you can have a hospital right at your door, but have to go to one miles away because the closer doesn't accept your insurance...
13:12
That's Hyde Park, located near the Natural History Museum. Kensington Palace is located within the park. It's roughly 1.8 x 0.8 miles in size. There are plenty of parks like this around London, but Hyde Park is probably the most iconic.
That's not Big Ben, that's The Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben is the name of the bell inside, not the tower itself
You beat me to it!...
Lots of people do call it that though.. lol.
Yeah we know that it's the bell , but it's affectionately known as Big Ben by many people.
Who cares? I know that but still call it Big Ben as do most people.
@@thegroovetube3247 May I call you Tarquin Pillowbiter?
Thing is if we didn’t have that amount of rain we wouldn’t have the countryside we have
Absolutely. One of the first things that pop into my head when I think of the British Isles are lush green fields. I love it.
What sport you described sounds like Croquet. Three most traditionally popular field sports are - Football (Soccer), Rugby & Cricket
Quite a lot of croquet is played in Britain.
@@alanaw27 yeah, but he described croquet, mallets etc, but called the sport cricket lol. 😄
@@alanaw27 lol no it’s not
Think you need to check up cricket as it is quoted as the worlds 2nd most popular sport behind football (soccer). What you describe is croquet not cricket. The biggest cricket stadium in the world holds 132,000.
It's important to remember there are two main rugby codes, league and union. As a proud northerner, rugby league is by far the best 😊
The islands surrounding Scotland, like the Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland, Barra, Islay etc. are all part of the country of Scotland. Scotland is one of the countries that make up the 4 in the UK. There are other islands which are part of the country of England, such as The Isle of Wight and also there are some off the country of Wales, such as Anglesey.
Also with regard to rain, it does rain a fair amount, but probably a lot less than people think (if that makes sense!).
In the UK we pay about 26% of our earnings in tax but that is only if you earn over 12k a year, low income don't pay tax, in the US when you include all the services we get for our tax it would work out at 46% of your salary, so our nhs is far more affordable than yours. It astounds me that you pay for medical in your tax then through insurance then pay copays and also pay for for your medical procedures and then extortionate prices for medication. In the UK any medication perscription costs £9.35 that's it, if you are unemployed, elderly, under 18 or in full time education your medication is free, if your have a condition that is considered terminal ie Diabetes because you die without insulin again all medication is free.
Only in England do we get charged for prescriptions - and even then it is, as you say, at a flat rate, no matter how expensve the drug. If we are in England and must pay, we can buy a 3 or 12 month prescription pre-payment certificate (PPC) which covers all prescriptions for that period, no matter how many. It is worth getting an annual PPC if you need 12 or more prescriptions in a year, or a 3 month one if you are going to need more than 4 in 3 months.
Your be loved in the uk 🇬🇧 brother 🇺🇸 ❤ big respect go were your heart takes u god bless 🙏🏻🌟
The Republic of Ireland was neutral during WW2 but 'neutral on the allies side' There were some men who gave up their Irish nationality so they could fight for the British against Nazi Germany. After the war they couldn't get their pension on retirement because they were no longer Irish citizens. But they did it anyway........ The Irish are wonderful people and have a sense of humour you wouldn't believe.
Except that Ireland allowed German U boats to shelter in its harbours.
They never had to give up their citizenship.Your thinking of the men who deserted the irish army ,they were deserters and of course they weren't treated well they were deserters they were lucky they weren't shot.Plenty of irish did join the British army and though to be fair they were badly treated by the irish authorities they didn't desert.British commentators don't realise that ireland faced basically 4 threats in the war period possible german invasion,possible british invasion ,possible american invasion ,and last but certainly not least hardline IRA dissidents that any irish soldier would desert our army at that time was inconcionable albeit to fight the nazis.If the nazis did invade ireland we would have been without 10% of our army. What did the british army do with their deserters i think you will find they had them executed
@@gallowglass2630Nobody in Britain was executed for desertion in WW2.
