Many people unfamiliar with British ways think that when we say "sorry" we're apologising. Not always true, it can simply mean, "I didn't hear you properly, can you repeat that please?" Alternatively it can mean, "Who the **** do you think you're talking to sunshine?", or even "Are you looking for a slap"? It's all in the tone of voice and the inflexion.
i think in general the more abuse we casually give out, the closer we feel to you. if i'm being polite then it means that i don't know you very well and so i'll be on my "best" behaviour, however if you and I have reached the swearing phase then we're probably besties.
@@MathildeMaltesers there is nothing better after holding a door open and no one says thank you or cheers , you then start quietly and build up the volume as they walk away saying - your welcome , anytime , same time tomorrow , you've dropped your card , etc etc 😂
But there is also a main meal versus light snack reason. Dinner will always be the main meal and lunch vs tea is for the light meal and will depend on the time of the day.
Regarding the coffee incident, your English is so good, she probably thought you were English. If you had more of a foreign accent she would have given you some leeway.
The quirks of us British are many. Tea, if you like tea, don't tell anyone how you make it unless asked by a person you know well, because no matter how you make tea, it'll be different to the way the person asking makes it and your way will be wrong. Lol.
I always pour hot water in a cup with a teabag in. Do I do it correctly? Or should I leave the teabag out? Mhm. Anyway, NEVER EVER EVER DARE to put in the milk first. Unless of course someone says the milk goes in first and then you can use the teabag to stir it around a bit.
I'm sorry, I'm one of those who find James Corden difficult to stomach, but he was apparently good in the History Boys and has got over himself and now knows how to be a being x
Your English is incredible. You should be very proud. Did you know that Wellington's horse at the Battle Of Waterloo in 1851 was called Copenhagen? Just a fun fact. Great video.
Hi Mathilde - Dinner/;Lunch and Tea/Dinner/Supper are regional memes. In Manchester where you are the locals will refer to Dinner as the midday meal and Tea as the evening meal. Most of the examples you give I can relate to (having lived and worked in Greater Manchester for the majority of my life.) However, a lot of your experience appears to reflect big city life - in the suburbs and the rural areas there is less crime risk and fewer self checkouts! Keep well.
I also didn't really experience what she described (in terms of crime, phone stolen, names for bread etc) in London while I lived there for 5 years, except for the politeness and the girls under dressed no matter the weather lol and the tea! I am now in the South of England and still haven't experience crimes..
I sympathise with you regarding the nuances of our culture. We can be accused of being rude for the tiniest thing which I often am because although I’m from London, I’m sick of having to tip toe around everyone in order not to cause offence.
I’m 70 and brought up in the 50s and 60s. My family was “working class” in the Black Country (just South West of Birmingham, look for Dudley. The meals were always Breakfast, Dinner then Tea.
The dinner, tea thing is a north/south thing but also a class thing. Upper class people are more likely to use lunch and dinner, but a northern working class guy like myself will say dinner instead of lunch and tea instead of dinner. Good reaction by the way and pretty accurate 😉
@@MathildeMaltesers I don't know, even though I was a checkout boy for a while in the Sainsbury's in Fallowfield. I love Manchester, but it has the worst crime of any UK city. I was mugged twice, had a car stolen and burgled in my first year there! You know about Scallies right?
@@Squimple Aw that's awful! - but yes that's why I mentioned I was surprised at the crime! And yea I've heard about them, in and around Fallowfield especially. Hope you're a bit more lucky now x
The dropping of letters in place names is a matter of convenience. Think about how you first signed your name, maybe it was really precise with each letter clearly drawn or maybe it had lots of flourishes. Once you've done a few more orbits around the sun you'll notice that unless you really focus on doing it properly it becomes more of a squiggly line and maybe a quarter of the letters are recognisable, especially if you have to do it a lot for work or business. You'll keep a few identifying traits so you know it's yours but not at the expensive of saving time or effort. Place names are the same. The Shire of Worcester is now just woostersheer. The dinner/tea thing is like a lot of the internal cultural struggles in the UK in that it is class based and has its roots in events like the Norman invasion. When those of French persuasion ruled the natives of wealth who wanted to keep that wealth adopted the language and mannerisms of their new rulers as did anyone who wanted to move up the social ranks. This isn't universal though because the British contrarian nature means some things were stubbornly held on to by the rich which meant the poor would adopt the French in order to be contrary to the rich. The further north you go the less influenced the society tends to be as the French wished to stay close to "civilisation".
Leicester Square - Leh Stuh, where did all the letters go? Funny take on it, I nearly spurted out my typhoo tea when you said that! If you think Leicester Square was hard to work out, try Bottle of Water - BO'OH'O'WA'ER. Brits and the Irish are the funniest people I've ever met, the humour in London is something to behold and when you leave the city, no one misses the weather, but every ones pines forthe humour, as it's simply irreplaceable.
The internationally recognised English accent is called "RP" (received pronunciation) and was traditionally used by BBC and other public announcers and broadcasters. It is strongly associated with the upper middle-classes from the Metropolitan south (London + SE England). Nowadays there is an effort to normalise the use of other regional accents in broadcasting. Obviously Scottish, Welsh and Irish people have distinct accents, there are major regional English accents too; West Midlands/Birmingham, NE (Geordie), Liverpool (Scouse), London/Cockney etc. In general northern accents are distinct from southern ones. There is a big north-south cultural divide in England.
Your English is amazing, were you brought up as bilingual? I can normally detect a slight accent (except Dutch who often speak better than me), but you are nearly perfect R.P. You come over very naturally as well, hope your studies go well.
Haha, for the moving thing, myself and everyone I know say "excuse me" 😆 Some things are different between the cities and countryside - I'm a country girl (from Norfolk) and crime like what you mention is really rare out here :) Also we only have a couple of self service checkouts where I live, all the others are human operated, I believe that is another difference between city/country. You should try staying in some of the countryside if you get a chance, would be interesting to hear any differences between where you're from and the UK's :) But yeah, everything you have said here is completely correct! This is perfect for anyone wanting a true insight into the UK. Great video!
