Weird British Habits | Things I will never understand about the British! | Confusing British things 

The weather? We know it's summer in the North of England because the rain gets warmer.

The weather complaining is really just small talk, not meant seriously

Who’s watching this in January 2020 thinking girlllll I bet you regret saying “it’s only rained twice” 😂😂😂

“Stiff upper lip” refers to us being Stoic in the face of adversity.

We talk about the "Weather" to avoid talking about sensitive or private things

Without having the weather to talk, complain about, us Brits would not talk to each other.

A stiff upper lip means not complaining and being brave in the face of adversity..just get on with it ..the British way

For the accents, if it helps, remember that it was only the Victorian railways that synchronised time across the country. People just didn’t travel any distance before that if they weren’t rich. So there were a huge number of isolated communities, which developed their own dialect. Where I’m from in Yorkshire, you can practically tell which town someone is from, by their accent, within a very small distance

bonfire night celebrates the failure of the event and not the event

Okay, the two taps! It's not a case of having to keep moving your hands from one stream of water to the other to wash them. It works like this.... The taps hang over a thing called a basin. At the bottom of the basin is the plug hole. Put the plug in the plug hole and then turn on the taps. Notice how the water doesn't disappear... it stays in the basin, and you can make it as warm or as cold as you want. You now have a whole basin of water in which you can wash your hands. Notice also how you aren't wasting water and money by having all your water going straight down the aforementioned plughole while you use just a teeny a tiny amount of the running water to wash your hands. Cost effective, ecologically sound and you don't have to rush. Try it, it works a treat.

No-one actually cares much about the weather- it’s simply a non-personal / non-offensive conversation opener, as we find say, an American “Hello!” A bit direct. It allows pleasantries to be exchanged with strangers as well as familiars. It allows a moan. The British bond with a good grumble. Not really sure wia spot on observation

"Remember, remember the 5th of November. Gunpowder, treason, and plot."

We don’t have weird habits, it’s the rest of the world that weird😉😉

"so, are you celebrating the fact he tried to blow up parliament, or the fact that he failed?" "yes" "....okay but which one?" "shhhh... just enjoy the pretty lights"

I don't think most of us Brits mind the weather. We just like to joke about it self-deprecatingly cos that's our style of humour. It's like an inside joke for the whole of the UK to take the piss out of our weather even though it's not that bad.

“Stiff upper lip” It’s about being strong in the face of adversity, we don’t bottle things up

I'm a simple man. Someone mentioned Red Dwarf. I like and subscribe.

Stiff upper lip means maintain your dignity in the face of adversity. A fine British trait. As opposed to falling apart in the face of adversity.

"I never see Northern Ireland making a fuss."

Accents simply arise from isolation. Before the start of the industrial revolution most people would not have travelled outside the community into which they were born. Since the majority had no means of transport other than walking and no 'time off' from their daily labours they were, by and large, limited to the distance they could cover in a single day's return trip---probably a range no more than 10-15 miles across rough ground--just enough to reach the next village or market town to sell any excess produce. America has a different accent from Britain (if we could settle on a single representative accent for Britain) for a few reasons. Firstly, settlers did not come to North America only from Britain but from many different countries so the country was not 100% anglophone in the first place and this continued as they welcomed immigrants from around the world. Secondly, the British settlers arrived with a whole range of different accents but were then pushed together in new settlements and pretty much averaged out the differences over a couple of generations. Thirdly, the American population was, for all practical purposes, cut off from the British mainstream by distance so in many cases continued usages that are now archaic in British English. In fact many of the terms that seem characteristically American, such as using 'fall' instead of 'autumn' were actually in common use in British English at the point that the settlers left but changed later in Britain while our American cousins continued the older usage. Another case in point is the use of 'gotten' --common in #american English but now totally lost in mainstream British English (other than in one or two specific phrases such as 'ill gotten gains'). I'd guess that similar things happened in Australia; isolation from the mother tongue, a particular mix of accents among the earliest settlers and the blending within communities as diverse accents rubbed together to come to a common mean.

I think that your experience with the Welsh being particularly loud and proud about their nationality is because Wales is so often forgotten as a country. Foreigners often think that UK, Britain and even England are the same thing by different names. Many will have heard of Scotland because of historical characters like Robert the Bruce, and more modern stories like Harry Potter and Highlander. Ireland is also known (although often Ireland and Northern Ireland are confused) again because of history, and also because of GoT. In all of this, Wales is often forgotten about and the Welsh want to draw our attention to their own identity. The same is often true about New Zealanders who are very proud of their nationality, particularly when people consider them to just be Australians.

