Any culture shock?

One of the things that I find strange (not sure why, to be honest) is that people in the UK are *not* more polite than people in the US.  I'm not sure where this theory of mine began (probably from my hubby) but it has been a bit of a culture shock that people aren't overly-polite.  I come from the Southern US where people were extremely polite (Southern hospitality type mentality) so I've been sadly disappointed at how rude some people in the UK seem to be (i.e. bumping into you on the sidewalk, refusing to move their giant prams from the middle of the isle, etc.).

Also, I don't know if this is universal to all of the UK or just the area we live in...but the way people are always shouting at each other in hateful tones.  To me, this is highly disrespectful but around here, it just seems like a "normal" way of communicating.  Some of the tones I've heard kids speaking to their parents is quite shocking to me but the parents don't seem to mind.  They aren't even arguing with each other; it's just really nasty replies to simple questions.  Also cursing seems to be more acceptable here.  I've seen dozens of children (maybe around 10 or so) dropping the "F Bomb" all over the place and no one finds this strange...as I'm stood there with my jaw on the ground.  And it seems a lot of very underage kids are smoking in public also.  Like I said, not sure if that's everywhere or just around here.  Just a few shocking differences I've noticed.

One of the things that I find strange (not sure why, to be honest) is that people in the UK are *not* more polite than people in the US.  

There appears to be a mentality of being in your own world, among some British people,  which I didn't expect. I expected British people to be more introverted, but not to the point where it becomes rudeness, where you act like other people don't exist. For example, acting like you have no comprehension that another person is walking towards you so you should give them some space to get by, or putting your things down on the counter at the supermarket when the person in front of you still has their things on the counter, or bumping into someone and then walking on without saying Sorry.

aluminium and aluminum - 2 different spellings, two different pronunciations

aluminium is the international spelling in science. It was adopted to standardise the -ium spelling of metallic elements. It is unfortunate that American scientists continue with the -num spelling.

-ize is the standard spelling in the OED with -ise as a alternative spelling of -ize. Either form is usually correct here. In fact, -ize was used quite often here and only in recent decades has -ise has taken over here. So anyone here that states it is an Americanism is wrong. -ize is used here in most scientific writings.

Chemist/pharmacy - this is interesting because it used to be chemist pharmacy. For some reason the UK dropped the pharmacy and the US dropped the chemist.

The list goes on and on and on..

Yeah, I think that's where the problem lies.  It's the opposite of driving, and it's not something that's widely taught.  So some people might do the keep left thing, while others do the keep right.

Even the escalator thing isn't universally known.  I think that's why there are signs on most busy escalators.

I've never been aware of any particular etiquette for passing in the street.  It's just one of those things where you make an ad hoc decision which way to move based upon which side of the center line of the footpath you each happen to be, which way the other person looks as though he might be going, etc.    On crowded city streets, obviously if there's a clear division between pedestrians walking one way and pedestrians walking the other you head toward the "correct" side for your direction of travel, but there's no real convention which says that's the left or the right.  It's just however the flow happened to start and get split, and it might well be different on the same street at a different time of day.

Londoners are used to the idea of standing on the right on escalators, because the signs for that convention have been used on the Underground for decades.  But elsewhere it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as widely used.

aluminium is the international spelling in science. It was adopted to standardise the -ium spelling of metallic elements. It is unfortunate that American scientists continue with the -num spelling.

And the name originally suggested for the element when it was discovered in the early 19th century was neither aluminum nor aluminium, but alumium.

-ize is the standard spelling in the OED with -ise as a alternative spelling of -ize.  Either form is usually correct here. In fact, -ize was used quite often here and only in recent decades has -ise has taken over here.

In the 1930 King's English Dictionary the -ise forms had only just appeared as alternatives in the addendum.   

No. I am from New York City (population around 8 million) and live in York, England (population less than 200 thousand) and they walk right at you in York but never in New York.

They walk right at you in York even when you are the only two people in sight and you are both walking along a wide footpath. They don't walk right at you in New York even if you are walking in midtown Manhattan at lunchtime. So it's not a crowded city thing.

