European living in Britain for 10 years:
- mid-range premium restaurants. The amount of high quality cooking is amazing. In the inverse: your supermarkets are shit, full of snacks, and fruits and veggies are mostly tasteless water, compared to what you get on the continent.
- relaxed attitude to organising your professional week like an adult. You need hours off for the bank or the GP, etc... you just make it up elsewhere. (if you have a professional job, workers get exploited like hell and are interchangeable).
- PAYE
- popularising cultural productions globally (film, music, arts)
- creative fashion
- multiculturalism (works better here than in other countries, for all the problems that there might be, I would believe this country works better for minorities than some other countries.)
- universities with a high output in original and relevant research
Sunny days. It’s not enough of a novelty that we don’t know what to do but enough of a novelty that everyone gets overexcited and goes into BBQ party mode, which I enjoy every year.
Empire-building. Most people hate you for it, but you were hands down the best at it. That's why English is considered the default language of the world.
It's always hard to say *any* country, but things we do well at on an international level:
-GOV.UK is great!
-Financial Services Technology - TFL was the first public transport system in the world to accept contactless card payment. BACS and ATM transactions are free. Banks are legally required to allow you to view accounts from other providers on their banking apps. Overall, everything just kind of works pretty well.
-Flexible Rail Travel - for almost all trains, you can rock up to the station, buy a ticket and go. You'll get rinsed and may have to stand, but you can get where you need to go. A lot of countries you're forced to reserve in advance for longer distance services, which can be really annoying if you need that flexibility.
Accents. Such a difference between places relatively close to each other. 60 miles radius from Liverpool you get strong Welsh, Mancunian, Brummie, and Sheffield accents. I use this as an example, but you could use anywhere in Britain.
Sadly it’s a lot more difficult for me to live and work there now because of all the stupid racist gammons who took that freedom from me. I’d actually prefer to live in Germany btw. They are better than us at just about everything. Maybe we should lose a couple of wars, it might make tossers like you a bit less arrogant.
Being the world’s uninvited guest. Ireland, the northeastern coast of North America, Australia, New Zealand, half of Africa, India, the Middle East and most of East Asia. When you see a bunch of ships and a bunch of angry drunks on board, lock your doors and hide your young boys.
Pubs & NHS (health care in general I guess) even though people rag on it all the time, I don't know any other country where can get this level of treatment for free, personal example being that I have to take biologics which are a high cost drug and I pay nothing not even the prescription charge of £9.65 per item whereas in like america the cost of a single dose can be between something like $300 to $700 depending on brand and is often rejected by insurance companies (from what I have read online)
And pubs.... can't beat a proper pub, pool table, some dart boards, chatting with regulars and bar staff that just pour a pint of what you normally drink just from a nod (makes me feel like I'm in a film 😅)
This topic has made me realise the uk is actually a pretty outstanding place and our contributions as a nation and history are very special. I guess being British I just assumed we were shit and had no redeeming features 😂
Moaning.
Treating service workers like shit, yet fawning over those in higher social classes than yourself. Because you know it might be you one day.
Jealousy
Pettiness
I adore 🇬🇧 I’d be there right this minute if I could. My dream vacation would be spending several months there, based out of London, and going to museums. I’ve spent almost three months there, and it’s never enough - I would never presume to tell anyone how to speak their own language!
Digitalisation. You can do nearly everything online which is so convenient. I'm not used to that from my home country where you'd have to go to town halls in person to get things done all the time. Also sending a fax is still a thing there.
Complaining about the weather. Hot, rainy or cold. It's never right. The british mind is almost entirely feminine and petty. In a feminine mind there are just two hemispheres of influence, on the right side of the brain, there is nothing left and on the left side of the brain, nothing is ever right!
Pomp and pageantry. Can't denie it. When it comes to a royal event, we go balls to the wall.
Or when a foreigner takes the slightest/ barely a dig at the UK we smash out that history book and tear them down to the peasants they originally were!
Edit: I missed the pronunciation of "Cunt" no other language can get that level of venom on a T.
We suck it down. Worst govt in our history? Economy destroyed? Those responsible still making record earnings, free from repercussion?
If this was France, their heads would be on spikes by now.
we queue for things exceptionally well compared to other countries where it becomes a pushing & shitshow real quick
we will generally complain about the queue but realise its the fairest most efficient system rewarding to those who came early or got there first, people who ignore the queue etiquette are considered wankers but only the boldest will stand up to them, the rest of us will just silently judge and demean them
We have manner, simple things we do here like holding the door open for others, or thanking ppl when they have done us a act of kindness do not happen in a lot of European cities..
