11 Bizarre Culture Shocks in England as a Chinese Tourist!
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- čas přidán 20. 06. 2024
- England Culture shocks are hard to predict and often more funny than shocking. Some of the shocks listed are personal to me and others would probably relate to anyone visiting England and experiencing a new culture!
0:00 What is culture shock?
0:34 How to address people in the UK
1:57 Where to put toilet paper?!
3:36 The English and hot water
4:25 Dinner table culture
6:15 No leafy greens
7:29 The English eat meat wierd
9:01 SOOOO polite
9:49 Driving culture
11:58 Manic grass-cutting passion
12:30 Early closing times
13:36 Family culture
Thanks for watching :)
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⚡ After four months of England life, Ella made a video with 12 more culture shocks here: czcams.com/video/Itu2IVn-IAw/video.html&ab_channel=Ella%26Scott
The carpets on every corner... yah I get u, it’s disgusting!!! No other country does that. And they’re dirty when u move it too
Lol British food hahahahahaha what is that
I'd love to know more differences in what are perceived to be small acts of good and bad manners between the two countries.
When I went to uni, there were a lot of Chinese students in my student halls building, and one thing that seemed to annoy the hell out of all the British students was that the Chinese students never held the door open for people who are right behind them as they go through. I'm fascinated to learn if there are any similar little things that people would find rude about the British in China and vice versa. Because if someone isn't raised having to do it, then it doesn't even cross their mind until someone is being annoyed at them because of it.
@@disquietawe Ah yes, I can see how that would happen - similar to how people don't queue in the same way in China. I think it's easier to offend people with poor Chinese by accident than through actions, but generally speaking people are pretty forgiving. For example if you use an older term when speaking to a younger woman. Also talking about HK or Taiwan as not part of the mainland people can be angered very easily!
Also, most big cities will have an area dedicated to Chinese foods, deserts, supermarkets etc, so I’m sure you can find your greens there.
"Towards cutting grass they have a manic passion" made me laugh. I never understood it either
It made me laugh too! It drives me nuts on a sunny day when everyone goes out and mows their lawn...lawn mowers make such an irritating noise!
I laughed too. The world could be going to hell in a handcart but woe betide anyone whose lawn is not properly maintained! I had visions of the roller crowd and those perfect parallel lawn markings that I try to achieve every year (and fail because I have the other type of lawnmower). I think Ella will find herself right at home in the UK.
If I ever have the massive fortune of owning a house, I'll cut the lawn with a Scythe.
And if it's not long enough for a Scythe to cut? It doesn't need to be cut.
Well an overgrown grass is not ideal either. As someone growing up in the UK, loads of kids play on the front or back lawn if there isn't a nearby playground or going to one isn't an option. You wouldn't want to be playing on an overgrown grass.
Also the grass markings are because, well people want to spend less time mowing the lawn they do it in a repitive pattern to reduce time
great way to describe it haha
This is probably the best video I've seen of a non British person explaining their shock at experiencing British culture for the first time. Wonderful.
Thanks Richard!
I agree, I found this fascinating and very interesting
I agree. And I love the bilingual aspect to it. SOME PEOPLE DON'T MIND reading subtitles and can actually keep up.
I agree, this video was definitely interesting to see how somebody from outside my own country views aspects of British Culture.
The toilet paper in the bathroom and wearing socks around the house thing is so interesting. The way both cultures automatically assume the other's practice is unhygienic because we both only notice the habits the other doesn't have.
In France most houses have tiled floors and people just wear their shoes inside. You could say that was a culture shock
Agreed. And at least British people don't kill animals in food markets, creating global pandemics in the process.
@@codswallop321 Great input; really relevant and adds to the conversation. I'd love to have you over for a dinner party!
Things that bother me are wearing shoes indoors from outside socks ok but when where they changed! What you tread in etc. So am always barefoot indoors and naked (ha lol) probably a no no somewhere else, I know in Japan you cannot enter the bathroom without some kind of footwear, I clean my floors with disinfectant weekly. Culture vs Science, always interesting.
@@codswallop321 LOL, "food market". That's a good one. And WMDs were in Iraq and Anna Nicole married for love.
A very interesting perspective - with regard to our food/eating habits, things have changed enormously in the UK since the 1950s. Before that period, food, especially meat, was expensive, so most parts of an animal (or bird, eg chicken) would be cooked & eaten. Chicken carcass would probably be used to make soup. My generation were taught to eat everything on your plate, and sometimes anything you didn’t eat at one meal would be served up at the next. This all changed as food became cheaper & could be bought pre-cooked - we even started to be able to afford to eat out, and in fact for many of us the first restaurants we went to were Chinese (the food was good & much cheaper than a normal restaurant), followed soon after by an influx of Indian restaurants.
Then a lot has changed in 70 years - interesting that that's when the Chinese and Indian restaurants began too. Not long ago.
This is very true. Eating habits in UK have changed massively. When I was a kid we had to eat everything on the plate but as you correctly say food became cheaper and pre-cooked.
You are exactly right.
Personally, I always use the bones from meat to make stocks, broth and gravy. However, I learned to cook from my mother who was born in 1927 and had endured poverty, then rationing. She could make a chicken feed seven people, three days running: Sunday dinner; a chicken pie on Monday and chicken soup/broth on Tuesday.
I remember her, in later years, being so annoyed that a chicken had no giblets (the neck, heart and liver). She couldn't make a decent gravy without them and gravy granules were "Muck!". She wasn't wrong.
