Thread: Do you find these English things Bizarre? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by The Midge (# 2398) on :
 
I'm sure our American cousins would like a a nice big juicy target to discuss. How about these English eccentricities? (I mean it is OK to be eccentric isn't it?)

1) The Royal family.
No not the sitcom with Ricky Tomlinson, but the one that dresses in crowns up and entertains us by driving to weddings in state carriages, doing coronations and stuff. It is like a reality soap opera at times. Not that Queenie actually does very much ruling.

2) The Mother of All Parliaments.
Here! Here!
Featuring: Black Rod, ‘honourable gentlemen’, the speaker in his gown and a host of other customs (including shutting our head of state out). Not to mention the other place containing hereditary peers in a ‘democracy’.

3) Boiled leaves in water:
The Nutrimatix drinks machine could not compute why Arthur Dent liked dried leaves boiled in water. But the tea is our favourite beverage- even if it bastardised by a teabag being shoved in a mug. But there is already a heavenly thread to cover this.

4) Test Match Special on Radio 4;
Listening to cricket commentary on radio. My Wife likens it to listening to paint dry. But it is surprising how much you learn about pigeons and cake baking among other things. Then there is the cricket itself; 5 days play and there is still the possibility of a draw.

5) Morris Dancing.
Local villagers with blacked out faces so the neighbours wouldn’t recognise them, bells, sticks and folk music. Is there any wonder these people don’t want to be outed?

6) Talking about the weather.
Britain must has one of the mildest and least extreme climates, but the weather provides the topic of conversation to fill awkward silences. Our tornados, although numerous, are tiddly. The roads grind to a halt after a bit of snow in mid winter and if the temperature gets much above 20 degrees celcius then expect headlines on the lines of “Wot a scorcher”

7) The M25
The longest car park, like, ever? I heard on the radio that there was a 25 mile jam the other day.

8) Neighbours, everyone has good neighbours
The Celtic nations make out that they loath the English, supporting any other nation vs England yet fight our wars etc. etc. Just watch the Celts dog pile this thread because it is about the English rather than British. Yet they all fight wars for us.
BTW The don’t have their own national anthem so nick the United Kingdom one.

9) The traditional seaside holiday.
Butlins holiday camps, fish n chips, Peers (that stick out to sea) full of slot machines, tacky gift shops, saucy cards, knotted handkerchiefs, sitting on beach in the rain trying to stop the windbreak blowing away because that is what you do.

10) Panto
Pantomime is a peculiarly British past time isn’t it? Well, we go every year to shout “Behind you”, “Oh no it isn’t, Oh yes it is” watching celebs in drag doing rehashed fairy tales.

11) Not putting our country on stamps/ coins

Are we the only nation that don’t bother to put our country on the stamps and coins etc? Just the queens head and we expect everyone to just know where they came from. I mean how snobby is that?

12) The Class System
Upper, Middle, Working or Underclass CHAV? It isn’t supposed to matter anymore. But it does.

13) Punching Above Our Weight
This is not about winning the first Olympic Gold Women’s boxing medal but our posing on the geopolitical arena, intervening in other countries as if we were still a major empire/ world super-power. Can’t we just get over it in this age of austerity and save ourselves a bomb/ Trident nuclear system?

Perhaps you might be able to add some more.


(Edited to fix title)

[ 03. June 2013, 16:27: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 

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Posted by The Rhythm Methodist (# 17064) on :
 
Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?
 

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Posted by Anglican_Brat (# 12349) on :
 

quote:

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1) The Royal family.
No not the sitcom with Ricky Tomlinson, but the one that dresses in crowns up and entertains us by driving to weddings in state carriages, doing coronations and stuff. It is like a reality soap opera at times. Not that Queenie actually does very much ruling.

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quote:

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12) The Class System
Upper, Middle, Working or Underclass CHAV? It isn’t supposed to matter anymore. But it does.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
How every room in the house has a door, which one closes upon entering the room. (Unless the set for Keeping Up Appearances is atypical.)

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

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quote:

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Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
Eh? How is this eccentric?

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At least here in the US midwest, the only room on the ground floor that usually has a door installed in the doorway is the toilet.

ETA: And no real American would be crude enough to use that word to describe the room in question

I'm still in two minds about whether I like it.

[tangent] When my parents in the UK had a loft conversion done (so their house now had three floors), I rather think they were required by fire regulations to install door closers on all doors leading on to the stairways. [/tangent]

[ 01. June 2013, 19:53: Message edited by: Leorning Cniht ]
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by churchgeek:
This is the oddest thing of all so far on this thread - the assumption that the US was once under British rule. The 13 original colonies make up only a tiny, tiny part of the US. Most of our country was never British.

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quote:

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Eh? How is this eccentric?

English houses can be rather chilly, especially if they're old, as most of them are. If you don't close the doors, the heat will escape.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Midge:
...[snip] Peers (that stick out to sea)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
From my limited understanding, the Brits are nonchalant about the monarchy. ... Now the flipside about this nonchalance is that the Brits also are not motivated to abolish the monarchy altogether.

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I think most people in Britain are either nonchalant about the monarchy, as you say, or support it. But they don't tend to talk about their support. In the same way, a lot of British people are not outwardly patriotic in the way people in other countries tend to be. But that's not to say that they aren't.

[ 01. June 2013, 20:43: Message edited by: Anglican't ]
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?


What I positively liked in Wales (and I guess it's the same in England): when you're in the pub, and talking with the blokes (even with people you didn't know before), they might buy you a pint, and put it next to the one you're already drinking, even if you haven't finished it yet. When my mother visited me from the Netherlands, she's a very outgoing person, she might have three or four pints of cider in front of her in this way!
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'm sorry, it isn't Kings Road. It's the Kingsway isn't it? It's been a while...
 

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Posted by Amazing Grace (# 95) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by churchgeek:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

---

This is the oddest thing of all so far on this thread - the assumption that the US was once under British rule. The 13 original colonies make up only a tiny, tiny part of the US. Most of our country was never British.

But I'm sure this is just a variant on #13 from the OP. The map of North America seems to look rather different from that little island north of France.

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quote:

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Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
In winter we run the central heating a little bit to get the kids bedrooms out of single figures, and use supplementary heating in the room where we are (OK, where She is) sitting.

Kids have taken to explaining to their friends who come over that they need to close the door - since it seems that sadly, it's true that we're eccentric - the idea seems foreign to them.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?
...

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quote:

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Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

---

quote:

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Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:

quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?
...

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This is associated with certain areas, including the Rhubarb Triangle.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Well they could use "Land of Hope and Glory" and "Jerusalem" are common ones however there is something in me that makes me think of this

Jengie

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How about our ability to complain about things to everyone except the actual revelant person? 'Horrible meal' we may mutter then the waiter approaches to ask if everything is okay 'fine, fine' we reply...

[ 01. June 2013, 22:17: Message edited by: Avila ]
 

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Posted by Zach82 (# 3208) on :
 
The English seem to use primarily space heaters, and call them "electric fires." Sometimes they even install permanent ones in the fire place.
 

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Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
No-one has yet mentioned trainspotting (formerly loco-spotting: the custom of standing at the sloping end of a station, writing down the numbers of passing trains (locos, when those existed) and then checking off what you had seen on the system list.

There are variants - those who collect aircraft registration letters, or ships seen, or whatever. [...]

The above are definitely British Isles eccentricities.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Zach82:
English post offices seem to be little convenience stores and community centers. What's that all about?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:

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Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
Eh? How is this eccentric?

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At least here in the US midwest, the only room on the ground floor that usually has a door installed in the doorway is the toilet.

ETA: And no real American would be crude enough to use that word to describe the room in question

I'm still in two minds about whether I like it.

[tangent] When my parents in the UK had a loft conversion done (so their house now had three floors), I rather think they were required by fire regulations to install door closers on all doors leading on to the stairways. [/tangent]

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quote:

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Originally posted by Doublethink:
What about privacy ? What if you want to have sex, or a row ?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Mostly a village or convenience store takes on the Post Office duties.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Doublethink:
What about privacy ? What if you want to have sex, or a row ?

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:

quote:

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Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

---

While I'm sure that most British people would have taken the above as a tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking reference to the limited appeal of our culture and foibles, it seems I may offended a couple of our American friends....for which I unreservedly apologise.

I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Midge:


5) Morris Dancing.
Local villagers with blacked out faces so the neighbours wouldn’t recognise them, bells, sticks and folk music. Is there any wonder these people don’t want to be outed?


.

[/QB]

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quote:

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Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
(locos, when those existed)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
And here in the US midwest, we have a local pharmacist who has a USPS counter in the corner.

