10 Weirdest & Most Confusing Things About British Homes (+ Free PDF & Quiz)
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- čas přidán 10. 05. 2024
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We have or I have in my house a light switch on the outside of the bathroom and inside of bathroom
I only have it outside or a pull one
cute baby 🌸
we olso in oman 🇴🇲 have electric things like yours
I've paid Council Tax for over 10 years, living in those humid, damp hovels near Peterborough.
I llllllllllllllllove
Lucy: makes video to teach English.
me, who already knows English: watches video anyway for the cultural oddities.
I watch for Lucy, she's gorgeous
Same.
1.25 speed is nice
@@evangelist6277 simp
@@spqdz There is nothing simp about appreciating beauty
As I British person, I can confirm that carpet in the bathroom is the devils work! Not all of us do it.
I can imagine that it's really disgusting. Even if your toilet doesn't overflow, the carpet must be moldy, because it never really dries out if you shower daily.
I was born 65 years ago in England and I can confirm that I have never had, or ever been anywhere that has had a carpeted bathroom where on earth have you got this "fact" from!!
What about a carpet that you can just put down for when showering / using toilet, then go wash? Like they're small enough to put in the washer, and not big enough to cover the whole bathroom.
@@nekotranslates Like a shower mat?
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo yup
I would be able to listen to you all day long. Your accent as well as the varied vocabulary you use make your videos the most academic and entertaining in CZcams
"On CZcams" not "in".
A lot of the things on your list still exist in older homes here in the Eastern United States, such as separate taps, chain pulls, and electrical plugs in the light fixtures. Unfortunately, simply placing an electrical plug higher, doesn't make it any safer. Most of our bathroom and kitchen electrical devices use GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) technology, which switches off the power within milliseconds in the event of an electrical shock. We also have grounding pins on our plugs, and most two prong plug ends can only be inserted one way, as one blade is wider.
Yup I think part of the thing with England is how much older the average house is there compared to the the average age of the US home.
On the Delta King they have the chain pull thing. That's the only thing I know of. I didn't know we still had sepret sinks for hot, and cold but I don't go to old buildings much.
@@janellcrews6108 separate taps not sinks
Same in the Midwest.
Overflowing vocabulary. You're one of the most intelligent English teachers on CZcams.
K thanks
I think she is the most beautiful teacher on CZcams. What do you think beautiful Lucy?
Definitely💚
I disagree. She is a good teacher, but highly overrated
Absolutely
I enjoyed your video. I wanted to point out one thing, however. Here in the United States, we don’t have screens on our windows to prevent mosquitoes specifically. We mostly have them to prevent houseflies from coming into our homes.
In my new home, I have a screen that is in desperate need of replacement, and leaves a gap on one side. Each time I leave that window open, I notice a half dozen or so insects of various types have managed to come into my bathroom.
i think what she had in mind was the mosquito screens that were kinda like curtains. my neighbor had one bc she always had her porch door open if she was awake and at home. but we live in georgia so the bugs get in however
Here in Florida we have screens for mosquitoes & a plethora of other insects, bugs & reptiles.
@@rockeerockey6941 Like the euphemistically-named "Palmetto bugs" - which sounds a lot better to the Ft. Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce than "gigantic skunk roaches". Just wanting to be your friend, by spewing a foul-smelling liquid at you when threatened.
It's not just Florida, almost anywhere in the USA you would be innudated with flies, mosquitos, bees, wasps, dirt daubers, spiders, lizards, scorpions, birds, etc if you didn't have screens on the windows. It's nearly inconceivable that you would just leave the windows open with no screen around here.
67 year old US citizen here and when I was a kid we often had pill cords on ceiling lamps in bathrooms as well as other rooms. Bathroom lamps often has plug sockets (or receptacles) for shaving some other ceiiing lamps also had receptacles but for purposes other than shaving. Often the lamps with pull cords and receptacles also had wall switches, this allowed the item plugged in there to be left turned on while the light was off. I recall my grandmother having a toilet that had a chain. No carpets in the bathrooms but having grown up in Wisconsin It would have seemed great until the toilet overflowed.
When I grew up our washing machine was in the kitchen the first was an easy spin, the only electric socket was in the light over the mirror in the bathroom when I was a child I stuck a hairpin in the electrical socket and got the shock of my life, my grandmother had a pull chain toilet, yes we had two faucets for hot and cold but only in the bathroom, we did not have air conditioning we used fans the house I grew up in was built in the late 1890’s there was a coal bin in the basement, and even though it had been upgraded in the past the gas fixtures in all the rooms were still operational. As an adult I have carpet in my bathroom but not in my son’s lol
The Brit house reminds me of my grandfather's ca.1930 Chicago 3-flat. The laundry appliances and water heater were in the kitchen, as well as one of two gas (originally oil) space heaters. One bath sink had the separate taps, and a ceiling pull-chain light. (They used to advertise an adjustable pipe with an aerator, that would connect the two taps, but may have been in the '60s).
how about people who put "carpeting" on their toilet seat cover?
@@aspenrebel Ugh, I'm so glad that fad died off in the early 00's. I remember people having the ring seat carpeted too. As for carpeted floors? I've seen a couple houses with carpeted bathrooms and the smell of urine was always present. After all, many men tend to miss the toilet while peeing. I'm American by the way.
How fast we forget!
