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In the UK most people would see a yard as being paved, or cobbled, usually as part of a business. So a Builder's Yard, or a Stable Yard. A garden is usually a lawn with flower beds placed within it. The fact Yard comes from Anglo Saxon and Garden comes from French, it's likely that the words came to mean a place of work for the serfs and garden became the place where nobility spent their time relaxing. Much like how the English words for animals are all Anglo-Saxon, who were all the farmers, but the words for much of the meat those animals produce are French, named by the people that could afford to eat the meat.
Or a backyard as you would find still in those back to backs built in the late Industrial revolution mostly in the north. So backyards are as you say; small paved outside area's. One other thing many mining towns have at least a part of the back of the house separated and paved this way, my mothers home had a huge garden and I mean huge but they also had a backyard. When the guys came home it was where they stripped down winter and summer. In summer they washed out there, in winter my Gran would set up the bath in the backroom that led into the yard.
I am East African. But I schooled in England, RSA, Canada, and HK, and have worked for over six years each in the US (in 90s) and EU (00s). I still sign off my letters & emails with "ubarikiwe", which is Kiswahili for "be blessed". My kids & grandkids (in Kenya, Aust, BC, and the UK) all refer to me amongst one another as "Mzee", or "the old (wise) man".
the goodbye thing you were talking about is totally true. we say goodbye inside, outside, and even wait on the pavement until the car has disappeared down the road
I’m British too and have always hated the goodbye thing. When you’re going, just go. My husband follows people to the door, watches them into the car, waving and shouting bye all the way, even when it’s freezing outside, me I’m sat on the sofa wishing he’d close the door. He says I’m anti social 😂
In the UK a pram is not the equivalent of a stroller. A pram is like a "cot" (usa: 'crib') on wheels that the baby lies down in. If the child sits upright instead of lying down, then it's a 'pushchair' or a 'buggy'.
The stroller we had allowed either a full recline or an upright, depending on the age, etc. So do you have a separate item for when you have baby sleeping on a walk or sitting upright?
To British people, a domestic "yard" is generally a space enclosed by a wall, or in industrial premises often a fence, and normally has a paved surface. Terraced houses sometimes have a back yard, and a garden beyond that, but they're quite distinct spaces. As for Brits not being so optimistic, you must have realised that moaning is a form of collective bonding for us. The important thing is that you must only moan about things that you cannot alter, like the weather, your favourite team losing, or the fact that "fings ain't wot they used to be". This means everyone can share in the sentiment and feel closer together.
A yard is paved, slabbed, cobbled or tarmaced. It has a hard surface and it's not for growing anything. A garden is cultivated for plants, flowers, grass, vegetables, even shrubs. As for temperatures, I started an apprenticeship years ago. At technical college we started our course in Fahrenheit, feet and pounds. Half way (one and a half years later) the department head informed us that the exams would be in Celsius, metres and kilogrammes.
Yes - me too - all Fahrenheit, yds, lbs etc. What an eyeopener it was to switch to the coherent metric system. It made understanding so much simpler. And as for the USA, they still use British Thermal Units as far as I'm aware. Bizarre and insular.
Older Brits like me (57) tend to use Fahrenheit if it's hot eg. It's 90 degrees out there and Celsius if it's cold eg It's minus 3 I had to scrape the car this morning
Haha, just happened to us yesterday as we were leaving an outdoor BBQ - carried on for half an hour more as we stood next to the car! I'm prepared for it now though. :) Thanks for watching!
You all need to meet my Uncle after over an hour on the phone (where he reads out his shopping list and describes his shopping trip in DETAIL), he will say “I better let you go….. Did you see incident in the news” and just start going again for another half an hour.
The everlasting goodbyes made me laugh, I done a 45 minute one once when my wife discussed every plant in the hosts front garden, it drives me crazy too. Sometimes they will see you back when you reverse the car off the drive into the road also 😄.
Keep the best of your American side, take the best from your British side, and ignore the rest. That's your evolving identity. Easier said than done, but it looks like you've done a great job of it so far. Keep it up! There'll be frustrations along the way, whether you're in Britain or the States, that's just life.
A friend of mine's mother, she is such fun, she is 75 & lived for 40 years in London then returned to her native Athens when her husband died, she too tries to merge the best of the two, not always with success. She seems to start punch ups in post office & supermarkets queues. Or upsets her neighbours in her apartment block, one day she saw a discarded cooker in the front of the building & knocked on each of the 5 floors to find out who left it there, the Greek neighbours suggested she ignore it or return to London. It can be a fine line to walk between the two cultures but she tries. I lived in Athens for many years & could understand both sides of her cooker story.
If you look at the 60-75 age range and we tend to use centigrade when it's cold and Fahrenheit when it's hot, such as its zero degrees when freezing but 75 when hot. It's this way because of when the switch to Centigrade took place. Odd but true, although water always boils at 100.
I would feel quite insulted if somebody called me sir (unless it's in a customer service situation). To understand how it feels, imagine if you politely asked an acquaintance for something (e.g. a glass of water) and they replied with "Yes, your Majesty". Would you treat that as a sincere response when you know that you are not royalty? I would automatically assume that I was being mocked for treating people as my inferiors who were obliged to take orders from me. That's also how I would feel if people called me 'sir'. It's something that a servant would say. You are my equal, not my subordinate; so please don't make it seem as if I am treating you as beneath me, when that's not the case.
The problem with saying yard instead of garden is that here, a yard and a garden are two different things. A garden has flowers, grass, trees, etc, and a yard is smaller, and concreted or paved.
Older Uk folk still refer to temperature in Fahrenheit. " it's in the 80s" "oh it's over 100 degrees ", if Celsius is relevant we would be steam. On accent I get nearly every day, " oh your Scottish" , and " you still have your accent" yes I am bloody Scottish. I know I've lived in England 37 years and I am Scottish. . When I phone one of my old Scottish friends in Tempe, Phoenix, she answers in a thick American accent. But when she hears me, she goes straight to a thick Scottish accent. Still have one dollar in my wallet from my last USA visit.
My grandparents used Farenheit. My parents were adults while society changed over but by the time I left school, I had to convert to get °F. The same goes for feet, inches, pounds etc. (Oh yes, I am 61 and left school in 1978)
It is difficult trying convert. Metric was introduced in Australia, when I was a teenager, and there are still some measurements I think in the old imperial system. In particular height - I cannot visualise a person’s height in terms of centimetres or metres unless I convert into feet and inches.
I have been living in the US for the last 16 years and I cannot understand how most people here can live without a bidet! I cannot live without it and I think it is absolutely gross not using it.
Always prefer 'garden' over 'yard', after all who has heard of the Hanging Yards of Babylon! Always surprised that America mainly uses imperial (miles, mph, yards, cups etc) yet adopted the decimal system for currency from the very start. Interesting video! Would love to see one regarding the British/American differences in sport. Ground/stadium, nil-nil/scoreless etc.
In the UK before we were indoctrinated into the EEC//EU the UK used farrenhight as a temperature scale then the EEC/ EU said to conform to the rest of the EEC /EU the UK had to go metric and use celcius or centegrade scale of temperature
I moved to England with my family at the age of 3 from Northern Ireland. Naturally my accent is English except for one word - any, which even after all these years I pronounce "Annie", which is a real anomaly as I pronounce many the English way "meny"
Born and raised in Lancashire. Always said couch. We were taught and used Fahrenheit. The Met Office changed to Celsius in 1961. I've been doing the calculation in my head for 60 years - takes me about 2 seconds :-) Family moved to South Midlands 50 years ago. I still have my Lancashire accent - I'm proud of it. Why would you change? Stick with it Girl - I like American accents
The optimism is because you're from a relatively young country, I find Australians are the same, but we will grind you down hehe. The goodbye thing drives me nuts as well, my darling wife can take an hour to say it to her family.