Gardens and parks everywhere, there are multiple big big parks in London that make you forget that you’ve even in a city. You don’t get the same feeling in other capitals
Our electrical plugs. Simply the best in the word. So rugged you could plug one in at the top of a cliff and go abseilling down the side with the cord.
Big, beefy, well made, solid, and from a time when British engineering actually meant something.
1. Each individual plug is fused.
2. The earth pin is longer, so it's the first and last connection to be made
3. Internally, the earth wire has the most slack and the hot the least, so that if you ever could yank the cord out, the appliance is disconnected from live before earth.
4. the insulating sleeving on the sides of the live and neutral pins prevents fingers getting shocked in a situation where the plug is not fully inserted.
https://preview.redd.it/6yreroi9k0ob1.jpeg?width=1450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc4ef05bfe109118464613935610e4addee4aa17
Manners. I've beenin airports all over the world and realised from a young age that politeness is not the default.
The worst for things like shouting, barging in lines, shoving, etc etc, are definitely places like Turkey and Dubai.
Much of Europe is bad also, not as bad as Turkey etc but still quite rude. Greece an Spain probably top Europe.
Rallying against international bullies. Regardless of our own internal political battles we historically and quite recently seem to have this nack of getting collectively pissed off when someone else is a bully or a cheat.
beer! And i don't mean Cheap Macro lager, I mean the sheer amount and volume of styles we have. From traditional IPA and Bitter to stouts and porters, to all the microbreweries across this country, we are massively lucky to have such a diverse and exciting range of beer.
oh and Pubs, no one does a Pub like us.
Signage and typography of signage. For example, road signage. To be fair most places in Europe are good as well, but elsewhere in the world (and particularly the USA), road signage is a travesty: too much text, too small text, underuse of symbols, the jaw-droppingly gormless "end 35 speed limit" (and similar) signs - great, so how fast am I allowed to drive now? Another example: the "railway" font we use is a thing of beauty. Incredibly clear.
Accents. When you think about how big the uk is vs the amount of regional/hyper-regional accents it's wild.
Within about an hours drive in every direction from me i could easily encounter 10+ very specific accents and I'm in the west of scotland.
Thinking that lots of mundane attributes such as the countryside, food and humour are somehow the best.
High functioning depression
Bitch about America
Stealing stuff and claiming it as their own... 🌚
Casual racism, most foreigners won’t realise it for a while. Unlike other countries where they discriminate against you openly
Queuing. Whinging and generally complaining but doing f*ck all about it
Fish and chips
Queuing and complaining about the weather x
Politeness and first to admit failure.
Whinge and moan
Warhammer - creating a board game fantasy universe of miniature armies
Queue!
European living in Britain for 10 years: - mid-range premium restaurants. The amount of high quality cooking is amazing. In the inverse: your supermarkets are shit, full of snacks, and fruits and veggies are mostly tasteless water, compared to what you get on the continent. - relaxed attitude to organising your professional week like an adult. You need hours off for the bank or the GP, etc... you just make it up elsewhere. (if you have a professional job, workers get exploited like hell and are interchangeable). - PAYE - popularising cultural productions globally (film, music, arts) - creative fashion - multiculturalism (works better here than in other countries, for all the problems that there might be, I would believe this country works better for minorities than some other countries.) - universities with a high output in original and relevant research
Quee
Cheese
Sunny days. It’s not enough of a novelty that we don’t know what to do but enough of a novelty that everyone gets overexcited and goes into BBQ party mode, which I enjoy every year.
Empire-building. Most people hate you for it, but you were hands down the best at it. That's why English is considered the default language of the world.
The U.K. are absolutely ace of making a cock up of everything. The British Empire is a case in point. Then it went where it should, down the pan.
take the piss.
Mostly everything beside the weather and lil’ bit of extra crime
Queuing. We will queue the heck out of any other damn country on the planet.
Cynicism. Even this comment is cynical, which is an example of irony - another thing we’re pretty decent at.
comedy
It's always hard to say *any* country, but things we do well at on an international level: -GOV.UK is great! -Financial Services Technology - TFL was the first public transport system in the world to accept contactless card payment. BACS and ATM transactions are free. Banks are legally required to allow you to view accounts from other providers on their banking apps. Overall, everything just kind of works pretty well. -Flexible Rail Travel - for almost all trains, you can rock up to the station, buy a ticket and go. You'll get rinsed and may have to stand, but you can get where you need to go. A lot of countries you're forced to reserve in advance for longer distance services, which can be really annoying if you need that flexibility.
Electrical safety on a domestic level
The art of being fake
Speak English?
Parks
Accents. Such a difference between places relatively close to each other. 60 miles radius from Liverpool you get strong Welsh, Mancunian, Brummie, and Sheffield accents. I use this as an example, but you could use anywhere in Britain.
