American? 12 things you should know about the UK 

And I cannot believe that this is unique to the UK. It just cannot be. Isn't it how the world goes round?

Post office = heads, Royal Mail = tails, different sides of the same coin

I would say the word is something like "'S'ah'R" - which can sound like "sorry" or "that's all right"! One person will say it, and another will reply with it!

Haha!

You’re a true Brit! 👏

Very important to remember that all tourists and visitors have freedom to walk line abreast, take up all of the path/pavement etc. and force people coming the other way into the traffic/off the cliff edge etc. Also with dogs on string.

@@etherealbolweevil6268 😅😅😅😅

True.

No hail here, but about the same 😅

Standing order is YOU arranging to PAY a fixed amount from your account. Direct Debit is giving a COMPANY permission to TAKE money from your account.

May I have.......

May i have

Always may I have ...

A company can change the amount of a direct debit but they must inform you before doing so.

They have to tell you when they are changing the amount and you can stop it. From Which:"Are direct debits safe? Usually, you have to sign a direct debit form, although some companies are authorised to set up direct debits over the phone. If that sounds a little risky, remember that the company must have obtained the bank account details from you and that you are protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee In order to be an approved company, the beneficiaries of direct debits are subjected to careful vetting procedures and, once approved, they're required to give indemnity guarantees through their banks. The Direct Debit Guarantee applies to all banks and building societies taking part in the direct debit scheme. It states that your bank should refund disputed payments without question, pending further investigation. It says that: -if there is a change in the amount to be paid on the payment date, the person receiving the payment (the originator) must notify you in advance -if the originator or the bank/building society makes an error, then you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund of the amount paid you can cancel a direct debit at any time by contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. You should also notify the organisation. "

Indeed

How fascinating! Thank you 🙏

The best bit was that the queue had another queue to get into it.

@@andyonions7864 Even more British!

Completely agree. Unique is an absolute. Something either is, or isn't, unique. There are no degrees of uniqueness. In the same way you can't be "slightly pregnant" or "a little bit dead".

Quite…. use of redundant words is so common by Americans and if they don’t know a word - they make one up.

@@ChrisJ144 To be fair you can't listen to Radio 4 for long before hearing "very unique"

​@@ChrisJ144Like burglarized when it should be burgled.

@@mikejarvis7304 it’s interesting that you say this but also used the word “uniqueness”. How would you use this word if there are no degrees to uniqueness? Nothing is truly unique, and in reality nothing is absolute either. There are degrees to everything, including “uniqueness”

It is not owned by the government, it is a quango to milk money off to the elite

I've heard a lot of Americans asking the server 'Can I get'. Are they literally going to jump over the counter and get the item themselves !!!!! I have now heard my grandson saying this and he is British. He has obviously been watching too much American television programmes.

@@anitawhite2669Absolutely! You’re spot on there. ‘Can I get’ drives me mad! It’s SO rude. My mother (rightly) dinned into me and my brother as we were growing up ‘please may I have’ and boy, did we receive a sharp rebuke if we even said ‘can I have.’ Good manners are not an optional thing; they are essential for the smooth running of society.

@@anitawhite2669 Or too many🙂

@@albertsmyth9616 It used to be that "can I" meant "am I physically able to", whereas "may I" meant "am I allowed to" (or "please help me to"). To the extent that some people, if you said "can I", would reply "I don't know: can you?"

A standing order is set up by the account holder and can be made out to anyone as payee. Direct Debit can be fixed or variable, but can only be paid out by the payees request, and you have option to cancel at anytime, usually both Bank and payee need notification of cancellation.

A Standing Order is what you can set up yourself, so 'you' are in charge of what and how much you want to pay each month. ~A Direct Debit is set up by a company and they can control of how much you pay each month

@@anitawhite2669 pretty much what I said

@stephenlee5929 - You have more control over Standing Orders.

@@cathyrussell7157 true, but you have greater protection with dds. If payment fails, or is not requested it is the recipient who is responsible not the payer as with standing orders

@robertobrien5709 - She wasn't totally correct about some things, but pretty right about most things.

You have a UTR for tax. You’re probably not aware of it.