It is on the 5 th of November. We are celebrating that he got caught and killed. And more often people make like wood figure of him and burn them on the fire

10 months of good weather in the UK? Hahahahahahahaha, just you wait :)

Accents change every 25 miles in the UK.

Traditionally Guy Fawkes goes on top of the bonfire, so we are not celebrating him. lol

Most irritating thing about accents is that they are frequently used to determine your social status and perceived educational attainment. The thickest Londoner will probably think he is cleverer than a professor with a northern accent.

Welsh hate the English cause they say they were chased into a corner of Britain! I was married to a welsh man and got his welsh history every single day and notice I said was married lol

I live in the south coast. I count everything as North....

I'm Australian and we have two taps not one. Quite common in Australia.

As an Australian you may objectively notice English self loathing. whereby English people compare themselves unfavorably with other nations and nationalities and always find us wanting. This always annoys the he'll out of me about my fellow English. The English are definitely not allowed to be proud of our nation and culture which these people deny even exists. This whole Brexit thing has been a festival of English self loathing. The weather thing is a case in point you've been told the weather is always bad and it really isn't. But you can get summer's when all it does is seem to rain. You can also get summer's when it hardly rains at all and we run out of water. So the weather can be changeable but on the whole we have very mild weather. But when the sun shines its glorious. I think this is a very nice little channel you have here well done.

Bonfire night is on the 5th November (which happens to be today), it's sometimes referred to as Guy Fawkes night but most call it Bonfire Night. It's to celebrate the failed attempt to blow up Parliament. Guy Fawkes (whose full name was Guido Fawkes), hid a load of barrels of gunpowder underneath the Parliament building and was caught before he could set it off. So once a year communities get together to burn an effigy of him on bonfires, set off fireworks and eat and drink as a community.

Is it just me or is the whole tap thing an emotional thing, like depending on my mood I will just use one tap and either scold or freeze my hands, no big deal.

Oh dear, Bonfire Night (5th November as you've probably been told umpteen times already 😂) is not celebrating his ATTEMPT we're celebrating his FAILURE to blow up Parliament, hence why we burn his effigy on the bonfire. Also V for Vendetta is nothing to do with Guy Fawkes except that the character wears a Guy Fawkes mask. Also the constant flag waving of Wales and Scotland is down to their insecurities of being dependent on England's economy as their own can't support them as their populations are too small so they over compensate 🙄😁👍 P. S. I'm already anticipating the hate 🤷‍♀️