There's a great series called 'Back in Time for Dinner', that goes over eating/cooking habits in Britain for many decades. The two eras that shocked me most were the 1900s/1910s, where the Empire was at its peak and meat imports were super cheap. The amount of meat eaten was staggering (and kind of gross), often with multiple meats at meals, and every meal had meat (by the 1920s, people were eating more like we do now, with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and salads, and trying to be healthy). Then in the 1940s because of the war and rationing, food consumption dropped dramatically. People actually became really fit, because they got just the amount they needed. People also turned to black market meats, which often involved organ meat, so clearly there was no waste happening. There was also a type of bread that came into use out of necessity, that was very very whole grain, because regular white flour was so scarce (and apparently it was really awful, but there was a lot of it in comparison to other foods, so you ate it). So the trend to eat everything on your plate was a consequence of the war and the continued use of rationing into the 50s. Anyway, I highly recommend the series, which might be on iPlayer.
I make stock from bones eg wings thighs legs, but don't know what to do with the rest. The remnants of internal organs is off putting. We've lost a lot of knowledge since the first World War in my opinion
This was a really interesting video, thank you. I think you would find that if you lived with 10 different families that they would each do some things differently to each other. I've seen British comedians joke about the culture shock a child experiences when they spend time at a friend's house and notice all the differences in what is considered "normal".
Spot on!
Yes that is true. I was a Frosties kid so pouring Cocopops for the first time at my friend's overfilled the bowl...
@@kailomonkey id never been allowed any sugar cereal, so going from special k to cookie crisp was a gamechanger
this is also true! spend time with 10 chinese families and 10 british ones to get the real CULTURE SHOCK difference
Ahhh...she seems so sweet. Hope you and Scott have a long and healthy life wherever you live. :-)
Thank you Kevin
Nice to see such good vibes been given, totally agree with you too.
Having spent time in China and also Japan and many other countries, I can sympathise with the problems of culture shock. If I may make a suggestion - I think you may be too much influenced by your English family's behaviour, especially regarding food. I think most people roast a chicken whole and eat it with bone still in (but don't eat the bone!). If the meat is carved away and the bones also roasted, it may be used to make soup. Soup is a really good way to make the most of your food. Anyway, good luck with your English life and I hope you have a great (and culture-shocking) time exploring the differences.
Thanks Fred!
Depends on your cooking skills and space , normally the chicken is carved up and the left overs to the dog or cat ! (my nan used to make monday stews from Sundays dinner but my mum never did. Its actually cheaper to do it but few put the time and effort in - mostly because they are working parents
If I get a whole chicken, round 1 is the traditional roast dinner & gravy, round 2 is pick every last bit of meat off and turn it into some sort of stir fry or curry, round 3 is turn the bones into a stock to make in to a mean chicken soup, or just to flavour another dish. Or even just more gravy.
You can get a chicken for four quid and spend the rest of a tenner on vegetables. That's genuine good food for a week right there, for less than the price of 1 takeaway dinner.
Some people are just lacking the will in general to cook for themselves, which is really a shame. Not for me, I couldn't care less, but for them.
@@rorychivers8769 I think the problem, as a younger person, is that nowadays there is no one to teach us to cook, both parents usually work full time so food is usually quick and easy things to cook for tea with parents not having the time to teach, I'm sure this is just one of multiple reasons but yeah, young people just arent getting taught how
We use the meat for sandwiches for the next week. I will often pick the bones by hand as a snack also and eat off the leg bone if needed.
Most of us take care of our children long after their 18th birthday, no age limit. I enjoyed your video.
That was really interesting. I've realised for the first time [and I am 60, BTW] that my half Chinese brother-in-law's insistence on everyone in the house eating Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner together every day at a set time is a cultural difference that he was brought up with and I wasn't. He has successfully continued the cultural behaviour which *his* father's family 'imported' with them when they moved to England in the 1930's. You will be glad to know that many of us - especially those born in the post-war period - don't throw away chicken bones with meat still on. We try to get every last bit of the meat, and then make soup out of the bones. In my experience, many immigrants quickly realise they can use their garden or an allotment to grow at least some of the vegetables they miss from their home countries, rather than paying the exorbitant prices for such products. A great side benefit of this is that gardening is a great way to connect with their new British neighbours. It saddened me a little bit to think that many Chinese people think we *all* don't care about our children once they are 18, and that we *all* don't care about our parents/grandparents when they get old. That's a little bit of a sweeping generalisation and I am glad you're able to correct that impression to some extent.
Very happy we could help your realise something about your half-brother. I think growing in your allotment is a wonderful idea. Re sweeping generalisations, the sad truth is that their is huge misunderstandings from both sides - I think visiting or talking to the other side is very important to find the truth. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts.
I think it's just that we're expected to live in different homes as an adult and also as a result, our elderly don't have family living with them when their needs become greater, so retirement homes fill the need. It's good to see discovered that we don't love eachother any less and meet regularly. That's not at all standard though. There are as many exceptions of how people live but there is some stigma attached to those exceptions, the same as I imagine for the reverse in Chinese culture.
That used to be the case in the UK too, then women started going out to
work, children have lunches at school, the only time a family is together
is in the evening..
Really enjoyed this, fascinating to hear Ella's impressions of the UK. I do think she would find some differences if she was living in a big city. I live in London and couldn't help smiling when Ella said that motorists don't really use their car horns! And as she acknowledged, lots of places are open well after 5pm - might well be easier to find the chinese vegetables you crave too!
Yes, very true! I think no matter where you are in the world there are differences between rural and city life :)
Yes, this was my first thought, having lived in London most of my life. Some supermarkets are open round the clock and you can usually find a small local shop (often run by somone who is not British) open till late.
i found most of it not very accurate at all...
Indeed! I lived in London for 16 years, and by what I have seen 80% of Londoners turn into psychopaths the moment they get in the driving seat of a car. They should never have received a driving licence (well, quite a few haven't but are driving anyway) or it should be taken away from them now and NEVER given back. The problem is that when people get disqualified, they often don't stop driving. And if they are caught, they just get disqualified for longer.