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quote:

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You should try everything once except incest and morris dancing

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Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :
 
How about English food names? Toad-in-the-hole, bubble-and-squeek, spotted dick? What's with that?
 

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Posted by Deputy Verger (# 15876) on :
 
I made some foodie comment on the US thread, so I am going to balance it with some favourite British treats that other cultures occasionally find a bit unusual.
Chip butties.

Bubble & Squeak (leftover cheap vegetables) or even better, refried Bubble & Squeak (leftover leftover leftovers... yum yum!)

Porridge. Nothing weird about porridge per se , but if you have four people eating it, you will have five guaranteed traditional ways of making it.
 

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Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Nicolemr:
How about English food names? Toad-in-the-hole, bubble-and-squeek, spotted dick? What's with that?

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
 

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Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
So, here's the ones that nobody's mentioned that, between my time living there and the Ship, always seem just...weird.

1. Thinking that nobody else, especially other Anglophones, understands irony
No matter how many Lenny Bruce clips we post, no matter how many really dumb British comics come and go (and find themselves on late night PBS reruns), no matter how many witty furriners they meet, only the British appreciate irony. It's like an iron law that no examples of someone being ironic (seriously, you won't even let the Belgians, who make their sarcasm a point of national identity, appreciate irony?) actually count.

2. Eating potatoes with everything.
Someone made a comment during dinner that one of the things they were looking forward to once they got back home to the States was meals without potatoes. People were shocked. "You mean, like only with chips?"

3. Insanely sweet and sticky deserts
They don't call it zuppa inglese for nothing: a gloopy, overly sweet mess of God-only-knows served with a side pitcher of cream: it's the classic English desert. Trifle, custard, or mess, there seems to be some lingering effect of sugar rationing on the English palate, and a need to make up for lost time.
3.5 The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:
no matter how many really dumb British comics come and go (and find themselves on late night PBS reruns)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:

3. Insanely sweet and sticky deserts
They don't call it zuppa inglese for nothing: a gloopy, overly sweet mess of God-only-knows served with a side pitcher of cream: it's the classic English desert. Trifle, custard, or mess,

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Zach82:

quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.

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She's Canadian.

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by Zach82:

quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.

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She's Canadian.

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Canada is just America Junior, right? So same thing.(Not a big enough fan of miss Morisette to notice where she is from.)
Actually, what I had noticed is that a large number of newscasters and entertainers* use the word irony to mean just about everything. Tragic, funny, fitting, etc. And occasionally, by sheer chance, something actually ironic.


*Not presenting this as a necessarily fair sample, just IME.

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Zach82:
Like a member of Irony's chosen race linking to wikipedia to explain what irony is?

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Fair cop. I shall now hang my head in shame.

[ 02. June 2013, 02:35: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:
pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Grokesx:
I think many of us in the UK agree with the sentiment often attributed to Sir Thomas Beeching:

quote:

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You should try everything once except incest and morris dancing

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quote:

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2) The Mother of All Parliaments.
Here! Here!
Featuring: Black Rod, ‘honourable gentlemen’, the speaker in his gown and a host of other customs (including shutting our head of state out). Not to mention the other place containing hereditary peers in a ‘democracy’.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:

quote:

---

Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

---

While I'm sure that most British people would have taken the above as a tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking reference to the limited appeal of our culture and foibles, it seems I may offended a couple of our American friends....for which I unreservedly apologise.

I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

Nah, you didn't offend me. Not at all! But the Internet isn't very good at conveying irony, British or otherwise. I did notice the self-mockery, though.

Although our defensiveness about those sorts of comments is probably an American eccentricity. We're the "land of the second son," after all, and so it's in our DNA that we have to prove ourselves to Europeans. That quickly becomes a chip on our shoulder. As a "mid-coast" (Great Lakes) native on the US West Coast, I've noticed a similar dynamic out here vis-à-vis the US East Coast. I'm also a youngest child, and I remember always feeling the need (real or imagined) to prove myself to be mature, smart, or whatever, in my older sisters' eyes.

But then again, our relationship with the UK has been like a child who grows up, becomes successful, and sticks its mother in a home. So maybe you Brits have your own sort of defensiveness toward us!

I'm from a city where people notoriously didn't seem to care who was ruling them - France, US, England, whatever. Apparently they still spoke French in Detroit for a while after the city became US (it had been part of Upper Canada, which was French at the time). Our city's flag features the 3 flags that have flown over the city, but the French and British flags aren't the Tricoleur or the Union Jack. (The British flag only flew over Detroit for a bit during the War of 1812; the general who surrendered it to the British remains the only US general to ever be executed for "military incompetence"!)
 

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Posted by Haydee (# 14734) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:
3.5 The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Haydee:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:
3.5 The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

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Or even better - clotted cream.

One heats thick (double) cream slowly for 8 hours or so until it is even thicker.

Sadly non-existent in this previous colony...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Avila:
Yes I am a celt, of the Welsh variety -

the English thread is fine, but you say WE are the ones without an anthem?

I present -
Mae hen wlad f'nhadau (The old land of my fathers)

What do the English play if they win in the Commonwealth Games? Being the dominant neighbour yes the UK song came from you. But is it a national anthem or a royal one??

(Ducks and runs back over the border...)

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I know to stand when I here that tune as I'm half Welsh. It is a fine anthem and mch better than dreary old 'God Save the Queen'.

England should have its own anthem IMNHSO.
 

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Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :
 
Tea? Compared to the near-sacramental use of tea in Ireland, the English are coffee sell-out rank amateurs!

However, crap road systems are certainly a peculiarly English fetish. And the penchant to dress men up as women for Panto (very much enjoyed as an export across the Irish Sea).

Morris Dancing; a delightful and slightly dissonant phenomenon of stiff-upper lip bearded, often boozy gentlemen tinkling their bells and waving handkerchiefs. But also on occasion swords and heavy staffs - so don't laugh too loudly !

But it is sweetly bizaare how the English think that the National Anthem, the Union Flag and the Royal Family are 'theirs'! As if there would even be an England without the centuries of graft and genius of their Celtic neighbours !
 

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Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :
 
Choosing apple pie in an English restaurant 50-odd years ago I found that if the waiter identified you as English he offered custard with it; if he identified you as American he offered ice cream; and if you appeared to be neither he brought cream.
GG
 

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Posted by Desert Daughter (# 13635) on :
 
I've lived a couple of years on that wonderful island, still go there a lot for business and holidays and consider myself an Anglophile. But what I'll never understand is

a) the state of the railway "system" (leaves on tracks, wrong kind of snow...need I say more?)

a1) why it is so incredibly expensive to travel on that "system"

b) the lack of real, decent shower installations in most homes and B&B's

b1) why the sad electric appliances masquerading as showers are called "power" shower - they're anything but!!

-- still, it's a great country


 

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Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :
 
Vinegar on french fries (chips).
 

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Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:

quote:

---

Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

---

While I'm sure that most British people would have taken the above as a tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking reference to the limited appeal of our culture and foibles, it seems I may offended a couple of our American friends....for which I unreservedly apologise.

I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.

---

I knew it was a joke.

We do irony, but we call it "sarcasm" or "mild/light sarcasm". (Here, irony is like the story, "The Gift of the Magi". A young married couple is too poor to buy Christmas presents, so she sells her hair to buy a fob for his watch, and he sold his watch to buy her a decoration for her hair.) The problem is that a) the reader has to either have the same cultural assumptions or at least know what they are; and b) be aware that someone might actually joke about *that* in *this* circumstance. Plus our spoken sarcasm tends to be accompanied by a lot of non-verbal cues--tone of voice, pitch, eyes, head tilt/roll, posture. I gather that the English tend to a dryer style. A Shipmate posted once that they'd visited the UK and found that folks there initially seem very nice and pleasant--until you begin to understand what they mean. I.e., lots of sarkiness.

Internet posts don't have those cues, unless someone uses smilies.

That having been said, many Americans love the British humor found in TV Britcoms, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, P.G. Wodehouse, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc. (Britcoms and dramas are especially popular here in N. California, where they're eagerly awaited and watched on PBS.)

We rough-n-ready former colonials aren't quite as dull and humorless as you lot think!

And at least *we* don't eat blood pudding! (Other than the vampire community, of course.)
 

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Posted by Martin PC not & Ship's Biohazard (# 368) on :
 
Eccentricities?! Apart from the spelling, WHAT eccentricities?
 