Accents and other languages. The reason why we have different accents is the bloody foreigners kept turning up. First there stone people (archaeologists recon at least 3 waves, each with different burial practices), then several Bronze age peoples. Then the Celts (possibly from the south of France) who spread all over England and Wales (the world is Old English for foreigner. See I told you they were everywhere.) North of the Border (them that is try to leave), you have the Caledonians and Picts ( Painted Ones). But that division is probably a Roman invention. Then the Romans (modern pronunciation Womans, vice Monty Python). King Arthur became the Roman-British. And here comes the fun but only in a Dark sense. You have Angles (because they angled to the North East and East Anglia (guess why that is so called), Jutes (Kent) and Saxons (named after a really nasty knife) , who settled in Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons), Essex (where the stupid ones were exiled) and various minor tribal people of each. Its very messy. Result of which some Romano British decided to set in Gaul (Brittany), A tradition followed on since. Hibernia (Ireland) you have the Irish raiding and settling in the North West, Sheep-shagger (Wales) country and the West Country (explains a lot of practices down there). The Scots from Ireland (its not confusing) land in Caledonia and turned them into the bloody Scots (see not confusing at all). Various Anglo (but not British) - Saxon Kings later the Scandinavians or Norse came selling Abba records, Duvets and having a really nasty attitude to ownership. The Vikings had arrived. These people raided and settled in the isles of Scotland, northern England on both sides and the Irish (in Ireland not Scotland, although see above). Founded Dublin as a bit of an afterthought. Also the Danes, who, after the Saxons had unified England, including Cornwall (more on that later) divided the country into two. The north became the Danelaw. The south became a place where kings could burn cakes so becoming Great. Anyway, vast amounts of bloodshed. But the country was united again. Huzzah! (Apart from Cornwall which we allowed to have its own language otherwise they would have cried. They also had some very Silly Isles.) Finally the Normans (Norse, who were bad spellers) arrived under William the Bastard ( Because 1. He really was and 2. He is really, really was). Took over, wrote a book called the Domesday Book (should be Doomsday. See, they cannot spell). Also invaded Ireland so they could become Pale. Look to up. That's what the internet is there for. The other Normans went off and invaded other places such as Italy, Sicily (owned at the time by Don Mafiosa), Byzantine (but gave it up because it was too complicated) and other places but all those don't concern us. So you should have read that part. I am not your teacher, there is to be no test so you can all start breathing again. So everything clear so far? Good. Because that is the end of the Invasions of Britain. During the Middle Ages (so called because everybody was a bit tired (like your middle aged parents) of all this coming over here setting up a nice little farm, getting to know the neighbours, even if they are a bit strange not from around here. On no, it was time the English, Welsh, Scots and any other foreigners who liked a bit of gardening and a nice cup of tea, showed the real foreigners (apart from those who lived in the West Country (who really did come from Mars, probably) what it really felt like to be invaded. Cue the 100 years War, 7 Years War, Napoleonic Wars, War of 1812, The British Empire (You at the back, why aren't you saluting, Yes you Australians too. If it wasn't for us you wouldn't have a country to go strewth in and call everybody Bruce and Sheila.) The Empire also gave us an excuse to steal lots of words from Johnny Foreigner. We had no jungles in Britain being civilised. Also anything else we have is for safekeeping. Got that. The French had a bit of a Religious War and so the Huguenots fled France, settled here and gave us some strange words ('we surrender', 'here's a weapon. only been dropped once' and so forth). Some Dutch came over in the 17th century to help drains parts of the Fens (because it is a marsh and the both words almost mean the same thing. (Look, English is simple, sensible and does not have any words that mean the some thing. Unlike those other languages wot I've heard about.) Anyway that gave some words as well. So the reason why we have so many accents is simply explained above. Everybody who came here had their own language but they melded into one (apart from the bloody Welsh with their Cymric and them tossers north of the Border with their Gaelic. The more complicated reason is that the bastards who lived 2 minutes down the road and refuses to give back our kettle what our aunt Edith lent them last Michealmas, could not be bothered to learn how to speech correctly. I.e. how we spoked it. Incidentally (and really) it was not up until the mass us of TV, that 'English' really became a language used throughout the British Isles. It was easier for a Yorkshireman to speak to a Frisian (a person from the island of the north coast of Holland than it was for the Yorkshireman to speak to some body in the home counties. Right, everybody is clear why there are so many accents? Good.

If you see how Parliament is performing now, you'd realise why Guy Fawkes is so popular!

If you are 'direct' to a Northerner, I guarantee that they will be 'direct' back.

Guy Fawkes was the last man to enter parliament with honest intentions in his heart!

"Please to remember, the 5th of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason, why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot." It's celebrating his failure and execution - the guy is put on the bonfire and burnt! Nothing to do with V for Vendetta that just expropriated some of the iconography.

As a foreigner living in UK, I find the various accents intriguing and funny.Water is ' War- Ah', esp. in Manchester. Baby is ' BAy...bear'

I don't think we Brits necessarily hate British weather. We just hate weather in general. Too hot - too cold. Either way we'll complain about it, because reasons.

Your fellow Aussie, Shane Warne, recently described the British weather as "9 months of bad weather and 3 months of winter".

It`s not bottling it up, it`s just not wanting to burden someone else with your own problems. It`s a kind of misplaced courtesy. I wouldn`t say we`re any crazier than people who projectile emote constantly....you know who you are.

Late to the party on this one, I know. The reason we have separate taps is because the cold water is supplied directly by the mains. It is a safe ‘potable’ water source, the hot water is supplied by a tank, especially in the older buildings. These tanks are not regulated, at all, most are left open to the elements and are left untested. One family in Manchester was taken seriously ill because they used hot water in their kettle. Boiling the water wasn’t enough because their tank had six, yes six rat corpses floating in it. Never, Ever install a mixer tap in an old building, Especially if hot water is supplied by a tank, you will contaminate the water supply. If the cold mains supply backwashes for some reason, you can contaminate an entire areas supply of water which carries serious penalties such as fines if they manage to trace the source of the contamination. Never have finer words been spoken: Never, cross the streams.