I think your experience is characterized by living in the city. There's quite the difference between the largest UK cities and more rural areas. The culture in cities is a lot more intense, magnified even and thus there is increased pressure to conform to their cultural standards. The rest of the country is more liberty minded and has a relaxed laissez-faire attitude to life and others; in fact you might say this characterizes the majority of the country. Also city folk act polite but are actually bastards, the rest of the country keeps up appearances as far politeness goes, but are generally more blunt, while genuinely being nicer.
Nope, you never hear city people generalising and criticising people from the country but lots of people from the villages put their prejudices out there for all to see. Nobody conforms in cities, nobody cares what you look like, sound like or act like unless it’s harming them, country folk have to be more conformist as they don’t have the social and cultural opportunities.
I don't think you should have censored your points on crime and safety. This is important information for people to have, and you might save some future visitor from trouble.
I spent a few months in Denmark on an Army base, the first bit of 'equipment' they provided for the empty workshop, was a Coffee maker, and about half a truck load of Coffee, and word soon got round a Brit was on the base,,,the giveaway was asking for coffee with milk!!
This was very informative and witty, thanks for your view on the UK. As an American I tend to have the same impressions esp about the über politeness...except tea with milk which I have been drinking since an adolescent.
Dear me Mathilde. You seem to have attracted some weirdly aggressive commenters here haha It's always interesting to hear the opinions of people living on our little island so thank you for sharing. I feel the dinner/tea thing is definitely different in the North compared to the South so you will find a mix depending on where people grew up.
As a general rule of thumb Lunch/Dinner/Tea is a class thing The middle class call their mid-day meal Lunch and their evening meal Dinner, while the working class call their mid-day meal dinner and their evening meal Tea Gavin & Stacy is shit If you went to Manchester no wonder you encountered so much crime Apart from that, its always interesting to see how other people view us~ An enjoyable video, thank you
Our politeness is far better, than ever upsetting us, believe me do not even get us even slightly miffed.. up North Lunch is Dinner and Dinner is Tea.. sorted
You are Danish living in the part of the UK once called the Danelaw due to the amount of Danish Vikings settled here including my own ancestors. Most people in the old Danelaw are descended from Danes. In Yorkshire our dialect is full of old words from Norse. I saw a documentary about Danish troops in Afghanistan and was surprised to find that I could understand a lot of what they were saying. I'm surprised that you didn't see the similarities. You're not as different as you think. You would see this more in Yorkshire I think.
In 1002 AD Ethelred ordered the killing of every Dane living within the Danelaw because of the demands for more money and stillbeing invaded, I share DNA with 4 of those murdered in Oxford. BTW, Danes and Norse were different tribes.
Hi Mathilde. First time seeing your pretty face and hearing your very good English pronunciation. We are a strange complication of humanity but usually quite nice, especially us older types. I suspect you have been speaking English since childhood, yes? I look forward to hearing more comment from you about our mixed up approach to life. Jeff x
The lunch/dinner thing is regional but a good rule of thumb is that dinner is the biggest meal of the day. So at Christmas, for example, when my family has a big meal in the afternoon we would say Breakfast, Dinner, tea - but on a work day (when I would just have a packed lunch) it would be Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Supper is another confusion as some people use it in place of tea whereas others use it as a word for an evening extra - something that is more than a snack but less than a meal.
First of all I think that Mathilde is very beautiful with a very attractive manner. Second I live in a small village in the mountains of Spain and when I order tea in a café they make it with hot frothy milk like they do with coffee.
Hi Mathilda, just a point on politeness, when you say can you move, just say “excuse me!” I know it sounds like you’re asking for forgiveness but that’s the Brit way of asking somebody to get out of your way. If they persist in staying there stick a “please” on the end! Still no move then just push past !!!.?? Well you know what I mean, but thats the correct, polite way to gain access to a clear way past people! Ok??? Cheers Aah Kid! Oh! That’s the most accent free accent I’ve heard, love it!
What would you say about the magnolia paint that seem to be a standard colour for interior walls in Britain? Surely, this is different in Denmark. I noticed your background. Mine's the same, lol
Sorry about the crime I come from a big city, we are more aware of where we are and tend not to get caught of balance, not always we suffer too but I dont think as much
1:55 Yes, what you experienced was a "phatic" question = "denoting speech used to express or create an atmosphere of shared feelings, goodwill, or sociability rather than to impart information" And replying with actual information of your own is a definite faux pas (to use the Danish term). By the way, the Danish Gambit is my favourite chess opening, and definitely beats the Queens Gambit despite whatever Netflix might advocate. So, ... how are you today?
In informal speech, especially working class; LUNCH = 'dinner', DINNER = 'tea', but in formal speech, and typical of the middle-classes, LUNCH = lunch, TEA = afternoon tea (a hot drink with sandwiches, biscuits, cakes perhaps) DINNER = Sit down evening meal, usually cooked.
I have a couple of degrees from Manchester University, and worked there for 34 years. I knew a Danish girl student in the late1980s, she wanted to lose her Danish accent, yours is very minimal and quite neutral BTW, when speaking English. When I knew her, she had perfected a flawless Mancunian accent, she sounded like she had been born in Chorlton or Whalley Range!
@@MathildeMaltesers No, there never were many Scandinavians, I once helped a girl from Malmö with her MSc research and supervised the third-year project of a Norwegian from a town near Oslo. I must say I knew many more Greek, Chinese, Mexican and Brazilian students at Manchester.
As a northerner my meals are breakfast lunch and tea. If I dine out in the evening, i say im going out for a meal or to eat. I never eat dinner in the evening and supper might be toast or crsckers before bed. I know we Brits love our tea, but it's no more orevalent to Americans drinking coffee. What's the big deal with it? And I'd far be polite and use please and thank you than sound rude and abrupt. As a kid at home I had to ask permission to leave the meal table and to use the toilet in other people's homes.