The only time "yard" is used in Britain is in a Victorian terrace house with a latrine in the backyard in a time before flushing toilets, these were still used in the 1930's, typically they have no grass or plant growth and owners emptied their own "shed based" toilet, this would constitute a backyard.👍❤️🇬🇧
Certain temperatures I will always regard as naturally Fahrenheit, notably the weather when it is warm, and body temperature. When the weather is cold, I use Celsius. We never use cups in recipes in the UK. That's because we don't have recipes that work in volumes for things other than liquids. We always use weights. Unfortunately this means that if you are trying to convert a US recipe that uses volumes, some sophisticated mathematics is involved, because there is no standard UK “cup”, we are unlikely to have a standard US “cup”, and a cup of one thing weighs a different amount to a cup of another. Even if you use pints and fluid ounces, these are not the same as our pints and fluid ounces. The Metric Police are also rife in the UK. I will use Imperial until I die.
Fahrenheit, being British, is all I understand. Weirdly celcius only came to the UK in common usage in the last 30 years. Most Brits understand fahrenheit. All the newspapers will says during the summer it's in the 90's, or the peak it's 100 degrees. Only the 'yoof' (uneducated) types cling to celcius and act like they are superior. Celcius is a rubbish way to convey the temperature due to the insignificance of its scaling.
Hi, I never understood measuring in Cups, but strangely Brits are happy to measure in spoons, (Tea, Table, Dessert Spoon). Whilst we have moved to metric weights, most packets of ingredients were strange numbers of grams, because they are generally just a conversion of a standard imperial measurement.
Have you ever noticed that in movies and on American tv they rarely say goodbye at all on the phone? They just say the last sentence of the conversation and then hang up. No goodbye at all. I guess its too difficult for them to script something realistic.
In Australia we use both "backyard" and "garden." But you can't have a garden inside a backyard. We would use the word garden if there were lots of flower beds, pots, maybe some hedges, a little path, a pond, etc. If it's just an enclosed area behind your house with grass and a tree or two, it's a "yard." You have to do a lot of gardening and landscaping to have a "garden," if that makes sense.
I use both Oz and grams when baking but never mix them in the same recipe, the potential for the proportions being out would send me under. I think that's why I can't get on board with cups, they're just too inaccurate. They must work though because it's not like people in the US can't bake a cake.
As an American that moved to the U.K. as a young teenager, I have adopted things like Celsius and grams for cooking but I still find inches easier than centimetres! Even though metric makes much more sense.
Coming from Orlando you must feel like the temperature in the UK is like a 12 month winter. I've been to restaurants in the US and the difference to me seems to be that in the UK eating out is an event, you go to a restaurant for e night out with family or friends, whereas in the US it is a stopping point, let's get something to eat then move on. Also, a US restaurant wants you out because they need the table, more customers more profit and more tips the server gets.
Oh 100% about your 12 month winter point! My husband was trying to get me in the sea in August here and I looked up the temperature and it's Florida ocean temperature in JANUARY! Ha! Excellent points about our different views on eating out - really accurate and a great way of putting it.
In the 80's the weatherman would say both celcius and farenhiet on the TV but being in the EU they have been replacing it as well as lb with KG, KM with miles, but road signs are still in miles. I know that 90 degrees F is around 30 degrees C and I know that a bag of sugar or bag of flour is 1 Kg or 2.2lb
People outside the US don't seem to know that we have a standard set of measuring cups (which includes one of each: 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 cup) for dry ingredients AND a liquid measuring cup (specifically, everyone seems to have the glass Pyrex version) for measuring liquids in cups (though ounces and ml are labeled, too. For us, 1 cup is 8floz or 250ml) along with a set of measuring spoons. To get a more accurate measurement using cups, you fill it with your dry ingredient using a spoon, unless the instructions say otherwise (brown sugar is usually packed in), and level it using the top of a butter knife. Using a scale is more accurate, but as most of the recipes that we come across use cups, we just continue to use them.
The optimism/pessimism paradigm is a fine margin. Just because someone isn't in your face and whooping and hollering about how great they are or want to be it doesn't mean they aren't thinking it. I'm sure you've learnt the British trait of understatement even if you don't use it yourself that should indicate to you that some people will always undersell themselves intentionally. That appears to be the major difference between US and British comedy, the protagonist in a US show has to be a winner whereas over here the person who is always trying to better himself is always likely to fail and the enjoyment comes from the escapades they get up to in the process. I've always seen "No worries" as an Australian phrase I first heard it on the Australian soaps like Neighbours and Home And Away. Growing up in the 70's and 80's the weather forecast was given in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit so I know exactly what someone means if they say it in F. I don't understand Metric either and I don't care. I weigh myself in pounds and stone, I measure my height in feet and inches. An ounce was always 25 grams (roughly) when I was at catering college in the 80s but I still use imperial for all this stuff. I certainly haven't come across the "extended goodbye" on a phone call.
I'm with you on the wanting to leave restaurants and social situations when they're "done" I get like an intense feeling of claustrophobia when I feel like i'm not able to leave when I want to, its something I really don't like about our culture
I was born here and I still see temperature as in Fahrenheit, height as in Feet and Inches, as well as weight in Stones, Pounds and Ounces. My whole thinking is still in the proper Imperial System, not the false French imposed metric system.
The thing is a lot of older prople have all gone through waht you're going through now. We were raised with Farenheit (all the weather forcasts used to use it) also pounds and ounces used to be common every day units to buy produce. Centigrade and the metric system in general was forced on us. People were fined if they used the wrong units to sell their products particularly grocery products on market stalls. The old imperial system is till widely used in America. I know, which is ironic as it was always associated with the old British Empire.
As a brit tend to use F for hot temps and C for cold ones..100F is much more exciting than 30 odd C . While zero C sounds just right for water freezing.
Think i disagree with the back yard thing. I think Americans call all the space out back surrounded by a fence the Yard. In the UK traditionally a Yard and a Garden are separate things, altohugh in more recent times the distinction between the two is more muddy. Traditionally with old terrace houses you had a back yard which was the enclosed small paved area when you did maybe Laundry, had an outside toilet and just a small space with a gate leading onto the public path. so generally a small enclosed “utility area” was the Yard or back Yard. A Garden however is a much larger green space with grass flower beds, swings etc. So in the us you can have both. SO a small space could be called a yard or garden if they had some green or plants, but an area of grass would only be called a Garden 👍😀 Re the Fahrenheit thing :) its whatever you are used to isn’t it, you wont get people to move Celsius to Fahrenheit because starting at zero seems easier to learn Re the cup think , I have to admit to hating cups, cups are just ambiguous ( agree with your hsuband :) ). What if you need to reduce your recipe by one third, you can divide an exact measurement like grams but how can you divide a cup accurately DOH :)
My mother was a very British goodbye person - my father was not and was often accused of being abrupt and rude. I am with you and him. Even now my mother will take ten minutes to say bye on the 'phone - but she half recognises this habit by saying "I will let you go now" ten minutes after the initial expression of farewell..scream!!
"Oh, its going to be seventeen celsius, I still have no idea how to dress!" - As a brit, neither do I. Anything under 10 - cold, anything over 20 - warm, anything over 30 - deadly. 10 - 20 - good luck figuring it out
Love the whole bye thing. You are right it's definitely a thing thing here. The best advice I can give you if need to be away by a certain time is to tell the person in advance (15mins or so) before you intend on leaving that you have to leave soon.
Always good to see how odd we (brits) are 😂. Yep, we’re a strange lot! I should say though that there’s no need to worry about using American terms such as dollars or trash etc. We know what you mean. I’ve got American friends who do it. I think it’s easy for us (U.K.). We’ve been brought up on American TV, films (sorry! Movies), etc - that we understand. Whereas it seems a lot more of a culture shock for Americans understanding us. The only thing I’d disagree on - is about learning centigrade over Fahrenheit. This country used to use imperial measurements - including Fahrenheit. So for many of us - we were brought up with it - but have had to convert. So it can be done.