The US sentenced 49 to death.... but commuted the executions of 48.
WW1 was a different story in Britain.
You
The design for Central Park was based on the design of Birkenhead Park near Liverpool. Birkenhead Park was the worlds first publicly funded civic park.
I did not know that
Interesting fact about the UK…no matter where you are in the UK you are never more than 70 miles from the coast! That’s how small we are!!!
This guy deserves a sub, love from uk 🇬🇧
I expect someone has mentioned this before but the furthest distance you can go from the sea in the UK is 70 miles. Football (Soccer), Rugby, Tennis and Cricket are some of the biggest sports here but we have hundreds of others and we have invented most of them but my Favourite is Formula 1. Stonehenge is in the county of Wiltshire and is roughly halfway between the cities of Salisbury and Bath ( Its actually closer to Salisbury, but if you look for these two cities on a map it will be easier to find).
Here is my list of 10 that you might also like to consider. 1. Getting out and about using the most accurate maps in the world courtesy of the Ordnance Survey. 2. Beside the usual fire and rescue services, if you venture out to sea there is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which operates 24/7 around our coasts. 3. Britain is small, which is why it is possible to travel from one end to the other and back in a day to watch you favourite Premier League team (if you can get a ticket). 4. Green space. Publicly accessible green space. In London, aside from the Royal Parks in the centre, further out there is Hampstead Heath, Richmond Park, Wimbledon Common and Greenwich Park, to mention a few. 5. Public footpaths. These run throughout the land, over private property, and are well sign-posted. 6. History, say no more, it's all around you. 7. Museums...for just about anything you can imagine. 8. Public transport. Often over stretched, but there are buses, trains and taxis to get you to pretty much anywhere. 9. National Parks and military training grounds. Fantastic unspoilt areas for walking on the wild side. Just check for the red flags when live firing takes place. 10. Charity shops, are in every high street and offer a huge variety of donated clothes and artefacts for knock-down prices. Enjoy.
It's definitely true that the accents vary hugely within a small area. Remember that it's around 12 hours to drive from the south west of England into Scotland so logic sictates that if there are many different accents (and there are) they must be within close proximity to each other. I don't think it's comparable to America in that way. They say the accent changes every 12 miles. I can't say that's definitely true, and as an American you probably wouldn't notice such subtle differences, but I'd say that doesn't sound particularly incorrect.
The way zoning and green belt building laws work we don’t have the urban sprawl in the same way you get in the US , you’re never far from the countryside - combined with the ancient rights of access we have we can walk through pretty much all of it including through private property
That's a very good point about Rights of Way. I have only recently properly understood just how unusual and peculiar to England these ancient rights of access are, despite my advancing years (63) and being bred/born English over generations. I have solo walked the length and breadth of this island (GB) a number of times; route planning north of the border is strangely harder but in theory easier because of Open Access in Scottish Law; one look at the coloured dotted lines (depicting RoWs on Ordnance Survey maps) stopping abruptly at the border illustrates this perfectly. England really is an oddity in this regard.
The thing most people refer to as "Big Ben" is actually the "Elizabeth Tower." Big Ben is the device that produces the chime.
I live on the North Wales coast in the rain shadow of a large mountain range called Snowdonia, so even though Snowdonia gets very high rainfall being mountainous, we get slightly less rain than the UK average, I also camp a lot up in the mountains and have seen the odd Adder, which is our only venomous snake, there's about 100 Adder bites reported each year but dying from one is extremely rare and there hasn't been one death reported in the last 20 years, but there are 4 deaths from cow attack each year!
It's crazy that cows are the most dangerous animal, but it would be refreshing to have less worry about dangerous animals in nature.
I have to say proud to be British 🇬🇧
I'm sure you'll adore the UK. Even I haven't travelled far in my own country. Furthest up I've been is York. The most spectacular city!! Only go to London if you've got plenty of money...so expensive!!