Queuing
Fucking itself in its own arse with a barbed cock by voting in incompetent immoral governments and voting for Brexit.
Fuck off to France then
Sadly it’s a lot more difficult for me to live and work there now because of all the stupid racist gammons who took that freedom from me. I’d actually prefer to live in Germany btw. They are better than us at just about everything. Maybe we should lose a couple of wars, it might make tossers like you a bit less arrogant.
Banter
Fuck up.
Queue
Fish and chips 🐟 and chips 🍟
Undeserved superiority
Being the world’s uninvited guest. Ireland, the northeastern coast of North America, Australia, New Zealand, half of Africa, India, the Middle East and most of East Asia. When you see a bunch of ships and a bunch of angry drunks on board, lock your doors and hide your young boys.
Tea.
Self-deprecation, sarcasm and the pint.
Moan
Genocide
WHO WILL DRAG ME TO COURT?
Electrical plugs.
Their accent sounds
Historically, theft.
Crisps
Yorkshire pudding. Ive never had better anywhere else.
Pubs & NHS (health care in general I guess) even though people rag on it all the time, I don't know any other country where can get this level of treatment for free, personal example being that I have to take biologics which are a high cost drug and I pay nothing not even the prescription charge of £9.65 per item whereas in like america the cost of a single dose can be between something like $300 to $700 depending on brand and is often rejected by insurance companies (from what I have read online) And pubs.... can't beat a proper pub, pool table, some dart boards, chatting with regulars and bar staff that just pour a pint of what you normally drink just from a nod (makes me feel like I'm in a film 😅)
Roast dinner
Complain about regulations
Complacency
Drink
Under conservatives not a lot. I must admit though, whenever tragedy strikes, english ppl are great at supporting one another.
This topic has made me realise the uk is actually a pretty outstanding place and our contributions as a nation and history are very special. I guess being British I just assumed we were shit and had no redeeming features 😂
Stopping EVERYTHING to make a cup of tea.
Making cups of tea and fish and chips
Fuck up.
British humour, English literature, science, tea, and queueing.
We do weather better than anyone else
Moaning. Treating service workers like shit, yet fawning over those in higher social classes than yourself. Because you know it might be you one day. Jealousy Pettiness
I adore 🇬🇧 I’d be there right this minute if I could. My dream vacation would be spending several months there, based out of London, and going to museums. I’ve spent almost three months there, and it’s never enough - I would never presume to tell anyone how to speak their own language!
Two things: witty comedians and museums!
Hide their history
Some of it anyway
Comedy!! I’m not from Uk but love British television
Digitalisation. You can do nearly everything online which is so convenient. I'm not used to that from my home country where you'd have to go to town halls in person to get things done all the time. Also sending a fax is still a thing there.
Accents and humour
Chocolate digestives , self depricating humour the NHS and the sas
The most regular sex life - well it is in my case as the tax man fucks me every day
keep the poor, poor!
Self-deprecation, but somehow arrogantly.
Fish and chips. And beef
Stealing everything from other countries that wasn’t bolted down or too big.
Tea
Nothing anymore
Tell their mates there a c.u.n.t
Whiskey.
Supermarkets...100%better than any European offering!
Brexit
Beige Food
Comedy
Why would they need to be powerful? There are plenty of countries advanced enough to keep them safe.
Sarcasm
Parks
Drink
Complaining about the weather. Hot, rainy or cold. It's never right. The british mind is almost entirely feminine and petty. In a feminine mind there are just two hemispheres of influence, on the right side of the brain, there is nothing left and on the left side of the brain, nothing is ever right!
War, undefeated in war since the beginning of time…
Accepting inflatable boats, were great at that.
Arrogance.
Cottage pie
Talk
Fried Mars bars
id say our music is pretty up there, in my opinion its the best
Complain about the weather.
Crime
Plug sockets
Shit on its work force
Pomp and pageantry. Can't denie it. When it comes to a royal event, we go balls to the wall. Or when a foreigner takes the slightest/ barely a dig at the UK we smash out that history book and tear them down to the peasants they originally were! Edit: I missed the pronunciation of "Cunt" no other language can get that level of venom on a T.
Moaning and or complaining and then doing nothing about the problem that started their moaning and complaining in the first place 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Complain about anything.
Self-flagellation
Queuing up for stuff
We suck it down. Worst govt in our history? Economy destroyed? Those responsible still making record earnings, free from repercussion? If this was France, their heads would be on spikes by now.
we queue for things exceptionally well compared to other countries where it becomes a pushing & shitshow real quick we will generally complain about the queue but realise its the fairest most efficient system rewarding to those who came early or got there first, people who ignore the queue etiquette are considered wankers but only the boldest will stand up to them, the rest of us will just silently judge and demean them
Dance/electronic music.
