Hey, it's Ernest from Trip Astute. In this video, we're doing a follow-up
retrospective on what we learned about the UK after making a video about it.
(light chiming music)
Some of you have probably seen my video called, "Things and American Notices in
the UK." I honestly meant for it to be a light-hearted and fun video that wasn't
focused on stereotypes but more on unique things that I noticed as an
American traveller. The video seems to be trending really well in the UK, even
though it was primarily created for my US-based audience. As a result, we've
received a ton of comments, many of which we're pointing out things that I got
wrong in the video. So today, I want to share some of the things that I
personally learned from the experience. First off is terminology. When describing
people, several people mentioned that I shouldn't use the term "Brits". What's
confusing to me is that everyone I know that's British refers to themselves as a
"Brit". Some mentioned that it was equivalent to calling Americans "Yanks".
However, I don't know if it's a fair comparison since we don't call ourselves
Yanks in our daily lives. So my recommendation is to use "British", or even
better, the specific country in which a person is from since people tend to
identify more closely with their home country. So basically, English, Scottish,
Welsh, or Northern Irish. This leads me to number 2: Geographic labels. This is an
area where I really screwed up. I think I referred to visiting the UK, Great
Britain, and England in the video, and people pointed out that they are
completely different. In fact, I'm embarrassed as I didn't have a good
grasp of the differences until I read the comments and did additional research.
First off, the United Kingdom is a sovereign state or constitutional
monarchy, essentially a grouping of countries. This includes the countries of
England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Great Britain, on the other hand,
is the island which is made up of England, Scotland, and Wales. This doesn't
include Northern Ireland. Confusing, right? I might just use "British Isles" from now
on just to be safe. Okay, maybe not, since that includes the whole
of Ireland. But just be careful when using these terms. I honestly felt
bad for being so loose with my geography and labels, so I sincerely apologize if I
offended or annoyed anyone. Number 3: Plugs. In the video, I made reference to
the fact that the plugs in the UK are extremely large when compared to the
US plug. I think we received over a thousand comments explaining that I was
downplaying the safety features of the plug. So I wanted to set the record
straight and say that even though the plugs are larger, they are in fact very
safe. For more information, check out a video by Tom Scott that details the safe
features that were incorporated into the plug design. Number 4: Mince pies. In my
previous video, I mentioned that it was confusing that mince pies, which are
traditional food item during Christmas, are made with mincemeat even though they
don't actually have meat in them. What I learned is that they used to have meat
in them but the ingredients slowly shifted to fruit as it became cheaper
and more accessible. There's obviously a lot more history behind this, but you get
the idea. Number 5: Holiday versus Christmas. I
had a lot of folks chime in that I didn't use the word "holiday" properly.
While we generally refer to the "holiday season" as the time between Thanksgiving
and New Year's in the US, I believe "holiday" in the UK is used to describe
but we would call a vacation. It seems like in the UK, people simply refer to
the time we call the "holiday season" as Christmas. In the US, the word "holiday" can
mean any specific day off from work. But if you say "holiday season", you're
generally referring to the month of December. Number 6: There's more to
England than London. I really like the city of London. I think it's such an
incredible multicultural city that's filled with so much history and life.
Though a lot of British people reminded me that there is so much more to England
and the UK as a whole than London. I think a lot of Americans probably feel
the same way about large cities like New York or Los Angeles. In fact, I had a
chance to attend a wedding recently in the English countryside,
about an hour west of London, and it was a great experience exploring the area.
Number 7: Military time is known as 24 hour time or clock. A lot of folks
asked me to clarify what I meant by "military
time". I realized that we're used to referring to it as "military time", but
outside of the US, it's really known as 24-hour clock or time, and is used a lot
more than we're used to. I spent four years in the Air Force, so I feel
comfortable reading 24-hour time, but I know a lot of people find it cumbersome
and difficult in the US since it's so rarely used. And finally, number 8:
Driving on the left side of the road. While I was correct in pointing out
that people drive on the left side of the road in the UK,
I definitely misspoke when I said it was just a "handful of countries". It turns out
that a "handful" is more like thirty percent of the world, so I stand
corrected. So, that's a wrap up of some of the things that I learned since creating
my previous video. I wanted to share what I learned as it might help you if you're
traveling to the British Isles (notice how I kept it very high-level) or if you
have friends or coworkers that are from one of the countries that makes up the
UK. Do you have any observations or thoughts? If so, please share them in the
comment section below. Also, I'm very excited to announce that we've just
passed our 5,000 subscriber milestone, so stay tuned for another big giveaway next
week. And if you haven't entered our giveaway for a Travelon Anti-theft
Urban Incognito backpack, then make sure you do so before the end of today. If you
enjoyed this video or found it useful, please give us a thumbs up and consider
sharing our video with others. Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.