NHS dentistry is subsidised, there are 3 bands of treatment ( this is for England, the rest of the U.K. I believe has different arrangements)
Band 1 initial check up , treatment plan, x-ray & clean £23.80 this is usually scheduled every six months
Band 2 , includes everything in band 1 plus fillings, root canal and extractions £65.20
Band 3 includes everything in 1&2 plus crowns, dentures and bridges.£282.80
Also prescriptions are £9.35 each in England or you can purchase a year long exemption for £108.10 which covers limitless prescriptions ( free for all in Scotland)
Over 60’s get free prescriptions and those with long term chronic life threatening conditions.
However dentistry carried out in NHS hospitals is free
Under 18’s and under 19’s in full education receive free treatment
Also if you are pregnant and up to a year after giving birth
On low income or some benefits
It's really not as rainy as people think, we are a small island surrounded by various currents and weather systems so weather is never the same from hour to hour.
Re London Parks:
There are, in fact, 3000 'parks' in London - of varying sizes. But the 'best' ones tend to be the Royal Parks - including Hyde Park, Richmond and Greenwich Parks, St James etc etc. Quite beautiful - especially if you love animals !
Big Ben is actually the name of the Great Bell in the tower, which strikes the hours. The clock tower was renamed the Elizabeth Tower to commemorated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
London doesnt have a "Central Park", large green parks cover the whole city.
In Britain, people's accent changes every 15 miles.
The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.
I live just north west of Aberdeen in North East Scotland. We're lucky to have some fantastic countryside on our doorstep and we're very close to the coast too. I'm a big fan of castles and I love visiting them, although I get a few complaints from my kids (and husband) if I drag them along, 😆. Craigievar is a very striking pink castle about a half hour drive away. It's said to have inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle. South of Aberdeen is Dunottar which is in ruins but still imposing, set out into the North Sea on a rocky peninsula. The Shetland Islands are part of Scotland. I've never been there but have been to the closer Orkney Islands. If you want to find stone circles, you can take your pick up there! Where I live now, the Doric dialect of Scots is spoken. I grew up familiar with Lowland Scots (or Lallans) and when I move 40 miles away to Aberdeen for college I couldn't understand what people were saying to me. My husband is English and a security person at his work used to speak to him before every shift at work and he just nodded and smiled as he had no idea what they were saying.
Aberdeen looked beautiful from the little I've seen. Definitely like to get up that way on a visit. When I come to visit the UK I want to spend time truly exploring, which is why I'm going to have to wait until we can spend at least a month, if not more over there. As for the castles I have a feeling for me it would be the opposite, I would probably have to drag my wife to tour the castles. Don't get me wrong she would find the first one interesting, but I would be far more interested in discovering many. That's hilarious that he just nods, I think sometimes people from the North east have probably done that to me. My southern accent isn't always the clearest to some of our more proper english speakers. LOL
@@reactingtomyroots Aberdeen isn't generally on the tourist radar but it definitely has it's plus points. It used to have the nickname 'Athens of the North' as it's situated on 7 hills. Having been to Athens, I can assure you that we don't have the Greek weather though, lol. It can be pretty miserable in the rain but in the sunshine the buildings can sparkle as the main building material of the Victorians who constructed much of the older parts of the city used granite as building material. It boasts the second largest granite building in the world. Our public transport is quite good but if you want to go off the beaten track or get places quicker, I would say you definitely need a car. For being so small, the UK is very diverse. England's landscape and geology is distinctly different to Scotland's and the South of England can be much much warmer at times. Parts of England I would go back to again and again are Devon and Cornwall as their coastline is gorgeous and the Lake District in the North of England is stunning to drive through.
I like you Steve. I wish all Americans were like you 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇦🇺
When it comes to diversity and multiple cultures, you'll mostly see that in very large areas, such as the big cities. For example, London, Birmingham, Manchester. Of course that's not to say that you wont find all different folk up and down the country, but I think if you were to look at statistics and population data, it would mostly be in large cities and towns.