Your weight in your medical records in the UK will undoubtedly be in kilos, but people a quarter of my age still use pounds for their new babies. I recommend the UK Metric Association website. Our OS maps have been metric for decades, but distances on signs are still invariably in miles!
Oh wow! I lived in semi-rural VA for six years, but my kids were at school in DC Mon-Fri and three days a week I commuted to Baltimore. The British custom of long meals, staggered good-byes, and lots of small talk was very much in line with my neighbourhood and friends in Middleburg, but in the cities it was much more like your Florida experience. BTW, I find it cute that US people use the past participle "gotten", which Br English (and African, Indian, and Aussie) haven't used in two centuries.
I'm English I grew up at a time we used farenheit, pints, pounds and ounces in daily life, but used metric units in sciences. The weather forecast was only in Farenheit, I know what temepratures 45, 50, 60, 70 and 80 FH feel like, but cannot relate to Celsius at all
I haven’t gotten used to saying pavement, it’s sidewalk all the way! Same with driveway vs drive. I have adopted a few British words though.. I love how public transportation is shortened to public transport and I also prefer bin to garbage or trash!
The way I visualise g for cooking is I look at the number of g in the packet, for example a bag of flour might be 500g. 200g is about 2/5 of the pack. For water 1g = 1ml, and that is a reasonable approximation for other liquids that you are likely to consume or use in a recipe.
And here I thought I was insane with people never wanting to commit to a 'goodbye', I can get exchanging a pleasant goodbye, but half the time it feels like both parties just don't want to be the one to actually take initiative and just leave.
Yes, we're pessimistic by nature. As the Mona Lott said, ""It's being so cheerful as keeps me going". Your analysis on the English "Long Goodbye" is funny and spot on. I find it very annoying when I need to get on.
The leaving thing is definitely after a social gathering. If you've just popped in for a reason, it can still take longer than it needs to but not as much as you're describing.
Cups have never been used in the UK for cooking. Before Grams it was Pounds and ounces. Measuring by cups in USA was a system invented by Fannie Farmer in 1896. She was director of the Boston Cooking School.
An easy conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit is to double it and then add 30 ie 17c double =34 + 30 would give a reading of 68f. This is only approximate but for everyday use is a useful tool. Give it a go.
Celsius 0 and below Freezing 0 to 10 Cold below 15 Wear a Jacket 20 and above Warm 23 and above British Heatwave ...and with 1 Celsius degree for every 3 Fahrenheit degrees you've only a third as much worries about the weather.
When I first moved to Australia in 1981 the guy on the tv weather would say "it will be warm tomorrow - we're expecting 42 in Sydney" and i would be totally shocked. I'd never experienced 42 degrees in New Zealand and i couldn't believe this guy was saying it would be 'warm'!!
I am the same for as you temperatures, despite bring English. But older people were brought up with Fahrenheit, before Centigrade became popular, and I also struggle with grams etc. As far as pronunciation goes, I accept the different way of saying things except for one word which always grates on me and that is "Route" which Brits pronounce as Root but Americans as Rowte
It was changed from Imperial to Metric back in 1995. I was visiting family at the time and had to help them understand the conversion. It really is a much easier system to learn. As an Aussie, we changed in 1975/6. I finished 4th class learning imperial n started 5th class learning metric. As a kid i was very confused and to this day I cant picture room measurements in metres, it has to be in feet n inches. But as for everything else, metric is soooo easy. Cups n grams.... every set of measuring cups i buy has the weight under the the cup size.
I use Fahrenheit for warm weather in the summer, 80, 90 or 100 degrees sounds hotter 25 or 26 degrees or whatever it is. and I use centigrade or celcius in the winter, zero or -5 degrees etc sounds much colder than 32 degrees etc.
It's funny listening to this as a Brit, because to be honest it just sounds like you live and socialise with posh British people. Round here, we have backyards, "Goodbye" means "I'm leaving now" and with temperature we use Fahrenheit for how warm it is outside and Celsius for how hot the oven is.
The 'British good-bye' is such a true fact 🤣🤣🤣. That's why I don't like hosting because I don't have the patience for goodbye & why I text as supposed to chat on the phone because as it takes forever. Hence the many goodbyes on the phone to confirm I'm hanging up now.
My husband says bye real quick and hangs up which I thought sounded rude because I have always been the one to hang on saying good bye at times, but I think it's funny when he says "all the best" to someone he sees on a regular basis. Also, when someone asks if you are happy to do something - not like you have a choice lol. I actually took it literally the first several times until I realized it's just an expression. lol the way you described saying goodbye sounds so much like us in California - but I do relate to feeling hurried and on edge unlike them which is a nice change if I can just change it.
I've lived in the UK for 22 years and think and dream in English, but when I count I do it in German. I also switch to German when it comes to reading music and struggle with English musical terminology. Otherwise my whole lifestyle is British, although I still crave German food and cook German dishes from time to time.
I’ve been watching some of your videos and I love the differences between our two countries, with regards to the grams measuring when baking, I’m sure that there’s about 30 grams per ounce (oz), 16oz to 1 pound (lb) and 14lb to 1stone A Kilogram (kg) is 1,000 grams and there 2.2lb to 1kg. An American pool ball 2 1/4” diameter weighs 6oz approximately 180g, it can definitely be confusing as we used to use imperial measurements and when we switched to metric it was a bit tricky to try to convert 1/2lb into grams, which is about 250g. I hope I’m not coming across as condescending 😁
try memorizing 1 more temperature: 50F=10C. After that , use this info to double diference of C to get what u shd add to 50. It will be a good approximation if C temperature is up to 25
Don’t worry eventually you will think in metric dimensions. To move to Celsius or other metric measures, you probably need to use both measures. Eventually you will get to know instinctively what a measure is. For example yesterday it was 13c I remember what it felt like and what clothing I needed to wear. On UK weather forecasts on TV both temperature scales were used for very many years before they moved to Celsius only. Also I buy cola in 2 litre bottles that means they weigh two kg which means they weigh 4.5 pounds: this not arithmetically correct but close enough.
i don't generally use multiple "bye's" but I have noticed it more in the last few years talking to "younger" people. Probably because I'm former military and comm's tend to be short and concise.
I don't know many Brits that use grams in baking. Most of us use pounds, ounces, pints, fluid oz, cups, spoons (table, dessert, tea) and a pinch or two. There is a pleasant rumour that now we are finally free from the European shackles we'll be able to buy a quarter of humbugs once again. Cheerio.
Recipes - US recipes can call for a stick of butter - what is that? A cup of butter - how do I do that when the butter is just out of the fridge? A can of (often a propitiatory brand that we do not have in the UK) - what size can?
As a fellow Floridian, we are very lucky in that we have the most un-accent, accent in regards to America. Also, I'm with ya on the Celcius vs Fahrenheit. I'd probably have issues with measurements in regards to inches vs milimeters. I do prefer baking with scales- I think it's more accurate, but Id never be able to eyeball it.
