American Reacts to 12 Weird Facts About British Culture

Yorkshire pudding is not bread or pastry. It's batter and it's lovely, soaked in gravy.

The royal family stays out of political, not groceries.

Tea time is regional. Being from the North of England but living in the South I had to adjust. In the North we had breakfast in the morning, dinner time was the midday meal and tea time was evening meal. In the South, its breakfast, lunch and dinner instead and 'come for tea' would be around 4 pm for sandwiches, cake and tea or just cake and tea.

Royal Warrants are granted to companies, not products.

The TV licence lasts for one year. The money goes to the BBC to finance their programmes. In turn there are no advertising or sponsorship breaks.

Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Switzerland all have TV licences.

Many houses were built long BEFORE washing machines, etc., were invented. So they have to be located where they can be hooked up to electrical and water services.

If you had enough vacation days in the USA, you’d be able to go on holiday for a fortnight!

Tyler knows what Yorkshire Pudding is, he knows what black pudding is, and he knows what steak & kidney pudding is. He's seen enough videos covering all three types of food to know what the difference between all three is, and also that the term pudding can also just refer to dessert. But quite why Americans refer to Yorkshire pudding as a bread, or a pastry, when it's batter, I don't know. They pretty much live off pancakes, so they know what pancake batter is, but it seems that the concept of baking it in an oven with fat rather than frying it in a frying pan seems to blow their minds????!!!!

The names of the crossings are from acronyms. Puffin is Pedestrian User Friendly crossing (it uses sensors to detect if someone is still using it, and will keep the traffic lights on red until pedestrians have crossed) Pelican is Pedestrian Light Controlled crossing (one the button is pressed the traffic is stopped for around 20 seconds, then a flashing amber light lets traffic proceed again) Toucan is where cyclists can cycle across alongside pedestrians (two can cross) Zebra is black and white. Equestrian crossing is for horse riders...their control box is around 4ft off the ground.

In Sweden we have something very similar to "the Royal Stamp of Approval". Here it is called Royal Court Supplier "Kunglig Hovleverantör" and can best be described as a kind of honor and is expected to testify to high quality. I think the other kingdoms in Scandinavia have it too.

Fortnight and fortnightly is used extensively in Australia. Rent is advertised for weekly but is often paid by the fortnight. We very rarely say two weeks.

1. Fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term fēowertīene niht, meaning "fourteen nights" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). The classic use of fortnight is taking a break from work for a holiday e.g. 'I've booked a fortnight in Miami'. You may also hear it used in complaints about delivery schedules or waiting times for appointments etc. Fortnight is fairly common but there is also the obscure sennight meaning seven nights & days from Old English seofon nihta seven nights. 2. Pudding Pudding is a type of food. It can be either a dessert, served after the main meal, or a savoury (salty or spicy) dish, served as part of the main meal. In the United States, pudding means a sweet, milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, instant custards or a mousse, often commercially set using corn starch, gelatine or similar coagulating agent such as Jell-O. The modern American meaning of pudding as dessert has evolved from the original almost exclusive use of the term to describe savoury dishes, specifically those created using a process similar to that used for sausages, in which meat and other ingredients in mostly liquid form are encased and then steamed or boiled to set the contents. In the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries, the word pudding is used to describe sweet and savoury dishes. Savoury puddings include Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, suet pudding and steak and kidney pudding. Unless qualified, however, pudding usually means dessert and in the United Kingdom, pudding is used as a synonym for dessert.[1] Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies.[2] In some Commonwealth countries these puddings are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, as blancmange if starch-thickened, and as jelly if gelatine-based. Pudding may also refer to other dishes such as bread pudding and rice pudding, although typically these names derive from their origin as British dishes. The word pudding is believed to come from the French boudin, which may derive from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage", referring to encased meats used in medieval European puddings. Another proposed etymology is from the West German 'pud' meaning 'to swell.

I am from a working class Yorkshire family and in the 80s and 90s it was completely common for them and their friends to just turn up at each other's houses unannounced and actually just let themselves in. I think it was more normal because they all lived near each other and until very recently (to that point) a lot of them didn't have phones at home to arrange in advance, so they just showed up.

4:08 only the monarch and their heir can issue these, it's not just anyone in the Royals. They are supposed to be politically impartial but can still have favourite brands of jam or cereal or whatever. The British public is under no obligation to buy a particular product just because there's a Royal Warrant on it, and most of us would not buy anything solely on that basis.

Many houses in the UK were built prior to washing machines. During the industrial revolution that started in the UK in the early 1800 millions of house were built by the business owners for his workers. These were terraced houses and often would be home to mum, dad and at least 5 to 11 children. Often the washing would be done in a steel bath, that’s clothes washing as well and personal washing . When washing machines were invented in the UK starting with the Twin tub they had to fit them somewhere close to the water supply and waste outlet. Even today, with modern houses, anyone with a dedicated washing machine room are regarded as “posh” and “rich” which is not strictly true. Both my adult children have just managed to purchase their own homes in a cheap area not far from us. They are both terraced houses and one costs £450 and the other £375. The later is a house built in 1890 and the other in 2022 but neither have dedicated wash rooms. So, everything we do in the UK, homes, roads, parking is impact by our side. The UK after Holland is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe and the 22nd most populated in the World and we have 720 people per square mile where in American it’s just 96 people so this as a huge impact on space and cost

Kitchens always have at least one wall that has pipes in it, making it easy to fit a washing machine. They often have easy access to the back garden, which is a convenient place to hang clean clothes up to dry. They're almost never carpeted, so if a bit of water drips, it won't ruin the carpet. Kitchen work surfaces are basically the perfect height to fit a front-loading washing machine underneath them. My house has a utility room, but we still fitted the washing machine in the kitchen because it's convenient.

3 quarters of Europe have TV License Fees...Germany even have a separate license for Radio...

The BBC doesn't run advertisements, so it needs funding in other ways. It broadcasts 8 national TV channels, 7 regional TV channels (plus funding the Welsh language channel) and abut 40 local radio stations. Yep, we use "fortnight" quite commonly. Over here in the UK (where we actually get vacations), their duration is often a fortnight. So something like "Yay! I'm off to France for a fortnight" is pretty common parlance. It's (obviously) a contraction of "fourteen nights". Its' root is in Anglo-Saxon times, when we had a more pagan perspective, so it was significant as the halfway point in the lunar cycle. Most of our houses were built long before washing machines were even invented, so a space for them wasn't considered. Newly built larger houses have a utility room, but many of us prefer our modest 19th century houses, despite their minor inconveniences. I don't know about uninvited visitors. Personally, I almost never invite friends (unless it's for dinner) - they know I have an "open house", i.e. when they pop in unannounced, they're welcome. (And if I'm not in, they know they'll almost certainly find me in the pub down the road!) I think "tea time" is a working class thing. I can vaguely remember my mum shouting "Come and get you tea!" (meaning dinner). Most people these days call the evening meal "dinner(time)" - and I've never heard someone call lunch, "dinner".

She's from Brazil, learned English as a second language, and now she sounds Welsh (south) to me!