It's definitely true that people use the horn more in cities everywhere, but I do think that Ella is still right about the function of the horn being different. I can't imagine using the horn to warn someone when driving through a narrow section or around a sharp bend, regardless of whether you're in a city or not -- it is definitely seen more as rude rather than a legitimate communication tool the way she says it is in China.
This was very heartwarming to watch, I hope your time in Britain is wonderful.
Thank you!
"They normally add some tea to it." xD That cracked me up.
A very interesting, honest and insightful video. Many other 'impressions of the UK' videos by visitors seem to focus on superficial trivia but you shared insights about how some differences highlight deeper points about ways of life.
Glad you thought so!
This was a very interesting video: I have seen my country through another person's eyes. I think I understand better why some of our Chinese students seem a little confused when they first arrive.
PS: eating habits depend on your family. The chicken bones would be boiled to make soup the next day and we eat leafy greens five times a week.
Watching this more is making me laugh as I sit alone eating my beef and leafy green salad dinner, wearing slippers and drinking a cup of tea.
Really enjoyed watching this. And Scott has a great name.
Scotts unite!
This is very interesting and I like how you describe the differences with careful respect not to offend. You could say that the not wearing slippers thing is gross, disgusting but you say it is just something different which is very respectful. I wish British people could be equally respectful regarding other cultures like Chinese.
Love my leafy greens and veg, I'd be like you on that one! Varies a lot by family. Do Scott's family just not like cabbage, kale, spinach, spring greens etc? In favour of things like broccoli, carrots, peas, and other veg? I think it's actually a bit odd for a family to avoid leafy greens that much, but we do like a range of veg and it definitely depends on the season too - if it's Summer, salads tend to take over
It's a really good point about the food, both about wastage and leafy greens. There's an awful lot that Chinese and British culture can learn from each other. ❤
So true, it's both sides!
@@EllaScott We didnt used to waste food. My nan used everything, heart, blood, bones, tripe, offal and when she bought from the butcher would expect all of those included. We are more wasteful now for sure.
My wife is Thai she said the same as Ella when she first came here 9 years ago.
yeah I can't relate to this at all, I'm English and I hate wastage too and eat a lot of lettuce and spinach and leaks and stuff. Maybe I have a Chinese ancestor somehwere.
I have to break in at this point - halfway through the video, but my eyes are getting rounder! I eat loads of leafy greens, from cabbage, spinach, greens, broccoli, sprouting broccoli, kale to watercress and all the other salad greens. Also I would never leave chicken to go to waste (it gave it's life) always use every bit, making stock with the bones.
So... I'm thoroughly British, but, everyone's different!
I love watching culture shock videos about the UK even though I live here. I find it can teach you so much about both this country as well as the country that the person is from.
This one was amazing. It feels genuinely insightful and doesn’t seem to rely on usual stereotypes that other videos focus in on (e.g. queueing/teeth whatever). This one just feels honest and is based on what really has stuck out. I feel like I’ve learned so much about China even though you have been speaking about the UK, good job 👏🏼
Wow, thank you Charlie :)
your straightforward manner and openness is really wonderful and topics thought provoking ^_^ Thankyou for making and sharing :)
Love this, thanks for watching:)
That's one of the things I love about many Chinese people - their direct, straightforward way of speaking.
A lot of this is just because Scotts a bit posh, don't assume all British families are like this, good or bad. And you live in a small rural community, big towns and cities are nothing like that, you should visit some to find out.
Definitely one of the best UK 'visitors impressions' videos, no fish n chips or fried breakfasts mentioned and Ellas waves are so cute!
This was really interesting! Just to let you know, my British household eats a lot of leafy greens and we always boil the chicken carcass after roasting it to get the meat off make soups and broths!
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Very interesting. Historically, in England, lunch was called dinner, and it was the most important meal of the day. The amount of food consumed later in the day depended very much upon social class.
Often workers would work 7 or 8am to Noon, then a full lunch hour (Dinner), then work 1pm to 5 or 6, some were on staggered dinners over the Noon to 2 time.
@@highpath4776 That was true of much of my own working life, starting in the mid 1970's, but organised attempts to restructure the meal times (and working hours) of the working-class go back to the earliest days of the industrial revolution.
The thing I found most interesting is the idea that a lot of shops and places close at 8pm. I've not found that to be the case for much of my life in the UK but more recently, I've found that a lot of shops close a bit earlier due to COVID restrictions and whatnot.
Also I wanted to mention that I used to work in a busy Vietnamese restaurant in a UK city that was visited by all sorts of people, including lots of Chinese people. At first, I found the way that the Chinese customers acted and treated me was a bit rude and dismissive but gradually I began to realise that it's just a case of culture shock and different standards. Fascinating video, I hope you enjoy living here!
Village life is very different to even a moderately sized town where the big supermarkets are open continously from Monday morning til Friday evening. Also traffic jams are definately a feature but there is little honking of horns here too.
Very interesting to hear about another your view of the UK!
This is a really great video. I love seeing people's perspectives of how other cultures live their lives and how it does or doesn't reflect the reality. It's really nice to hear what you enjoy about British culture and what would have never occured to a native as an issue to someone coming here.
TIL rapeseed leaves are a good edible green. We grow such an abundance of that in the UK I'm not sure why they wouldnt sell the leaves in stores too.
Thank you! They really should sell them! :)
Yeah I had no idea either, I might go out and pick some now and try it!
Too much, too soon.........such pearls of wisdom l can do without.............
Ella, thank you so much for explaining your impressions of life here.