Wondering more about life in the UK as an American? Check out my story and way more info here! girlgonelondon.com/how-to-move-to-the-uk-from-america-2/
So hilarious, because I can relate to what you’ve said in this video in the opposite as I’m a Brit living in the states for 23.5 years. I still have my accent, it’s very strong and I have a couple of those inflections you talk about too. As for optimism and pessimism you are so correct as I talk about that a lot. There are positives and negatives to both. I think it’s great that in America the attitude is you can do anything at any age and people are more encouraging. However, I don’t think it’s always right to be this way and especially after the last four years, because that proves not everyone can do the top job without any sort of training whatsoever (using as an example, not to bring politics into it). There should be realistic expectations. Whereas, in the U.K. people are always saying “You’re too old to do that” when really that’s not true for a lot of things. My sister even said I’m too positive a person to move back home and that I’ve thrived better living in the US, because I’m more of a happy person whose glass is always half full. I still use English words such as bin and petrol and many others. I especially use the word garden, because that’s very different from a yard. A yard is where landscapers trucks are parked made from concrete/tarmac. When I left the U.K. we had only just switched over to Celsius and grams so when I moved to the US I was still used to using Fahrenheit and pounds and ounces. However, there are lots of recipes that measure in grams that I’ve found online so I have taught myself the difference and when I’m posting about the weather on Facebook I convert the temperature to celsius for my friends and family back home and now I know both. I still need to look up the difference sometimes though. Recently my sister asked me for things to measure in American cups and tablespoons etc for her baking as a lot of recipes she uses are American. As for the money, I only do the conversion if I’m talking to my family or friends back home. As there are 100 pennies in a dollar and 100 pennies in a pound I feel it’s all relative to what you earn and what things cost and don’t bother with the conversion. That’s how I explained it to my sister when she kept telling me to convert amounts into pounds. As for the saying goodbye bit, you had me in stitches as it is so true!! I found on the phone many Americans don’t even say, “goodbye” at all and I would always look at the phone confused by how rudely they hung up the phone. I definitely prefer the English way of saying goodbye and you reminded me of when I was a child and used to say bye to my friends when they were going back home just six doors away and we would shout “bye” continuously to each other as they walked to their house until they got in their front door!!! 🤣 it truly is a cultural thing and I’m aware of the differences so try not to overdo the goodbyes here in the US, but I love it when there’s a long goodbye! 😂😂 Long goodbyes mean you enjoyed their company very much and you don’t really want the visit to come to and end, but of course all good things come to an end. If you say goodbye and run it means you just can’t wait to get out of there and it will be noted. So, goodbye 👋🏼 bye👋🏼 goodbye👋🏼 see ya👋🏼 bye👋🏼
The goodbye thing is EXTREMELY accurate and has always pissed me off. You missed making sure the front door stays open throughout the 2nd half of the ritual, letting all the warm air out on a bitterly cold winter day. Saying goodbye from your house here is a ritual.
Haha, yes!! The letting cold air out!!! So true. I've adopted the phrase now, "okay, well we'll leave you in peace!" which I feel like indicates I want to go ASAP but makes it seems like I'm thinking of them wanting us to go...seems to work wonders and no one gets offended that I'm darting to the car as fast as I can!
Always look on bright of life 🎶 Yeah I would never want to lose my northern accent (uk). Cups doesn't seem accurate especially in baking where precision is key. Online it goes from 201g to 250g like that's a huge difference
It just feels a bit like cups is how you teach Children to cook, Maybe there is a lot more home baking in the uk compared to the us. It seem that a lot of cake baking shows i have seen seem to buy in pre made cake mix and icing. I know that’s whenever I have cooked using a us recipe Iv got to find the plastic “cup” measure which only has a hardy readable cup or half cup mark, sorry I fond it very annoying :)
I'm with you on the saying goodbye thing. What a faff! Just make sure you've not forgotten anything important and say "Well I'll see you tomorrow/later/next week. Bye." and be done with it already.
Love that reference to Brits saying bye 😂🤣😅 I wasn't sure if it was just me or it was everyone in the world too, I just know it's a thing. You're right about the phone thing too, I have done a whole other 2 hours further on the phone after saying I needed to go and the bye thing... I've also been at someone''s door saying bye and then got into a whole new convo and they've asked me back in for another cuppa cause we started all over again... it really does feel rude to just go abruptly before, during, or after a good bye to people in general... you kinda have to wean off the discussion and leave bit by bit, everyone has their own moment when they it's OK to literally walk away properly, you play that by ear 😉🙂🙄 usually by seeing the body language and micro expressions of the person you "byeing" 🖐 to lol
I can use both Metric and Imperial measurement. I don't use Kilometres just Miles. I would keep 24 hour clock and Centigrade. I was born pessimistic. Driveway is both the ramp to the house and onto where the car is parked here. However, you can say the car is parked on the drive. Both are valid.
and even though we buy petrol in litres we still say i get 25 miles per gallon we can buy milk in both pints and litres we still ask for a quarter of ham from butchers but if ANY politician was to suggest we scrap pints from pubs we would have lamppost's full of swingers
You're so right about the British bye. That's all I wanted to say. Bye then. Bub-bye. Yeah, bye. Bub-bye. Ok then bye. Yeah, bye. Right, ok bye. Bub-bye. Yeah, bye.
American in the UK. I still say backyard. I still say trash can. I had a garbage disposal installed when we remodeled our kitchen. No regrets! (My British husband still has a fear of the disposal 5 years later) My accent will not change. I'm from NE Ohio and have a very little accent by US standards. I was 46 when I moved here, so my accent is set in stone. I've always said sofa, so that was easy. I have my smartphone weather set to Freiheit. I also have my cell phone time set to 12 hours AM/PM - not 24. :D I have conformed to a few things, but It's not easy when you've spent over 4 decades another way. I love living in the UK, and no one really says much about my Americaness. Unless they are amused.
You stick with your American accent, it’s great. If you were to adopt a British accent which one would you choose? Geordie, Scouser, Brummie, West Country and so on.
I moved to England last May - I agree with everything you said. I am 58 from California. I recently came into the cups and millilitres thing the other day when doing an American recipe with metal measuring cups which I then (and only then) realized are not American size... Shoulda been obvious I guess. I got them off of Amazon.
I’m a Brit born in the 70’s and I use Fahrenheit, and feet and inches. I use a scale for measuring some things but American measuring cups for others. Depending on the recipe.
Positivity is the single characteristic that admire the most and attracts me to the USA. It was a breath of fresh air when I first worked in California, in fact I became unemployable by most British companies after engaging with a positive attitude in the workplace. Oddly enough Northerners have the same 'can do' attitude as Californians.
Love that you like the positivity of the USA, Glynn - that's my favorite part as well and it seems you know and have experience with exactly what I mean!
We all do thing we learned 'at home' and took with us from abroad ( where ever that is ) not just because it comforting relaxing feeling and if that is practice why not. Also when homesick it is a comforting feeling and I am European living in other country than where I was born and grown up.
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In the UK most people would see a yard as being paved, or cobbled, usually as part of a business. So a Builder's Yard, or a Stable Yard. A garden is usually a lawn with flower beds placed within it. The fact Yard comes from Anglo Saxon and Garden comes from French, it's likely that the words came to mean a place of work for the serfs and garden became the place where nobility spent their time relaxing. Much like how the English words for animals are all Anglo-Saxon, who were all the farmers, but the words for much of the meat those animals produce are French, named by the people that could afford to eat the meat.
Interesting comment, thanks, ^oo^
Or a backyard as you would find still in those back to backs built in the late Industrial revolution mostly in the north.
So backyards are as you say; small paved outside area's.
One other thing many mining towns have at least a part of the back of the house separated and paved this way, my mothers home had a huge garden and I mean huge but they also had a backyard. When the guys came home it was where they stripped down winter and summer. In summer they washed out there, in winter my Gran would set up the bath in the backroom that led into the yard.
I am East African. But I schooled in England, RSA, Canada, and HK, and have worked for over six years each in the US (in 90s) and EU (00s). I still sign off my letters & emails with "ubarikiwe", which is Kiswahili for "be blessed". My kids & grandkids (in Kenya, Aust, BC, and the UK) all refer to me amongst one another as "Mzee", or "the old (wise) man".
the goodbye thing you were talking about is totally true. we say goodbye inside, outside, and even wait on the pavement until the car has disappeared down the road
A pessimist is just an optimist with more information.
Pessimist can't lose either.
I am British and maybe I'm just antisocial but I HATE the whole "goodbye process". I feel like I'm not the only one that feel antsy and impatient.
I’m British too and have always hated the goodbye thing. When you’re going, just go. My husband follows people to the door, watches them into the car, waving and shouting bye all the way, even when it’s freezing outside, me I’m sat on the sofa wishing he’d close the door. He says I’m anti social 😂
In American TV shows and movies people rarely even say goodbye, they just hang up lol
In the UK a pram is not the equivalent of a stroller. A pram is like a "cot" (usa: 'crib') on wheels that the baby lies down in. If the child sits upright instead of lying down, then it's a 'pushchair' or a 'buggy'.