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Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Vinegar on french fries (chips).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Martin PC not & Ship's Biohazard:
I can't let this rest, I mean Midge, are you an agent provocateur ? A Yank in Englishman's clothing ? If not, YOU LET THE SODDING SIDE DOWN MAN !

'Bizare'.

I'm doing a Walken after typing that. And that.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Desert Daughter:
I've lived a couple of years on that wonderful island, still go there a lot for business and holidays and consider myself an Anglophile. But what I'll never understand is

a) the state of the railway "system" (leaves on tracks, wrong kind of snow...need I say more?)

a1) why it is so incredibly expensive to travel on that "system"

b) the lack of real, decent shower installations in most homes and B&B's

b1) why the sad electric appliances masquerading as showers are called "power" shower - they're anything but!!

-- still, it's a great country

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The railways were privatised to make them more efficient.

Efficient: i before e except after c- Martin has a point about spelling.
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Although not English, can I point out to our US 'cousins' that THEY are the insisters on calling something a 'bathroom' when, more than likely, it doesn't have a bath?

As for 'toilet' this is very non-U.

You mean crapper/ bog/ head.
 

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Posted by Ad Orientem (# 17574) on :
 
English comedy, often scetches with men dressed up as women.

Cockney rhyming slang.

Lovable villians.

Pie and eel shops.
 

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Posted by Cottontail (# 12234) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Desert Daughter:
I've lived a couple of years on that wonderful island, still go there a lot for business and holidays and consider myself an Anglophile. But what I'll never understand is

a) the state of the railway "system" (leaves on tracks, wrong kind of snow...need I say more?)
...

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quote:

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Originally posted by L'organist:
Although not English, can I point out to our US 'cousins' that THEY are the insisters on calling something a 'bathroom' when, more than likely, it doesn't have a bath?

As for 'toilet' this is very non-U.

You mean crapper/ bog/ head.

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quote:

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Originally posted by L'organist:
You mean crapper/ bog/ head.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
Cockney rhyming slang.

Lovable villians.

Pie and eel shops.

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quote:

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Originally posted by balaam:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
Cockney rhyming slang.

Lovable villians.

Pie and eel shops.

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No. Most of England, and most of the English, exist outside the M25 (aka London orbital car park.).

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Midge:


4) Test Match Special on Radio 4;
Listening to cricket commentary on radio. My Wife likens it to listening to paint dry. But it is surprising how much you learn about pigeons and cake baking among other things. Then there is the cricket itself; 5 days play and there is still the possibility of a draw.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:
In American homes it usually does have a bath and it's just a bit nicer to refer to the more pleasing image. When talking about the big public ones we usually say restroom.

The one thing that really seemed bizarre to me when I was in England was the sheer hatefulness directed at celebrities by the newspapers. Our papers aren't kind by any means, they love to catch people out without make-up and cellulite is actually circled with arrows pointing, but in British papers the articles all seem to be written by the celebrity's evil, jealous, worst enemy. I remember reading columns about Ginger Rogers and Helen Gurley Brown -- both almost ninety at the time with lots of sarcastic, patronizing remarks and lurid descriptions of their age worn faces and bodies. What's up with that?

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The Daily Mail
 

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Posted by Grokesx (# 17221) on :
 

quote:

---

Beecham - as in Beecham's powders; not Beeching - as in bolloxed up the Railway system. His first name was Richard anyway.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:
In American homes it usually does have a bath and it's just a bit nicer to refer to the more pleasing image. When talking about the big public ones we usually say restroom.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Desert Daughter:
But what I'll never understand is...

b) the lack of real, decent shower installations in most homes and B&B's

b1) why the sad electric appliances masquerading as showers are called "power" shower - they're anything but!!

---

Our builder explained that to us. Until recently, it was illegal in the UK to have hot water at mains pressure. Instead, you had a header tank in the attic, which fed the hot water tank. Thus you have hot water at low pressure and cold water at mains pressure, which means you have dreadful showers. If you want a good warm shower, you need high pressure hot water, and you cannot achieve that with just a tank in the attic providing the pressure.

"Power showers" either pump the hot water through from the hot water tank, getting the pressure up to something decent or they heat the cold water as it runs through the shower. The former work well. The latter do not.

We initially solved this for our house using a Venturi effect shower, which uses the mains-pressure cold water to pull the low-pressure hot water at high speed.

We now have a new high pressure hot water cylinder and our showers are as good as those in US/NZ/Oz.
 

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Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :
 

quote:

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11) Not putting our country on stamps/ coins

Are we the only nation that don’t bother to put our country on the stamps and coins etc? Just the queens head and we expect everyone to just know where they came from. I mean how snobby is that?

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Midge:
The Daily Mail

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Eh that's another thing I don't understand. What's up with the extreme newspaper prejudice? Americans have a little of that. I prefer the Washington Post over the Washington Times but I'll read both and I'm not ashamed to be caught with one over the other.

The two articles I just mentioned were both in the Sunday Times magazine section. While I was living in England the big Charles and Diana divorce scandal was happening. I was in the habit of buying all the papers the local newsagent carried from the Sun to the Times (I had no TV, no internet.) I noticed that the scandal stories were repeated almost word for word in all the papers, the only difference was that the tabloids had it first.

BTW I once counted 80 negative mentions of Americans in the London Sunday Times. We barely talk about you guys at all.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Palimpsest:
My own list includes

Accent as a marker of class as a marker of social class

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Twilight:
[QUOTE]

BTW I once counted 80 negative mentions of Americans in the London Sunday Times. We barely talk about you guys at all.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Zach82:
English post offices seem to be little convenience stores and community centers. What's that all about?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Spike:

quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:
[QUOTE]

BTW I once counted 80 negative mentions of Americans in the London Sunday Times. We barely talk about you guys at all.

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I'm not aware of that newspaper. Perhaps you mean the Sunday Times?

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quote:

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Originally posted by leo:
The M25 - I don't drive and don't know where it is

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Which is owned by News International, which in turn is owned by News Corporation of which the Murdoch family, headed by Rupert Murdoch (an American)

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quote:

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Originally posted by balaam:

quote:

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Originally posted by L'organist:
You mean crapper/ bog/ head.

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It's only a head it it's on a boat/ship/submarine.

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by leo:
The M25 - I don't drive and don't know where it is

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The ability to drive is an unnecessary skill on the M25.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:
2. Eating potatoes with everything.
Someone made a comment during dinner that one of the things they were looking forward to once they got back home to the States was meals without potatoes. People were shocked. "You mean, like only with chips?"

3. Insanely sweet and sticky deserts
They don't call it zuppa inglese for nothing: a gloopy, overly sweet mess of God-only-knows served with a side pitcher of cream: it's the classic English desert. Trifle, custard, or mess, there seems to be some lingering effect of sugar rationing on the English palate, and a need to make up for lost time.
3.5 The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Spike:

quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:
BTW I once counted 80 negative mentions of Americans in the London Sunday Times. We barely talk about you guys at all.

---

I'm not aware of that newspaper. Perhaps you mean the Sunday Times?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by Palimpsest:
My own list includes

Accent as a marker of class as a marker of social class

---

IME this exists in the US as well, though perhaps to a lesser degree.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:
L'organist--

"Non-U"?

Thanks.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Palimpsest:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by Palimpsest:
My own list includes

Accent as a marker of class as a marker of social class

---

IME this exists in the US as well, though perhaps to a lesser degree.

---

I find much of the US accents are proxies for regionalism rather than class. Alas they're disappearing under the onslaught of television and radio speakers who try to sound like they're from Pittsburgh.

The sad exception is racial; "Black" accents and vocabulary.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Palimpsest:

Nick
who is just done with a weekend watching films at the film festival about Seattle Hiphop and "20 feet from stardom" about the mostly Black backup singers that have powered rock, R&B and Gospel.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
I'm sure our American cousins would like a a nice big juicy target to discuss. How about these English eccentricities? (I mean it is OK to be eccentric isn't it?)

[snip]

Perhaps you might be able to add some more.

---

Just for fun, here's one Irishman's perspective on all the above.

1. The Royal Family
Go on any Irish internet forum, and any expressed view on the Queen etc will be rounded on. You might be tempted to think that HM is roundly hated. The reality is a lot more mixed and a lot more different than the casual observer might think - the Queen's visit to the Republic was a case in point. She was loved by a great many people here.

2. The mother of all parliaments

Seeing as our own is filled with idiots on the make, estate agents and teachers promoted above their ability who unfailingly and unashamedly read from scripts when they get a Buggins' Turn promotion as a minister, it is refreshing to see a parliament on television here that appears to be inhabited by mostly intelligent people. Mostly.