No the NI number is to cover work related ID for Work and Social Benefits, I.e Tax deductions, National Insurance deductions, Graduated Pension deductions then when needed Sick Pay, Unemployment Benefit, State Pension. But most of all so that your communications with Inland Revenue, Department for Work and Pensions, and Your Local Council for and if Needed Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. Just your ID so all those Government departments can collaborate any and all payments to or from yourself. All these government departments have to collaborate the information else you'd never get your state pension. And there's probably a lot more I've forgotten about.

Thank you, I will

That would have been a sight!

I have read that coffee is taking over here, but for me it will always be tea first!

@@HipOverFifty I'm the other way round, I never really got on with tea for some reason - though no idea why. Always preferred a cold drink as a kid and Coffee as an adult. To each their own.

@@alanmusicman3385 I've got a couple of friends who don't drink black tea and one who barely dunks the bag... so you're not alone!

Over 16.

You have a Child Reference Number before 16...your national Insurance Number is sent to you usually a few months before your 16, but you don't have an NI number at birth...

True but in the USA it's used constantly, e.g. to get a 'phone installed. I very rarely use my Nat. Insurance number.

@@digidol52 OK, good point. I just happen to remember my NI number, so maybe think it's used more often than it actually is.

And they're trying to phase that out as well, then only delivering once every 2-3 days, stopping Saturday deliveries, gone are the days of an efficient twice daily postal service, they are only now concerned with bosses that can teach their replacement bosses how to be corrupt.

@@Tony-c7z9t True and the days of 5 daily deliveries are also a thing of the past (Victorian era). I don't think teaching replacements to be corrupt will be required. Like most privatised UK services, it performs less well than it used to at an inflated price. But My point still stands that the service offered the US First Class mail more closely resembles the UK 2nd class and is close in price.

@@stephenlee5929 ah but does it match up when the extra distance to travel is taken into account of the size of population?

@@Tony-c7z9t No, I was responding to the point made in the video, that UK mail charges were higher than Americans might expect. And she compared UK 1 day service with US 6-8 day service on price. I was merely pointing out that the UK 3-4 day service was a closer match on service and price. I don't know if US supplies a single state service (which I figure might be close to an equivalent to the UK mail, and if so what price that might be.

@@Tony-c7z9t Good point, bigger population = more posties so it should get there sooner.

Afraid it's mostly true, manners aren't taught early!

We say garden not yard, and handbag not purse.

Though there's a restriction on age of the vehicle: I forget which way round it is, but I think you can't put a plate on a car older … - part of the reason for adding date to them was to prevent people claiming a car was newer than it was.

It always amazes me how these strangers to our ways do these vids and get everything so wrong, are we really that complex.

On the whole, we don't park _up_ , we just park. (What does the "up" mean - would "park down" mean anything?) Similarly, we just meet people, rather than meeting _up with_ them. (On the other hand, we write _to_ people, whereas US just write them. "My mother" - there, I just wrote my mother. [Or typed it of course!])

@@G6JPG "On the whole"? So what do "we" do in the other, less usual cases?

@@garlichr I meant I have heard British people say "park up", it's just not as common as just "park". American English inserts the little words like "up" a lot more than British English. Neither is wrong, they're just different.

@@G6JPGvery true 😃

Yes, but Canada is not part of the United States

More like Americans don't like being called North Americans.

I’d have to agree and same is true for here!

True, most people don't know that and only realise it when they need to visit a doctor or get a letter from the NHS. Whilst my parent's probably knew I didn't know my number until my work required me to get inoculated for overseas travel. Then I wasn't aware of the change to the new system until later years. In between times my National Insurance Number was sufficient.

Funny people do that. Some small crowds can grow, attracting more nosey people ending in accidents and disorder. Crowds are single cell organisms almost.

@@fredeagle3912 I think you mean crowds are multi-celled entity's with the mindset of a single cell, then yes 100% agree.

@@fredeagle3912 but they do act in unison though

I've always known my National Health Number, as I had a card with it on from childhood. It was a four letter, two number code. I discovered two years ago, at the age of 67, that the NHS had at some point introduced another ten-digit code which nobody had ever told me about. Don't you just love bureaucracy?