Im from Liverpool and its strange as we are classed as Merseyside and Southport is also Merseyside and only about a 30 minute drive from Liverpool City but the accent is so different as they have a Lancashire accent. Its almost like crossing a line.

We Brits are only truly happy if we are complaining. We could have a three and a half month heatwave, have three days of rain and someone will say, 'where did our summer go, we only saw two weeks of good weather and it's gone again'. Every year like clockwork. We don't like it too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry. The north bit is the bane of my life. People class Manchester and Liverpool as the north west, yet Manchester is 120 miles south of me and I'm still in England. RE:- taps, ahem, right, USE A PLUG. Put the plug in the plug hole, mix the water in the basin, wash and save water. Bonfire Night is not so much 'celebrating terrorism' as much as it is about catching the terrorist who wanted to blow up parliament, the king and the politicians. Parliament whether you agree with it or or not fully or in part is the site, the foundation of our democracy. Celebrating it is like telling terrorists, you won't win, you will be found and dealt with.

The 'stiff upper lip' is about being stoic in the face of adversity, which is a good thing. I agree that some Brits bottle things up, but these aren't the same thing. Personally I'm extremely direct and open, but that's probably because I'm from the North. You're right about the weather, as a Northerner living in London I find it remarkable how little it actually rains here, yet people act like it's non-stop. It really isn't. What I will say though is that it's CLOUDY a lot of the time - not raining, but not sunny either. You're right that separate taps are idiotic, however they tend to only exist in older, unrenovated homes. It's very rare for anyone to buy them new, practically everyone buys mixers now if they're fitting a new bathroom. You do tend to see more separate taps the further you get from the larger cities though. Regarding accents, Northerners including Mancunians tend to drop the T and replace it with a glottal stop, sort of like "war'er". In fact Northerners use glottal stops quite a lot, including to replace "the" (e.g. "I'm going tu't pub" means "I'm going to the pub"). Talking of glottal stops, I was once told by a guy working in the Middle East that Northerners learn Arabic more easily than Southerners because we're already used to glottal stops, which are common in Arabic. Not sure how true that is. I can't really speak for either, but I find Scottish national pride is just as strong as Welsh national pride. In either case it probably comes from not wanting their national identity to be snuffed out by the domineering English. Rightly so, both nations have strong identities of their own that deserve to thrive. Cornish identity is strong too, and of course Northern Irish. Even the regions of England can be quite vocally proud.

The Welsh have suffered from being under English rule for hundreds of years. Henry VIII banned the use of Welsh and made English the official language. The British Empire was fueled by Welsh coal and built with Welsh iron and steel. Take a look at the Union Flag, Wales is not represented on it. Our little nation has been stripped of much, and yet retains it's pride: especially on the Rugby field.

Dear Yvette The reason there are so many different accents in England is because of our history of invasion and settlement by people from other countries.The Angles & Saxons from Germany, Vikings from Norway and Denmark and then in 1066 the Normans who were a mix of French and Viking. Apart from The Normans( who spoke French) who spread out throughout the country in order to subdue the population the invaders tended to settle in one place and intermix with the indigenous people producing an accent specific to that region.. Until the 19th Century and the invention of the train people travelled very little and it was not unusual for the residents of a village to never travel more than ten miles from home. They were therefore unlikely to be influenced by other accents. I am not an expert on this subject but I think parts of the country like Cornwall endured very little foreign influence and so have their own dialect. Liverpool had a large number of Irish people come over in the nineteenth century, to escape the Irish Potato Famine, which corrupted their Lancashire accent. Although this is maybe not a full explanation I hope it will give you some idea as to how the situation has arisen. With regards as to why the Welsh are so proud I would suggest it is because they are a small population next door to England's much larger one. There is therefore more of a feeling of togetherness and a pride in their individual heritage and traditions. Not being Welsh this is just a guess.

10 months of good weather?!? Where the hell are you living?!?! I want to move there.