A pram is a baby carriage.A stroller is a buggy.
The stroller we had allowed either a full recline or an upright, depending on the age, etc. So do you have a separate item for when you have baby sleeping on a walk or sitting upright?
@@Winslow273 The pram is for young babies, lying on their back.The buggy is a more upright position.
@@davidhealy4534 A pram, is short for perambulator, from Perambulate, to walk.
In NY we call anything which a baby is wheeled around in a stroller
To British people, a domestic "yard" is generally a space enclosed by a wall, or in industrial premises often a fence, and normally has a paved surface. Terraced houses sometimes have a back yard, and a garden beyond that, but they're quite distinct spaces. As for Brits not being so optimistic, you must have realised that moaning is a form of collective bonding for us. The important thing is that you must only moan about things that you cannot alter, like the weather, your favourite team losing, or the fact that "fings ain't wot they used to be". This means everyone can share in the sentiment and feel closer together.
A yard is paved, slabbed, cobbled or tarmaced. It has a hard surface and it's not for growing anything. A garden is cultivated for plants, flowers, grass, vegetables, even shrubs.
As for temperatures, I started an apprenticeship years ago. At technical college we started our course in Fahrenheit, feet and pounds. Half way (one and a half years later) the department head informed us that the exams would be in Celsius, metres and kilogrammes.
I think of a yard as most likely being a storage area at the back of business premises.
Yes - me too - all Fahrenheit, yds, lbs etc. What an eyeopener it was to switch to the coherent metric system. It made understanding so much simpler. And as for the USA, they still use British Thermal Units as far as I'm aware. Bizarre and insular.
Older Brits like me (57) tend to use Fahrenheit if it's hot eg. It's 90 degrees out there and Celsius if it's cold eg It's minus 3 I had to scrape the car this morning
The goodbye thing is so funny because it's so true. Especially between family and good friends, we never want to say goodbye.
Haha, just happened to us yesterday as we were leaving an outdoor BBQ - carried on for half an hour more as we stood next to the car! I'm prepared for it now though. :) Thanks for watching!
*on the phone*
‘yep, yep, ok, right, see ya, bye, bye... bye’
You all need to meet my Uncle after over an hour on the phone (where he reads out his shopping list and describes his shopping trip in DETAIL), he will say “I better let you go….. Did you see incident in the news” and just start going again for another half an hour.
"On accident" seems so strange, I get it's the opposite of "on purpose" but I really dislike it xD
Ugh, same. Always by accident.
The everlasting goodbyes made me laugh, I done a 45 minute one once when my wife discussed every plant in the hosts front garden, it drives me crazy too. Sometimes they will see you back when you reverse the car off the drive into the road also 😄.
Keep the best of your American side, take the best from your British side, and ignore the rest. That's your evolving identity. Easier said than done, but it looks like you've done a great job of it so far. Keep it up! There'll be frustrations along the way, whether you're in Britain or the States, that's just life.
A friend of mine's mother, she is such fun, she is 75 & lived for 40 years in London then returned to her native Athens when her husband died, she too tries to merge the best of the two, not always with success. She seems to start punch ups in post office & supermarkets queues. Or upsets her neighbours in her apartment block, one day she saw a discarded cooker in the front of the building & knocked on each of the 5 floors to find out who left it there, the Greek neighbours suggested she ignore it or return to London. It can be a fine line to walk between the two cultures but she tries. I lived in Athens for many years & could understand both sides of her cooker story.
If you look at the 60-75 age range and we tend to use centigrade when it's cold and Fahrenheit when it's hot, such as its zero degrees when freezing but 75 when hot. It's this way because of when the switch to Centigrade took place. Odd but true, although water always boils at 100.
Saying "yes sir," or "no ma'am".
I'm southern and I cannot stop it. The British seem to hate it. "I don't recall being knighted."
If someone says yes sir to me I think they are after something often not in a good way. Or that they are being sarcastic.
I would feel quite insulted if somebody called me sir (unless it's in a customer service situation). To understand how it feels, imagine if you politely asked an acquaintance for something (e.g. a glass of water) and they replied with "Yes, your Majesty". Would you treat that as a sincere response when you know that you are not royalty? I would automatically assume that I was being mocked for treating people as my inferiors who were obliged to take orders from me. That's also how I would feel if people called me 'sir'. It's something that a servant would say. You are my equal, not my subordinate; so please don't make it seem as if I am treating you as beneath me, when that's not the case.
@Scott Wakefield U.K I am 53 and I think the last time I called someone "sir" I was a school pupil.
The problem with saying yard instead of garden is that here, a yard and a garden are two different things. A garden has flowers, grass, trees, etc, and a yard is smaller, and concreted or paved.
Older Uk folk still refer to temperature in Fahrenheit. " it's in the 80s" "oh it's over 100 degrees ", if Celsius is relevant we would be steam. On accent I get nearly every day, " oh your Scottish" , and " you still have your accent" yes I am bloody Scottish. I know I've lived in England 37 years and I am Scottish. .
When I phone one of my old Scottish friends in Tempe, Phoenix, she answers in a thick American accent. But when she hears me, she goes straight to a thick Scottish accent. Still have one dollar in my wallet from my last USA visit.
My grandparents used Farenheit. My parents were adults while society changed over but by the time I left school, I had to convert to get °F. The same goes for feet, inches, pounds etc.
(Oh yes, I am 61 and left school in 1978)
Midwest goodbyes last for a month, including the car window chat.
Omg! Southwest its normal to pull up behind two cars chatting and waiting for at least 10 minutes until they have finished their catch-up
😂 😂 😂
It is difficult trying convert. Metric was introduced in Australia, when I was a teenager, and there are still some measurements I think in the old imperial system. In particular height - I cannot visualise a person’s height in terms of centimetres or metres unless I convert into feet and inches.
I have been living in the US for the last 16 years and I cannot understand how most people here can live without a bidet! I cannot live without it and I think it is absolutely gross not using it.
Always prefer 'garden' over 'yard', after all who has heard of the Hanging Yards of Babylon!
Always surprised that America mainly uses imperial (miles, mph, yards, cups etc) yet adopted the decimal system for currency from the very start.
Interesting video! Would love to see one regarding the British/American differences in sport. Ground/stadium, nil-nil/scoreless etc.
In the UK before we were indoctrinated into the EEC//EU the UK used farrenhight as a temperature scale then the EEC/ EU said to conform to the rest of the EEC /EU the UK had to go metric and use celcius or centegrade scale of temperature
I moved to England with my family at the age of 3 from Northern Ireland. Naturally my accent is English except for one word - any, which even after all these years I pronounce "Annie", which is a real anomaly as I pronounce many the English way "meny"
Born and raised in Lancashire. Always said couch. We were taught and used Fahrenheit. The Met Office changed to Celsius in 1961. I've been doing the calculation in my head for 60 years - takes me about 2 seconds :-) Family moved to South Midlands 50 years ago. I still have my Lancashire accent - I'm proud of it. Why would you change? Stick with it Girl - I like American accents
The optimism is because you're from a relatively young country, I find Australians are the same, but we will grind you down hehe. The goodbye thing drives me nuts as well, my darling wife can take an hour to say it to her family.
Yes, as an American I do need to practice being patient more. I often want things done NOW but have to remind myself that might not be reasonable.
Try living in Spain for a while, lots of "Manana"
I mention cold in centigrade ie " it's minus 4 tonight" but summer heat in Fahrenheit " ie wow it's nearly 90 this afternoon
The only time "yard" is used in Britain is in a Victorian terrace house with a latrine in the backyard in a time before flushing toilets, these were still used in the 1930's, typically they have no grass or plant growth and owners emptied their own "shed based" toilet, this would constitute a backyard.👍❤️🇬🇧
Certain temperatures I will always regard as naturally Fahrenheit, notably the weather when it is warm, and body temperature. When the weather is cold, I use Celsius. We never use cups in recipes in the UK. That's because we don't have recipes that work in volumes for things other than liquids. We always use weights. Unfortunately this means that if you are trying to convert a US recipe that uses volumes, some sophisticated mathematics is involved, because there is no standard UK “cup”, we are unlikely to have a standard US “cup”, and a cup of one thing weighs a different amount to a cup of another. Even if you use pints and fluid ounces, these are not the same as our pints and fluid ounces. The Metric Police are also rife in the UK. I will use Imperial until I die.