In the US though, people can get very aggressive even if you accidentally brush against them. Today some Londoner, huge guy, practically punched me in the arm as he slipped by me. Plenty of room on the pavement btw... Back in NYC, I've seen fist fights break out because someone touched another person on the pavement. If that guy happened to pop into the US, and if he *punched* someone like that on the street...

In the US though, people can get very aggressive even if you accidentally brush against them. Today some Londoner, huge guy, practically punched me in the arm as he slipped by me. Plenty of room on the pavement btw... Back in NYC, I've seen fist fights break out because someone touched another person on the pavement. If that guy happened to pop into the US, and if he *punched* someone like that on the street...

This is true. It's the same with inconsiderate behaviour in general. In the US if, for example, someone were to pile their stuff on top of someone else's at a checkout counter, there would be a very loud verbal exchange. Whereas, in the UK, there would just be some eyerolling and muttering under the breath.  Which is why, I think, that there is more of this type of rude behaviour in the UK - there's less of a risk of being involved in an altercation because of it.

I've never been aware of any particular etiquette for passing in the street.  It's just one of those things where you make an ad hoc decision which way to move based upon which side of the center line of the footpath you each happen to be, which way the other person looks as though he might be going, etc. 

The difference is, in the US, you don't wait until the person is ready to pass you before you decide which way to move. As soon as you notice that someone is eventually going to pass you, you automatically move to one side or the other, and they do the same, even if they are all the way at the other end of the street, so that by the time you actually pass each other you are already out of each other's way and don't have to think about which way to move. Similar if someone is walking behind you - you automatically move to one side in case they want to pass you.  And if you are walking side by side with someone and someone is behind you, you and the person you are with change to walking single file so the person behind you can get past.


Another thing that I found shocking is the drinking culture in the UK - I don't mean binge drinking, but the way so many British people seem to be incapable of socialising in any way unless they are drinking alcohol.

I've never been aware of any particular etiquette for passing in the street.  It's just one of those things where you make an ad hoc decision which way to move based upon which side of the center line of the footpath you each happen to be, which way the other person looks as though he might be going, etc.    On crowded city streets, obviously if there's a clear division between pedestrians walking one way and pedestrians walking the other you head toward the "correct" side for your direction of travel, but there's no real convention which says that's the left or the right.  It's just however the flow happened to start and get split, and it might well be different on the same street at a different time of day.

Londoners are used to the idea of standing on the right on escalators, because the signs for that convention have been used on the Underground for decades.  But elsewhere it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as widely used.


And the name originally suggested for the element when it was discovered in the early 19th century was neither aluminum nor aluminium, but alumium.

In the 1930 King's English Dictionary the -ise forms had only just appeared as alternatives in the addendum.   

[MOD NOTE]

OK, All British people and others who might be easily offended about what people found difficult when they first moved here.  This is a thread about people's personal experiences of culture shock. There are no right and wrong answers here.  What someone is upset by (such as sweetcorn on pizza) somebody else might not be. And a person who is an outsider is sure to notice things that a person who has always lived here or has lived here a very long time might not.  It's not necessary or appreciated to try to 'set somebody right'.  Any person who might be feeling sensitive or might not want to hear about other people's culture shock is advised very strongly to ignore this thread. 
If you'd like to start threads elsewhere on some of the topics raised in this thread then feel free.  I, myself might start a thread in  Just Do It about how to walk down a street because I have finally mastered it after 20 years.

Otherwise, your options are ignore it or grin and bear it.  OK?  OK.

Questions or comments, PM me.

And they treat 'em like they're driving tanks or something!  I was walking along talking on my mobile and some woman with a rugrat in a huge pram came up from behind me (didn't see her coming so as to move out of the way of that tank) - bumped into me with her pram, ran over my foot with the pram, and then acted all agitated (at ME!  ) because her baby's dummy went flying up into the air and across the sidewalk pavement.  WTF?!  At least I had the satisfaction of saying on the telephone (I was on the phone!) - 'Right, sorry there.  Some numpty just ran into me with a pram.' 

I had a rather rude woman ram me with her pram once and I turned around and gave her the nastiest look and said "do you mind?" and she immediately backed off. The thing that gets me is that they're pushing their kid into you. What if they harmed the kid? Silly people.