#9: sockets in bathrooms: U.S. code requires these to be GFI (Ground Fault Interrupt) circuits - these detect shorts instantly and trip the circuit breaker in the socket to prevent shocks.
GfI's have been standard for a long time to
I won't allow any mats around the toilet area. I call them "piss mats." Absolutely disgusting.
@@classicrock986 I have a rather elegant house from the early '80s in Arizona. No GFI's or CO / smoke alarms. Some little projects for me to complete.
If I recall correctly the UK has these at the breaker box rather than the outlet
@@dillzilla4454 The GFI breakers exist in the US, but it seems more common to have them on the outlets. This is likely because you can hit the reset button right there (instant gratification) instead of having to walk all the way to the breaker box and back to reset and be able to use the outlet.
I ADORE these cultural videos. You boost both your language and your knowledge of the culture!
thank you so much Fernando!!!!
@@EnglishwithLucy When will we hear your Spanish again. I'm delighted every time I listen to you doing it. I'm a native Spanish speaker from Colombia (maybe my name gives a hint). Love ALL your content.
@@EnglishwithLucy please 🙏 can u recommend a channel of learning how to programme for me pls🌹✨
OmG ...four likes ...and no response 💔😞
And shows how some stuff is universal. Nuts. But we all have done it.
I live in Canada....Raised in Britain...1941-1950....I'm 79 and you brought back so many memories of things that I'd almost forgotten....thanks for the memory!
Have you watched lost in the pond?
Because the rest of the world moved on
Ya outside toilets which you can see to these days in very old terraced houses
The screens aren't just for Mosquitoes, they keep ALL insects out of the house. I can't imagine having no air-conditioning or screens.
Also to keep people and pets inside.
Flies. Flies eat *** and bother people.
And they carry all kinds of bacteria, germs, viruses, and other nasty *****.
I live in the mountains. We don’t have AC either bc we don’t need it. It never gets over 75 degrees outside so no point. Same for UK. Doesn’t get hot. No need for AC.
@@aerynstormcrow Er, it does. I have an air conditioner in my bedroom because it gets so hot and humid in the summer.
I live in Ireland. Never seen a mosquito here
Hi, I live in Italy and we have a weird object in our bathrooms called "bidet". It is used to clean your bottom when you need the toilet. When Italians go abroad, they really miss it because it's also useful for women's period and also save a lot of water avoiding to do a shower every time.
En Argentina también tenemos gracias a ustedes... Aunque mí baño es chico para uno, nos las ingeniamos para eso.
¡En España también tenemos!
Yeah, even in quite small bathrooms! I am astonished by how skilfully it is always put even in kinda small spaces, where it seems no additional place left - and here it is, the bidet, always in its place))
Indonesian homes also have the bidet, especially the jet spray bidet. I missed this stuff when I traveling to the USA
We have bidets in many houses in Brazil.
Hello! I'm American and lived in England in the early 80's. I found all the things mentioned in your video to be true for me, especially the separate taps! One thing in my house you did not mention was door handles. We have door knobs (round) and my home in England had handles/levers instead. Also the front/exterior door had neither. It had a key hole and a little metal lip to pull the door closed. I love your videos, they bring back fond memories of my time in England.
Also quite common in the Netherlands for frond doors: just a key hole and a metal lip to pull the door closed or (for older houses) a knob to close the door. The house I grew up in also had door knobs on all doors (house from 1889) and separate taps everywhere but the kitchen. It was ideal with cats. Nowadays, living in a more modern house, the cats can open the door why hanging on the door handle
I visited my niece who is stationed in the Air Force. She lived Bury St Edmonds which I thought was an adorable town! I noticed just about everything you spoke about while we were there, but I also noticed other things such as the tiny refrigerators, the charge for a bag at the store, the fact that sooo many people walked everywhere, the many tiny little goodwill type stores, how big and very bright the vegetables were, but the thing that I thought was the oddest was the only place that had an air conditioner was this tiny little bathing suit shop!! It was really warm while we were there and we wore shorts the entire time. The newspaper said it was a “heatwave” and it was only 75 degrees or so. Loved, loved, loved that little town!
That is so cool! Thank you you sharing!!🤩😁
I live just 20 minutes from Bury and it is not a little town😅
England is split into counties(like states), counties have towns and cities. I live in Ipswich which is the biggest town of Suffolk - the 3rd *largest* county in England…
Bury St Edmunds is also in Suffolk, in fact it’s the 2nd *largest* town in the county.
So, it’s the 2nd *largest* town in the 3rd *largest* county in the *entire* country.
Not small at all. 😂 x
It's not worth having air conditioning here. All that money for the sake of one month a year
Im sorry to say, but Bury isnt really a small town. Bury st. Edmunds is where pretty much everyone i know goes if they need to go shopping because it’s the only place with shops and actual activities nearby. We live about half an hour away in a small town with about 1/4 of it’s population Bury is always the place to go to hang out with friends unless you go to a town like Mildenhall for some reason or other, which still only has a few fast food restaurants, a Sainsbury and some other small shops in the centre.
funny thought though, i almost had a heart attack when i saw ‘Bury St Edmonds’. It was such a specific town to name in all of England and i just found it quite amusing.
There was another safety reason for having separate hot and cold taps. When houses were plumber with lead pipes, the hot water could contain more lead than cold water. It was safer to drink cold water with lower lead levels.