You have a very generous spirit and your understanding of the important values of our family life and culture will make it so much easier as time goes on .
You seem to have a great rapport with your in-laws
Thank you so much! Family is very important to me
9:49 you nailed us with those driving impressions, I do these all the time haha!
In the bigger towns and cities things stay open later, and are more likely to have good takeout.
Hope you enjoy your time here!
Thank you for sharing this with us Ella & Scott. God bless you both.
I'm so glad I watched this, Almost got emotional at how you have observed us, it's like hearing a compliment for the first time, we're far from perfect but the little things like the driving habits and the unwillingness to offend. It's nice to have that noticed. I'm now going to be self conscious about my feet in my home lol. But I'm glad we flush our toilet paper, even if it can cause a blockage lol
This was a really interesting video. To have lived in the midlands all my life, it is very interesting to hear you talk about your experience here. It's funny how you say that there are not many traffic jams. If you go to the south of England, traffic is a major problems. Our public transport is not good enough and too many people drive car. Also it was really interesting to hear you talk about food. I would totally agree that people in England are not too health with what we eat. We are too much like America as we eat a lot of fast food (although not everyone does). For me personally, lunch is a fairly important meal. At home, we all eat lunch at about 1pm together, however for breakfast, we tend to make our own food and eat at different times. Anyway, really interesting video, thanks for sharing your experiences
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I think quite a few of these are specific to Scott and his family.
One random example in terms of driving, when driving down country roads with sharp turns, you are supposed to beep your horn and most people do it, to warn people around a corner that you're coming.
Nobody in my family would ever do that with chicken either, that sounds crazy! How wasteful. And 99% of British people do address Aunts and Uncles as such
I think the auntie and uncle thing is a bit of an affectionate prefix rather than a politeness one though, and you'll often still say their name along with it like "aunty pam" or "uncle pat"
In China and many other Asian countries they call auntie and uncle to anybody older than them. It has nothing to do with being related to them. It's a form of respectfully addressing your elders.
@@travelswithmybelly I guess it's no weirder than calling everyone you see "mate" or "chief" or "boss"
@@rorychivers8769 it varies between families. Switching from "aunty" and "uncle" to using their names happened once I was married and had kids of my own"
Very enjoyable watch. It's great to be able to learn about Chinese culture, as well as the British culture shocks :)
When I was in China, I didn’t get why all the refrigerated vending machines were unplugged until it was explained that cold drinks aren’t popular over there. I love these little differences we have. So interesting!
I believe it's partly a traditional medicine thing. Food and drink is a big aspect of holistic Chinese medical thinking. I'm sure I read somewhere that chilled drinks were popularly considered to be bad for your health in most circumstances.
I think the idea that 'Westerners don't like warm drinks' probably comes from impressions of Americans, who famously tend to like most of their drinks chilled or with ice.
On the last point about how British families seem to neglect their kids after 18 or how people don't seem to look after their parents when they get old: I think the difference is that there is a cultural expectation that the kindest thing you can do for your children is to push them out the door, so to speak. We have an expression for this which is "spread your wings". A bird would never learn to fly by being under their parents wing.
Equally, when people get old, they don't usually want to burden their children with looking after them. I find this a personal point of frustration actually because even if my parents are sick or struggling financially they won't tell me. They rarely ask for help even when they need it. I think it's a British kind of stubbornness.
One thing I found surprising about Chinese culture from a friend in Hong Kong was that once she started earning money from a job there was an expectation (from her and from her parents) to start sending some of her money home to her parents, even though their parents didn't need the money. That was very surprising to me.
your last point is a good one! this is pretty common
As someone who has come from North America to the UK over a decade ago, I still find it quite shocking that there are many British people who pretty much completely cut off contact with their families. Loads of people I know maybe speak to their mum or dad once a year over the phone (for Christmas) or only visit once every couple of years. I am from a Western culture but I find it very surprising. Personally, I am very close with my parents and wouldn't go a week without calling them.. but that's just me.
Of course not all British families are like this but I've come across plenty of people here with this family dynamic.
Great view on the weird and wonderful variations we find between cultures. I always find it fascinating to see where the differences are and love learning about why they seem strange. I suspect that some of the things you find strange may vary across the UK a bit and would love to hear more as you find new experiences.
Personally I think the politeness is a way in which we can find a level between people where we can then learn from each other, the weave is a lovely gesture that when received and returned is a nod of acceptance, we can then adapt and incorporate what we learn.
Loved the bit you mentioned about food, there is a fair amount of waste in some areas but some great opportunities to make this better by learning from each other. Great job and I hope you find some nice experiences to soften the culture shocks.
Glad you could get so much out of it. I've had lots of nice experiences too! Right now I'm in Scotland and it's quite different again. Not so many pubs and harder to understand people!
Really enjoyed this, for many of the reasons others have said.
Most of all, this is the best subtitled video of this kind I've ever seen - it was great to hear you expressing yourself in your own language :)
Glad you enjoyed it Mark! Thank you!
That was great insight. Thanks for the video!
I'm British and I agree with what you said about wasting food, so many families wont eat the skin on chicken for example (which is the best part). Also I loved the way you described cutting the grass as a "manic passion" :'D its very true for some people. Loved hearing your perspective, it's sad to hear that children are told westerners are uncaring by comparison. It feels slightly dehumanising, but then I suppose compared to other cultures it may seem uncaring until you experience it yourself.
Very honest. Listening to this made me proud of my culture, as I find the Chinese culture much more respectful, however upon hearing your point of view, we just express our respect in different ways. Thank you
Well said!
Socially respectful to a stifling degree based on piety and crippling fear of losing face. I receive information based on what Chinese people think I want to hear, rather than truthful facts which may be negative, but is more productive in the medium to long term. Sadly not politically respectful of heterodoxy. Yes, I have lived there, just in case you ask.