Re the weather - I think you inadvertently answered your own question. Britain has the most changeable weather of anywhere in the world (not the worst weather, just the most changeable). Its something to do with being the one land spot where 4 different systems converge (I got that off a documentary years ago) and the weather is largely dictated by which of those weather systems wins. What it does mean is that you can have 4 seasons in a day and you can have very unseasonable weather any time of the year. You stand a better chance of hot weather in the Summer and cold in the Winter, but it just doesnt always work out that way, which makes planning quite difficult on occasions. And I'm quite baffled as to how you have only seen 2 days of rain - I live in South West London and experienced a fairly wet summer with intermittent scorching days and a fairly rainy October. It's chucked it down most of the last week. There are places in London that legitimately have their own micro-climate, but if its not rained where you are then I want your address because I'm moving there

Hot & cold taps - if I want cold water (eg to make a drink) I don't want to have to run a mixer tap for a minute to cool it down after it has been used to get hot water.

We have two water taps because the water in the cold tap is drinking water, whether from bathroom, kitchen or toilet cistern, but don't drink water from the hot tap because (generally) it has too much copper from the pipes. We don't celebrate Guy Fawkes, we celebrate catching and killing him. The Welsh pride in their excellent country comes from the fact that they are often 'lumped' with us English in the expression "England and Wales". As for the weather, well, you've only been here for five minutes, when you've also suffered snow in June, you'll know what we mean.

It used to always be raining but now as climate change is becoming bigger, the weather is nothing like it used to be

Accents. The Uk being a much older country than both the US and Australia and existing in times before mass transportation, people largely were born, worked & died within a few miles of the village they grew up in. Existing largely in isolation, language evolved differently & this is how we got accents. This is true in all old countries

Cold water came from a mains supply and was fit for drinking. Hot water would be serviced by a local storage cistern often situated in the loft so would just sit there gathering bugs. This is why we have hot and cold taps as many houses still have this system!

Regarding Wales, I was reading a book about the Plantagenet kings and the short version is that the Welsh nobility had a treaty with England back in the 1200s, then tried to rebel and failed. Edward the First attacked, annihilated the Welsh nobility and replaced them with English. Hence Wales was conquered and assimilated into England, rather than scotland having treaties, breaking them, signing them again... Fun fact: this is why the heir to the crown of England is prince of Wales. Edward the 1st had his son born in wales, and proclaimed prince after Llwellyn the Last was killed/disappeared.

The weather has changed, but you will find our winters are very long, dull and damp!

A stiff upper lip is an individual thing! I’m an open book I really don’t think us brits bottle things up I think it’s a stereotype! Really our winters aren’t as bad as the likes of Canada we have an oceanic climate.

Most of the time when Brits talk about the weather then we aren't talking about it. Talking about the weather is a safe way of starting conversations so for example if I saw you at the bus stop and wanted to engage with you in conversation, then rather than randomly talking to you like a wierdo then I would say "Oh the weather looks nice again today". If you decided I wasn't a danger and was happy to talk then you might say "Oh yes, I hope the rain holds off" or maybe "Unfortunately I heard it might rain later". At which point you having broken the ice you can then ask other questions. If you wanted to kill the conversation then you might respond "Meh, I prefer it when it is cooler... not a fan of the sun..."

Bonfire night: I expect there are some vids on RU-vid. You could write an essay.... The king he tried to blow up with the protestant parliament n 1605 was James the First, he of the King James Bible. He wrote a popular book "Daemonology" about his passion, witchcraft. Consider that the gunpowder plot wasn't long after Halloween and you can see that replacing a pagan festival, frequently denounced in his bible translation would have some momentum. Guy Fawkes was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for Treason, not burned. Witches weren't even burned in England, but bonfires did feature in Halloween rituals. Since we've reabsorbed Halloween, more probably demanding confectionery with menaces rather than paganism, the bonfire night tradition has declined. No longer do kids sit on the pavement outside their local shops crying "penny for the Guy" at passers by. Guy being a dummy in an old pushchair made by stuffing a pair of your mums tights with newspaper and topping with an old anorak, trousers and wellies. Cheap plastic masks were sold to adorn his stuffed carrier bag head, something that has been culturally misappropriated more recently. The youngsters ill gotten gains were blown on cheap fireworks that were used to terrorise the pets and wildlife of the neighbourhood or initiating trips to the casualty dept of the local Hossie to get burns treated - at least we never had type 2 diabetes.

I thought this summer was pretty mixed to be honest. 2018, on the other hand, was a stellar year. The summer which kept on giving.

I am originally from the UK. Wait until December and January then you can say something about the weather. It has been a record high lately in the UK but my father moved from the UK after the plumbing inside the house froze up and he could not put his keys in the car door as it had frozen up. Those dark winters are very depressing.