And when it comes to having people bump into you, I don't get it as much as I did when I first moved here. I think I must have figured out what the secret way of walking in the UK is but every once in a while I can see that someone is going to play chicken with me and I now hold my ground and brace my shoulder for impact. I ain't no pushover. (although I can't really go about doing that now with the babies).

And they treat 'em like they're driving tanks or something!  I was walking along talking on my mobile and some woman with a rugrat in a huge pram came up from behind me (didn't see her coming so as to move out of the way of that tank) - bumped into me with her pram, ran over my foot with the pram, and then acted all agitated (at ME!  ) because her baby's dummy went flying up into the air and across the sidewalk pavement.  WTF?!  At least I had the satisfaction of saying on the telephone (I was on the phone!) - 'Right, sorry there.  Some numpty just ran into me with a pram.'  

I think I saw it all yesterday. DH had finished the marathon and we're hobbling back towards the city centre (well, he's hobbling) and I hear this 'ding ding' behind us, like a bell on a bike. I turn around and it's these people with a bell on their pram!!! What!? Sorry, if you want to push that giant thing around, you need to be able to manouver (sp?) it around the crowds, not ring your little bell so we get out of your way!

I think I saw it all yesterday. DH had finished the marathon and we're hobbling back towards the city centre (well, he's hobbling) and I hear this 'ding ding' behind us, like a bell on a bike. I turn around and it's these people with a bell on their pram!!! What!? Sorry, if you want to push that giant thing around, you need to be able to manouver (sp?) it around the crowds, not ring your little bell so we get out of your way!

OMG.  I would have laughed right in their faces.  A bell on the pram! 

I think I saw it all yesterday. DH had finished the marathon and we're hobbling back towards the city centre (well, he's hobbling) and I hear this 'ding ding' behind us, like a bell on a bike. I turn around and it's these people with a bell on their pram!!! What!? Sorry, if you want to push that giant thing around, you need to be able to manouver (sp?) it around the crowds, not ring your little bell so we get out of your way!

LMAO! At least it wasn't a horn. 

[MOD NOTE]

 And a person who is an outsider is sure to notice things that a person who has always lived here or has lived here a very long time might not.  It's not necessary or appreciated to try to 'set somebody right'.  Any person who might be feeling sensitive or might not want to hear about other people's culture shock is advised very strongly to ignore this thread. 
If you'd like to start threads elsewhere on some of the topics raised in this thread then feel free.  I, myself might start a thread in  Just Do It about how to walk down a street because I have finally mastered it after 20 years.

Yes. The point is that these things were shocking to us when we first moved here because they were different from what we were used to and we had to learn how to deal with them.
I'm sure British people moving to the US are shocked by some things that I wouldn't even notice.

OMG.  I would have laughed right in their faces.  A bell on the pram! 

LMAO! At least it wasn't a horn. 

It was also a guy pushing the pram with his wife walking next to him. Pretty sure he was the bell ringer! Ha!

I am generally shocked by the daily body checking while just walking down the street. 

I'm also really shocked by people who try to correct or flat out mock my accent.

Another real surprise was just how different sodas tasted.  The first time I drank a regular coca cola here, I was convinced the can had somehow gone off!  It took an embarassingly long time to realize that the mixes are slightly different country to country.  My friend and I then decided to do a european compare and contrast, and checked the country of origin on all bottles/cans and people thought we were really weird. 

The real shocker?  Cheerios.  I bought what I thought were plain "Cheerios - Oats" thinking they'd be my trusty yellow-box version from home.  But no!  They're lightly sweetend.  This is probably not that big a deal to someone who isn't obsessed with the oaty goodness of Cheerios.   

Another real surprise was just how different sodas tasted.  The first time I drank a regular coca cola here, I was convinced the can had somehow gone off!  It took an embarassingly long time to realize that the mixes are slightly different country to country.

The main difference is that the US formula uses high fructose corn syrup and I think everywhere or almost everywhere else uses sugar. Apparently in the US you can buy the Mexican version in some shops and it tastes different to what you'll buy in the next shop because of that.