Such an interesting video! The driving politeness section made me laugh. Even within Europe, us English (well, probably Brits in general) are unusually polite on the roads. The wave, the cheeky thumbs-up, the flash, the hazard-light 'thank you' - nobody else does these things (as far as I'm aware). We love to build up our 'road karma' through politeness and gratitude! 😆
And then we also love to destroy our karma in an instant with road rage 😂 A driving culture of extremes!
Really insightful video. Thank you for explaining this all so well.
It's nice to learn about other cultures and expieriences.
So nice of you Laura
In the UK, I think a lot of these things are family-specific, and differ hugely from household to household. For example, my family always eats all three meals together. Plus we'll strip a chicken right down to the very last scrap, and use the bones for soup or stock, and we often cook leafy greens and veg with our meals - while some families don't. Additionally, I think the slippers / socks / carpet thing depends on the household. I personally find it disgusting that people walk around the house in bare feet or socks; everyone in my family wears slippers around the house. So it all depends on the family.
Nice video, it has cheered up my night. I agree and degree about the food. When I was growing up in the 70's my mum used to cook heart, tongue, liver, kidney and all other kind of offal, which now gets thrown away. I don't agree when you say about throwing bones away, I use a chicken carcass to make stock for soup, curries and other meals. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about culture shock.
Thanks for sharing your own culture too!
I thought Scott's family sounded pretty posh from that section, roasting a whole chicken and not using all of it is a pretty costly thing to do, I'd break it down for curries and sandwiches and allsorts.
As a Brit who lived in China for a year, I totally get a lot of this from the opposite perspective lol. I love that you said about Chinese drivers and horns - it took me a few months to realise that Chinese drivers use the horn to say 'I'm here, please don't crash into me' and British drivers use it to mean 'You "%*@#*, get out of my way!' 😂
accurate interpretation haha
Incredibly illuminating. Thanks for sharing these insights.
Glad you enjoyed it John!
A very intelligent set of observations for only 2 months. Of course, there is quite a wide variation across the UK, depending on age, prosperity, social class, education, location and many other factors. You are mostly talking about one family and one location, clearly not a big city.
Britain is a very free country: you can behave differently from other people and (within limits), this is accepted. For example : some people devote lots of effort to cooking and eating wonderful food, but other people eat simple or junk food and follow their own interests. This individual freedom is greater than most other Western countries, I believe.
My family eat either a green salad or leafy vegetable greens with many main meals. Savoy cabbage, pointed cabbage, round green cabbage, kale, spring greens, spinach are the most common. None of these have excellent flavour on their own. If I want "mustard greens", I cook cabbage with leeks, butter, garlic and mustard. In most shops, there is not the variety of green leafy vegetables that you expect in Chinese shops. If we don't have a green leaf vegetable, we will probably have peas, green beans, broccoli or some other green vegetable. British people eat a lot of peas.
Some of the differences you see are because people are used to being relatively wealthy. A supermarket chicken is extremely cheap, so young people are less likely to spend time picking the carcase or making soup or stock. Older pople (like me) are much less wasteful. Young people do eat less fat and don't cook much meat with bones or offal.
I use my car horn perhaps once every 500 miles in London, but more often on rural roads. Only for a good reason.
Family relationships are different. Young adults mostly like to be very independent and might not see their parents often. It is normal for middle aged people to look after their aged parents, although they might not live in the same house. Families are important, but people can chose to do whatever they like. Sometimes personal freedom leads to good things, but not always.
Enjoy your stay in the UK and thank you for posting this video.
Thank you for sharing parts of your own culture! It's true that where I am and my time here limits my view of British culture so it's nice to hear more about it :)
Also, if you're on good terms with your mother- and father-in-law, they would find it I nice thing is you called the Mum and Dad. It's an honorific title and a flexible culture. If it works better for you, almost certainly they wouldn't have a problem with it. You'll learn that over time,
Very good point about the slippers...
Really lovely video with great perspective!
Thank you for your observations on culture shock, very interesting. I would just like to say that British Culture is extremely diverse today, influenced by many other cultures. So you would have a very different experience depending on ethnic background and wealth. An important point to be aware of is that there is a massive range of wealth inequality which has a direct effect on lifestyle and domestic behaviour and social norms.
In terms of wealth, China is a more unequal society than the UK, China is ranked 73rd in the world by gini coefficient, the UK is ranked 100th. That being said, the class system in the UK is probably more historically grounded, in the sense that most Chinese wealth is relatively new and old class divisions were shattered by the Communist revolution, whereas class-based differences in social norms in the UK can be traced back hundreds of years.
There were a couple of things Ella mentioned, especially in regard to driving, that were new to me when I moved from the USA to England the first time. I remember all the shops closing by 5 or 6 pm. It was a challenge to get things we needed during the week when I'd be leaving the house at 6 am and not getting back until after 6 pm most days. So most of our shopping was at the weekend. London was a place you could find 热闹, but not in any of the small towns in East Anglia where we lived. We enjoyed our many years in England and would love to go back some day, but it becomes less likely as the years go by. Also, visiting for a couple of weeks is so much different from living there. When we lived there we got to be friends with our British neighbors and blend into the local community and culture. Ella, I hope you continue to have an interesting time with Scott's family and really enjoy yourself.
It's true, outside of London everywhere seems to close early. It always seems to be Sunday whenever we go shopping for something and we find everything is closed even before 5pm haha.