3. Boiled leaves in water.

My credentials as an Irishman have been routinely questioned, not least because I despise tea bag tea. Muck. I also hate Nescafe Original so that rules me out of drinking coffee in much of the rest of the world outside of a Gaggia machine. Most Irish people would drink tea out of a navvy's shovel, they love it so much.

4. Test Match Special on Radio 4.

Radio 4 on Long Wave (and usefully in my car, 720am from Northern Ireland) can be picked up in most of Ireland. Cricket enthusiasts do exist, I'm one of them, and fellow fanatics can be recognised by the casual dropping of Blowers and Aggers into a conversation. When we beat Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup in 2007 a bemused wider nation suddenly took notice of the beautiful game for two weeks.

5. Morris dancing.

No. Just No. Always looks to me as if a huge Wicker Man and a perplexed Edward Woodward are about to have a meeting just after.

6. Talking about the Weather.

We do too, with "Grand Day" and "Soft day" covering nearly all the bases. Some days are so soft they are practically breaking apart at the edges. Jean Byrne on RTÉ could give the BBC's Carol Kirkwood a serious run for her money.

7. The M25

We had to go one better so Dublin's orbital motorway was dubbed the M50. Twice as good as the M25? That's debatable.

8. Neighbours, everyone has good Neighbours

You would think that we would have some sort of Celtic solidarity with Wales and Scotland. In reality, we only really think of them when we are about to thrash or be thrashed in the Six Nations. England (see the Queen) is the country where most of us have family, watch their television and read Irish editions of their newspapers, but it will still be a cold day in Hell before most Irish people will openly support England in anything.

9. The traditional seaside holiday

Ireland's Butlins at Mosney is long gone, turned into a holding centre in the 1990s for asylum seekers, which wierdly seems appropriate. We do have a couple of Butlinseque resorts, well one, Trabolgan. Tramore is still a mad place near Waterford, on the Sea, and a handful of folks have caravans, though nowhere near the amount that folks in Northern Ireland do. As in the Other Island, Sun holidays in the Sun became the thing from the 1970s onwards.

We also love fish and chips, usually from an Italian run chipper. Our own specialities are the long tray of curry or garlic chips; much needed soakage after a good night in the pub and the legendary Spice Burger which looks and tastes like the stuffing out of a chicken dipped in egg and breadcrumbs. Lovely

10. Panto

We do it too. Ireland still has a few variety theatres such as Dublin's Gaiety and Olympia Theatres which make their bread and butter in December and January with "Oh no I didn't, oh yes you did". When it comes to popular culture as a whole, Ireland isn't any different to Britain.

11. Not putting our country on stamps

Well, we do, but the insistence of Official Ireland on using the Irish Gaelic version of the country's name on stamps and coins meant that we all get condescending chats along the lines of "Oh, you're from Air, are you?"

12. The Class System

We like to pretend it doesn't exist here, but it does in a very insidious way. The school attended cut and categorise this so called classless society in deeper ways than the Other Island. And just because your boss sings rebel songs in the pub doesn't mean that he has your best interests at heart.

13. Punching above our weight

Ireland's national inferiority complex means that we chest beatingly proclaim that everyone loves us. Of course, to the casual observer, one bunch of lads abroad on the piss looks, sounds and behaves much the same as the other.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ronald Binge:

6. Talking about the Weather.

We do too, with "Grand Day" and "Soft day" covering nearly all the bases.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jane R:
...provided you have memorised the mugshots of every king/queen for the last sixty years or so (anything older is probably not legal tender).

---

It's not very difficult for the U.K. since you've had just the one for 60 years.

 

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Posted by Martin PC not & Ship's Biohazard (# 368) on :
 
Knocks English charm in to a cocked hat and puts it in a broken fridge, outside, in an abandoned farm yard.
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:

I gather we're more uncomfortable with public nudity than Europeans are, though maybe that's mainland Europeans.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:
L'organist--

"Non-U"?

Thanks.

---

Golden Key,

Here is the Wikipedia article.
I was surprised to find that the idea did not originate with Nancy Mitford, as hers is the name I always associate with "U" and "Non-U."

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Twilight:
... While I was living in England ... I was in the habit of buying all the papers the local newsagent carried from the Sun to the Times ...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
I'm sure our American cousins would like a a nice big juicy target to discuss. How about these English eccentricities?
...
Perhaps you might be able to add some more.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mockingbird:

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
I'm sure our American cousins would like a a nice big juicy target to discuss. How about these English eccentricities?
...
Perhaps you might be able to add some more.

---

Place-names. "Upton Snodsbury?" "Horton-cum-Studley?"

I'll take "Okfuskee", "Tishomingo" and "Fishs Eddy" (without an apostrophe), thank you.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mockingbird:
I'll take "Okfuskee", "Tishomingo" and "Fishs Eddy" (without an apostrophe), thank you.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Higgs Bosun:

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoannaP:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:
L'organist--

"Non-U"?

Thanks.

---

Golden Key,

Here is the Wikipedia article.
I was surprised to find that the idea did not originate with Nancy Mitford, as hers is the name I always associate with "U" and "Non-U."

---

I played croquet with Prof. Alan Ross at the Edgbaston Croquet Club in Birmingham in about 1973. Nice man, not at all posh.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them.

---

The apparent ability of the young single female to ignore the external temperature when selecting her wardrobe seems to be fairly international, although I might concede that the Brits raise it to the highest art.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by L'organist:
Although not English, can I point out to our US 'cousins' that THEY are the insisters on calling something a 'bathroom' when, more than likely, it doesn't have a bath?

As for 'toilet' this is very non-U.

You mean crapper/ bog/ head.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
I teased one of the cabin crew on the one time I flew Qantas, who had indicated that the bathrooms were at the front/rear of the cabin. I told her I didn't want to have a bath; she replied that to say 'toilet' embarrassed American passengers.

GG

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Higgs Bosun:
played croquet ... not at all posh.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Higgs Bosun:
played croquet ... not at all posh.

---

One of these comments is false.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doublethink:
Jesus wants you for a sunbeam ...

Doublethink
Purgatory Host

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by anoesis:

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
...[snip] Peers (that stick out to sea)

---

...may be differentiated from peers (wot sit in the House of Lords) without the need for parentheses, thusly: "piers".

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
English comedy, often scetches with men dressed up as women.

Cockney rhyming slang.

Lovable villians.

Pie and eel shops.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Twilight:

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
The Daily Mail

---

Eh that's another thing I don't understand. What's up with the extreme newspaper prejudice?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Its justified. There is no mainstream US newspaper that is in the habit of deliberately printing lies on its front page to influence the result of an election.

---

That's because the TV stations do it in the US
 

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Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Midge:
Warning: one of these isn't very worksafe

Buzfeed Best Ways to Annoy a British Person

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ChaliceGirl:
I always thought it was strange how English judges and other government officials wear white wigs with curls.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Twilight:
The "What's the deal with the taps?" picture cracked me up. If you're new to the country and don't yet know to fill the tub and stir it before you get in you can experience one entire leg burning while the other freezes.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Its justified. There is no mainstream US newspaper that is in the habit of deliberately printing lies on its front page to influence the result of an election.

---

That's because the TV stations do it in the US

---

Actually yes, pretty much. Our TV news has a legal duty to be "balanced", and when it comes to elections they pretty much manage it.

But many of our newspapers quite explicitly support one party or candidate over another. Toe the extent that they sometimes have even had meetings with political parties to discuss what they are going to print in the news in the following days or weeks.

In the UK the newspapers are partisan, but TV tends to be neutral. Which means of course that it reflects the prejudices and interests of the establishment. The BBC and ITN, like the Church of England, are quite capable of steering a straight course down the middle of the road between truth and falsehood

quote:

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Originally posted by Twilight:
1) American tubs have one big tap in the middle where both hot and cold come through together, mixed according to how far the handle or handles are turned.

---

So do many of ours, perhaps most. Mine does. I'd rather it didn't. If I ever was in a position to re-order my bathroom with stuff I like rather than what was there when we moved in, I'd try to get separate taps. Same with the tap on the kitchen sink, though I don't mind that so much. I don't know when they were installed but it was certainly well over twenty years ago.
 

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Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :
 
Regarding taps I was once with a mixed group of international students and British students and we were talking about the things the internationals found weird or annoying in Britain. One of the Europeans said "the taps" and all the other internationals groaned knowingly and said "oh yes the taps!" The Brits all looked at each other in confusion and said "what about the taps?"
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lucia:
The Brits all looked at each other in confusion and said "what about the taps?"