Fahrenheit, being British, is all I understand. Weirdly celcius only came to the UK in common usage in the last 30 years. Most Brits understand fahrenheit. All the newspapers will says during the summer it's in the 90's, or the peak it's 100 degrees. Only the 'yoof' (uneducated) types cling to celcius and act like they are superior. Celcius is a rubbish way to convey the temperature due to the insignificance of its scaling.
Hi, I never understood measuring in Cups, but strangely Brits are happy to measure in spoons, (Tea, Table, Dessert Spoon). Whilst we have moved to metric weights, most packets of ingredients were strange numbers of grams, because they are generally just a conversion of a standard imperial measurement.
I love these - the goodbye thing is so true, and so annoying I’ve been told off about my abrupt departures, especially on the phone and I’m British!
Have you ever noticed that in movies and on American tv they rarely say goodbye at all on the phone? They just say the last sentence of the conversation and then hang up. No goodbye at all. I guess its too difficult for them to script something realistic.
As someone who has worked with mums and babies-toddlers for 10 years+, people mostly don’t say ‘pram’ but ‘buggy’ - in the South of England, anyway.
I do not recall seeing a perambulator (pram) for many years. Pushchairs are lighter than prams and fit better in cars or on buses.
In Australia we use both "backyard" and "garden." But you can't have a garden inside a backyard. We would use the word garden if there were lots of flower beds, pots, maybe some hedges, a little path, a pond, etc. If it's just an enclosed area behind your house with grass and a tree or two, it's a "yard." You have to do a lot of gardening and landscaping to have a "garden," if that makes sense.
Cooking & baking in the UK I tend to swap between grams and ounces within the same recipie. Our measurments are all over the place.
I use both Oz and grams when baking but never mix them in the same recipe, the potential for the proportions being out would send me under. I think that's why I can't get on board with cups, they're just too inaccurate. They must work though because it's not like people in the US can't bake a cake.
As an American that moved to the U.K. as a young teenager, I have adopted things like Celsius and grams for cooking but I still find inches easier than centimetres! Even though metric makes much more sense.
Definitely, centimetres, a much more accurate way to measure.😉
Coming from Orlando you must feel like the temperature in the UK is like a 12 month winter. I've been to restaurants in the US and the difference to me seems to be that in the UK eating out is an event, you go to a restaurant for e night out with family or friends, whereas in the US it is a stopping point, let's get something to eat then move on. Also, a US restaurant wants you out because they need the table, more customers more profit and more tips the server gets.
Oh 100% about your 12 month winter point! My husband was trying to get me in the sea in August here and I looked up the temperature and it's Florida ocean temperature in JANUARY! Ha!
Excellent points about our different views on eating out - really accurate and a great way of putting it.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial p
In the 80's the weatherman would say both celcius and farenhiet on the TV but being in the EU they have been replacing it as well as lb with KG, KM with miles, but road signs are still in miles. I know that 90 degrees F is around 30 degrees C and I know that a bag of sugar or bag of flour is 1 Kg or 2.2lb
People outside the US don't seem to know that we have a standard set of measuring cups (which includes one of each: 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 cup) for dry ingredients AND a liquid measuring cup (specifically, everyone seems to have the glass Pyrex version) for measuring liquids in cups (though ounces and ml are labeled, too. For us, 1 cup is 8floz or 250ml) along with a set of measuring spoons. To get a more accurate measurement using cups, you fill it with your dry ingredient using a spoon, unless the instructions say otherwise (brown sugar is usually packed in), and level it using the top of a butter knife. Using a scale is more accurate, but as most of the recipes that we come across use cups, we just continue to use them.
The optimism/pessimism paradigm is a fine margin. Just because someone isn't in your face and whooping and hollering about how great they are or want to be it doesn't mean they aren't thinking it. I'm sure you've learnt the British trait of understatement even if you don't use it yourself that should indicate to you that some people will always undersell themselves intentionally. That appears to be the major difference between US and British comedy, the protagonist in a US show has to be a winner whereas over here the person who is always trying to better himself is always likely to fail and the enjoyment comes from the escapades they get up to in the process.
I've always seen "No worries" as an Australian phrase I first heard it on the Australian soaps like Neighbours and Home And Away.
Growing up in the 70's and 80's the weather forecast was given in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit so I know exactly what someone means if they say it in F.
I don't understand Metric either and I don't care. I weigh myself in pounds and stone, I measure my height in feet and inches. An ounce was always 25 grams (roughly) when I was at catering college in the 80s but I still use imperial for all this stuff.
I certainly haven't come across the "extended goodbye" on a phone call.
I'm with you on the wanting to leave restaurants and social situations when they're "done" I get like an intense feeling of claustrophobia when I feel like i'm not able to leave when I want to, its something I really don't like about our culture
Difference is always good. Its what make life fun
I was born here and I still see temperature as in Fahrenheit, height as in Feet and Inches, as well as weight in Stones, Pounds and Ounces. My whole thinking is still in the proper Imperial System, not the false French imposed metric system.
The thing is a lot of older prople have all gone through waht you're going through now. We were raised with Farenheit (all the weather forcasts used to use it) also pounds and ounces used to be common every day units to buy produce. Centigrade and the metric system in general was forced on us. People were fined if they used the wrong units to sell their products particularly grocery products on market stalls. The old imperial system is till widely used in America. I know, which is ironic as it was always associated with the old British Empire.
The most effective way to say a quick goodbye is to invoke the call of nature. Works particularly well on the phone, less so in the car.
As a brit tend to use F for hot temps and C for cold ones..100F is much more exciting than 30 odd C . While zero C sounds just right for water freezing.
Think i disagree with the back yard thing. I think Americans call all the space out back surrounded by a fence the Yard. In the UK traditionally a Yard and a Garden are separate things, altohugh in more recent times the distinction between the two is more muddy. Traditionally with old terrace houses you had a back yard which was the enclosed small paved area when you did maybe Laundry, had an outside toilet and just a small space with a gate leading onto the public path. so generally a small enclosed “utility area” was the Yard or back Yard. A Garden however is a much larger green space with grass flower beds, swings etc. So in the us you can have both. SO a small space could be called a yard or garden if they had some green or plants, but an area of grass would only be called a Garden 👍😀
Re the Fahrenheit thing :) its whatever you are used to isn’t it, you wont get people to move Celsius to Fahrenheit because starting at zero seems easier to learn
Re the cup think , I have to admit to hating cups, cups are just ambiguous ( agree with your hsuband :) ). What if you need to reduce your recipe by one third, you can divide an exact measurement like grams but how can you divide a cup accurately DOH :)
My mother was a very British goodbye person - my father was not and was often accused of being abrupt and rude. I am with you and him. Even now my mother will take ten minutes to say bye on the 'phone - but she half recognises this habit by saying "I will let you go now" ten minutes after the initial expression of farewell..scream!!
"Oh, its going to be seventeen celsius, I still have no idea how to dress!" - As a brit, neither do I.
Anything under 10 - cold, anything over 20 - warm, anything over 30 - deadly. 10 - 20 - good luck figuring it out
Love the whole bye thing. You are right it's definitely a thing thing here. The best advice I can give you if need to be away by a certain time is to tell the person in advance (15mins or so) before you intend on leaving that you have to leave soon.
