My wife and I are considering a move to the UK from Texas, what should we expect?

Question

We have been discussing a move for a while, what are some essential things an American couple should know before coming to England? Thanks!!

Answer 1

A mistake people on both sides of the Atlantic make is thinking that because the British and Americans have they same language, we have the same culture - we don't! There are many cultural nuances that can lead to misunderstanding.

Here are a few tips:

Brits (especially the Welsh and Scottish) don't like it when people don't know the difference between England, Britain and the United Kingdom. Learn the differences.

Leave your guns at home, almost all firearms are banned. There is no concept of a 'right to bear arms' in Britain, and most Brits shudder at the thought of legalising any gun.

Us Brits love to queue, we are the politest queuers in the world. Don't ever queue jump or you'll be lynched (verbally).

Brits are very proud of driving on the left, which is the original and correct way.

Brits love to criticise the royals, but don't like anyone else to criticise them. The same goes for the BBC and the NHS.

Brits hate the letter 'z' and try to use it as little as possible.

Brits really do talk about the weather all the time, but that's because it's so weird here.

Drinks are never topped up for free in the UK.

In Britain, most times are displayed in 24 hour form, but everyone says the time in 12 hour form. So a clock on a news channel may read 14:05, but the news reader would say "it's five past two".

Don't let Prime Minister's Questions fool you, most Brits are very polite. However, people in Britain (young people especially) are often much more honest than Americans. This can sound abrupt and even aggressive, but it's just the way we speak.

Answer 2

There is a big difference in the weather.

We only really have three months of the year where there is a possibility of good weather, and even then it is not guaranteed (like now)

Houses and cars are smaller, and only the very rich have a swimming pool.

As someone said above about having trouble getting iced tea in a restaurant, you won't just have trouble, you won't get it at all in a restaurant (some shops sell it) but it was introduced years ago and never took off. We prefer our tea hot :)

Answer 3

you should expect it to be nothing like the USA - if you do that, then you should get on OK wherever you live.  Don't expect to find the range of food in the shops that you currently enjoy, and don't get upset if you experience bad service or things that are quite different.

There aren't many malls, the parking spaces are smaller, the cars are smaller.  

Good things are that you're not expected to tip everywhere you go like you are in the USA (which is fantastic in my opinion!).  You are expected to walk sometimes and not everything is a drive-in!  Farmers markets are great places to shop and you can buy great food that isn't pumped fulll or preservatives and chemicals if you're prepared to pay a little more for it (the sausages mentioned above were probably cheap ones - real sausages are lovely).

Nowhere is too far - even if you live inland, the nearest coast will only be a few hours drive.

When you go in a pub, you serve yourself at the bar.  When you go into a restaurant, they'll serve you!  

Houses are smaller unless you have lots of money and the more expensive the house, the more council tax you have to pay.

Read Bill Bryson's book - Notes from a Small Island.  He talks about some differences between the USA and the UK from an American's point of view.

Answer 4

I think you'll probably find many out-of-date decorated houses and the things used in them are things probably never used in the US.  Appliances will be somewhat strange.  They use a lot of electric kettles and you'll have great difficulty getting iced tea to drink in  any restaurant.  Beautiful countryside, obviously lots of history.  Some of the smaller towns are quiet beautiful.  The red buses in London are gone.  Despite all the jokes about bad English cooking, my husband and I really enjoyed the food - except for the breakfast that was included in our hotel stay; I found it perfectly hideous (the pork & beans, the bad sausage, etc.) but they did have other nice things that I enjoyed.  However, the p & b's are apparently part of a typical English breakfast!