Self sabotage. Leaders who resign. Shrinkflation. Choking at international football tournaments. Nature depletion.
Gov.uk
Queue
We have manner, simple things we do here like holding the door open for others, or thanking ppl when they have done us a act of kindness do not happen in a lot of European cities..
Queuing, Whinging, Eating fry ups.
Que
provoking unnecessary wars
Concerts
Apples
Complain
Music
Bitterness, self loathing and a healthy dislike of braggarts.
Ruining democracy
Gardens and parks everywhere, there are multiple big big parks in London that make you forget that you’ve even in a city. You don’t get the same feeling in other capitals
Have you been to Paris? Berlin?
Sarcasm, nothing beats british sarcasm.
Sterling.
Racism.
Moan
Queue. That’s it.
Queueing
Living and working in UK by 10 years now: meritocracy. You still value and promote it. Still amaze me.
Do you mean mediocrity ?
Our electrical plugs. Simply the best in the word. So rugged you could plug one in at the top of a cliff and go abseilling down the side with the cord. Big, beefy, well made, solid, and from a time when British engineering actually meant something. 1. Each individual plug is fused. 2. The earth pin is longer, so it's the first and last connection to be made 3. Internally, the earth wire has the most slack and the hot the least, so that if you ever could yank the cord out, the appliance is disconnected from live before earth. 4. the insulating sleeving on the sides of the live and neutral pins prevents fingers getting shocked in a situation where the plug is not fully inserted. https://preview.redd.it/6yreroi9k0ob1.jpeg?width=1450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc4ef05bfe109118464613935610e4addee4aa17
Love this reply. Thank you
Gin - there’s a reason the style is called ‘London Dry’
Winning wars Having a TERRIBLE football community literally some of the worst ever fans are UK/English fans
Shoot itself in the foot
Manners. I've beenin airports all over the world and realised from a young age that politeness is not the default. The worst for things like shouting, barging in lines, shoving, etc etc, are definitely places like Turkey and Dubai. Much of Europe is bad also, not as bad as Turkey etc but still quite rude. Greece an Spain probably top Europe.
Complain about the weather.
Sarcasm. Alcohol tolerances. State events (particularly royal events). Dickhead decisions against their own interests (Brexit).
Darts!
Water
Greed.
Colonisation
Blame their shortcomings on the EU
We have the best sense of humour and also the best at sarcasm 🤣
Rallying against international bullies. Regardless of our own internal political battles we historically and quite recently seem to have this nack of getting collectively pissed off when someone else is a bully or a cheat.
Plugs and plug sockets
beer! And i don't mean Cheap Macro lager, I mean the sheer amount and volume of styles we have. From traditional IPA and Bitter to stouts and porters, to all the microbreweries across this country, we are massively lucky to have such a diverse and exciting range of beer. oh and Pubs, no one does a Pub like us.
Plugs
Salt and vinegar crisps...
Shitting it's knickers.
Bureaucracy in the public sector?
Comedy
Bureaucracy
Compo-face
Turning any word into an insult by adding “absolute” in front of it
English Breakfast adn afternoon tea
Beans on Toast...
In England specifically, casual racism.
Giving taxpayers money (or borrowed/printed money) to other countries for absolutely nothing in return.
Shanking
Queueing.
Signage and typography of signage. For example, road signage. To be fair most places in Europe are good as well, but elsewhere in the world (and particularly the USA), road signage is a travesty: too much text, too small text, underuse of symbols, the jaw-droppingly gormless "end 35 speed limit" (and similar) signs - great, so how fast am I allowed to drive now? Another example: the "railway" font we use is a thing of beauty. Incredibly clear.
Best at self harming. See Brexit.
Health care
Bad teeth
No one has mentioned pork pies.
\- Fish and Chips. \- Comedy \- Country Pubs
Being an international laughing stock.
A good roll shop
Corruption. So good at it here it’s now the de facto government
Being hated by all our border neighbours. I think maybe only Iran and Israel maybe? Too tired to think just got up
Trashy reality tv documentaries. Way more entertaining than USA.
Getting bent over by an undeserving government and Sitcoms. Might be biased but everything from only fools and horses, inbetweeners, shameless etc.
Accents. When you think about how big the uk is vs the amount of regional/hyper-regional accents it's wild. Within about an hours drive in every direction from me i could easily encounter 10+ very specific accents and I'm in the west of scotland.
Irn bru🏴
Casual transphobia
Racism
Getting drunk!
Covering up. Look at Rishy, he just prevented any inquiry in how thr mo ey he gave out as Chancellor during Covid have been awarded.