Really enjoying your channel, man. Especially because you seem to have a genuine interest and you read comments, etc etc. There's so much cool stuff out there for you to check out, too. Have a good one bro
Thanks so much Michael. Yea, I'm really enjoying this journey. It took me looking into my ancestry to realize that while I am an American, my genetics, family history and blood are connected to the people of the British Isles. It's crazy to think I have cousins in a part of the world I knew nothing about. While my paternal line has been in America for a very long time, for my maternal side the last British grandma was still alive in 1900. That's a little of why I'm so driven to learn about Britain, I want a connection to that part of myself.
I love the comments man. They have helped me learn so much more than even the videos themselves have. I've been trying to respond to as many comments as possible, but it's becoming impossible to respond to everyone at this point. LOL There are so many it would take hours. But, I really do appreciate the comments so I'm committed to spending at least some time every day reading as many as I can get to and trying to respond when I can. Thanks again for the kind words.
@@reactingtomyroots With the diversity its most diverse in the big southern cities. I grew up in the West country part of England and in my area its was nearly 100% white. Don't really know why there are areas that have a more diverse community than others
Big Ben is the name of the bell in the tower, which is called the Elizabeth Tower , which is part of the Palace of Westminster, where the Houses of Parliament are.
There are several parks in the centre of London the photo was Hyde Park . It is part of the Crown estate.
I remember moving from my home town in the Midlands, when I was 11 to our new house, 15 minutes away and getting picked on mercilessly at my new school because I had a very different accent. Even neighbouring counties like Warwickshire and Leicestershire, where I previously and now live, have very different accents and they're 15/20 minutes away. Its wild how different accents are when you're only a few miles away!
We do get a certain amount of rain- but the biggest 'issue' with the weather for most people is that it is cloudy on a lot of days, and during the winter months there are very few daylight hours - in December only 9 hours 10 minutes in London - the shortest day being about 7.30 am to 4.30pm, with the highlands of Scotland it beng more like 9am to 3.30 pm. Our number of days with rainfall are pretty even all year round, which means more rain in summer than other places might get.
It rains a lot but not enough to need an umbrella, it is 'English rain' which is basically drizzle, really light rain, everyday, many hours
I'm loving watching your reactions to the UK. As for the NHS, you're right to question dentisty. In theory, it's part of the NHS, but the reality is that it's only subsidised a bit by the NHS - if you need dental work you're gonna pay, and private dental insurance is more necessary than ever if you want to be assured of dental care. The NHS has long waiting lists for a lot of care in general. In an emergency sitaution though, you have no worries about getting free care. Overall I would buy private health care cover in this country if I could afford it, to cover non-emergency needs.
You would be VERY welcome here Steve, to visit AND live!.
Big Ben is the bell in the clock that is in the Elizabeth Tower (formally St. Stephen's Tower); there is also the Victoria Tower which prompted the rename of the main clock tower to Elizabeth.
I’m from the midlands Birmingham. But lived in north wales for 8 years and my 2 sons are born there too. When I came back to Birmingham I started to miss wales because the sea was only 2 miles away and I think I took that for granted. Birmingham is okay it’s the second biggest city from London. But I now live in Coventry which is 17 miles away from Birmingham . Kersley village which is just on edge of Coventry has beautiful green around. Sometimes someone would have chickens in there garden and you see horses on the fields they even ride the horses along the roads too. Also as for dental care unfortunately yes if your working you have to pay for your dental work. But all in all Uk is a great place to explore especially in wales it’s so beautiful there if you love villages and green you’re getting alot of it there . Also a lot of castles.
Britain has a reputation of being rainy,but truthfuly its more overcast a lot of the time.
We are equivelent to seattle,washington for rain🇬🇧🇬🇧
I actually like the weather in the Pacific NW, although I live on the opposite side of the country where the average day is HOT. I bet I'd enjoy your weather. Thanks for commenting.