I don't know if it's still done, but electric plugs used to have fuses in the plug.
Shaver sockets in bathrooms had special protection to stop electric shocks.
Ground Fault Interrupt sockets. Common in the US.
The reason believe it or not with having two separate taps is to do with the potential accidental back flush of contaminated water from the low pressure header tank for the hot water system (the header tanks were often open) and you could get dead rats mice etc. in them causing fouled water, if the mains pressure lines lost water supply or water pressure this could then run back into the town supply(not good at all).
@@konaguzzi1 That makes sense. It's also why you're not allowed to install or modify plumbing in your house.
GFI ( ground fault interrupt) required by code in Canada.
@@morticiaaddams7866 After WW2 there was a drastic shortage of copper in the UK. So there was no GFI in new buildings and they needed a lot of reconstruction. So the plugs had a fuse inside.
Most countries have GFI as a standard. Once a standard is set it is then bloody near impossible to change. Although China seems to be changing to the Aus/NZ plugs.
I live in england and our bathrooms don't have carpet,we have push button toilets I have wall sockets with buttons ,our washing machine is in the kitchen I have light pull cords . We have shaving sockets in bathrooms
Same no carpets in the bathroom on a towel on the floor
You probably live in west London, champagne socialist, liberal elite hotspot. Not England. You need to feel the damp, mouldy smell of bathroom carpets before you call it real England. After you had a shower with that box thingy to adjust your shower temperate that never works of course. Real brits have (weekly!) baths not showers of course.
You can buy push button toilets in the states also.
@@armosa -so basically you like to sit in your dirt while you bathe?
It's funny how they think we live 😂
I'm in the UK and when I lived in my flat, the bathroom had no window. The light was turned on by a pull cord, which also set off the extractor fan.
The string is to isolate you from electric switches or the switch is outside the bathroom, so you don’t get zapped when wet after a bath or shower
In the US, we call that a vent, or fart fan lol
Yes that's right. The annoying thing was that the extractor fan would keep going long after the light was switched off. As the bedroom was right next to the bathroom it was very noisy. 😂
@@freedomfighter5957 in the US you can have a timer switch on your exhaust fan instead of a plain on/off switch. The switch in the one powder room has five buttons, #1 turns fan on for 5 minutes, #2 15 minutes, #3 30 minutes, #4 is 60 minutes, the fifth switch turns the fan on or off, no timer function.
We have washer/dryer combo units in the States as well, but they're extremely uncommon outside of RVs and yachts. I've never had one in a house but I did have one in my Class A RV before I sold it and I currently have one on my yacht. The one in my RV was a Smeg and it worked fairly well but the one on my yacht is Miele and it works nearly as well as my household washer and dryer.
I live in the US, and the place I live in now came with a combo washer/dryer machine. I love it. The dryer is a little finicky, but it works very well most of the time. No more forgetting I did laundry and ending up having to rewash the load!
I installed mosquito nets just to prevent bugs, wasps and bees getting in because I'm scared of them, so now I feel much more relaxed when the window is open
Same!
And the sams here!
How do stray cats and bats get in?
most UK windows open out the way so mesh's would need to be on the inside
In Scandinavia, at least in Finland and Sweden, we usually have the washing machine (and tumbler) in the bathroom. One family houses normally have a utility room with washing machine etc.
And if your washing machine is leaking for some reason, there‘s no drama as there is a drain at the lowest point of the bathroom. Oh how I miss Finland!
And we also have the light switch in the bathroom,i have switch near the shower,so can turn on or off while i taking a shower..lol..live in sweden
@@ylpea5170 Yes!! $18,000.00 later I now have a floor drain installed in my laundry room!!🙄🇨🇦
In Canada we have GFCI sockets in the bathroom. Ground fault circuit interruptor, there's a circuit breaker in the socket.
These shut off at the first hint of a short, like water getting in, so no one can be electrocuted.
We have that also but we call it a fuse, if theres no fuse in your plug the appliance in nearly most if not all cases wont work
A lot of the older house stuff we have in old homes here. Like the 2 water faucets in the sink, pull cord lights, electrical outlets on the light in bathroom etc. But I was always curious about the washing machine & dryer in the kitchen. What I've seen with small apartments & duplexes or homes with no room for a laundry room is they'll have a small closet in the hallway where they have a washer & dryer, sometimes stacked
I grew up in the States living in a home that was built in the 1920s and all of our "taps" were separate, except for the kitchen sink.
I have no socket in the bathroom or airconditioning. I live in an apartment house in Norway built in 1957 so the basin has separate taps. When I moved in, the cold tap was not working but I have not had it repaired, because I can get much colder water from it to drink than from the kitchen sink when there is no water coming to the hot tap. The toilet is quite modern but it has only one button for flushing.
@@ozsfi as long as the toilet's up to standards, right? lol. Is there much need for air conditioning in Norway? Wasn't sure how hot it gets there.
When I was a kid here in Pennsylvania some of the older great aunts and uncles or great grand parents homes would have a wall mount or pedistal sink in the bathroom with a separate hot and cold tap. I believe that US homes built after the tweenies or thirties and definitely after WWII had all mixing taps like we have now.
I think the 2 taps thing is more down to the age of the house than something specific to the UK, I'm sure older homes here in Australia have them if they haven't been renovated.