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lucia:
Regarding taps I was once with a mixed group of international students and British students and we were talking about the things the internationals found weird or annoying in Britain. One of the Europeans said "the taps" and all the other internationals groaned knowingly and said "oh yes the taps!" The Brits all looked at each other in confusion and said "what about the taps?"

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quote:

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Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
I seem to remember from my (UK) youth that the cold tap at the kitchen sink was plumbed directly to the water main, so the water came out at mains pressure, and was the only one we used for drinking water.[...]I don't think it works like that any more.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
I seem to remember from my (UK) youth that the cold tap at the kitchen sink was plumbed directly to the water main, so the water came out at mains pressure, and was the only one we used for drinking water.[...]I don't think it works like that any more.

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Yes it does. In normal English houses the cold water is connected directly to the mains. We don't usually have local water tanks - used to but they have been getting rid of them for about a centiury. . It might even be against local laws to do it any other way in some places.

Increasingly hot water comes from a combi boiler directly connected to the mains as well. I've seen no new hot water installation with a tank since the 1970s. I'm not saying they don't exist, but no-one I know well enough to visit at home has one any more unless it has been there for some time. Everyone who buys a new hot water system seems to get a combi. I remember my parenbts house was converted to one in the 1970s.

---

combi boilers

They really are awkward. Unless your water pressure is uniform, and ours is far from it, the bloody thing won't ignite on demand.

Almost worth a TICTH.
 

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Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :
 


And I just love it that does such a good impression of a combi boiler lighting up!
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
We have a water heater near the washing machine in the back porch/utility room with a pilot light and it always heats up right away. These generally last about ten years or so.
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
I seem to remember from my (UK) youth that the cold tap at the kitchen sink was plumbed directly to the water main, so the water came out at mains pressure, and was the only one we used for drinking water.[...]I don't think it works like that any more.

---

Yes it does. In normal English houses the cold water is connected directly to the mains. We don't usually have local water tanks - used to but they have been getting rid of them for about a centiury. . It might even be against local laws to do it any other way in some places.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
I seem to remember from my (UK) youth that the cold tap at the kitchen sink was plumbed directly to the water main, so the water came out at mains pressure, and was the only one we used for drinking water.[...]I don't think it works like that any more.

---

Yes it does. In normal English houses the cold water is connected directly to the mains. We don't usually have local water tanks - used to but they have been getting rid of them for about a centiury. . It might even be against local laws to do it any other way in some places.

Increasingly hot water comes from a combi boiler directly connected to the mains as well. I've seen no new hot water installation with a tank since the 1970s. I'm not saying they don't exist, but no-one I know well enough to visit at home has one any more unless it has been there for some time. Everyone who buys a new hot water system seems to get a combi. I remember my parenbts house was converted to one in the 1970s.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Palimpsest:
I find much of the US accents are proxies for regionalism rather than class. Alas they're disappearing under the onslaught of television and radio speakers who try to sound like they're from Pittsburgh.

---

Or from Texas. E.g., a meteorologist saying "take the umbrella", rather than "an umbrella". (Shudder.)
 

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Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 
Has anyone mentioned the wacky English eating baked beans on toast? Not just any toast. BURNED toast! A friend of mine spent a year living in Dublin and also a few months in London. She said her flat mates were always eating baked beans on very burnt toast and loved it. She ate some of that but she scraped off the worst of the char. Not so her flat mates. They LIKED the toast burnt blacker than sin. Ick! She also said the Irish eat boiled potatoes with nothing on them. No butter, no salt, no pepper. Just boiled potatoes. Bleahhh! I'm third generation Irish and the least I've ever put on a potato is salt and pepper.
 

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Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 
Twilight: About the low-flush toilets: A few years ago when we were told that all the toilets were going to be replaced with the low-flush kind, I remember being chastised because my toilet was one of those older ones that wasted water. I was living in an apartment! I rented there. It wasn't my fault that the landlord hadn't gotten his stingy-ass around to replace the toilet. This person who was giving me such a difficult time also raked me over the coals for shopping at the politically incorrect Walmart. This woman was very annoying and knew what was best for the entire world. I would have liked to flush her down a toilet but she would have stunk up the bathroom something fierce and I would have to flush at least ten times to get her down!
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
The5thMary: about the toilet rant. More of a Hell thing.

Firenze
Heaven Host
 

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Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:
Or from Texas. E.g., a meteorologist saying "take the umbrella", rather than "an umbrella". (Shudder.)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Earwig:
Seriously, it's beacuse cloak rooms charge to leave your coat, and you need all your money for precious booze. And there's often a huge queue for the cloak room when you want to just go and dance. And if you leave your coat on the back of a chair it'll get nicked or have drink spilled on it (or worse). So it's easier to shiver a bit outside, and then have more fun inside. And when you get out again, alcohol is your overcoat.

Earwig, who was once young and stupid.

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quote:

---

ArachnidinElmet: Round here we have the Westgate Run, a pub crawl on said road which, on last count, had 25 adjoining pubs and clubs. If you start at the bus stop at one end, and finish at the taxi rank at the other, the only place you need to stand and shiver is the doorway to the kebab shop. A coat does seems a bit pointless.

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Doesn't a pub crawl involve having a pint at each of those pubs/clubs? If so, you'll probably have more use of a stretcher
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by The5thMary:
Bleahhh! I'm third generation Irish and the least I've ever put on a potato is salt and pepper.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:

---

ArachnidinElmet: Round here we have the Westgate Run, a pub crawl on said road which, on last count, had 25 adjoining pubs and clubs. If you start at the bus stop at one end, and finish at the taxi rank at the other, the only place you need to stand and shiver is the doorway to the kebab shop. A coat does seems a bit pointless.

---

Doesn't a pub crawl involve having a pint at each of those pubs/clubs? If so, you'll probably have more use of a stretcher

---

quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
Not exactly England, but this article talks about some interesting place names on the Shetlands and the Orkneys.

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quote:

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Originally posted by churchgeek:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Thanks, The Midge.

A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.

Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?

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This is the oddest thing of all so far on this thread - the assumption that the US was once under British rule. The 13 original colonies make up only a tiny, tiny part of the US. Most of our country was never British.

But I'm sure this is just a variant on #13 from the OP. The map of North America seems to look rather different from that little island north of France.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
Not exactly England, but this article talks about some interesting place names on the Shetlands and the Orkneys.

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If the writer of that article was as interested in place-names as he claims to be, he'd know that while it's perfectly correct to refer to "The Shetlands", "The Orkneys" is wrong. It should be either just "Orkney" or "the Orkney Islands".

And before you ask, I've no idea why.

While I'm at it, how could an article poking fun at Orkney place-names not include this one?
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
(Link didn't work for me. Can someone else say if it works for them? Ta.)
 

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Posted by FooloftheShip (# 15579) on :
 
Works fine for me, Ariel.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Link works here when I clicked it just now.
 

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Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by piglet:

quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:
Not exactly England, but this article talks about some interesting place names on the Shetlands and the Orkneys.

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If the writer of that article was as interested in place-names as he claims to be, he'd know that while it's perfectly correct to refer to "The Shetlands", "The Orkneys" is wrong. It should be either just "Orkney" or "the Orkney Islands".

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quote:

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piglet: If the writer of that article was as interested in place-names as he claims to be, he'd know that while it's perfectly correct to refer to "The Shetlands", "The Orkneys" is wrong. It should be either just "Orkney" or "the Orkney Islands".

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quote:

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Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:
pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

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Think to do it, dear, and live! I couldn't have my Weetabix any other way -- and I'm not English!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mockingbird:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Midge:
I'm sure our American cousins would like a a nice big juicy target to discuss. How about these English eccentricities?
...
Perhaps you might be able to add some more.

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Place-names. "Upton Snodsbury?" "Horton-cum-Studley?"

I'll take "Okfuskee", "Tishomingo" and "Fishs Eddy" (without an apostrophe), thank you.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:

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Originally posted by The5thMary:
Bleahhh! I'm third generation Irish and the least I've ever put on a potato is salt and pepper.

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Do I assume that "third generation Irish" means "my grandparents were Irish" rather than "I am the third generation of my family to have been born in Ireland"?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
I am now going to have to go out and get some whole milk, and scald it, and leave it to cool so that I can have that lovely skin on my cereal. The memory of the flavour on my tongue is not enough.

And I am supposed to be losing weight.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
No, I'm in the UK. Some is homogenised. some not - you need to read the label at times when the cream is not visible. What I've now got is Channel Islands (cows not islands) unhomogenised, which gets a good layer of cream on top.