Accents change every 30 miles or so. It can be difficult to understand people in the neighbouring county haha Is there a distinct difference between regional accents in Denmark?
Damnnnn that barista would not have gotten a please from me after that. You can totally ask for something politely without saying please. I think "may I have a coffee?" would make it sound more like but so long as you weren't obviously rude then it shouldn't matter. Thank you is way more important in my opinion.
Agree, that was appalling behaviour. Anybody serving the public should be aware that 'please' and 'thank you' used as much as in Britain, is not universal.
Yes I think the please is implicit in "May I have" (or even can I have). What does raise the hackles is people who say "I need (whatever)" or "Can I get.…" No you can't, the person serving will get it for you! 😉
Maybe if you live in a big city but I think that's just the same for anywhere in the world I live in Cornwall and that Is very rare. even in Bristol where I am from That kind of crime is very rare.
English pronunciation is essy. If you're English. We invented the language to confuse foreigners. We did such a good job that it even confuses us sometimes.
If you want to understand what happened to British place names, then you need to watch Map Men, it's also got a lot of British humour. th-cam.com/video/uYNzqgU7na4/w-d-xo.html
Fantastic video. I've subscribed and clicked the notification button Oh and liked 👍 How come you speak English more clearly than so many Brits? - I've often found that about people from Denmark, Sweden and Holland.
Breakfast is what you have in the morning. That is universally understood. The main meal of the day is dinner. People who have dinner in the middle of the day probably have 'tea' and a bite of 'supper'. Those who have their dinner in the evening probably have a light midday meal, which is called 'lunch'. 'Afternoon tea' is, as the term implies, served in the afternoon. Usually, from 4pm and consists of sandwiches, cake and scones with clotted cream and jam. However, this is a 'treat' meal, a bit like the Full English Breakfast and not the norm for most people. So, this bolsters the argument about the names of meals in favour of those who call the midday meal 'dinner'. However, even those people who call the midday meal 'dinner' will call a late breakfast/early midday meal 'brunch' - a portmanteau of 'breakfast' and 'lunch' - not 'brinner'. So, this bolsters the argument for the midday meal being called 'lunch'. Also, everyone who packs food to take to work calls it 'a packed lunch'. Are you with me, so far? Many people chop and change what they call meals - I fall into this bracket. For me, it's Sunday Dinner and School Dinners, but I love going out to lunch with friends (especially, when it's mostly a 'liquid lunch'). If it's before 6pm, it's tea. After 7pm, it's dinner. Confused? Not if you're British. In short, there is: Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch/Dinner - or Brunch; Afternoon Tea, Tea/High Tea/Dinner and Supper. If you eat all of them, you have Hobbit genes. Simple!
For dinner / tea one It depends where you come from im from the south of England, essex I and my family have always said tea for dinner never called lunch dinner its just lunch
You’ve obviously learnt American English rather than British English from your accent and the way you pronounce Herbs or Herbal: we pronounce the H in all these words. As you’re in Manchester you will definitely not hear a Harry Potter type accent: you need to be in Southern England for that .
Yea this is true haha I have a very strange accent though cause some British ways of saying things are sneaking in and then there's also a Danish component 😂 Yea for sure Northerners are alot further from it than the Southerners I've met - but I think I prefer the uniqueness of everyone's accents 😊
Love your video and I must say your English is very good on the thing about different ascents most of ower words are a mix match of Saxon viking or old Danish and French and take it from a native to uk so of it I don't always get right
A lot of our words are from older civilisations like the Romans, Anglo Saxons and Pagans and have been condensed or refined in used but not in spelling
In the north-east we don't use "roll" so I don't think it's correct to say it's recognised nationally - it's always a bun. I'd never heard of it until I went to a Greggs in the south when I was about 20 and asked for a sausage roll, and was handed a sausage sandwich... I could not have been more confused... I didn't know what had just happened... A Stottie isn't the same things as a bun - it's a very specific type of bread about 8 inches wide and 1 inch high.
I'm glad she's picked up on the different types of sorry. It's also used in the context of "I'm sorry (you are such an idiot and I have to deal with you today)".
You're on the wrong side of the Pennines lass, get yourself over to Yorkshire and up our Dales where you will find folk speaking a dialect very close to Danish. Our Ridings (thridings) are over a thousand years old thanks to the Danes. As to tea, I prefer it without milk. The south begins on the other side of the Yorkshire boundary...
Talking about Gavin and Stacey, you need to watch, would I lie to you, and I tell you for why, the host Rob Brydon is a great host and really handsome man
That's a really good review of your culture shocks, Mathilde. Your experience depends, of course largely on those you interact with most. I have to say that calling the evening meal 'tea' is a very lower-class idiom. The correct word is 'supper', though sometimes yer upper-middle classes may call it 'dinner.' The midday meal is always 'lunch.' 'Tea' (other than the basic drink) should always refer to either 'elevenses' (mid morning tea break, with which you have a light snack) or 'afternoon tea', which is a kind of mini-sandwiches and cakes affair, taken with tea (the drink). Confused? I'm not surprised. And there will undoubtedly be people who argue with me in comments below. Take no notice of them. They're just plebs. Lol.
the use of the C-word is something very prevalent in Australia & may have arrived here via the huge number of Aussies who come over for their 2 year work-permit pilgrimage to the mother country. Working class & northerners have an evening meal called tea. Middle class & southerners have supper or dinner.
Where did all the letters go? Ha I think Danish is a great example of a language that masters the silent letter. I know Swedish so am quite comfortable reading Danish but when it comes to the spoken language that is totally different. I remember taking the train journey from København to Helsingør listening to the station stop pronunciations. I would have been totally lost if it weren't the actual station signs. Which kommune are you from? Your danish accent is very soft. All the best with your studies!