@@MrMikey1273 There is a cottage in my family that was built over a century ago, and it has separate taps in the bathroom. Come to think of it my Grandparents house did too, that house was built in the 30's.
In Russia we often have a washing-mashine in the bathroom :)
.. the light switch is on the outside of the bathroom. :)
France here. Washing machine in garage if you're in a 🏠.
Indonesia here. The light switch in my house is also on the outside of the bathroom
As a lifelong American I was looking forwards to learning some new English vocabulary. Imagine my joy in having understood every word you said! I guess watching all those episodes of Monty Phyton's Flying Circus finally paid off!
You can still find all mentioned in the USA. I live in an older home and have a pull cord and separate faucets.
Love your videos!
Ehen I lived in Brooklyn, we lived in an old house that had a chain to flush the toilet. We even had a bathtub in the kitchen that doubled as a table. It had a cover when not in use.
Wow, that's pretty cool =)
One of the highlights of the classic 1972 movie, The Godfather is the scene where Tessio describes "the chain thing" in the bathroom as a place to plant a gun for Michael Corleone, so he can bump off the rival mobster and the police captain who was protecting him. "Louie's Restaurant" was also in The Bronx!! :)
@Amelia Wojnicz Must have been a tall bathtub to double as a table.
Worked as an expat in London for several years, lived in a few old suburban places. Loved it. One kitchen had a tap with two channels in one pipe to keep hot & cold separate until they exited. And a geyser! Incomprehensible.
my old home had a cord for the bathroom light and i remember when i first moved in someone had broken it so we never turned the light off but after a few years my landlady brought a new cord, it was great to be able to pull the cord and turn off the light lol. now a days i live in a building with a light switch inside the bathroom. i have never lived anywhere with a carpet in the bathroom but i think childhood friend gran had theirs carpeted :)
Thank you for this video. As an American living in the lovely UK I have noticed , of course, all that you have spoken about. The two things that baffled me were the no outlets in the bathrooms and also no screens on the windows. When I was having new windows put in I asked the window guy about screens and he just looked at me blankly. We don't have mosquitos where I live but we do have flies and bees. It would be so much better if there were window screens. As far as the bathroom plugs go, I found them to be a minor inconvenience, because in America we have plug outlets all over the bathroom, haha. Doesn't sound too safe though! Saying all of that, I LOVE the UK and wouldn't live anywhere else! Thanks again for your informative videos!
Many Australian appliances also have three prong plugs. Especially with high wattage appliances. The bottom prong is the earth and is used with appliances that aren't double insulated. It's a safety feature. Australian wall sockets also have an on/off switch.
That is because it has had British influence. All ex British colonies have British type plugs.
Half the time we only use the top two prongs on it
I'm Spanish and I lived in Brighton for a couple of years. The first time I went to a toilet I spent like half an hour trying to find the light. How I would imagin that the light turns on pulling a cord! Never seen this before
I lived in Brighton too.wicked place!!!👍🏽
🤣
@@quinomonte I loved Brighton, so much fun
@@quinomonte U can also see the same switch in the Chinese countryside.
On visiting Brussels, we checked into our hotel room at night and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to turn on any lights. No one had mentioned that the key card had to be placed in a specific slot by the door to engage the lights in the room. I guess this saved them money by not allowing you to go out and leave a light on in your room.
FYI, we have two prong plugs in Canada, you cannot plug them in either way. One prong is wider. I think you used to be able to turn them.
It’s not bout Canada mate
@@auroraparker2689, you clearly don't listen well, mate!
In Canada, where I’ve lived on both coasts, I never lived with air conditioning until I moved to Ontario. A/C is very common in Central Canada, but elsewhere, it’s as you describe for the UK.
I live in Atlantic Canada, nearly everyone has air conditioning.
Lucy, you can read me a telephonebook...your voice combined with the perfect English is so soothing.
Also, I like the typical British humor that flashes every now and then. Like!
With the exception of the washer/dryer in the kitchen I've had everything you've listed in homes I've lived in here in the United States. It all depends on how old the building is. I do currently have a washer and a tumble dryer in my kitchen though. This single unit washer/dryer is rather new in the US, and hugely expensive. The first time I ever saw one of those it was in the upscale motorhomes. I have however also had a washer & dryer that was stacked, along with an old fashioned ringer washer.
I learnt something new today and I'm English. I've never noticed that one of the prongs on a plug is longer than the others. Thanks for explaining 😊
Yes, I remember my Nanna on my Dad’s side of the family had the pull chain flushing system where the septic tank was high up on the wall behind it. At the time, I was all of 5 years old , and and we emigrated from Lancaster to Australia four years later.
The best thing I remember was central heating .
I can't stop smiling while watching your new videos, I loved this new format. The fun of your English videos can be compared to your vlogs, amazing!
so lovely Melike! thank you!
Same! I was also smiling during the whole video! I really enjoyed it☺️
Hi Lucy! Glad to see you've opened this channel again. 🤗♥️
I just found your channel. I’m an American so obviously understanding English isn’t a concern for me. However, I really enjoy hearing what you have to say about English culture. I’m a huge Anglophile and I hope someday to make it there.
My lord. I’ve just had the biggest hit of nostalgia the moment you mentioned light cord switches. I would have not remembered that any other way 😅
I haven't seen one of those in an American home since the early 80s and then the home was decades old already.