@@davidjones332 Ditto

@lindakirk698 - There's a growing pressure to get rid of cash. A cashless society would be a dangerous thing.

Wouldn’t know, but yeah, that sounds about right!

A car when first registered is allocated a registration, which can be changed to a personlised plate. Take that plate off and it reverts to allocated registration.

@@Brian3989yep…that is correct but….she never said that? What she never said was private numbers are available & you are narked cos you can’t get one pmsl

As an American accented person, I have to be careful what I say but yes, I appreciate the eccentricity and uniqueness …not the very uniqueness just the uniqueness of British culture 😃

@@HipOverFifty Well glad you're here. All the best.

The Victorians pretty much wrote the book on capitalism - so much so they inspired Karl Marx. Even they understood it had be a not-for-profit, state monopoly.

@@ethelmini yeah but they forgot to account for the possibility of corrupt heads of the monopoly

NHS was founded in 1948, so I guess it depends on when you left. I was on there but born after ‘48!

I said it’s like a direct debit so that Americans could understand the process. I understand it’s different But they both come directly out of your checking account!

@@HipOverFiftyWe don’t have checking accounts either. We (increasingly rarely) write cheques from our current accounts.

They both have very different processes, they are not the same thing.

A marquis (pronounced mar-KEY) is the French translation and equivalent for the British title of marquess (pronounced MAR-kwess). The standard British pronunciation of a French Marquis is also MAR-kwess.

Google it

Could be because I am both British and American!

England, the central belt of Scotland and parts of Wales are very densely populated; most of the land is not pan-flat, empty prairie so parking space is pretty restricted! (Also councils are rapacious in money grabbing to add to their big, fat, index-linked pensions)

You can give your car park ticket to someone else if there's time left on it and your car registration number isn't on it. I was recently given one by someone and then passed it on to someone else after I'd used it!

@@Lily_The_Pink972 Whenever that happens it feels like Christmas.

There are private, chargeable car parks too eg ncp and paying to park on street

Or Sir. Or in Brian May's case both Sir and Doctor

And reverend or any other ecclesiastical titles.

I'm 67 my NHS number has never changed

"MAR-kwiss". What's wrong with aclimated, did her use of the word result in you not understanding what she said?

​@@boomshanka8743There is no such word in the English language. It is a "slang" word of dubious origin

Oh definitely some will be quite happy to chat away but they’re the minority I feel.

I think it’s very variable regionally with the South tending to be less so than the North. And some individual cities are a whole different world - eg my wife (from Surrey) found a shopping trip to Glasgow from my home town (Ayr) a revelation. I don’t think she’d ever been addressed by so many strangers in a single day in her life, including two women who saw her looking at tops is a shop and decided it would be a good idea to have a discussion with her about which ones would suit her best!

I know exactly what you mean!

😆

I’m with you there!

You have to give the RM credit where due … I’m getting terrible about remembering birthday cards so well done!

Depends how busy it is on certain days.When letters ran into millions every day they used to store the 2nd class for 2 days or so and concentrate on the 1st class.Nowadays if it's quite,I suspect they just shove them through the network.

its fine

Or maybe acquire some manners and say thank you to her for supplying you with free entertainment before demanding improvement maybe that might be better than complaining?

@@JacknVictor at least they said 'please'

We think those things because they are true.

Lived in a range of area's in UK in my 50 + years, London, Devon, Essex to name a few. Live up north now and Leeds and York are great places, also lived by the coast litreally we have great beaches. Where are you from exactly to make these observations, seems to me your talking out your arse.

I agree. We have some beautiful beaches, especially in the North. Down South some of them are rather pebbly. Without any irony, Britain has some of the most beautiful and historic cities in the world, York, Durham, Carlisle, Lancaster, Edinburgh, Inverness, Nottingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Stratford upon Avon, Bath, Exeter, Chichester, Cheltenham, Chester, Winchester, Windsor, Caernarfon, Norwich, Cambridge, Ipswich, Ely and that's only those that I've been to personally.

We don't think fish and chips is good tasting food because we speak proper English.