Very true! Haha - Yes, Norwegian is much more literal with their spellings. I was born in North Sjælland and when I was 12 I moved to Bornholm (but always kept the other dialect 😊) - thank you!
Mathilde, we Leicester folk truncate anything we think can be truncated. Wannanokeywissumrazzon? is asking if somebody would like an ice cream with raspberry sauce.
@@MathildeMaltesers I worked in Dk for 2 years in the 90s (Sonderborg) and have been a frequent visitor to Sweden on business (mainly Goteborg & Linkoping) since 2000. Though the languages are very similar, the Swedes are always complaining that spoken Danish is incomprehensible.
In cities like London always go out understated or under dressed never go out in posh dress because your a target of crime always keep valuables out of sight for the same reason. In all towns or villages there isn't that problem people are friendlier
That coffee lady was being very rude. It’s just a given that you say please in the UK when asking for something, but most Brits wouldn’t be that offended xD
To northerners you are posh if you have lunch... It's breakfast, dinner, tea. Which is supported by schools because you have dinner ladies who served dinner at dinner time = noon.
Ha ha this is fun. I lived in the UK for two years and the German culture is exactly like the Danish. More direct, without much "please" here and "please" there. And we are rarely ever sorry. Worst, we say what we mean and we mean what we say. That's very, very disturbing for a Brit. I'm so sorry for that! Really, really sorry.
Soft white roll = bap, Crispy white roll = cob, short French-style long roll = baguette, French-style long loaf = French stick, small roll on top of a big roll = cottage loaf, big oval loaf with grooves on top = bloomer, they are just different types of bakery product.
Batch means baked in a 'batch tin', or deep rectangular baking tin. These are not different words for the same thing, they are different types of thing.
@@bhangrafan4480 imo i disagree (that is, dialect speaking, not the actual definition) , because i dont know a single person who uses even half of those words. it depends on where you’re from, as everyone i know just says ‘roll’ or ‘baguette’, and they rarely get more specific. its so weird!
@@chickenfoot2423 Everybody in my family, including myself uses all the words I quoted, and many of the others. Simply ask a British baker, or just google it.
Big mugs require two teabags if use sugar or sweetener make sure you double your normal amount or it won’t taste nice. I use Tetley teabags simply because they fit in the bottom mug as they are round. I have an English breakfast every week or two. Gavin and Stacey is absolutely rubbish.
When asking for something in most of the UK and not saying 'please' at the end of it is taken as insulting behaviour because the use of please is so ingrained in most people. Dropping 'please' is only one step from starting a fight. It's like not leaving a tip in a bar or restaurant in the US, but it comes at the start of the interaction not the end. This isn't some odd quirk, it's how the place works. Mess with this at your peril, it's serious.
![How I See the UK as an American Abroad [CULTURE SHOCK]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qaZmoCPLCs8/mqdefault.jpg)
Many people unfamiliar with British ways think that when we say "sorry" we're apologising. Not always true, it can simply mean, "I didn't hear you properly, can you repeat that please?" Alternatively it can mean, "Who the **** do you think you're talking to sunshine?", or even "Are you looking for a slap"? It's all in the tone of voice and the inflexion.
Ah yes the old passive aggressive "politeness" - plus weaponised sarcasm are the judo & karate of ancient English martial arts
Yes, it's interesting that if I find someone a complete idiot I will become even more polite to them. Excessively so.
We use ultra-politeness as an alternative to a smack in the gob. But we can do that if you aren't polite.
Yes.. for a while I never knew "sincerely" at the end of an email actually meant "f*ck off" for example 😂 you guys are the kings of sarcasm after all.
i think in general the more abuse we casually give out, the closer we feel to you. if i'm being polite then it means that i don't know you very well and so i'll be on my "best" behaviour, however if you and I have reached the swearing phase then we're probably besties.
@@MathildeMaltesers (yours) sincerely is just the conventional way to close a formal letter or sometimes an email. It doesn't carry any real meaning.
@@TheAlmostace I second that 😀
@@MathildeMaltesers there is nothing better after holding a door open and no one says thank you or cheers , you then start quietly and build up the volume as they walk away saying - your welcome , anytime , same time tomorrow , you've dropped your card , etc etc 😂
The luch dinner tea debate tends to be a north south thing, however no one even knows where the north ends and south begins lol
The South ends at Watford.
But there is also a main meal versus light snack reason. Dinner will always be the main meal and lunch vs tea is for the light meal and will depend on the time of the day.
@@johndodd6492 Nah, Nottingham.
Leicester?
@@juliapigworthy lol
Regarding the coffee incident, your English is so good, she probably thought you were English. If you had more of a foreign accent she would have given you some leeway.
The quirks of us British are many.
Tea, if you like tea, don't tell anyone how you make it unless asked by a person you know well, because no matter how you make tea, it'll be different to the way the person asking makes it and your way will be wrong. Lol.
You are correct. Incidentally I make the best tea and my way is the best.
I always pour hot water in a cup with a teabag in. Do I do it correctly? Or should I leave the teabag out? Mhm. Anyway, NEVER EVER EVER DARE to put in the milk first. Unless of course someone says the milk goes in first and then you can use the teabag to stir it around a bit.
I did enjoy your take on British ways, please make more
I've never watched Gavin and Stacey either and I feel no temptation to do so.
Are you just one of those who has to hate James Corden because were “supposed to” so you refuse to watch it lol it’s actually really good
@@kJ922-h3j Nope. Just that the show had & has no attraction for me.
I have tried watching a few times to see what all the fuss is about. Never made it past 10 minutes.
I'm sorry, I'm one of those who find James Corden difficult to stomach, but he was apparently good in the History Boys and has got over himself and now knows how to be a being x
Ditto.
Refreshing to see someone's view on England outside of London! London in no way reflects what real England is!