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I use Jersey Gold to make cheese, lovely thick cream, the milk is yellow
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Heavenly Anarchist:

quote:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
No, I'm in the UK. Some is homogenised. some not - you need to read the label at times when the cream is not visible. What I've now got is Channel Islands (cows not islands) unhomogenised, which gets a good layer of cream on top.

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I use Jersey Gold to make cheese, lovely thick cream, the milk is yellow

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quote:

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Originally posted by Eigon:
When I was a kid (UK), you could get milk as Sterra (sterilised) or Plain. The Plain tasted nicer, but varied from having a creamy top to being almost blue white and thin. Sterra kept longer.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariston:

Eating potatoes with everything.
Someone made a comment during dinner that one of the things they were looking forward to once they got back home to the States was meals without potatoes. People were shocked. "You mean, like only with chips?"

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quote:

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The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
You don't get potatoes with everything in the UK. Some things are served with pasta or rice (or include them automatically).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
You don't get potatoes with everything in the UK. Some things are served with pasta or rice (or include them automatically).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Gee D:
We remember having dinner at a West End restaurant, alleged to be Indian, and being served curries with rice, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas, as well as barely edible lamb and chicken. Had we gone to an Italian restaurant, we probably would have got spag bol with chips and yorkshire pudding.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Gee D:

quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
You don't get potatoes with everything in the UK. Some things are served with pasta or rice (or include them automatically).

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We remember having dinner at a West End restaurant, alleged to be Indian, and being served curries with rice, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas, as well as barely edible lamb and chicken. Had we gone to an Italian restaurant, we probably would have got spag bol with chips and yorkshire pudding.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Firenze:
... macaroni cheese with chips and curry sauce.

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There are days when I could really enjoy something like that...

...but the mac and cheese would have to be made with a gorgonzola and cream sauce, the chips would have to be hot and crisp and the curry sauce would have to have lots of onion and garlic and be fairly thick.

Yes, I know, at heart I'm a complete peasant.
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
Chip butties!
 

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
Never eaten anything like that in an actual curry house or Italian restaurant but say, lasagne and chips, is pretty standard fare in cafeterias up and down the country.
 

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Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:
Chip butties!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
I've never seen that in an Indian restaurant anywhere. However, it does remind me of the Chinese restaurant I ended up in out of desperation in central Cardiff some years ago, not having been able to find anywhere else that was open, which served a fairly limited menu, with the option of chips, and a fried egg. There were jam fritters for afters. The place seemed quite busy.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
... It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Enoch:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
... It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

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Why would anyone want to?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
In that case buy Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cooking".

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
In that case buy Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cooking".

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I've had that for years (one of the first recipe books I was given). I just don't always want to cook.

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That's the problems with Ms David. One would rather read her books than follow her recipes.
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
This one would rather use them to plan a gourmet holiday in Italy.
 

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Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
[QUOTE]In that case buy Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cooking". Start from ratatouille and move on from there. Find some interesting salads (there's no law which state that Salade Nicoise must include spuds) and stuff that aubergine (or courgette)! If the salad is simple have some good cheese, ham, sausage or fish too. It isn't difficult.

I won't thank you for iceberg lettuce or rocket though. Whoever decided rocket was food was having a laugh.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
The best things to eat in the UK (and especially cities with diverse ethnic populations) are usually from Indian restaurants. Being a Poor Student, my favourite is the vegetarian Indian (actually mostly vegan) place in Islington - £4 for all you can eat, all day, and delicious. I love their bhajis.

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If it is the one i'm thinking of (in the street with the market stalls, Upper Street I think) I'm surprised it is still there It was my place to eat when I was a nurse working and living in City Road over 20 years ago. I think it was £2.75 then.
 

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Posted by The Midge (# 2398) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
The best things to eat in the UK (and especially cities with diverse ethnic populations) are usually from Indian restaurants. Being a Poor Student, my favourite is the vegetarian Indian (actually mostly vegan) place in Islington - £4 for all you can eat, all day, and delicious. I love their bhajis.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:
Chip butties!

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

---

In that case buy Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cooking".

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Heavenly Anarchist:

quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
The best things to eat in the UK (and especially cities with diverse ethnic populations) are usually from Indian restaurants. Being a Poor Student, my favourite is the vegetarian Indian (actually mostly vegan) place in Islington - £4 for all you can eat, all day, and delicious. I love their bhajis.

---

If it is the one i'm thinking of (in the street with the market stalls, Upper Street I think) I'm surprised it is still there It was my place to eat when I was a nurse working and living in City Road over 20 years ago. I think it was £2.75 then.

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Yes it is the same one, in Chapel Market Was it covered in pro-vegetarianism posters then too? Love the posters inside the toilet cubicle doors.
 

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Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Thurible:

quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:
Chip butties!

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And superior to that, a scollop batch. Yum.

Thurible

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quote:

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Originally posted by Thurible:
Equating Nuneaton with Coventry?!

The thought of a scollop batch takes me back straightaway to waiting for the bus outside the Venus chippy on a Saturday evening, having been to see my auntie. Trying to convey to my Wiltshire born wife, and my Oxfordshire bred children, the joy of deep-fried, battered mashed potato in a bread roll is an uphill task but one with which I'll persevere.

Thurible

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
a Coventry word (from WW2 factory workers being paid in bread I believe) which spread to Nuneaton!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Thurible:

quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
a Coventry word (from WW2 factory workers being paid in bread I believe) which spread to Nuneaton!

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We Coventrians are very generous in sharing our civilisation.

Fishy Moores was a fine place. There's a fb group called "Memories of Coventry" which recently had photos of various eating establishments which brought a great wave of culinary nostalgia.

Thurible

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I am a member! Gosh, how verdant Broadgate used to be. I loved Fishy Moores, I used to eat there with my aunt after she took me swimming.

And it could have been worse, I could have brought Bedworth into the equation
 

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Posted by Thurible (# 3206) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
And it could have been worse, I could have brought Bedworth into the equation

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quote:

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Originally posted by ken:

quote:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

---

In that case buy Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cooking".

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It all depends on whether you have Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. If you don't, buy it first. If its the only book on food you ever buy. If you have to save up for it. Its just the best cookery book there is.

If you do have the Grigson already, then its the time to buy the David. And some of her other books as well.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

---

In that case buy Elizabeth David's "Mediterranean Cooking".

---

It all depends on whether you have Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. If you don't, buy it first. If its the only book on food you ever buy. If you have to save up for it. Its just the best cookery book there is.

If you do have the Grigson already, then its the time to buy the David. And some of her other books as well.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

Come to think of it, fruit malt loaf is another peculiarly English oddity, which probably hasn't translated across the waters in any direction.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:

Come to think of it, fruit malt loaf is another peculiarly English oddity,

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Love it!
 

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Posted by FooloftheShip (# 15579) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Thurible:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
a Coventry word (from WW2 factory workers being paid in bread I believe) which spread to Nuneaton!

---

We Coventrians are very generous in sharing our civilisation.

Fishy Moores was a fine place. There's a fb group called "Memories of Coventry" which recently had photos of various eating establishments which brought a great wave of culinary nostalgia.

Thurible

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by FooloftheShip:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Thurible:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
a Coventry word (from WW2 factory workers being paid in bread I believe) which spread to Nuneaton!

---

We Coventrians are very generous in sharing our civilisation.

Fishy Moores was a fine place. There's a fb group called "Memories of Coventry" which recently had photos of various eating establishments which brought a great wave of culinary nostalgia.

Thurible

---

Three Coventrians on the Ship? I thought the place belonged to the other side.....

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:
It's also horrendously expensive at £30 a head to get in. This must be the most expensive attraction in England.

Warwick is nice. If you want to arrange a meet outside the castle grounds, there could be takers if you start a thread in All Saints.

---

Warwick is a nice place. Just outside the castle, in fact practically in the castle grounds, is the racecourse and if you hurry there's a meeting today! You can get into the main enclosure for a lot less than you'll pay at the castle. You don't have to spend er waste money at the bookies - you usually get better odds on the favourites on the Tote

If you hadn't gathered already, I like a day at the races.

[ 11. July 2013, 12:02: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]
 

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Posted by Quinquireme (# 17384) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:
So, here's the ones that nobody's mentioned that, between my time living there and the Ship, always seem just...weird.

1. Thinking that nobody else, especially other Anglophones, understands irony
No matter how many Lenny Bruce clips we post, no matter how many really dumb British comics come and go (and find themselves on late night PBS reruns), no matter how many witty furriners they meet, only the British appreciate irony. It's like an iron law that no examples of someone being ironic (seriously, you won't even let the Belgians, who make their sarcasm a point of national identity, appreciate irony?) actually count.