A good while back ( decades ) shops never opened on a Sunday , time to go to church , and they used to close for half a day , Wednesday or Thursday afternoon , the reason for this was because the staff worked on a Saturday so it was to give them some rest and to be with their families etc . There was many shops on the corner of streets called corner shops lol , all the shops closed at 5pm basically because the owners attitude was get here before 5 or do without but in the 1950s and 1960s a lot of people came to the UK from India and took over the shops and stayed open for a lot longer , at first people thought they were daft working that long but it didn't take long for people to think it was great to get shopping after the others closed
You should try Australia. I couldn't believe it when i first arrived that the main shops close midday Saturday and don't open again till Monday morning! That was the 1970s. Also I noticed big differences in in The US in attitudes and driving styles between NY and LA . Much more polite and relaxed in LA. I even had cars on the road stop for me to let me cross.
@@lawrenceglaister4364 Christmas (like this coming year) used to be a time to get everything in, with Christmas Day , closed, Boxing Day ( if Sunday) Closed, In Lieu Public Holiday - some closed, some shops started the Boxing Day sales, 2nd In Lieu Public Holiday, OK if everything was closed as the banks were too and you could not get any money out ! (and the posties were not delivering eiether.
@@EllaScott In any city or even town there is no problem finding convenience stores and supermarkets open to 11pm, some even 24 hours. Maybe you mean more general shops like clothes stores, electronics stores, in which case, yes, it's unusual for them to open past 5 or 6 pm.
Depending on where you are, driving can be quite challenging. When I first drove in the city of London, the drivers weren't so polite and patient, and would honk their horn frequently.
Delightful and very interesting. Thank you 😊
Thanks for this video Ella. Super interesting to hear and we could chat for hours about this topic. I'd love some of our OMD friends to come and visit one day and see how they get on. The culture differences can be very challenging I think, and to some degree, England Nick is probably a different guy to Omeida Nick due to some of those differences.
That would be fun if OMD people come and share their culture shocks together haha.And about this topic I have a lot more to share in the future .
Found this on Reddit. Would love to see more stuff like this - honest impressions and comparisons between cultures. If Scott has been to China I'd like to hear his opinion on certain cultural differences. A vlog with both of you discussing similar things would be great.
They have another channel called Fragrant Mandarin, which shows some of their experiences in China.
Hey Alex! Scott here - I like your idea of talking about this topic with each other. I think we could definitely dive deeper and I have many to share about China! Thanks for taking the time to watch and share your thoughts!
love that you're speaking your native language and have added subtitles
thank you abii i like your name :)
Thank you for making the video - you did a great job! Just wanted to emphasise to you that these habits are quite peculiar to a certain type of British culture - many of us westerners don’t have these eating habits etc 😂 for example, I grew up with French, Italian and Swiss culture as well as English and we eat green leaves every day, as well as saving bones and offal to make soup etc… British cuisine is widely considered poor in comparison to Italian and french and in terms of everyday food I have to agree!!! I’m now married to a Chinese man and I’ve become even more cross-cultured thanks to him :) I cook a lot of chinese. Dishes as well as Italian etc.. and it’s fun!!
Interesting and excellent video. You learn so much about your own culture when someone from another gives their view on it. One thing - most people I know in the UK wear slippers indoors - though some will just have socks on their feet. It used to be common for people to wear outdoor shoes when indoors.
I'm not sure that there is much difference between walking barefoot, in socks or in slippers from the bathroom to the kitchen. If there is anything unhygienic on the bathroom floor (probably there isn't, really) then it will be tracked into the kitchen just as effectively whatever footwear you have.
You're right Steve, couldn't agree more. RE slippers, the people I know would wear them for warmth, not hygiene, is this your experience to? Scott
@@EllaScott I have hard floors so I wear slippers for warmth in winter, usually go barefoot in summer which also alerts me to when the floor needs a vacuum as you can feel when it's dusty.
There's an invisible divide somewhere, because the (very few) people I've met who wear slippers indoors think the same thing ("most people do it!") whereas I've only ever known people to wear normal shoes indoors with slippers being an absolute rarity, so from my perspective most people wear shoes indoors. Very strange divide I've never been able to figure out. Agreed on the last point though that bacteria will be tracked through the house no matter what so it makes no difference what you're wearing. At least keeping the shoes on reduces the chance of transferring bacteria from floor-world up to your hands and on to the other surfaces, eh?
When you were talking about the hot water, I instantly thought "yeah we do, we just put shit in it".
As for the deboning of chicken, that's a Scotts family thing or something very local to where you are in the UK.
Chicken is eaten of the bones in most places, just like you are used to.
Also, my uncle has 3 grass cutting robots, 2 are always running, one is on standby in case one of them stops moving.
This gras cutting thing really has gone overboard.
Grass cutting robots???
@@rachelcookie321 yeah, oversized Roombas that cut gras rather than vacuum.
3 lawn-mowing robots, 2 of which are constantly running!? Bloody hell, that really is what I'd describe as a "manic passion" for cutting grass haha
I'm just glad I live in a neighbourhood where people only seem to break out the lawnmower once every few months.
@@armata_strigoi_0 to be fair, he does have a full hectare of grass and most of his neighbors also have land around their houses.
Besides that, these electric lawn robots barely make any noise to begin with.
The newest of the 3 is so quiet it starts beeping around trees and humans as a safety mechanism.
And, no, he's not some sort of super rich dude living on a 3 hectare estate.
He's a retired greenhouse farmer and when he retired, he sold the greenhouses around his house and put grass in their place.
Because these robots are always running, they don't have to put much of any effort into cutting the grass (which is also why they don't pick up the grass and just drop the cuttings), so they don't have to put as much force into that either.
@@enlightendbel I mean for a hectare of grass the alternative is a ride-on petrol land mower, so all power to him! I'm actually super impressed with your uncle.