The description of the mugging's, could have been exactly London.
Your English is incredible. You should be very proud. Did you know that Wellington's horse at the Battle Of Waterloo in 1851 was called Copenhagen? Just a fun fact. Great video.
Thank you!!
1815 not 1851.
Dinner is your main meal of the day whatever time it is
Hi Mathilde - Dinner/;Lunch and Tea/Dinner/Supper are regional memes. In Manchester where you are the locals will refer to Dinner as the midday meal and Tea as the evening meal. Most of the examples you give I can relate to (having lived and worked in Greater Manchester for the majority of my life.) However, a lot of your experience appears to reflect big city life - in the suburbs and the rural areas there is less crime risk and fewer self checkouts! Keep well.
I also didn't really experience what she described (in terms of crime, phone stolen, names for bread etc) in London while I lived there for 5 years, except for the politeness and the girls under dressed no matter the weather lol and the tea! I am now in the South of England and still haven't experience crimes..
I sympathise with you regarding the nuances of our culture. We can be accused of being rude for the tiniest thing which I often am because although I’m from London, I’m sick of having to tip toe around everyone in order not to cause offence.
loved watching this- youre very natural and charasmatic on camera! and witty lol.
Breakfast, dinner, tea, supper.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner 😁
@@toddie3910 ... philistine!! 😏🇬🇧
@@Ubique2927 🤣🤣🤣
Gavin and Stacey, The Inbetweeners, Only Fools And Horses and some of the comedy quiz panel shows are great to start watching
Does anyone over 30 watch Gavin & Stacey tho? It's pretty lame.
@@Pommy1957 maybe you had to be very young when it first came out as I was, but it’s obviously a lighter family show
I’m 70 and brought up in the 50s and 60s. My family was “working class” in the Black Country (just South West of Birmingham, look for Dudley. The meals were always Breakfast, Dinner then Tea.
I once went out at Christmas for my friends birthday and one of my friends wore a cocktail dress and heels in 3 inch snow
The dinner, tea thing is a north/south thing but also a class thing. Upper class people are more likely to use lunch and dinner, but a northern working class guy like myself will say dinner instead of lunch and tea instead of dinner.
Good reaction by the way and pretty accurate 😉
When I was little, all the UK supermarkets had the two lane dividers, at some point they disappeared.
Huh! I wonder why! 🤔
@@MathildeMaltesers I don't know, even though I was a checkout boy for a while in the Sainsbury's in Fallowfield.
I love Manchester, but it has the worst crime of any UK city. I was mugged twice, had a car stolen and burgled in my first year there! You know about Scallies right?
@@Squimple Aw that's awful! - but yes that's why I mentioned I was surprised at the crime! And yea I've heard about them, in and around Fallowfield especially. Hope you're a bit more lucky now x
The dropping of letters in place names is a matter of convenience. Think about how you first signed your name, maybe it was really precise with each letter clearly drawn or maybe it had lots of flourishes. Once you've done a few more orbits around the sun you'll notice that unless you really focus on doing it properly it becomes more of a squiggly line and maybe a quarter of the letters are recognisable, especially if you have to do it a lot for work or business. You'll keep a few identifying traits so you know it's yours but not at the expensive of saving time or effort. Place names are the same. The Shire of Worcester is now just woostersheer.
The dinner/tea thing is like a lot of the internal cultural struggles in the UK in that it is class based and has its roots in events like the Norman invasion. When those of French persuasion ruled the natives of wealth who wanted to keep that wealth adopted the language and mannerisms of their new rulers as did anyone who wanted to move up the social ranks. This isn't universal though because the British contrarian nature means some things were stubbornly held on to by the rich which meant the poor would adopt the French in order to be contrary to the rich. The further north you go the less influenced the society tends to be as the French wished to stay close to "civilisation".
Leicester Square - Leh Stuh, where did all the letters go? Funny take on it, I nearly spurted out my typhoo tea when you said that!
If you think Leicester Square was hard to work out, try Bottle of Water - BO'OH'O'WA'ER.
Brits and the Irish are the funniest people I've ever met, the humour in London is something to behold and when you leave the city, no one misses the weather, but every ones pines forthe humour, as it's simply irreplaceable.
The internationally recognised English accent is called "RP" (received pronunciation) and was traditionally used by BBC and other public announcers and broadcasters. It is strongly associated with the upper middle-classes from the Metropolitan south (London + SE England). Nowadays there is an effort to normalise the use of other regional accents in broadcasting. Obviously Scottish, Welsh and Irish people have distinct accents, there are major regional English accents too; West Midlands/Birmingham, NE (Geordie), Liverpool (Scouse), London/Cockney etc. In general northern accents are distinct from southern ones. There is a big north-south cultural divide in England.
West country go brr
Your English is amazing, were you brought up as bilingual? I can normally detect a slight accent (except Dutch who often speak better than me), but you are nearly perfect R.P. You come over very naturally as well, hope your studies go well.
Thank you! I learnt English from a young age in school and from TV /games, but I was not brought up with it no 😊
Haha, for the moving thing, myself and everyone I know say "excuse me" 😆
Some things are different between the cities and countryside - I'm a country girl (from Norfolk) and crime like what you mention is really rare out here :) Also we only have a couple of self service checkouts where I live, all the others are human operated, I believe that is another difference between city/country. You should try staying in some of the countryside if you get a chance, would be interesting to hear any differences between where you're from and the UK's :)
But yeah, everything you have said here is completely correct! This is perfect for anyone wanting a true insight into the UK. Great video!
I think your experience is characterized by living in the city. There's quite the difference between the largest UK cities and more rural areas. The culture in cities is a lot more intense, magnified even and thus there is increased pressure to conform to their cultural standards. The rest of the country is more liberty minded and has a relaxed laissez-faire attitude to life and others; in fact you might say this characterizes the majority of the country. Also city folk act polite but are actually bastards, the rest of the country keeps up appearances as far politeness goes, but are generally more blunt, while genuinely being nicer.