2. Eating potatoes with everything.
Someone made a comment during dinner that one of the things they were looking forward to once they got back home to the States was meals without potatoes. People were shocked. "You mean, like only with chips?"

3. Insanely sweet and sticky deserts
They don't call it zuppa inglese for nothing: a gloopy, overly sweet mess of God-only-knows served with a side pitcher of cream: it's the classic English desert. Trifle, custard, or mess, there seems to be some lingering effect of sugar rationing on the English palate, and a need to make up for lost time.
3.5 The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
It's also horrendously expensive at £30 a head to get in. This must be the most expensive attraction in England.

Warwick is nice. If you want to arrange a meet outside the castle grounds, there could be takers if you start a thread in All Saints.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Quinquireme:
The Europeans and Americans have a coffee culture which we have enthusiastically imported, yet the coffee in those places is always spoilt by the milk.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
You don't get potatoes with everything in the UK. Some things are served with pasta or rice (or include them automatically).

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I know, but the principle's the same - heavy carbs. Bread is the other option that seems to be almost ubiquitous. It can be difficult to find a light lunch that doesn't involve wheat or potatoes.

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quote:

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Originally posted by PD:
My bad! Slightly different cuisine in the Viking Province of Lindsey.

Smoked fish, anyone?

PD

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quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:

quote:

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Originally posted by Quinquireme:
The Europeans and Americans have a coffee culture which we have enthusiastically imported, yet the coffee in those places is always spoilt by the milk.

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Leaving aside the obvious fact that we are Europeans too, it's only fellow-Brits (and maybe Americans, but if Starbucks is a guide they don't know anything about coffee either) who insist on drinking coffee with milk. They've enjoyed a delicious and multi-flavoured dinner and then, instead of a powerful and astringent espresso to round it off, drink some foamy nursery concoction which might as well be Ovaltine. In fact I think I prefer Ovaltine.

Maybe the continentals drink coffee black because their milk is so rubbish, but it means they appreciate coffee for what it is.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
Espresso is like poison. How anyone can drink it, I don't know.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
Espresso is like poison. How anyone can drink it, I don't know.

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It's coffee! If you don't like coffee, drink something else. I can't understand why people who don't like coffee try to drink it and disguise it as something else.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
That's what I drink if I must go to a branch of that large coffee vendor based in Seattle: it seems to be the only thing there that offers value for money! I get a tall with two shots topped off with regular coffee - they call it a "Red Eye", I think...

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How is that espresso? (Apart from the fact that espresso is the basis of most coffe concoctions).
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Espresso *is* normal coffee. The nearest you can get here to Greek-and-or-Turkish coffee. That is coffee and hot water. Just plain coffee.

The other drinks they keep on inventing these days are not so much coffee as coffee-flavoured puddings. Or so it seems. I've never actually been inside a Starbucks as far as I remember so I don't really know what they get up to in there.
 

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Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Angloid:
...it's only fellow-Brits (and maybe Americans, but if Starbucks is a guide they don't know anything about coffee either) who insist on drinking coffee with milk...

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
I like coffee. I've just never understood espresso. It's too strong and bitter, like normal coffee that's been left on a hot plate for hours on end.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
I like coffee. I've just never understood espresso. It's too strong and bitter, like normal coffee that's been left on a hot plate for hours on end.

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It's rough. But when americanos are too watery, as they often are, and there doesn't seem to be anything in between on offer, sometimes an espresso is good. If you really want to, you can dilute it to your own satisfaction.

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If it's rough you've got sub-standard coffee. Good espresso is supposed to be strong but smooth. Yes, it should give you a bit of a kick but that is a combination of heat, taste and caffeine. If you don't like that combination then you won't like espresso, even when it's made well with top-notch ingredients.
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Cafe-au-lait maybe for breakfast but at no other time.

Used to attend a church where a couple of dear ladies served "coffee" made with Camp coffee (!) and HOT milk
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
Even Miss Marple wouldn't stoop that low. But church is the last redoubt of 1950s style.
 

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Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Espresso *is* normal coffee. The nearest you can get here to Greek-and-or-Turkish coffee. That is coffee and hot water. Just plain coffee.

The other drinks they keep on inventing these days are not so much coffee as coffee-flavoured puddings. Or so it seems. I've never actually been inside a Starbucks as far as I remember so I don't really know what they get up to in there.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Carex:

quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:
...it's only fellow-Brits (and maybe Americans, but if Starbucks is a guide they don't know anything about coffee either) who insist on drinking coffee with milk...

---

What, you're ignoring the Canadians who get a double-double from Timmies?

(Or are you lumping them in with the Americans?)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by L'organist:

Used to attend a church where a couple of dear ladies served "coffee" made with Camp coffee (!) and HOT milk

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
I like coffee. I've just never understood espresso. It's too strong and bitter, like normal coffee that's been left on a hot plate for hours on end.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Evangeline:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Carex:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Angloid:
...it's only fellow-Brits (and maybe Americans, but if Starbucks is a guide they don't know anything about coffee either) who insist on drinking coffee with milk...

---

What, you're ignoring the Canadians who get a double-double from Timmies?

(Or are you lumping them in with the Americans?)

---

And the Australians of course. The Italians drink coffee with milk in the mornings, cappuccino is what you drink until lunchtime and I seem to recall that the French add hot milk to espresso at breakfast time.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by geroff:
As Tomb would tell you - espresso has less caffiene than many other coffees.
What I find bizarre is how some church ladies (both male and female) make coffee using a pan of hot milk which has been shown a jar of coffee.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:

Over here, people affect British mannerisms to make themselves seem higher class, more glamourous or colourful, and not because they're actually British.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
[I can identify. Growing up in Northern Ireland, the social elite tended to have English accents, while us peasants twanged and growled in the local patois. (Most despised was the urban version - 'thon one's tarrble Belfast').

It amazed me when I came to the mainland that everyone was posh.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Enoch:

quote:

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Originally posted by Firenze:
[I can identify. Growing up in Northern Ireland, the social elite tended to have English accents, while us peasants twanged and growled in the local patois. (Most despised was the urban version - 'thon one's tarrble Belfast').

It amazed me when I came to the mainland that everyone was posh.

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What! Even Cockneys, Scousers and the most extreme consonant free Glaswegian?

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Scousers are Irish anyway, the Scots ditto (see
1066 and All That) and it was a long time before I came across London. My early contacts were in and around Kidderminster and Luton.
 

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Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
I'm originally from Luton and am very amused at the 'posh' accent
The set below me in nurse training in late 1980s Luton had mainly Northern Irish and Irish girls in it and only a handful of English, the school of nursing used to run a recruitment drive in Dublin. Even the local paper had a pull out Irish section in those days.
 

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Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
Lu'h'on? Posh?

Luton's a strange place. I grew up near Bedford, but most people, when you say Bedfordshire, only know about Luton.

I presume it's the airport. Or the airpawh as it's known locally.

[ 17. July 2013, 11:01: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
 

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Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
Maybe the Irish in Luton are the posh ones?
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by PD:
Starbuck's of Birkenhead, who made trams/streetcars in the 1880s were far more useful to civilisation.

PD

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quote:

---

It amazed me when I came to the mainland that everyone was posh.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Maybe the Irish in Luton are the posh ones?

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Geordies have what is, to me, the most incomprehensible speech - I find Glaswegians easier to follow.

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Careful... my Dad was born in Jarrow and my Mum in Glasgow.! There were shipbuilders and railway engineers on both sides of the familly. With the odd builder and steelworker thrown in. And lovely accents the lot of them.
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
Despite having lived in Merseyside for more than half my life, I still find some scouse accents impenetrable! Though on reflection it might just be 'young-person-speak' which needs much attuning to wherever they are from. Shop assistants are the worst.
 

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Posted by Yam-pk (# 12791) on :
 
*tangent alert*

I just wonder if the whole regional accent thing died a death, whether that might mean we became a much more egalitarian society and snap judgements wouldn't be made whenever someone opens their trap...
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
It's not the regional thing, it's the class thing. RP is not regionally based (though obviously has its HQ in the south-east).
 

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Posted by Yam-pk (# 12791) on :
 
Regional accents are thought to denote what class/background a person comes from- to some extent anyway - surely?

[ 17. July 2013, 17:20: Message edited by: Yam-pk ]
 

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Posted by Ad Orientem (# 17574) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Yam-pk:
Regional accents are thought to denote what class/background a person comes from- to some extent anyway - surely?