Lomfom is the world’s largest true urban forest,with nearly as many trees as residents, and nearly 50% of her land given over to garden, park, verge , allotment and other greenery
Nice view of Oban near the end of the video.
I nearly died when you were trying to describe cricket, but you were actually thinking of the game 'croquet' which isn't a popular game these days. What attracts me to your channel is this kind of naivety! It's endearing.
That picture is of the Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben is the massive Bell in the top of the tower !
There is a separate tax called National Insurance which is in addition to income tax. Dental costs are reduced or free for low income, children and pregnant women. Prescriptions are about £9 per item now.
If you come to London and if you want to see it all, then I recommend going to the shard the tallest building in London
Hyde Park is located in Westminster London, it is one of the Royal Parks and is 350 acres.
You may be interested in doing a video on Royal Parks!
I'm totally on the same page with you there with regard to old cemeteries... I love walking around them and looking at the really old tombstones. I feel at peace when I'm doing that. 😌
11.02 is neist point lighthouse isle of Skye. 11.29 is my town :) Oban. No deadly animals apart from midgies :) here income tax is 20% over the income of £12k and you pay national insurance that covers NHS and dental but it can be hard to find a dentist who will take new NHS customers these days. 22.07 is Glenfinnan viaduct used in the Harry potter films. Come visit we can go for a pint :)
I would love to join you both. Cheers!
Dental treatment is available on the NHS but there is a reduced fee to pay. Except for children, pregnant women or the unemployed who receive free treatment. There is also private treatment available which is obviously expensive.
Re NHS. You assumed that the average Brit pays more taxes than the average American for healthcare. This is incorrect because the UK Government 'bulk buys' drugs etc and does not provide massive profits to private healthcare providers. I fact, the average Brit pays £2892 per year towards healthcare, compared to £7617 in the US. Put another way, the UK spends 9.7% of its GDP on healthcare. compared to 17.2% in the US. Check out " How the UK's Healthcare System Works" by CNBC.
Just like the American healthcare system to do things much more expensively than they have to. They literally charge $50 for a bandaid. Thanks for the info and video recommendation.
@@reactingtomyroots absolutely, there’s no middle man that wants a cut (ie insurance companies) and because the focus isn’t on profit they do a lot more on preventative care as that keeps the costs down. It has its problems but is genuinely a much more efficient and health-driven approach
The game with the mallet and hoops is called croquet (pronounced (Cro-kay). Cricket is played on a field with a central oblong strip 22 yards long. It has two 'Wickets'. Made up of 3 pointed sticks with a groove at the other end. These are 'Stumps'. The grooves hold two more pieces of round wood called 'Bales'.
The stone circle at the end is Stonehenge
Accents can differ substantially between villages and towns that are located next to one another.
The Isle of Man that you circle in the Irish sea is not part of the UK, but is a Crown Dependency. UK is responsible for the defence of the Isle of Man, but it has its own Parliament (The Tinwald). Their citizens are British, but are not represented in the UK Parliament. The Kings Privy Council is responsible to ensure good Governance of the dependency. It's a quirk of our complicated none codified constitution.
Linguists have actually worked out that the accents in the UK change noticeably evey 7 miles on average. I think thats probably true because the next town from me is around 7 miles and the accent is very slightly different.
we can go weeks without rain. in the summer we have hose pipe bans.
It's not a Central Park. There are several Royal Parks in London.
Kensington Gardens. ...
Richmond Park. ...
Bushy Park. ...
St James's Park. ...
The Green Park. ...
The Regent's Park and Primrose Hill. ...
Greenwich Park.- to name just a few. They were originally The Monarch's Hunting Grounds.
Popular sports in the UK are: #1 Soccer (or as we say, football), #2 Cricket (England)/Rugby (Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland), #3 probably pub games (darts, pool, snooker). Others that I'm not sure where they fit in: there's golf, MMA/Wrestling, and Boxing. The sport you were thinking off with the mallets is crocket, cricket is like baseball but with a flat bat (simply put)
The park you were calling Central Park is Hyde Park. It is 1.5 miles long and 0.7 miles wide (roughly)
I would recommend reading some Bill Bryson books about the UK and it's language
Thanks for the recommendation Paul.