Nope, you never hear city people generalising and criticising people from the country but lots of people from the villages put their prejudices out there for all to see. Nobody conforms in cities, nobody cares what you look like, sound like or act like unless it’s harming them, country folk have to be more conformist as they don’t have the social and cultural opportunities.
I don't think you should have censored your points on crime and safety. This is important information for people to have, and you might save some future visitor from trouble.
I spent a few months in Denmark on an Army base, the first bit of 'equipment' they provided for the empty workshop, was a Coffee maker, and about half a truck load of Coffee, and word soon got round a Brit was on the base,,,the giveaway was asking for coffee with milk!!
This was very informative and witty, thanks for your view on the UK. As an American I tend to have the same impressions esp about the über politeness...except tea with milk which I have been drinking since an adolescent.
Dear me Mathilde. You seem to have attracted some weirdly aggressive commenters here haha
It's always interesting to hear the opinions of people living on our little island so thank you for sharing. I feel the dinner/tea thing is definitely different in the North compared to the South so you will find a mix depending on where people grew up.
Haha yes, how I don't know, hot topic perhaps! :)
And definitely but I find that since people move up/down/west/east for uni it is very mixed!
As a general rule of thumb Lunch/Dinner/Tea is a class thing
The middle class call their mid-day meal Lunch and their evening meal Dinner,
while the working class call their mid-day meal dinner and their evening meal Tea
Gavin & Stacy is shit
If you went to Manchester no wonder you encountered so much crime
Apart from that, its always interesting to see how other people view us~
An enjoyable video, thank you
Our politeness is far better, than ever upsetting us, believe me do not even get us even slightly miffed.. up North Lunch is Dinner and Dinner is Tea.. sorted
You are Danish living in the part of the UK once called the Danelaw due to the amount of Danish Vikings settled here including my own ancestors. Most people in the old Danelaw are descended from Danes.
In Yorkshire our dialect is full of old words from Norse.
I saw a documentary about Danish troops in Afghanistan and was surprised to find that I could understand a lot of what they were saying.
I'm surprised that you didn't see the similarities. You're not as different as you think. You would see this more in Yorkshire I think.
In 1002 AD Ethelred ordered the killing of every Dane living within the Danelaw because of the demands for more money and stillbeing invaded, I share DNA with 4 of those murdered in Oxford. BTW, Danes and Norse were different tribes.
Your command of the English language is impressive. Well done. I hope you continue to enjoy the experience here. We love Scandinavians.
Hi Mathilde. First time seeing your pretty face and hearing your very good English pronunciation. We are a strange complication of humanity but usually quite nice, especially us older types. I suspect you have been speaking English since childhood, yes? I look forward to hearing more comment from you about our mixed up approach to life. Jeff x
Black tea, no sugar but I prefer coffee.
GET OUT! jk
The lunch/dinner thing is regional but a good rule of thumb is that dinner is the biggest meal of the day. So at Christmas, for example, when my family has a big meal in the afternoon we would say Breakfast, Dinner, tea - but on a work day (when I would just have a packed lunch) it would be Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Supper is another confusion as some people use it in place of tea whereas others use it as a word for an evening extra - something that is more than a snack but less than a meal.
First of all I think that Mathilde is very beautiful with a very attractive manner. Second I live in a small village in the mountains of Spain and when I order tea in a café they make it with hot frothy milk like they do with coffee.
Hi Mathilda, just a point on politeness, when you say can you move, just say “excuse me!” I know it sounds like you’re asking for forgiveness but that’s the Brit way of asking somebody to get out of your way. If they persist in staying there stick a “please” on the end! Still no move then just push past !!!.?? Well you know what I mean, but thats the correct, polite way to gain access to a clear way past people! Ok???
Cheers Aah Kid! Oh! That’s the most accent free accent I’ve heard, love it!
What would you say about the magnolia paint that seem to be a standard colour for interior walls in Britain? Surely, this is different in Denmark.
I noticed your background. Mine's the same, lol
Sorry about the crime I come from a big city, we are more aware of where we are and tend not to get caught of balance, not always we suffer too but I dont think as much
ah the good old "polite" British passive aggressiveness lol summarised perfectly
1:55 Yes, what you experienced was a "phatic" question = "denoting speech used to express or create an atmosphere of shared feelings, goodwill, or sociability rather than to impart information" And replying with actual information of your own is a definite faux pas (to use the Danish term). By the way, the Danish Gambit is my favourite chess opening, and definitely beats the Queens Gambit despite whatever Netflix might advocate. So, ... how are you today?
In informal speech, especially working class; LUNCH = 'dinner', DINNER = 'tea', but in formal speech, and typical of the middle-classes, LUNCH = lunch, TEA = afternoon tea (a hot drink with sandwiches, biscuits, cakes perhaps) DINNER = Sit down evening meal, usually cooked.
Your English is sooo nice!! I'm almost have the same culture shock with you as a foreign student lol (I'm in Leeds)
I have a couple of degrees from Manchester University, and worked there for 34 years. I knew a Danish girl student in the late1980s, she wanted to lose her Danish accent, yours is very minimal and quite neutral BTW, when speaking English. When I knew her, she had perfected a flawless Mancunian accent, she sounded like she had been born in Chorlton or Whalley Range!
Oh thanks! That's cool! I really don't meet alot of Danish people here 😅
@@MathildeMaltesers No, there never were many Scandinavians, I once helped a girl from Malmö with her MSc research and supervised the third-year project of a Norwegian from a town near Oslo. I must say I knew many more Greek, Chinese, Mexican and Brazilian students at Manchester.
As a northerner my meals are breakfast lunch and tea. If I dine out in the evening, i say im going out for a meal or to eat. I never eat dinner in the evening and supper might be toast or crsckers before bed.