So funny! Nostalgia, when chain pull toilet flushes come around!👵
@elook “….the biggest hit of nostalgia….” I recall from the late 60s, we called that a “flashback”. Then again, there was a considerable amount of LSD going around. At the age of 69, I truly miss those days…..
I am an American and grew up in a home that was built in 1905. We had hot and cold separate taps in our bathroom. It had no electric outlets either. Our washing machine was in the kitchen, my mom hung clothes on a clothes line outside to dry, we did not have air conditioning either. We also had a coal furnace and a coal bin in the cellar. The coal truck would arrive with the coal it was then dispensed down a chute into through basement window into the coal bin. Hmmmm I wonder if an Englishman built our home. No this is the way most homes were in America way back when👍🏻
Whats a cellar?
@Aurora Parker you might call it a basement? It’s the room (or space) underneath the house
@@BS-ns8hb oh I don’t know what we call it I’ve forgotten might be basement but I know that’s what Brit’s call it
We do have some of these things here in Malaysia, courtesy of the Brits, one that we're truly thankful for is the lingua franca and other is what's Lucy listed in this videos. And yes the toilet flush bothers me too!
I’ve lived in homes that had the light switch outside the bathroom, & bathrooms that only had the outlet in the mirror. Since we don’t have switches that let us cut off the electricity supply to countertop appliances, we just leave them plugged in. Air conditioning is a must here.
Hey Lucy, i live in South Carolina in the states and we always had carpet in our bathrooms. My mom was born and raised on the Eastern shore of Maryland where there was a heavy British influence. My 89 year old mom still hangs her wash outside on a clothes line.
Carpet in American bathrooms was a thing before the 80s, so it does still happen in older homes around the nation.
Your mum is a clever woman. Hanging your laundry 🧺 outside is smart and economically perfect. We all ought to do the same.
You’ll find lots of people doing this in many different countries.
@@jeannetteaugstein3793 I did this once, and ended up with insects in my laundry
@@jljordan1 yes, it can happen but not all the time.
Most people in rural areas of Australia, and many in the city also, hang their washing on the clothesline to dry. I have a drier (it's now 40 years old & still going) which I use maybe 3-4 times a year when I'm desperate.
In Mexico City we don't have air conditioning nor heater either. It is never too hot for having air condition in the house, but winter can be very chilly.
In my area of the US, people often have "HVAC" systems in their homes. The units heat, ventilate, and cool homes, so there is a measure of convenience, but when I upgraded mine--it cost me nearly $10k... Eek!
I can listen to Lucy for hours and hours.
(I am reading the above sentence and, in my mind imagining it in the voice of Lucy, so that it sounds better than it would if I were to speak it.)
Hi Lucy, I am from Australia and we have similar rules regarding electricity regulations. I think the reason why we and the UK have these rules is that we run on a 240 volt system that will kill you if you accidentally touch a wire. In the US and other countries they tend to run on a 110 volt system that will give you a shock but not kill a person who touches a wire. Regards, Tony
That's a myth. It's the amps that kill you, not the voltage. As you will know, watts = volts x amps. If an appliance draws 480 watts, then in Britain it will draw 2 amps, but in the US it will draw 480/110 = 4.4 amps.
I'm English, and I moved to California 45 years ago. I had several electrical appliances that would work on either voltage at the click of a switch. What they didn't tell me is that, when you move the switch to the lower voltage you have to increase the size of the fuses, or they will blow.
240 volts is much safer than 110 volts.
The problem with half the voltage is that you have to run your appliances at twice the current so you have to use twice as much copper in your cabling and in your appliances. The odd thing is that US homes do have a 220 volt supply but they centre tap the output making it into a 2 x 110 volt supply!
@@susanbrookes9719 It’s not a real myth. Even if it is the current and not the voltage that kills you, it’s not the current running through the wires you’re touching that matters, but the current that eventually runs through your body. That depends on the resistance of your body and since the current is equal to the voltage divided by the resistance the risk of a fatal shock increases with a higher voltage.
@@susanbrookes9719 Correct...220-240 volts draws just 1/2 the amps of 110-115 V circuits, and so the electricity cost will be cheaper. Also, I changed over my wood working table saw from the standard 110V to run on 220V. The saw now draws 1/2 the amps but is more powerful and cuts through the wood a lot easier.
Ashes to ashes dust to dust, if the voltage don't get you the ampage must.
It may seem strange, but the first household oddity I noticed in the UK was door handles. They were very rare in the US in the 70s but everywhere in the UK and Europe.
A lot of these things were once common in Australia but have mostly disappeared. We have switches on all our wall sockets and (mostly) 3 pronged plugs. I believe in the UK you have the fuses in your plugs while we have a fuse box - generally outside - with separate fuse switches for lights, sockets, stove, etc. We generally would not cope without fly screens on our windows or air conditioning.
Your video brought up a lot of memories from my time living in the UK. Although most of the things you mention drove me crazy, I kind of miss them.
So spot on ! A Brazilian here married to an English man and noticed all of this .
As an Aussie yes we have screens on our windows but they aren’t just to keep out bugs they provide an extra layer of security to your home .
Our house in Burbank, CA had no plugs in the bathroom. No air conditioning. No electrical heating, only gas. I now live in Maine and we have the light switch on the outside of the main floor bathroom. The upstairs bathroom has plugs in the lights over the sink. The house also has horsehair in the plaster, so it is very warm in the winter. We have an oil furnace with radiators. BTW, we have roundabouts here too. I have been to the UK several times. The only thing I found odd was driving on the opposite side of the road, but got used to that quickly.