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Ad Orientem:

quote:

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Originally posted by Yam-pk:
Regional accents are thought to denote what class/background a person comes from- to some extent anyway - surely?

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Of course. For instance if you have a Cockney accent then then it's assumed that you're working class.

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Originally posted by Ad Orientem:
Of course. For instance if you have a Cockney accent then then it's assumed that you're working class.

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Originally posted by Nicolemr:
How about English food names? Toad-in-the-hole, bubble-and-squeek, spotted dick? What's with that?

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
You don't get potatoes with everything in the UK. Some things are served with pasta or rice (or include them automatically).

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Originally posted by Angloid:
RP is not regionally based (though obviously has its HQ in the south-east).

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Originally posted by Penny S:
And I realised, as I tried mimicking both voiced, how like the upper class voice is to J S-P's very common one..

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Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
A most bizarre experience was being served chips with my lasagna at a now-defunct Italian restaurant in Fitzrovia. Italians catering for the English taste, I suppose.

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Originally posted by ken:
And all those accents - most of England, all of Australia, and almost all of north America - are more like each other than they are like Geordie. In accent terms Southampton and South Dakota and New South Wales are all more like each other than they are like South Shields.

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Originally posted by ken:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
And I realised, as I tried mimicking both voiced, how like the upper class voice is to J S-P's very common one..

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Well, yes. RP and cockney are pretty close to each other. And they are also close to East Anglian accents, south-eastern English AKA "Estuary", and Australian English as well. All those sorts of accents are more like each other than they are like midlands accents, or south-western accents, or General American (though maybe not some New England accents)

And all those accents - most of England, all of Australia, and almost all of north America - are more like each other than they are like Geordie. In accent terms Southampton and South Dakota and New South Wales are all more like each other than they are like South Shields.

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Any insights about the American-sounding West country accent.

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Originally posted by Jane R:
Some of the regional accents are merging with each other or dying out, others are being maintained. Yorkshire has a strong regional identity, so I'd say the Yorkshire accent/dialect is pretty safe for the foreseeable future.

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Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
A most bizarre experience was being served chips with my lasagna at a now-defunct Italian restaurant in Fitzrovia. Italians catering for the English taste, I suppose.

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Originally posted by Albertus:
And Hull is, or was, different again, isn't it? Alan Bennett, who I assume knows about these things, said that Tom Courtney played Billy Liar with a Hull accent although the film is set in the West Riding.

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Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
One of our favourite television programmes is Last of the Summer Wine. We like the characters and the way they speak, especially the late Compo. The local university has a television station and airs it almost every week!

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The use of "thee" and "tha" has almost disappeared...

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Originally posted by Penny S:
There's a piece in next week's Radio Times (UK BBC listings magazine) about a woman with a regional accent who not only has had the class assumption, but also an intelligence assumption - and a belief that she could not have been to university because she would have lost the accent.

There was a programme some years back about accents, and one very RP woman complained that a journalist with a pleasant and mild Edinburgh accent was incomprehensible. And Janet Street-Porter, who has a very not RP accent, recounted how she had been mobbed by a number of upper class snobs at a race meeting. And I realised, as I tried mimicking both voiced, how like the upper class voice is to J S-P's very common one.

The class thing is utterly, utterly bizarre.

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Originally posted by Penny S:

(I do like accents - I sort of hear them with my mouth, which goes directly into the sort of shape required to produce the sound - but I got banned from using them once by a Mancunian colleague who thought I was taking the michael by reciting Albert and the Lion. That sounds really, really weird in extreme RP!)

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Originally posted by Penny S:
ken, have you heard proper Sussex of late?

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... my parents, embued with the ethoses of Varndean and Lewes Girls' Grammar, ensured that I lost it again. and I can't "do" it at all. I can only hear a faint trace in memory.

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I don't even think the Coppers had it very obviously when I heard them at a folk club.

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:

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Originally posted by Penny S:
There's a piece in next week's Radio Times (UK BBC listings magazine) about a woman with a regional accent who not only has had the class assumption, but also an intelligence assumption - and a belief that she could not have been to university because she would have lost the accent.

There was a programme some years back about accents, and one very RP woman complained that a journalist with a pleasant and mild Edinburgh accent was incomprehensible. And Janet Street-Porter, who has a very not RP accent, recounted how she had been mobbed by a number of upper class snobs at a race meeting. And I realised, as I tried mimicking both voiced, how like the upper class voice is to J S-P's very common one.

The class thing is utterly, utterly bizarre.

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Was the woman from Birmingham or the Black Country by any chance?

I'm from Coventry and while the Coventry accent is distinct from the Birmingham accent thanks to the Forest of Arden, the 'stupid' stereotype surrounding West Midlands accents is very annoying.

East Midlands accents are very pleasant I find. Gok Wan sounds very Leicester to me still!

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Originally posted by Angloid:
As if Wordsworth would have spoken RP!

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Originally posted by Enoch:

I've wondered whether Gladstone sounded slightly scouse. I believe there is a very early recording somewhere of his voice as a very old man, but the quality of the recording (if it exists at all) is almost certainly too poor to be able to tell.

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Originally posted by Albertus:

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Originally posted by Penny S:

(I do like accents - I sort of hear them with my mouth, which goes directly into the sort of shape required to produce the sound - but I got banned from using them once by a Mancunian colleague who thought I was taking the michael by reciting Albert and the Lion. That sounds really, really weird in extreme RP!)

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I am now imagining it recited by Brian Sewell- and find it surprisingly easy to do so!

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My parents were both from Lancashire (Burnley and Oldham) and I love reading the Lion and Albert in a Lancastrian accent.
As a clinic nurse I picked up accents subconsciously whilst talking to patients, I'm guessing as an empathetic reaction. Now I teach I sometimes find myself reading students' essays with an accent in my head, no mean feat when I often have never met them in real life and just have their names and writing style to go on!
 

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Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 

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Originally posted by Angloid:

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Originally posted by Enoch:

I've wondered whether Gladstone sounded slightly scouse. I believe there is a very early recording somewhere of his voice as a very old man, but the quality of the recording (if it exists at all) is almost certainly too poor to be able to tell.

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By all accounts he did, if you can call the Liverpool accent of his day Scouse. It would certainly have had much more Lancashire in it than modern Scouse does. In a similar way Ken Dodd has a noticeably old fashioned, almost rural accent, compared to younger Liverpudlians.

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Originally posted by Heavenly Anarchist:
As a clinic nurse I picked up accents subconsciously whilst talking to patients, I'm guessing as an empathetic reaction. Now I teach I sometimes find myself reading students' essays with an accent in my head, no mean feat when I often have never met them in real life and just have their names and writing style to go on!

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Originally posted by Penny S:
And we aren't hairy primates.

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Well the previous Archbishop of Canterbury was.
 

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Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :
 
I am very suseptible to others accents - if I am in close proximity to anyone with a strong accent for a length of time I pick bits of it up.

I don't think I am in a subordinate position all the time. I always just thought I was a parrot...
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Zaccheus, I'm now very careful about that, since the Mancunian complaint, in case people think I'm mocking. But it happens.

What I particularly don't like about that habit, though, is the way I have picked up the Dar'fud version of estuary, while teaching. What with glo''al stops, dropped aitches, f's and v's instead of th's, and the way that some non initial l's can somehow morph into something like w (think "I'd like a li''w miwk in my tea") it is a particularly unattractive idiom. Unfortunately, the only other speech I have access to is the pale trace of a private school in Folkestone (which I almost wrote as Fowkstun), and if ken thought Varndean pretentious, I can't imagine what he would make of that.
 

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Posted by Sighthound (# 15185) on :
 
I have recently been reading a book about Disraeli, and it states that the then Earl of Derby spoke with a strong Lancastian accent,despite having been to Eton. Also Sir Robert Peel retained his regional accent.

Yet I have grave difficulty persuading some people that medieval nobles didn't do RP!
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

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Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
I am very suseptible to others accents - if I am in close proximity to anyone with a strong accent for a length of time I pick bits of it up.

I don't think I am in a subordinate position all the time. I always just thought I was a parrot...

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Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Speaking of green tea, how come it always tastes awful when I make it myself, but wonderful when I have it when eating out? Even Wagamama's free green tea is so much nicer than the stuff I make.

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Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:
There was an introduction to a 'What makes us human' series' on radio 2 the other day which suggested that some people who are musical may pick up other accents. I didn't hear the rest of the programme though, so can't elaborate.

I'm not in any danger of losing my fairly strong West Yorks accent, but do find it getting stronger after attending my housegroup, made up of other people with strong and similar accents.

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