I know we Brits love our tea, but it's no more orevalent to Americans drinking coffee. What's the big deal with it? And I'd far be polite and use please and thank you than sound rude and abrupt. As a kid at home I had to ask permission to leave the meal table and to use the toilet in other people's homes.
Accents change every 30 miles or so. It can be difficult to understand people in the neighbouring county haha Is there a distinct difference between regional accents in Denmark?
Damnnnn that barista would not have gotten a please from me after that. You can totally ask for something politely without saying please.
I think "may I have a coffee?" would make it sound more like but so long as you weren't obviously rude then it shouldn't matter.
Thank you is way more important in my opinion.
Thank you! Haha I'm glad to hear you say that. I was taken aback tbh. 😅
Agree, that was appalling behaviour.
Anybody serving the public should be aware that 'please' and 'thank you' used as much as in Britain, is not universal.
Yes I think the please is implicit in "May I have" (or even can I have). What does raise the hackles is people who say "I need (whatever)" or "Can I get.…" No you can't, the person serving will get it for you! 😉
Maybe if you live in a big city but I think that's just the same for anywhere in the world I live in Cornwall and that Is very rare. even in Bristol where I am from That kind of crime is very rare.
As I said I'd assume it's a big city thing - but I wouldn't necessarily say it's rare if you put it in a worldwide perspective 😅
_"Drinking tea is a religion to them"_ she says, as I sip my tea...
Fair point.
English pronunciation is essy. If you're English. We invented the language to confuse foreigners. We did such a good job that it even confuses us sometimes.
If you want to understand what happened to British place names, then you need to watch Map Men, it's also got a lot of British humour. th-cam.com/video/uYNzqgU7na4/w-d-xo.html
Thanks, I like it 😂
I really enjoyed and agree with lots 😂😂😂 thanks for sharing
Yep, I't's rude to get straight to the point. :)
Tea is much more important than religion.
Fantastic video.
I've subscribed and clicked the notification button
Oh and liked 👍
How come you speak English more clearly than so many Brits? - I've often found that about people from Denmark, Sweden and Holland.
Thanks Notch!
I think it's just the way we learn the pronunciation 😊 oh and also Scandinavia and Netherlands tend to teach English really early on
As you spend more time here, you'll find most of us aren't as intense as your first impressions suggest. Welcome to UK.
Breakfast is what you have in the morning. That is universally understood.
The main meal of the day is dinner. People who have dinner in the middle of the day probably have 'tea' and a bite of 'supper'. Those who have their dinner in the evening probably have a light midday meal, which is called 'lunch'.
'Afternoon tea' is, as the term implies, served in the afternoon. Usually, from 4pm and consists of sandwiches, cake and scones with clotted cream and jam. However, this is a 'treat' meal, a bit like the Full English Breakfast and not the norm for most people. So, this bolsters the argument about the names of meals in favour of those who call the midday meal 'dinner'.
However, even those people who call the midday meal 'dinner' will call a late breakfast/early midday meal 'brunch' - a portmanteau of 'breakfast' and 'lunch' - not 'brinner'. So, this bolsters the argument for the midday meal being called 'lunch'. Also, everyone who packs food to take to work calls it 'a packed lunch'.
Are you with me, so far?
Many people chop and change what they call meals - I fall into this bracket. For me, it's Sunday Dinner and School Dinners, but I love going out to lunch with friends (especially, when it's mostly a 'liquid lunch'). If it's before 6pm, it's tea. After 7pm, it's dinner. Confused? Not if you're British.
In short, there is: Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch/Dinner - or Brunch; Afternoon Tea, Tea/High Tea/Dinner and Supper. If you eat all of them, you have Hobbit genes. Simple!
For dinner / tea one It depends where you come from im from the south of England, essex I and my family have always said tea for dinner never called lunch dinner its just lunch
But the USA invented the self checkout, the CheckRobot. First installed in a Kroger store near Atlanta, Georgia.
Mathilde, I suggest you buy an anti-theft bag 😊 it's a great investment to keep your belongings secured. Take care!
I bought one. Unfortunately, it was stolen.
You’ve obviously learnt American English rather than British English from your accent and the way you pronounce Herbs or Herbal: we pronounce the H in all these words.
As you’re in Manchester you will definitely not hear a Harry Potter type accent: you need to be in Southern England for that .
Yea this is true haha I have a very strange accent though cause some British ways of saying things are sneaking in and then there's also a Danish component 😂
Yea for sure Northerners are alot further from it than the Southerners I've met - but I think I prefer the uniqueness of everyone's accents 😊
Unless you're Neville Longbottom 😁
Love your video and I must say your English is very good on the thing about different ascents most of ower words are a mix match of Saxon viking or old Danish and French and take it from a native to uk so of it I don't always get right
Is installation of solar panels on the roof of your house or your car (in UK) worth it ?
A lot of our words are from older civilisations like the Romans, Anglo Saxons and Pagans and have been condensed or refined in used but not in spelling
Leicester ("Lester") was supposedly the capital of England under King Leir (same as King Lear in Shakespeare).
I am English, I rarely drink tea, and never with milk.
What a great woman 👍
In the north-east we don't use "roll" so I don't think it's correct to say it's recognised nationally - it's always a bun. I'd never heard of it until I went to a Greggs in the south when I was about 20 and asked for a sausage roll, and was handed a sausage sandwich... I could not have been more confused... I didn't know what had just happened...
A Stottie isn't the same things as a bun - it's a very specific type of bread about 8 inches wide and 1 inch high.
I'm glad she's picked up on the different types of sorry. It's also used in the context of "I'm sorry (you are such an idiot and I have to deal with you today)".
I cooked one for me and one of my sons this morning , have one probabley twice a week
You're on the wrong side of the Pennines lass, get yourself over to Yorkshire and up our Dales where you will find folk speaking a dialect very close to Danish. Our Ridings (thridings) are over a thousand years old thanks to the Danes. As to tea, I prefer it without milk. The south begins on the other side of the Yorkshire boundary...