I'm from the US and my grandparents on my mom side always lived in homes with carpeted bathrooms. It was weird. But as I kid, I thought it was normal.
Lucy, I remember the tank in the loft contained cold water, which wasn’t safe to drink, as you describe. We once had a bird on ours too. The tank only served the bathrooms, and it was up there to create pressure. The hot water probably came from your boiler, that also heated the radiators, which wasn’t safe to drink either. The cold water downstairs was safe to drink because it came straight from the “mains”.
Spot on.
Back in the day (50s to 80s) it was not uncommon to find carpet in a united states bathroom. My grandma had carpet in her bathroom. And also a lot of chains as switches.. Seems like a lot of UK trends didnt die out until very recently here in the US. also this house was in California.. Loved this video. I am so happy CZcams did something right for once and recommended you to me💜🖤.
I'm in NJ and the home I grew up in during the 1970s and 80s originally had carpet in all three bathrooms as well as in the kitchen, all done by the original owners (the house was built in the mid-1960s). My parents got rid of that carpet within the first year of living there; it was NOT hygienic!
A bathroom is divided into zone 0, zone 1, zone 2 and everywhere else, the zones relating to the proximity to a source of water, such as a tap. You can place a pull cord anywhere as there is no danger involved in their use. A plate switch, however, must be placed a minimum of three meters from the boundary of all zone 1 areas as there is a closer proximity to the source of danger.
Why don't they simply use GFCI sockets?
@@3rdworlds Don't forget in the UK our mains voltage is 220 - 240Volts but USA is mainly 110 -120V but they do have 240V from 2 phases.
firssstttt
Ohhhhh huhu again
Third
Third
hurm🦍
I'm fourth apparently!
Thanks, Lucy!
Most satisfied vlogger in youtube and one of the most potential teachers i have met till now.........
Well wishes from 🇧🇩😊😊
Thank you so much for this video, Lucy. I've been watching lots of your videos and it really does wonders for me. To me, this one is not only good to learn something new about weird British things but also a good exercise to pracrice listening. Thank you so so much again. Oh, one thing I forgot, I'm 17 and I definitely will have to learn a lot of things from you in the future.
@English with Lucy The reason believe it or not with having two separate taps is to do with the potential accidental back flush of contaminated water from the low pressure header tank for the hot water system (the header tanks were often open) and you could get dead rats mice etc. in them causing fouled water, if the mains pressure lines lost water supply or water pressure this could then run back into the town supply(not good at all)
I enjoyed this video immensely. I’ve been to the U.K. (I’m in U.S.) and wondered about the switches on the plugs. Love hearing your accent too. (The summer months here in the humid south-“muggy” is a more descriptive word-is very uncomfortable. Grateful to have A/C 😎.)
"Small flush for small business, big flush for big business😂😂" Oh lucy!! the editing is very interactive too
Too bad it’s wrong, the small flush is for big business and the big button is for small business.it’s bigger because you mostly go for a wee so you’ll need the bigger one more often. Not wasting so much water.
Big business is "dropping anchor".
Fyi small children in the US call it a potty, & use that as a verb, ie "I need to go potty."
@@Trish.... a potty is a container toddlers use to potty plain.
Yeah, and also you can say "number one" and "number two"))
What an eloquent received pronunciation accent. I could listen to our Lucy all day.
When I was in England in the late 1970s, some apartments had coin operated electric meters. I don't know if private homes had them, but my friend had to step out and feed the meter while I was there. We don't have that here in the USA. 😊
Many years ago I was in the loft of a very large, and very old country house. The water storage tank for the hot water boiler was huge and made of slate. In it was the skeleton of a cat, probably been there for many years. Having separate taps was a wise decision.
O K it was probably installed in the Victorian era. Water supplies were intermittent at best, and they needed storage tanks to deliver water even when the main supply was interrupted. Plus, they lacked the technology to produce cylinders that could withstand mains water pressure and yet still be reasonably light and corrosion proof. Hot water was stored in copper cylinders, which could not withstand mains pressure so was fed from a loft tank.
I'd definitely rate this video as underrated. I absolutely love these lessons.
Thank you
Problem is that most of what she talks about is JUST PLAIN WRONG.
I am a Brit but have lived in the USA for 51 years.
She is WRONG about the electrical plugs and the plumbing with 2 taps.
Neither does she understand much about the USA
Read my comments at the beginning of these comments.
Same!
Some house here in USA back in the 80 did have carpet in there bathrooms, at park bathroom sinks still come with sepite hot and cold. And Elementary School also had those types of sinks. I believe in the early 1920 in New York did us those type of toilets.
My house in Arizona in USA still has the plug above the mirror. And the other is on the light fixture on the ceiling! Never understood why they put it there.
I lived in the UK for 3 years back in the early 90's. Culture shock for sure! Between the Cockney accent spoken where I lived & the houses with gravel/rocks instead of grass....I was overwhelmed!
I discover your channel, it's really great!! In France we can find some of the things you described (carpet in bathroom, switches outside, washing-machine in the kitchen (that's my case)...) Thanks a lot for your videos =D
I remember going to England (from France) on vacation in the late 70s.