I stumbled across this video by accident but thoroughly enjoyed it, a really thoughtful set of experiences well explained. I love how surprised I was by some of them, such as the grass, that this was a culture shock for you, as I did not realise this would be different across cultures. An interesting and educational video!
Glad you could get something out of it :)
Such a fascinating video, moving straight onto the next! :)
I found it interesting that a lot of things Ella found odd, I also find odd and it is purely down to age. I'm 65 years old and was raised to never waste food. I also include green leafy vegetables in as many meals as possible simply because that's what my mother and grandmother did. Also I never throw out a roast chicken carcass. That goes into a hearty soup on the next day, with vegetables, pearl barley and whatever stock or gravy is left over. It's the same for all roasts. No bones are discarded, soup is always made with any bones, and any leftovers from a piece roast meat goes into a stew or curry the next day. I also love the skin! When I as a child we used to squabble over who got the skin! It grieves me to see how much food young people waste in the UK today. If they had ever been hungry, they would not be so wasteful.
i'm 42 and was just thinking nearly all the same things. although i only started eating chicken skin myself after i had a wee one
I think your point about being hungry is accurate - food is so plentiful now that it has lost value somehow
The skin is the only part of a typical supermarket chicken that has any flavour, I definitely eat it.
I think there's alot of Variety in the UK between familys,
Our family always ate all meals together and prayed before each meal.
But i've seen other familys eat meals infront of the tv. But we never ever did that.
It's true - religion, circumstances and more make UK so diverse
As a Brit, I found this very insightful. It's always good to see how other cultures view us.
With regards to chicken bones, I think most people do just throw them away but many of us will use the bones and remaining meat to createe a stock for a stew or soup dish. :)
Really interesting video! And I love your jumper so much!
Thank you Tasha
Thank you so much for this very interesting take on British life. As many other commenters say, don't take your husband's family as completely typical. They sound like lovely people but I agree that they're wasting food: that chicken would be picked clean and the bones used for stock in my house! And I agree that our habit of walking around between the toilet and the rest of the house, often still wearing our outside shoes, is gross. I've spent a lot of time in Japan where wearing slippers in the house and having a separate pair only for the toilet is the norm. If I ever return to the UK this is one custom that I'll be sure to take back with me.
This is a really interesting video, as a British person myself, where I come from when I was young, I had many aunties and uncles that weren't related as I got older I had same mentality as you and struggled to call elders on first name basis. I never realised it was because it was like a mental blockage. Also I and lot of my family drink hot water on it's own or with lemon nut not a lot of people I know do. Also I hope you are liking living here.
I also think it depends on where in the country you have grown up and what your ow family traditions are. Personally my family and I sit and eat lunch together and breakfast is sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Lunch and dinner are family time in our household generally. Also my lunch would be 12-1 PM and dinner which we also call tea is approx 5-6pm, a lot of people from London however seem to eat at 8pm!
I think you're right and it's one thing I've realised through this video that even in close areas, many families do things differently!
My mum had older cousins, and I called them Uncle and Aunt, my younger cousins got called their names but some of my cousins were 20 years older than me , tricky and I rarely called them a name (didnt see them that often though)
Back in the 90's every family friend was "aunt" or "uncle" but that went away by the 2000's and I very rarely see it anymore. I'm not quite sure what happened but it seems to be correlated with the culture we're experiencing now of being wary of others and less likely to be close to those who aren't part of the family.
I still can't call my in-laws mum and dad, my brother in law doesn't have this problem
I also did this, mainly on my dad's side. Both people I was related to in some way (e.g. my nan's cousins and dad's cousins) and some people who were just friends with my nan were referred to as "auntie X" and "uncle Y". They were working class and catholic, not sure if that's relevant. On my mum's side, my great aunt I also referred to as "aunt X". These were all older people and it was definitely a sign of affection and respect.
So interesting. Thanks for sharing.
In countries where you can not flush paper down the toilet, it is because the pipes are small and paper can clog them up. In the UK we have larger drainage pipes which do not clog up with paper. When I went to the Greek island of Corfu, paper can not be flushed down the toilet there.
So simple, yet life-changing!
With respect to calling in-laws by their name - referring to your husband's mother by name isn't impolite by any sense.
But referring to your husband's mother as "mom" is an indication of particular closeness. That you've begun thinking of her as being a mother-figure in your life.
Interesting, it sounds to me she's mainly seen a middle class side of England, im not aware of too many people that are constantly cutting their lawn, and ive never left a roast chicken with any meat on the bones in my life.
I would like to see her take on the kind of areas i grew up in.
"The younger English people have a severe hatred for bus stops, and will smash them on site, their most popular past time is sitting in an old Corsa in the Aldi car park while drinking cheap cider"
The roast chicken/ general meat consumption is definitely a stigma with some British. I've met British that love eating chicken livers for example and I've also met British that would not touch the stuff with a barge pole. It's a perpetuating thing and honestly if you have kids I think you should be exposing them to all kinds of meats, this prevents aversion at later age.
On the other hand I as a foreigner had the pleasure of introducing my British coworkers to all kinds of stuff they have never eaten before, like Kimchi or Sauerkraut. They had never having eaten it previously due to the belief it tastes horrific because technically it has "Gone off".
A very thoughtfully collected series of reflections. Thank you for this perspective.
My pleasure!
She is so honest, hartwearming and beautiful! Lovely to listen to.
That is a nice jumper
Wow! I think a lot of British people would experience culture shock with Scott's family too.
The bit about them not wearing slippers surprised me, especially when in the bathroom 😵💫 everyone I know loves their slippers and each winter buy new cozy ones.
Very interesting.