I drink tea without milk. But not pg tips or similar; to much tannin.
If you are not sure just ask, there's always someone to help
omg I'm so embarrassed being British right now. You should probably move up North X
Acclimated? I'd say acclimatised. Is acclimated something I've missed or maybe American?
I think it's an Americanism.
If someone's in your way just say 'excuse me please'
I ve never really had any theft in liverpool I'm 55
Talking about Gavin and Stacey, you need to watch, would I lie to you, and I tell you for why, the host Rob Brydon is a great host and really handsome man
I'm definitely planning on watching it soon!! 😄
Wouldn't say handsome lol but hilarious
I'm a blasphemer then. I don't like tea and never have give me coffee anyday.
Yess another to join the dark side 😏
@@MathildeMaltesers always better on the dark side, we have cookies ☺️
@@MillsyLM Leave the country immediately!
Same
That's a really good review of your culture shocks, Mathilde. Your experience depends, of course largely on those you interact with most. I have to say that calling the evening meal 'tea' is a very lower-class idiom. The correct word is 'supper', though sometimes yer upper-middle classes may call it 'dinner.' The midday meal is always 'lunch.' 'Tea' (other than the basic drink) should always refer to either 'elevenses' (mid morning tea break, with which you have a light snack) or 'afternoon tea', which is a kind of mini-sandwiches and cakes affair, taken with tea (the drink). Confused? I'm not surprised. And there will undoubtedly be people who argue with me in comments below. Take no notice of them. They're just plebs. Lol.
the use of the C-word is something very prevalent in Australia & may have arrived here via the huge number of Aussies who come over for their 2 year work-permit pilgrimage to the mother country. Working class & northerners have an evening meal called tea. Middle class & southerners have supper or dinner.
working class in the south also call their evening meal dinner lol
Where did all the letters go? Ha I think Danish is a great example of a language that masters the silent letter. I know Swedish so am quite comfortable reading Danish but when it comes to the spoken language that is totally different. I remember taking the train journey from København to Helsingør listening to the station stop pronunciations. I would have been totally lost if it weren't the actual station signs. Which kommune are you from? Your danish accent is very soft. All the best with your studies!
Very true! Haha - Yes, Norwegian is much more literal with their spellings. I was born in North Sjælland and when I was 12 I moved to Bornholm (but always kept the other dialect 😊) - thank you!
As someone who learned Norwegian (though British) I thought a Dane commenting on British pronunciation was a pretty brave move :)
A bit out of the context but your eyes are so pretty
Mathilde, we Leicester folk truncate anything we think can be truncated. Wannanokeywissumrazzon? is asking if somebody would like an ice cream with raspberry sauce.
Woah 😳 wish i could hear that said 😆
what about the "missing" letters in Danish? Selvfolgelig sounds like selferly.
True we are amazing at silent letters 🤷♀️
@@MathildeMaltesers I worked in Dk for 2 years in the 90s (Sonderborg) and have been a frequent visitor to Sweden on business (mainly Goteborg & Linkoping) since 2000. Though the languages are very similar, the Swedes are always complaining that spoken Danish is incomprehensible.
@@euanthomas3928 ha, yes it's true, although we understand them they insist on speaking English with us
In cities like London always go out understated or under dressed never go out in posh dress because your a target of crime always keep valuables out of sight for the same reason. In all towns or villages there isn't that problem people are friendlier
'erb ... where did all the letters (h) go??
If someone said to me"can you move" I'd say yeh , but you won't be able to soon if you speak to me like that again
That coffee lady was being very rude.
It’s just a given that you say please in the UK when asking for something, but most Brits wouldn’t be that offended xD
Ikr haha bit extreme
The coffee lady was probably thrown by a talking pineapple that was reciting a list of crimes.
Lots of British people prefer coffee
To northerners you are posh if you have lunch... It's breakfast, dinner, tea. Which is supported by schools because you have dinner ladies who served dinner at dinner time = noon.
You do know that coffee came to Britain before tea and coffee is consumed as much as tea
Nobody has common sense of the weather because we never really know what it's doing it's guesswork
Ha ha this is fun. I lived in the UK for two years and the German culture is exactly like the Danish. More direct, without much "please" here and "please" there. And we are rarely ever sorry. Worst, we say what we mean and we mean what we say. That's very, very disturbing for a Brit. I'm so sorry for that! Really, really sorry.
Soft white roll = bap, Crispy white roll = cob, short French-style long roll = baguette, French-style long loaf = French stick, small roll on top of a big roll = cottage loaf, big oval loaf with grooves on top = bloomer, they are just different types of bakery product.
Batch means baked in a 'batch tin', or deep rectangular baking tin. These are not different words for the same thing, they are different types of thing.
@@bhangrafan4480 imo i disagree (that is, dialect speaking, not the actual definition) , because i dont know a single person who uses even half of those words. it depends on where you’re from, as everyone i know just says ‘roll’ or ‘baguette’, and they rarely get more specific. its so weird!
@@chickenfoot2423 Everybody in my family, including myself uses all the words I quoted, and many of the others. Simply ask a British baker, or just google it.
My dear it'd be better for everyone if you return back to Denmark
Big mugs require two teabags if use sugar or sweetener make sure you double your normal amount or it won’t taste nice. I use Tetley teabags simply because they fit in the bottom mug as they are round. I have an English breakfast every week or two. Gavin and Stacey is absolutely rubbish.
When asking for something in most of the UK and not saying 'please' at the end of it is taken as insulting behaviour because the use of please is so ingrained in most people. Dropping 'please' is only one step from starting a fight. It's like not leaving a tip in a bar or restaurant in the US, but it comes at the start of the interaction not the end. This isn't some odd quirk, it's how the place works. Mess with this at your peril, it's serious.