What intrigued me was the electric tea kettle in hotel rooms!
We need our tea fix.
Well naturally. Most of us wouldn’t dream of staying in a hotel room that didn’t offer tea/coffee making facilities.....the very idea of it is totally stressful! 😊
I miss the UK. I was stationed there for 3 years. And the only thing that really bothered me was fitting my queen bed upstairs. Had to cut the baseboards to bend it in 1/2😩 because it wouldn’t fit up the stairs
We briefly had carpeting in our bathrooms in our 1967 ranch house in Fort Worth, Texas. Mainly in the mid 70s. We eventually went back to tiled floors. Air Conditioning is a must in Texas and the rest of the South/Southwest. We do have sockets in our baths with emergency sensor breakers. If an electric appliance is exposed to water, the breaker is supposed to trip immediately, shutting off the current. I don't advise testing this.
I'm obsessed with your English Lucy 💜
Thank you I’m Lucy
@@anameclips3395 lol we caught a liar
Lucy has made British ladies more charming and romantic than French ladies
Once in England I had to call the landlord because I couldn't open the front door of the house I rented, it was then I discovered that they turn the key in the opposite direction. 🤔
😂😂😂
@@faheemmajid4646
😴😴😴
I'm American and I lived in an apartment for about 15 years and we had our washer and dryer in the kitchen. It was in very noisy. We also had an electrical outlet in with the light fixtures above the bathroom sink, but I don't think in one of the bathrooms, but I don't think it worked (never tried it because I'm short and couldn't reach it anyway). There was also a plug in on the wall by the door. It was an older apartment building. Probably built in the 70s or 80s.
Now I live in an even older house (built in 1910) and I was confused by the placement of the light switches. In my son's room, the switch is on the outside. In my room, it's on the inside, but on the opposite side of where the door opens.
I’ve experienced every one of your topics in the US, except the electrical 3 prong plug. Some were in older housing on military bases (as a child), and older houses on both coasts, USA. I had to take my first holiday/vacation to Britain to use the adapters for a 2 to a 3 prong insert.
Those older houses I recall one did have the literal water closet overhead. I told my brother I’d rigged it so when he pulled the chain, it’d dump the water on him.
Trust me, Lucy, you need mosquito screens because in some parts of the States, bigger critters crawl in: scorpions, tarantulas or Black Widows, snakes just to name a few. Not all the time, but safety first.
Being a history researcher for decades, I am quite familiar with American English and the Queen’s English. Wot?
Love your presentations.
Cheers from across the Puddle!
Here in Spain, we have washing machines in the kitchen. It blow my mind! In Argentina, we have a room specially for laundry.
In Uruguay 🇺🇾 you find both cases.
That's good to know. Maybe it is more widespread in the rest of Europe, and not just a British thing.
@@andyt8216 I have a utility room separate from my kitchen and most of all my friends have their laundry rooms away from the kitchens. I’m in Northern Ireland. All new houses have them. My house is twenty years old and have a big one.
I have a washing machine in my kitchen and a tumble dryer outside in a cupboard. Can't imagine what foreigners think 😂😂
In most places in the US, it is required to have a GFCI (IGround Fault Circuit Interrupter) outlet anywhere, such as in a bathroom or a kitchen, that one might be able to touch a water tap and an electrical outlet at the same time.
Also, air conditioning is a MUST here in Arizona where we have 4 seasons: SUMMER, DECEMBER, JANUARY and FEBRUARY!
In England a GFCI is called an ELCB (earth leakage circuit breaker) just FYI
@@paulwatkins2601 Or, perhaps more commonly, an RCD (Residual Current Device). Current regulations require the ring main circuits to be protected by RCDs, plus exterior sockets. For those using electrical garden tools plugged into interior sockets, it's common to use a plug-in RCD. The hope is that if there's a fault, the RCD nearest the device will trigger in preference to the one on the ring main, so you don't have half the house lose power simultaneously.
Laughing about Ariz. seasons. When I lived in Vermont, we had two seasons: snow and mud!
@@MrTopcat3333 you have half a house on 1 breaker? Here in the US they usually seperate by room. Stove, hot water heater, ac, dryer have there own breaker.
Depends on where you live.
Older manufactured homes (trailers, mobile homes) in the US often have carpet in the bathrooms if they were never renovated. My dad still lives in the same manufactured home that he bought with my mother in 1994, and it still has the same plum carpet in both bathrooms. It's a pretty color even by today's home decor standards, but there's still an "ick" factor involved.
I like the idea of carpet in the bathroom, especially in houses like mine where it gets crazy cold. However, it's not practical. If your kid gets water on the floor while taking a bath (like most kids do) or your toilet overflows, your bathroom is ruined! At least toilet seat covers and floor mats can be washed.
@@keelyharris4600 same here, I like the idea of it but the reality of it isn’t practical.
In America there is a church I used to attend too as a child which had hot and cold taps. This church was built in the late 1800-early 1900. The bathroom still to this day has hot and cold taps as you have mentioned before. Except most of the time the hot water tap would not work so in the winter we would wash our hands in a hurry under the cold water. It was confusing for us children.
Well done on the plug explanation - well put. Also, the longer prong allows the appliance to be earthed before connecting to live electricity, and also gives an earth connection when disconnecting (last to disconnect).
