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Things I didn’t know about England / British people before moving here

Posted on 26 March 2010 in England | View Comments

Call it ignorance or cultural differences – whatever you like. Here are a few of the things that dumbfounded me two years ago. Yeah, I know right – two years already!!

Stones

Lots of people in England actually still measure their body weight in stones, with one stone being 14lbs. It’s very confusing, especially if your mental math is lousy.
Don’t call a mobile phone from a landline or phone booth

I’m sure this varies from plan to plan, but it costs way more to phone a mobile from a landline or phone booth than it does from another mobile. Also, landlines usually have a set number of minutes that you can use each month (although recently ‘unlimited’ minutes is becoming popular). There’s no such thing as “long distance” within the UK, so you can call anyone in any area code and it’s the same price.
VAT

Tax on things you buy is called VAT (equivalent of GST, in Canada). It’s 17.5% and the nice thing is that it’s included in the ticketed price of things you buy. So if you see something that’s £10, you walk in and hand them £10. Good times.
School lingo

School goes from age 5-16 (“Year 1″ – “Year 11″), followed by GCSE exams which mark the completion of compulsory education. The next two years (“Sixth Form”) are optional and lead up to “A-Levels” which are tests you take prior to University. Coincidentally, private schools are referred to as “public schools”. Also, “school” isn’t used as an umbrella term here, so if you use it when referring to university, people will correct you. Oh and school busses don’t seem to exist (at least not in my area), so everyone drives their bloody kids to school. How I love half term!
Sink within a sink

Many British people have a plastic tub that fits neatly inside their kitchen sink, in which they place dirty dishes to soak. This seems weird to me as the sink could do the exact same thing and it has a drain, too! I don’t know. I guess it’s because the tubs are portable and sinks aren’t.
Tipping

You aren’t expected to tip in a bar or pub, even if they bring the food / drinks to you. Bar and restaurant staff make normal minimum wage (as opposed to below minimum wage in Canada) so they don’t depend on tips to survive. Someone told me once that you only tip on the food in restaurants, but I’m not entirely sure on the accuracy of that. Also, the typical tipping rate is 10-15%.
Speeding

Instead of using police officers and speed traps, they use speed cameras to catch you speeding in the UK. They have cameras that track your speed using some lines painted on the road and if you’re speeding, they send you a ticket in the mail. Sneaky, eh?

http://unttld.com/ Derek K

Very interesting. We’re (Toronto) slowly getting cameras on traffic lights. Although they’re more for red light running. The east coast has a lot of speed cameras and red light runner cameras.
http://twitter.com/ReadyRachel Rachel

WTF is with the buckets in the sink? I just assumed it was cause I normally have a dishwasher, but even when i didn’t have a dishwasher I just used the sink. Can someone please explain the reason for the bucket? weird-tastic!
http://philsturgeon.co.uk/ Phil Sturgeon

I’ve lived in the UK all my life and now you mention it I’m not so sure about the washing up tubs.

So I found out:

In some[which?] European countries, the dishes are generally washed in a separate tub placed inside the sink. This practice may have started as a matter of hygiene, as the kitchen sink was the only sink available for all the household water. The clothes were washed in the sink; the water used to wash the floor went down the sink, and so it made sense to separate the dishwater from the sink. There were two other possible reasons: First, kitchen sinks tended to be very large in a time when heating water was considered to be a major household expense; a tub used less water. Second, kitchen sinks were usually made of hard ceramic; any contact between the sink and plates was likely to cause chips, but a tub could be made of more forgiving material. Using a separate washing-up bowl in the sink also provides a place (down the gap between bowl and sink) to dispose of unfinished drink, soaking-water, etc.

Thank you Wikipedia!
http://digitaldawn.com.au Paul Millar

Its a washing up tub…… Everyone has one (In the Uk that im aware of)… Well at least in the North…
http://www.alexburrows.co.uk Alex Burrows

We also have cameras(ANPR) that take photos of every car, and if there is something linked to the car then an alert goes off and a local police unit is informed.
http://www.answers.com/topic/honda-vtr1000f VTR1000 Lady

My friend and I were arguing about this! Now I know that I was right. lol! Thanks for making me sure!

Sent from my iPad 4G
http://omniation.com Dan Palmer

Wow, having lived in England my whole life, these things all seem normal to me. I can’t imagine not having speeding cameras! Also, there are school buses, I used them for 3 years, but they look exactly like normal buses and are usually run by the bus company, not the school. They cost money too.