Always good to see how odd we (brits) are 😂. Yep, we’re a strange lot! I should say though that there’s no need to worry about using American terms such as dollars or trash etc. We know what you mean. I’ve got American friends who do it. I think it’s easy for us (U.K.). We’ve been brought up on American TV, films (sorry! Movies), etc - that we understand. Whereas it seems a lot more of a culture shock for Americans understanding us. The only thing I’d disagree on - is about learning centigrade over Fahrenheit. This country used to use imperial measurements - including Fahrenheit. So for many of us - we were brought up with it - but have had to convert. So it can be done.
I agree with you about saying about the weather in fahrenheit rather than celsius, at least it sounds warm when you say the temperature is in the 70s
Your weight in your medical records in the UK will undoubtedly be in kilos, but people a quarter of my age still use pounds for their new babies. I recommend the UK Metric Association website. Our OS maps have been metric for decades, but distances on signs are still invariably in miles!
Oh wow! I lived in semi-rural VA for six years, but my kids were at school in DC Mon-Fri and three days a week I commuted to Baltimore. The British custom of long meals, staggered good-byes, and lots of small talk was very much in line with my neighbourhood and friends in Middleburg, but in the cities it was much more like your Florida experience. BTW, I find it cute that US people use the past participle "gotten", which Br English (and African, Indian, and Aussie) haven't used in two centuries.
I'm English I grew up at a time we used farenheit, pints, pounds and ounces in daily life, but used metric units in sciences. The weather forecast was only in Farenheit, I know what temepratures 45, 50, 60, 70 and 80 FH feel like, but cannot relate to Celsius at all
I haven’t gotten used to saying pavement, it’s sidewalk all the way! Same with driveway vs drive. I have adopted a few British words though.. I love how public transportation is shortened to public transport and I also prefer bin to garbage or trash!
The way I visualise g for cooking is I look at the number of g in the packet, for example a bag of flour might be 500g. 200g is about 2/5 of the pack. For water 1g = 1ml, and that is a reasonable approximation for other liquids that you are likely to consume or use in a recipe.
And here I thought I was insane with people never wanting to commit to a 'goodbye', I can get exchanging a pleasant goodbye, but half the time it feels like both parties just don't want to be the one to actually take initiative and just leave.
Yes, we're pessimistic by nature. As the Mona Lott said, ""It's being so cheerful as keeps me going". Your analysis on the English "Long Goodbye" is funny and spot on. I find it very annoying when I need to get on.
Wasn’t it Al Murray who said that the American Dream doesn’t relate to Britons as we are generally awake.
The leaving thing is definitely after a social gathering. If you've just popped in for a reason, it can still take longer than it needs to but not as much as you're describing.
Cups have never been used in the UK for cooking. Before Grams it was Pounds and ounces. Measuring by cups in USA was a system invented by Fannie Farmer in 1896. She was director of the Boston Cooking School.
Cups are so many ounces.
@@gemoftheocean Not in the UK we don't have standard cup sizes or measures.
I've lived in UK for 22 years. I am originally from Russia. I prefer to use cups rather than grams when I bake.
An easy conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit is to double it and then add 30 ie 17c double =34 + 30 would give a reading of 68f. This is only approximate but for everyday use is a useful tool. Give it a go.
Celsius
0 and below Freezing
0 to 10 Cold
below 15 Wear a Jacket
20 and above Warm
23 and above British Heatwave
...and with 1 Celsius degree for every 3 Fahrenheit degrees
you've only a third as much worries about the weather.
Fantastic, will remember this!!!! :D
Agreed about the scale, but there are only 1.8 degrees F to each degree C.
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Note that nobody knows how to dress for anything between 15 and 20 though.
When I first moved to Australia in 1981 the guy on the tv weather would say "it will be warm tomorrow - we're expecting 42 in Sydney" and i would be totally shocked. I'd never experienced 42 degrees in New Zealand and i couldn't believe this guy was saying it would be 'warm'!!
I am the same for as you temperatures, despite bring English. But older people were brought up with Fahrenheit, before Centigrade became popular, and I also struggle with grams etc. As far as pronunciation goes, I accept the different way of saying things except for one word which always grates on me and that is "Route" which Brits pronounce as Root but Americans as Rowte
It was changed from Imperial to Metric back in 1995. I was visiting family at the time and had to help them understand the conversion. It really is a much easier system to learn. As an Aussie, we changed in 1975/6. I finished 4th class learning imperial n started 5th class learning metric. As a kid i was very confused and to this day I cant picture room measurements in metres, it has to be in feet n inches. But as for everything else, metric is soooo easy. Cups n grams.... every set of measuring cups i buy has the weight under the the cup size.
I use Fahrenheit for warm weather in the summer, 80, 90 or 100 degrees sounds hotter 25 or 26 degrees or whatever it is.
and I use centigrade or celcius in the winter, zero or -5 degrees etc sounds much colder than 32 degrees etc.
It's funny listening to this as a Brit, because to be honest it just sounds like you live and socialise with posh British people. Round here, we have backyards, "Goodbye" means "I'm leaving now" and with temperature we use Fahrenheit for how warm it is outside and Celsius for how hot the oven is.
The 'British good-bye' is such a true fact 🤣🤣🤣. That's why I don't like hosting because I don't have the patience for goodbye & why I text as supposed to chat on the phone because as it takes forever. Hence the many goodbyes on the phone to confirm I'm hanging up now.
My husband says bye real quick and hangs up which I thought sounded rude because I have always been the one to hang on saying good bye at times, but I think it's funny when he says "all the best" to someone he sees on a regular basis. Also, when someone asks if you are happy to do something - not like you have a choice lol. I actually took it literally the first several times until I realized it's just an expression. lol
the way you described saying goodbye sounds so much like us in California - but I do relate to feeling hurried and on edge unlike them which is a nice change if I can just change it.
I've lived in the UK for 22 years and think and dream in English, but when I count I do it in German. I also switch to German when it comes to reading music and struggle with English musical terminology. Otherwise my whole lifestyle is British, although I still crave German food and cook German dishes from time to time.
I’ve been watching some of your videos and I love the differences between our two countries, with regards to the grams measuring when baking, I’m sure that there’s about 30 grams per ounce (oz), 16oz to 1 pound (lb) and 14lb to 1stone
A Kilogram (kg) is 1,000 grams and there 2.2lb to 1kg. An American pool ball 2 1/4” diameter weighs 6oz approximately 180g, it can definitely be confusing as we used to use imperial measurements and when we switched to metric it was a bit tricky to try to convert 1/2lb into grams, which is about 250g. I hope I’m not coming across as condescending 😁
LOL IMO "no worries" is literally the most British thing ever
try memorizing 1 more temperature: 50F=10C. After that , use this info to double diference of C to get what u shd add to 50. It will be a good approximation if C temperature is up to 25
Don’t worry eventually you will think in metric dimensions.
To move to Celsius or other metric measures, you probably need to use both measures. Eventually you will get to know instinctively what a measure is. For example yesterday it was 13c I remember what it felt like and what clothing I needed to wear.
On UK weather forecasts on TV both temperature scales were used for very many years before they moved to Celsius only.
Also I buy cola in 2 litre bottles that means they weigh two kg which means they weigh 4.5 pounds: this not arithmetically correct but close enough.
i don't generally use multiple "bye's" but I have noticed it more in the last few years talking to "younger" people. Probably because I'm former military and comm's tend to be short and concise.
I don't know many Brits that use grams in baking. Most of us use pounds, ounces, pints, fluid oz, cups, spoons (table, dessert, tea) and a pinch or two. There is a pleasant rumour that now we are finally free from the European shackles we'll be able to buy a quarter of humbugs once again.
Cheerio.
Recipes - US recipes can call for a stick of butter - what is that? A cup of butter - how do I do that when the butter is just out of the fridge? A can of (often a propitiatory brand that we do not have in the UK) - what size can?
As a fellow Floridian, we are very lucky in that we have the most un-accent, accent in regards to America.
Also, I'm with ya on the Celcius vs Fahrenheit. I'd probably have issues with measurements in regards to inches vs milimeters. I do prefer baking with scales- I think it's more accurate, but Id never be able to eyeball it.