I would recommend reading Bill Bryson full stop! He is very knowledgable, very funny and a brilliant writer.
Rugby is like American Football without the padding.
Croquet is the mallet and hoops game that no British commoner plays, it's for rich people.
Cricket and Football are the two major sporting activities in the UK.
Football (Soccer) would be the number one sport. But Cycling, Formula 1, Cricket and Rugby are all very popular. My favourite sport is Tennis also quite popular here.
Stonehenge is in Wiltshire - close to Bath in Somerset. It’s a bit far from anywhere else and not really near a train station, there are hundreds of other ancient stone circles but Stonehenge is the most famous and the biggest.
I think where ever your ancesters are from there's always a pull to that country and Culture hope you visit soon you will enjoy it
Hiyya Steve as an expat Englishman living in Australia find living out here is so much better than living in the UK - I have been back for vacations but found it so claustrophobic now and the prices of living so much higher. On the plus side the health service in the UK is really good which again in Australia is also not expensive unless you decide on say surgery that you need done quickly and for that you need insurance. The down side is the cost of fuel and say an ambulance which everyone is up for the cost.
London has a total of 8 Royal Parks totalling over 4,900 acres around 20 square km the one you are seeing at 13.00 is Hyde park 346 acres
It rains mostly in colder months but, it is the reason our country's are green. We have good summers.
When I think of the British Isles I think of lots of green rolling hills and it's beautiful.
@@reactingtomyroots and lots of sheep
'Big Ben' is the bell behind the clock. The tower is the Elizabeth Tower recently renamed to honour our Queen. It doesn't really rain that much, for example London has only 8 rainy days on average in July with about 24 inches of rain per year while say Cincinnati in the US has 46 inches per year. Re: accents, I am from the English West Midlands and I can tell the difference in accentsfrom just 3 or 4 miles away. There are many parks in London some of th em very large. Football and cricket are the main games and Rugby follows closely, by th eway baseball was a British game which wasexported to the US but died out over here except in a similar amateur game called rounders. . The sport you describe as cricket is actually called croquet cricket is entirely different..
the game you were thinking of when you were wondering what cricket is is called croquet
With regards to accents. I live in Newcastle but was born in Sunderland. These are two cities that are 10 miles apart. The geordie (newcastle) accent is recognisably different from the maccam (sunderland) accent.
Stonehenge is in Wiltshire. Google stone circles etc in Wiltshire they are everywhere. Avebury stone circle, West Kennet long barrow, Silbury hill to name but a few
For the worker class, rugby and football , for the middle class , cricket and tennis, and for the rich, formula 1 and horse racing,... I've mist a few in between but you get the general idea
If you enjoy the pastoral, beatific countryside part of England you might enjoy watching a TV show called Midsomer Murders. Always loved seeing the beautiful countryside and pace of life in these small idyllic villages portrayed but with the entrigue and excitement of murder mysteries. Great show!
I used to work in a town called St Helens about 30 years ago. I would get a bus from outside my local train station to get there. As I got near to the town the bus would stop at the stop, people would get on and they would have Liverpool accents, yet at the next stop which was about 500 yards down the road those passengers would all have St Helens accents.
The Bell inside the Tower is "Big Ben".
You ask about Big Ben. That's the name of the large bell inside what is actually called the Elizabeth Tower. It sits at the eastern end of the Palace of Westminster (parliament building). Dialect can change 20 miles down the road. Words also change. There's so much to see and learn. A week or two vacation would only scratch the surface, even though we're small by acreage. We pack a real punch in what matters.
I hate to brag but I live in one of those idyllic villages in Northumberland UK. Its called Ovingham and it has a 12th century church and lots of green fields around it and stonebuilt cottages Theres also a ruines castle , Prudhoe Castle 10 minutes walk away from my front door.It's also true about the accents.Theycan change every 20 miles or sometimes 10 !