But the plug explanation in incorrect
The idea of the switched electrical socket here in the UK, is to stop the flow of electricity before removing the plug from the socket. This not only makes a cleaner break in the flow of electricity to the device, but also stops electrical arcing between the plug prongs and the socket as you withdraw the plug which makes the socket last a lot longer before requiring replacement.
Not having a light switch inside the bathroom was something I forgot about over and over. I usually travel to the UK once a year for work and I would walk into the bathroom and close the door while I groped around on the wall in the dark looking for the switch. I felt foolish every time I forgot.
I love the separate hot and cold taps I get upset when we have to renovate and we have all these modern taps
I grew up in America, in the house that my great grandmother had built. All bathrooms have the light switches on the outside of the door. And we refer to the laundry room as the utility room because she did. I never thought much of it growing up but later realized that it wasn't common.
I'm british and remember going to my friends house for the first time and went to use the bathroom which had carpet as a floor! Thought that was very strange and my opinions not changed 15 years later lol
I'm Austrian: When I first went to England (nearly 40 years ago), what surprised me most about English homes was that they seemed to be poorly insulated against cold winters. I deduced that winters must be a lot milder (I did not come farther north than Oxford at that time) than back home (Alps; and closer to Siberia: minus 15 degrees C for several weeks was quite common in those days, before climate change made itself felt). Anyway, by entering through the front door you often stepped directly into the living room, with no entrance hall before that. And those typical English windows which you push up or down, they tended to have single glazing. I remember thinking, you wouldn't survive an Austrian winter in a house like that. But literally EVERYTHING about this comment has changed now. Double and even triple glazing has found its way to England, and global warming has reached us all.
Scotland could get -32c but quite often it came down to cost, but houses post 1980's had double glazing as you couldn't afford not to in winter and people wore lots of layers of clothes even to bed and had hot water bottles.
@@macguyfromscotland No electric blankets or mattress pads?
@@elultimo102 there was but back then they tended to catch fire. These days there is electric blankets and less hot water bottles, but old habits die hard, hot water bottles have the advantage or being passive while blankets continuously draw power.
I was in England one time in end of February or early March. I noticed no snow, sports fields were all green grass and being mowed, as her lawns in front of people's homes. I asked an English woman about this. She seemed perplexed by my question, and asked me what fields and lawns were like in Boston at this time of year. I told her, covered with snow and ice, dead, gray, black, mud. London is further north than Boston.
@@elultimo102 take the hot coals out of the fireplace and put them in a bed pan and stick them under the mattress. You know, that brass round pan with the flip cover and the really long wooden handle propped up next to the fire place. We use to have one of those, I wonder what happened to it.
The American house I live in was built with carpet in the bathrooms. Thankfully they’ve all been renovated now to have hard flooring. What a relief!
I think it would be kind of handy to have the laundry facilities in the kitchen. Ours is downstairs in a hallway by the stairs, no proper utility room.
I love your channel so much. It really help me improve my listening skill and increase vocabulary. Thank you so much.
In Sweden we also have small houses and small apartments. But we put our washing machines in the bathroom, not the kitchen... If you live in a apartment you to have access to a common washing room that the tenants share so you have to book time..
And this is the weirdest thing about Sweden (where I've been living for over three years). These trips with a laundry bag - in winter, in the snow to the building with a laundry room. Nightmare!
That’s to do with Sweden’s insanely strict insurance policies for water damage. All bathrooms in Sweden must be wet rooms where all surfaces can withstand at the very least a showering of water and where the floor must withstand a leak with water sitting on the floor without leaking through. This makes the bathroom and ideal space to put the washing machine as the potential economic consequences of a leak in a living area such as the kitchen could be catastrophic-tens of thousands of pounds in renovation costs and no insurance money to cover it.
I am from Hong Kong . As a UK colony, we usually share the same traditional habits like toilets , tap s , plus, washing machine location with you.
Hi! In Brasil we also have separate hot and cold taps. I remember being an exchange student in the US, when I was a teenager, and "maneuvering" the temperature and the intensity of the flow, turning the tap up and down and from side to side... First it would always end up with so much water splashed that one could think I was trying to bathe in the sink! 😬😬
I live in new Zealand. I have seen bathroom carpet in shops, the dual taps were common, and so were other things mentioned here.
Most bathrooms with separate taps have a plug that goes into the basin so you can mix the water to the desired temperature
I like to think that the plug is an intelligence test for foreigners…. Joke!
That is sooooo 1930's.
@A A Yes, the smooth ceramic basin would be riddled with germs... if only there was some way to wash it! ;)
@A A Ah yes, great. I use a flame-thrower. Then I smash the basin and have it replaced every day. It's the only way to be REALLY sure! ;)
We used to cup our hands together, turn on both taps, go to the cold first, then the hot to get the desired temperature.
There's a slight error here, I think. It was cold water that was usually stored in the loft/attic. Hot water was usually kept in the "airing cupboard" in a gigantic insulated cylinder. The loft tank was for cold water, and you shouldn't drink from it for exactly the reaon you mentioned (the hot water is sealed, to keep the heat in, but probably still not drinkable). My understanding of the cold tank's purpose was that pressure was not usually good enough to service the upstairs, so a tank was kept for toilet flushing and filling the bath.
That meant you had one tap, usually the kitchen, that was safe drinking water from the mains. The rest would be for hand-washing or bathing only, and feed the rest of the taps.