I agree, it sounds very neutral.
If people from Florida don't have accents, why did Tom Petty have such a great Southern accent? He came from Gainesville, Florida.
Wondering more about life in the UK as an American? Check out my story and way more info here! girlgonelondon.com/how-to-move-to-the-uk-from-america-2/
So hilarious, because I can relate to what you’ve said in this video in the opposite as I’m a Brit living in the states for 23.5 years. I still have my accent, it’s very strong and I have a couple of those inflections you talk about too. As for optimism and pessimism you are so correct as I talk about that a lot. There are positives and negatives to both. I think it’s great that in America the attitude is you can do anything at any age and people are more encouraging. However, I don’t think it’s always right to be this way and especially after the last four years, because that proves not everyone can do the top job without any sort of training whatsoever (using as an example, not to bring politics into it). There should be realistic expectations. Whereas, in the U.K. people are always saying “You’re too old to do that” when really that’s not true for a lot of things. My sister even said I’m too positive a person to move back home and that I’ve thrived better living in the US, because I’m more of a happy person whose glass is always half full. I still use English words such as bin and petrol and many others. I especially use the word garden, because that’s very different from a yard. A yard is where landscapers trucks are parked made from concrete/tarmac. When I left the U.K. we had only just switched over to Celsius and grams so when I moved to the US I was still used to using Fahrenheit and pounds and ounces. However, there are lots of recipes that measure in grams that I’ve found online so I have taught myself the difference and when I’m posting about the weather on Facebook I convert the temperature to celsius for my friends and family back home and now I know both. I still need to look up the difference sometimes though. Recently my sister asked me for things to measure in American cups and tablespoons etc for her baking as a lot of recipes she uses are American. As for the money, I only do the conversion if I’m talking to my family or friends back home. As there are 100 pennies in a dollar and 100 pennies in a pound I feel it’s all relative to what you earn and what things cost and don’t bother with the conversion. That’s how I explained it to my sister when she kept telling me to convert amounts into pounds. As for the saying goodbye bit, you had me in stitches as it is so true!! I found on the phone many Americans don’t even say, “goodbye” at all and I would always look at the phone confused by how rudely they hung up the phone. I definitely prefer the English way of saying goodbye and you reminded me of when I was a child and used to say bye to my friends when they were going back home just six doors away and we would shout “bye” continuously to each other as they walked to their house until they got in their front door!!! 🤣 it truly is a cultural thing and I’m aware of the differences so try not to overdo the goodbyes here in the US, but I love it when there’s a long goodbye! 😂😂 Long goodbyes mean you enjoyed their company very much and you don’t really want the visit to come to and end, but of course all good things come to an end. If you say goodbye and run it means you just can’t wait to get out of there and it will be noted. So, goodbye 👋🏼 bye👋🏼 goodbye👋🏼 see ya👋🏼 bye👋🏼
The goodbye thing is EXTREMELY accurate and has always pissed me off. You missed making sure the front door stays open throughout the 2nd half of the ritual, letting all the warm air out on a bitterly cold winter day. Saying goodbye from your house here is a ritual.
Haha, yes!! The letting cold air out!!! So true. I've adopted the phrase now, "okay, well we'll leave you in peace!" which I feel like indicates I want to go ASAP but makes it seems like I'm thinking of them wanting us to go...seems to work wonders and no one gets offended that I'm darting to the car as fast as I can!
Always look on bright of life 🎶
Yeah I would never want to lose my northern accent (uk). Cups doesn't seem accurate especially in baking where precision is key. Online it goes from 201g to 250g like that's a huge difference
Cups is definitely less accurate, that I would agree with!
It just feels a bit like cups is how you teach Children to cook, Maybe there is a lot more home baking in the uk compared to the us. It seem that a lot of cake baking shows i have seen seem to buy in pre made cake mix and icing. I know that’s whenever I have cooked using a us recipe Iv got to find the plastic “cup” measure which only has a hardy readable cup or half cup mark, sorry I fond it very annoying :)
@@FlightProgramAborted look on Amazon or elsewhere for a measuring cup that has both US & Metric equivalents on the cup.
I'm with you on the saying goodbye thing. What a faff! Just make sure you've not forgotten anything important and say "Well I'll see you tomorrow/later/next week. Bye." and be done with it already.
Love that reference to Brits saying bye 😂🤣😅 I wasn't sure if it was just me or it was everyone in the world too, I just know it's a thing. You're right about the phone thing too, I have done a whole other 2 hours further on the phone after saying I needed to go and the bye thing... I've also been at someone''s door saying bye and then got into a whole new convo and they've asked me back in for another cuppa cause we started all over again... it really does feel rude to just go abruptly before, during, or after a good bye to people in general... you kinda have to wean off the discussion and leave bit by bit, everyone has their own moment when they it's OK to literally walk away properly, you play that by ear 😉🙂🙄 usually by seeing the body language and micro expressions of the person you "byeing" 🖐 to lol
Measuring cups are now being sold in the uK. Useful for some things but not accurate enough for proper baking.
I can use both Metric and Imperial measurement. I don't use Kilometres just Miles. I would keep 24 hour clock and Centigrade. I was born pessimistic. Driveway is both the ramp to the house and onto where the car is parked here. However, you can say the car is parked on the drive. Both are valid.
I moved away from the UK in the 90's but still speak in feet & inches, despite my husband & kids rolling their eyes.
and even though we buy petrol in litres we still say i get 25 miles per gallon
we can buy milk in both pints and litres
we still ask for a quarter of ham from butchers
but if ANY politician was to suggest we scrap pints from pubs we would have lamppost's full of swingers
as a brit that had me cracking up laughing . How we say good bye was so funny .
You're so right about the British bye. That's all I wanted to say. Bye then.
Bub-bye.
Yeah, bye.
Bub-bye.
Ok then bye.
Yeah, bye.
Right, ok bye.
Bub-bye.
Yeah, bye.
Yeah, I've got used to saying "Thanks, cheers, see ya later, bye" in succession when I say bye. It's so true.
American in the UK. I still say backyard. I still say trash can. I had a garbage disposal installed when we remodeled our kitchen. No regrets! (My British husband still has a fear of the disposal 5 years later) My accent will not change. I'm from NE Ohio and have a very little accent by US standards. I was 46 when I moved here, so my accent is set in stone. I've always said sofa, so that was easy. I have my smartphone weather set to Freiheit. I also have my cell phone time set to 12 hours AM/PM - not 24. :D
I have conformed to a few things, but It's not easy when you've spent over 4 decades another way. I love living in the UK, and no one really says much about my Americaness. Unless they are amused.
You stick with your American accent, it’s great. If you were to adopt a British accent which one would you choose? Geordie, Scouser, Brummie, West Country and so on.
I moved to England last May - I agree with everything you said. I am 58 from California. I recently came into the cups and millilitres thing the other day when doing an American recipe with metal measuring cups which I then (and only then) realized are not American size... Shoulda been obvious I guess. I got them off of Amazon.
You should be proud of your accent As it’s who you are and what makes you great.keep up the good work.
Another great video, great insight as usual!
I’m a Brit born in the 70’s and I use Fahrenheit, and feet and inches. I use a scale for measuring some things but American measuring cups for others. Depending on the recipe.
We are not dreamers like Americans, that's not because we're not optimistic or have a British Dream....NO!!! It's because we're awake 🤣🤣🤣...Al Murray
Positivity is the single characteristic that admire the most and attracts me to the USA. It was a breath of fresh air when I first worked in California, in fact I became unemployable by most British companies after engaging with a positive attitude in the workplace. Oddly enough Northerners have the same 'can do' attitude as Californians.
Love that you like the positivity of the USA, Glynn - that's my favorite part as well and it seems you know and have experience with exactly what I mean!
We all do thing we learned 'at home' and took with us from abroad ( where ever that is ) not just because it comforting relaxing feeling and if that is practice why not.
Also when homesick it is a comforting feeling and I am European living in other country than where I was born and grown up.