How dare you! I like to scald my hand with one tap and then treat the burn with the other tap! Welcome to 2019 ;)

If you live in the south and the east of England (London too) it’s much drier, warmer and sunnier. The further North and West you go it’s gets gloomier, stormier, darker, wetter, windier, colder. So Winters in the North are much worse and winter months in some places see rain almost everyday. I’ve lived it and it’s terrible ahah.

From my understanding of accents the difference in them are basically variations due to the isolation of villages. Its not until really the 1960s that all the country and its villages were connected to one another.

A part of the accent thing is from the various tribes that controlled different areas but that is only a small part. That does affect slang words a lot. Accents are slowly merging across the world with the internet and comms. Lister was from Liverpool. It was law for a few hundred years to burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes.

Spot on about the Welsh though. I reckon it’s a defensive mechanism from their subjugation by the English Crown, Government and being ignored. They have their own language, culture, National desires-a voice that has historically been ignored. It makes them inordinately proud of their roots. All power to them. Plus, dragons.

The thing about the weather is that when the temperature reaches 25° people start bleating about it being too hot! It's typically British to knock the weather but they forget that in 2018 the grass turned brown and we had a water shortage! Last year we saw the highest recorded temperature.

The west starts, at least around Bristol when you are asked how are you my lover or when they ask you where are you to meaning where are you, especially confusing with taxi services.

The weather here is so changeable, in a small area the weather can be surprising, in spring, summer or autumn. In winter we get surprised when it acts like winter with snow and stuff in a generally non-wintery winter. So lots to talk about even if it is only small talk.

Little is known about the earliest celebrations. In settlements such as Carlisle, Norwich, and Nottingham, corporations (town governments) provided music and artillery salutes. Canterbury celebrated 5 November 1607 with 106 pounds (48 kg) of gunpowder and 14 pounds (6.4 kg) of match, and three years later food and drink was provided for local dignitaries, as well as music, explosions, and a parade by the local militia. Even less is known of how the occasion was first commemorated by the general public, although records indicate that in the Protestant stronghold of Dorchester a sermon was read, the church bells rung, and bonfires and fireworks lit. I'm scouse and I say what I think! Got me in a lot of trouble over the years ha ha also I love that we have proper seasons over here 😁

A lot of Brits say "it always rains" here. I'm a Brit and have been for over 40 years. And it - if you live on the eastern side - it DOESN'T. I've lived in a few places and the east of England is one of the driest places I've spent time in.

About the weather thing, it depends where you live. For instance I live in Liverpool and it has rained on a 106 days since May

The ignorance is real, you must of missed the horrific, life changing flooding we’ve recently had.

The weather can vary from year to year so no year can be called typical.

Hot and cold taps. You cannot have good tea with a mixer tap. When making tea, make sure you fill the kettle with fresh cold water. Guy Fawkes night. The one and only time someone entered Parliament with honest intentions. To properly celebrate fireworks night, the only thing to do is go to Sussex. No other region comes close to its importance. There are many bonfire societies that have been around for hundreds of years. These events are almost pagan in their ritual and the closest thing you could get to watching wickerman in real life. The best known is Lewes that has four societies on its own, but it attracts literally tens of thousands to the point of it being dangerous. For a far better and more relaxed time, go to Rye in East Sussex. You can enjoy the day in a beautiful old town with the massively haunted Mermaid Inn, smuggler stories, "The Hawkhurst Gang", cobbled streets and many decent eateries. Then the town turns in the evening, with fire lanterns marched through the town, ending in a big bonfire and fireworks. The bonfire societies all have their own dress code, Some dress in old military dress, others more pirate like. It is a scary mardi gras. 100% must do and only a couple of hours from London by car.

The relatively new thing of just one mixer tap is a ROTTEN design to me. I bend down in the morning/whenever to wash my face/(hair when I had some) and ding my head grr, also you can't really see how much hot or cold is mixing! The weather is actually much better than most of the planet but is highly unpredictable. I find after over 6 decades of experience it best to wear a North Face/Rab/Berghaus mountain climbing jacket with up to 3 layers underneath 10 months of the year unless I've escaped to Croatia, Spain, S. Italy or Canary Isles :)

You realise Scotland has many different accents even in a 50mile radius accents can be totally different

Points 1 and 2 are connected - we talk about the weather to avoid talking about our feelings. Like “hey, how are you?” I could say “well, Yvette, my husband just ran off with the milkman, and my piles are playing up something chronic”. Or I could say “brr, it’s Baltic out there, I had to scrape an inch of ice of my windscreen this morning! You?” But, we’re British, so I’ll go for option 2 every time!