I live in Norfolk. We have the Norfolk Broads we have Norwich City some of the oldest Tudor buildings and the castle in the heart of Norwich. Climate is lovely. My brother lives in Ocala Florida and he came own recently and said the air quality made him sleep better.
I bet it's beautiful. When I come for a visit it's going to be hard to decide where exactly to spend my time. BTW I use to live about 30 minutes from Ocala in the early 2000s. I bet your air quality was a dream to him. Thanks for your comment.
@@reactingtomyroots Norwich is a very beautiful and historic city. Both the castle and cathedral were built by William the Conqueror It also has the most medieval churches in Europe, all made of flint. It use to be said Norwich has a church for every week of the year and a pub for every day of the year!
A portion of your National insurance contributions, that everyone pays through their salaries, goes towards funding the NHS along with other funding through taxes etc.
Stonehenge is on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire
Soccer is the #1 sport without a doubt. The climate is decent, Rain but its not for 30 days in a row like some states.
Yep Marconi was based here in Chelmsford.
That is the clock tower. Big Ben is the name of the bell that's in the tower. most popular sports are football, rugby, tennis ,cricket & boxing. Dental care is part of the NHS service. We don't notice the tax on the NHS as it's always been part of our tax. We pay something called national insurance as part of our tax which covers the NHS etc.
Thats Hyde park in the middle of London. Its plenty big but nowhere near as big as central park. Saying that theres ALOT more smaller parks and green spaces all over the city and suburbs
The tower is called the ELIZABETH TOWER. The bell inside the bell tower is called BIG BEN. There accent changes approx every 25 miles within the UK. And the difference is extremely noticeable.
If you do visit the UK, please try to visit Wales (my homeland), Oxford (where I now live), and the Cotswolds (for its 'typically English' villages)!
I say he needs to try up here in Northumberland so many nice places up here
Your right mate, its banter we don't really hate each other.... im right down in the south of england 33 miles south west of London, 40 mins by train - parks, there are 100's! more parkland than NOTt in London, Richmond park is 1200 acres! sports, football and rugby and cricket..... NO baseball or American football or basketball on tv, im sure some people play in local teams somewhere in the uk
Dental care is covered in National Heath Service Care... NHS is covered by a standard percentage tax from your sallery, the more you earn or make the more you are taxed towards NHS. Vistors to the UK receive free health care, imigrants to the UK from the US pay a standard fixed annual contribution.
The only snake we have that is poisonous is the adder & the midges are pretty fierce up in Scotland.... but other than the usual bees & wasps, most wildlife in the UK isn't much of a threat. 😊
you said wildlife in the UK isn't much of a threat.
true but as a city boy the first time i came across a cow walking down a road (escaped from a field) you realise how big they are and it might be better to walk away
@philiprice7875 yeah I get that, they are a darned sight bigger close up...I always used to sing when coming across cows in fields on country walks with the kids, the cows used to turn away in disgust & walk off...tough crowd!
Climate? They used to say, "Britain doesn't have a climate ... just lots and lots of 'weather'", meaning that it was all fairly random from day to day and even hour to hour ... 🙂
Stonehenge - Wiltshire (SW England)
If I drive 20 mins away, the word for things like food or everyday objects changes, not to mention place names being pronounced differently depending on the town you’re in.
We do have NHS Dentists but they're pretty basic. If you want any cosmetic dentistry such as braces, white fillings, crowns and implants it has to be paid for privately.
You've almost certainly heard this before, but it would be interesting to see Karl Pilkington giving you a tour of the UK...
as for rugby... think american football, but with less padding and more rules.
it's likely that the most popular large sport in the UK is either Binge drinking or Football. usually at the same time. :P
Please pause and comment much more, really helps with the flow.
Big Ben is the Bell inside the tower its called Elizabeth tower once it was called Saint Stephen's tower