Some of the things to which you refer are not universal in the UK: some people do eat chicken skin, and many people (including me) wear slippers indoors. Shops in larger towns do indeed tend to close at 1900-2000h or even later sometimes. Likewise, although lawns are popular, they are not universal, and not everybody manages to keep up with cutting it.
Having a Chinese student living with me, their overwhelming shock was that the UK's media was openly critical. Cirtical of the UK's government, of the Chinese government. This they found really puzzling and weird, and SHOCKING!
#3, slippers: I note that Brits are more the exception within Europe (but they are similar to Americans), wearing slippers is a custom across most of continental Europe. Moreover, our notion that walking around barefooted or in socks is unhealthy is not just a subjective impression but medical fact: a lot of germs travel on feet, so the Anglo-American custom is objectively worse.
I'm not sure that is a 'medical fact':
First, the vast majority of infectious diseases are air or waterborne and die quite quickly on surfaces, so it's pretty unlikely that you'd get a disease from just a surface within your house.
Second, even if that were a risk, floors tend to have less bacteria than things like counters and door knobs - there isn't actually that much to feed on on the floor and _hands_ are far less sanitary than feet, because humans touch their faces all the time all the time and we touch surfaces outdoors.
Third, even in the unlikely event there _was_ some kind of pathogen on the floor of your house, tracking it from one room to another, or even the foot of your bed, is unlikely to result in an infection. People don't generally lick or eat off the floor.
Slippers, and all shoes, create a hot, dark, sweaty enclosed environment. A breeding ground for bacteria. I'm not saying they'll kill you, but as somebody who has have toe infections in the past, I'm probably safer going without shoes or socks than wearing shoes or slippers all the time inside my own home. (Assuming it's not too cold!)
It's so funny, different cultures. I can't imagine being bothered about walking around with bare feet or addressing someone by name - but when you were talking about politeness around mealtime I was cringing. The idea of saying to someone who's just made a meal (especially someone cooking a traditional meal from their culture) that I didn't like it... it horrifies me just thinking about it, it's so ingrained in me to be polite about something like that.
It really helps frame things like the addressing in a way I can understand. If, every time I spoke to someone, I felt like I was saying "Urgh, I don't like your cooking", and that's what it's probably like for someone who's used to a culture with more formal forms of address. I'd struggle!
Whenever I cook something for my dad he'll say something like "Wonderful that! Really tasty! Sauce was excellent and the rice was nearly perfect!"
Every time I'll walk off thinking what an ungrateful bastard he is for what he said about the rice.
@@stalfithrildi5366 Sometimes if I am particularly disappointed with a meal I'll say "Yeah, it was nice"
That way they know that they did wrong.
ha.. my wife has no concerns about saying "I can't eat that" when I've cooked something. She's british. Well.. Welsh.
@@stalfithrildi5366 😂
Great vid, thanks :))
Towards cutting grass they have a manic passion :))))
Ok, this was interesting. Some of these will be a facet of rural lifestyle, some are familial rather than national, but generally speaking I think you nailed it. Though I do think it's sad that your family don't eat the skin - as kids I remember me and my brother, and my friends when they ate round mine or I round theres, would fight over who got the skin! We do have some offal dishes as well, but unfortunately people's palates are heavily influenced by what they ate as children and a lot of adults in the UK were raised by people who grew up during rationing, so what they will eat is very limited in range. Not making use of the bones is simply laziness though, it's too convenient to buy artificial stocks these days.
Are we not all the "pleb class"?
Hello Ella,
First time viewer, very interesting observations. The family relationship one was something interesting to me. Over many years I've concluded that families from everywhere in the world all have almost exactly the same kinds of feelings for their children, but we all express it differently dependent upon culture. Over here we place a great deal of importance on the independence of the individual, so we encourage our children to develop that independence, and that reflects widely in many of the other things you found odd, like the lunch rituals of our culture. When our children are babies, and toddlers they're coddled, and eat with Mum, etc, but we actively train that out of them. Unconsciously I think. Wanting them to become capable of existing in the world without a dependency upon us.
I can't say I've ever really given it a great deal of thought, until you mentioned it in this video, but I can see exactly what you are saying when I think about it.
Oh, I should also mention that I have become aware of more and more people who drink clean hot water over here, and I mean British born and raised people. I think it's caught on, as our awareness of the world (and other cultures) has grown.
I'm pleased to hear you comment on us being polite, it suggests you have been treated as I and most of us would expect you to be treated.
Welcome to England, I hope you come to love it as much as we do, once you've gotten used to us and our weird ways.
Thank you Dave! I think your point about independence is one of the crucial differences between our cultures, I hope we can continue to learn from each other
Thank you, thatextremely enlightening
i think some of these are just specific to scotts family. for instance i always eat all the meat off the chicken bone and always eat the skin (best bit).
Crispy skin - sure, but I'm not so sure about soft, slow cooked lamb.
@@paulreeves8251 I love lamb fat - best bit of the meal!
"People don't shit on the sidewalk" some chinese, probably
Hahaha
Really interesting. Thanks!
That was very good and very interesting. One of the best of these types if videos I’ve seen.
Wow, thanks!
A joy to watch, thank you.
That was absolutely fascinating. Thanks you.
"the village's delinquents" 🤣
Really enjoyed this. Thank you.
What a wonderful, interesting video. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Fascinating!
Hi Ella & Scott just stumbled on your pub/woodland walk video and obviously this one, it's fascinating listening to Ella talking about cultural differences and customs and what's bothered her! Anyway will definitely watch a few more of your travels together All the best to you both + parents Cheers Jim, Surrey X
Thank you Jim! Great to have you along for the ride, glad our videos could give you something :)
Excellent video, thank you.
You are welcome!
Interesting, but I think you should buy Scott some slippers and make him eat more leafy greens!