The weather thing isn't really related to the weather it's more Brits have really boring small talk and are often uncomfortable in those situations, hence go straight to the weather as a topic. Same people will complain when it rains, is sunny, is windy, is calm, etc. It's a strawman, essentisally.

You do know we do have mixture taps, and separate hot and cold taps can be changed.

Little did she know that this autumn was the most wet autumn ever recorded

Don't get this combined tap hate. Fill the basin like a cultured person, stop trying to wash from the tap like a Neanderthal. Otherwise man/woman up?

We have a separate tap for hot and cold because that's what we're used to. You probably dislike it so much due to you not being used to having two separate taps. Some places have just 1 tap, for example, some work places, schools, restaurants, and even some homes. It just depends on what you prefer. Personally, I've always had 2 taps in my homes and because I'm used to it, I don't find it annoying. Also, bonfire night is on November 5th. Basically, the fireworks are a celebration of the king's safety, while the bonfires themselves are there to suggest Guy Fawkes burning on the bonfire as revenge for the crime he committed. At some bonfire night's, some people do put a figure of Guy Fawkes on top of their bonfire to emphasise this.

This was filmed this year? It's done nothing but rain.

I’m a teenager and it’s a mixture. We are better at talking about mental health than older generations but other feelings we still bottle up most felling.

Lol, the “You alright” thing to me implies this almost ironic mindset that the Londoners are just surviving, not thriving. The rest of the world has “how’s it going” “how are you” “how you going”, but the Londoners nah, it’s “you alright?” I ask “are you good” if something seems wrong, so “you alright” almost feels like a full step below that

Very surprised you aren't seeing/have plenty of single mixer taps now, as most houses have been renovated and now have them or the option to, along with new builds. If you don't have an attic/loft with as water tank, you can have a mixer tap.

On the accents, (when I say accent i include dialect) it's usually based on the outside influences in a different region, or the original languages that the local dialect has developed from. Whether you need to make yourself understood to more people not from the local area also plays into it (if there's more interaction with people without the local accent you need to be clearer in your everyday speech). So where I'm from in the North East of England, there's a lot of viking influence, because of the invasions, but not that much since, because it's fairly remote and not that populated. Likewise in the Highlands of Scotland, but the influence is from Gaelic rather than Scandinavian. Whereas accents in places with more interaction tend to be clearer (though not always - they can be used as a way to shut people out because you don't want others to understand you - like Cockney). Accents in the country tend to be slower than city accents, probably matching the general pace of life. Australian and american accents follow the same rules, generally, but in some cases, the accents there are closer to the original settlers than modern British accents from the place the settlers came from.

I'm from Manchester, and the way we say water is: wagher. Oh yeah, the Queen's accent is called Received Pronunciation, and only spoken by a tiny percentage of our country. Also, the stiff upper lip thing is a stereotype, we are able to actually show our feelings, and be outwordly emotional. Yep, the taps thing, just put the plug in the sink and fill. You now have whichever temperature of water you want.

We have a rhyme to go for bonfire night. "Remember, remember the 5th of November Gunpowder, treason and plot." We don't celebrate the event we celebrate that he failed?

most videos i have seen from the Americans in the UK always ways on about the twp taps well they should use the plug put that in the plug hole them fill the sink with a mixture of hot and cold water it is not rocket science

The Welsh... Touchy subject. Unlike Scotland, which joined the Union, Wales was conquered, and they hold a grudge. Okay, yes, the English also did bad things in Scotland and Ireland but the Welsh were further betrayed after being told there would be a Prince of Wales... except the English didn't tell them it would be an *ahem* English prince... oh and The English tried to ban the Welsh language, that didn't go down too well either. Soooo yeah.

Part of the reasons for development of English accents varying so much. Is historically the different areas were settled by different groups. E.g Yorkshire and the North East is more influenced by Vikings/Norse words. This has also influenced the accent. Im in Lancashire which was settled with a mix of Brythonic Celts (Brigantes), Angles and some Viking. Liverpool has been influenced by a lot of Irish immigration etc.

To understand accents you need to look at early English history starting around 500 AD, prior to this date the country was primarily Celtic, after 500 AD they were pushed west by the Anglo_Saxon, this is why Cornwall, Wales and Scotland dialect has a Celtic root, The Anglo-Saxons gave the country Old English, which is the root of English. All was fine until the Danes showed up around 700 AD and conquered Parts of Mercia and East Anglia, so many Norse words entered into the dialect, for example, Ay-Up comes from Norse Ayup meaning 'look up' or 'watch out'. Add to this the English being a flexible language which has absorbed the many ethic groups that have settled over the centuries in different parts of the country, e.g the Huguenots. The reason why London is a cosmopolitan city is due to it being the entry point for so many ethic groups from across the world and this is the root of the different dialects, If you want to learn more, take a look at the history of the East End and Brick Lane in particular, which has a history of welcoming immigrants going back to the 1700. Hope this points you in the right direction, although it could draw you into a life time of study.

Accents originally developed because of invasion. We've been invaded by the celts, Norse, Normans, saxons, romans. The celts are believed to have originated from mainland europe, the norse from scandinavia, the saxons from Germany, the romans from italy, the Normans from Normandy, france. As each group arrived throughout our history, they often would settle in a particular area and so the local population would adopt certain words/accents from the invaders. For instance, the county of Norfolk is in eastern England, it is called Norfolk because it was invaded by the "Norse" Norse meaning "north", nor is short for north, folk is an old English word meaning "people", therefore "Norfolk" is where the Norse based themselves, Nor-folk literally means "North people". the neighbouring county of Suffolk, literally means "south-folk" or people from the south, meaning indigenous people, not foreign invaders of the Norse people. If you literally draw a line down the centre of the UK on a map, those areas on the right of the line are places that were invaded by the Norse, to the left of the line are the indigenous Britons, then in the south east are where the Saxons mainly invaded. Still to this day it remains true in terms of D.N.A. D.N.A taken from people that live on the right of the line have greater Norse D.N.A than most other places, those to the left of the line have more Ancient Briton D.N.A, and those in the South east have more Saxon D.N.A. Sorry for the long post, but this was originally how accents started to develop, by the way, the people of Scotland were known as picts, or Pictish people.

The weather is so changeable because we have 4 weather systems jostling for position over the country, the arctic, Atlantic, Mediterranean and eastern weather systems. For the most part the rest of the world has only 2 weather systems, also most of the rain we get in the UK is along the west coast in Essex they get less rain fall then Israel year on year.

Yes we say waTer not warDer because we know how to speak properly,it’s spelt with a T not a D. Pretty simple really

a bit late for this reply but here goes: 5th of November isn’t just about the attempt to blow up parliament, it is a residual celebration of protestant anti catholisism - a mild version of that which has affected northern Ireland and to an extent scotland for around 500 years. I live in Brighton, one of my local pubs, the red lion had a landlord called Deryk Carver in the 1500s who was burnt at the stake in Lewes high street for being a protestant, along with 16 other locals. The spot where the fire was is marked and a memorial stands on a nearby hillside, the town has an ongoing tradition of celebrating on the night of the 5th which occupies ‘bonfire societies’ for most of the year in a vaguely competitive contest with many sussex villages, who all come together for an event that lasts until the early hours and involves processing with flaming torches, rolling flaming barrels of tar over the river and all sorts of efigies being processed, tried and burned. So for the next November the 5th, try and get to Lewes, it is a fine old folk tradition unlike any other (except maybe Uphellyaa). look lewes bonfire up on youtube to see what I’m on about.

Accents probably developed due to isolation, imagine a group of people that speaks the same language but becomes divided into two islands. This geographical and social divide means that each group will evolve distinct dialects, or accents, over time. In fact, the language used by these groups may diverge so much to sound like completely different languages. But here's the thing: Humans are remarkably well-travelled, and don't often exist in isolation. When we come across other distinct groups, it's possible to pick up another accent, either by choice or by long-term exposure. Ever meet a college student who returns from a semester in England, for instance, sounding subtly different? Whatever way a person picks up an accent, it tells a lot about the individual and the geography that person has inhabited, or the groups they've belonged to. Even the regions believed to have people that speak "accent-less English," like the United States' Upper Midwest, still have accents. These accents are called reference varieties because English dictionaries and pronunciation guides are based on these accents. These are the accents that are taught to foreign students learning English, but make no mistake - there is no such thing as accent-free speech. After all, take that supposedly accent-free Upper Midwest American and put her in the middle of Scotland, and see who's the one with the accent then.