Hello everyone. And welcome back to English with Lucy. Today, I'm going to talk to you
about 20 British quirks, lovely word, meaning peculiar aspects in someone's behaviour or
character. Essentially, I'm going to talk to you about some weird things that British
people tend to do. Huge generalisations are going to be made here. I would love for you
to let me know in the comments section where you are from, and if you relate to any of
these, or if it is the exact opposite where you are from. Before we get started, I would
like to thank the sponsor of today's video, myself. I have sponsored my own video. It's
not really a sponsor. I just want to let you know that I have launched my new website.
It is englishwithlucy.co.uk. I don't know how I came up with that domain. I am extremely
excited about this.
It's something that I've been working on for a long time. I've been a busy girl and I have
created an interactive pronunciation chart for you using my own voice. So you can go
on the website, englishwithlucy.co.uk, click on any phoneme and hear me pronounce it, and
also I pronounce a word containing that phoneme. You can have lots of fun making me repeatedly
say funny, sounding phonemes over and over again. Like, ah, ah, ah, ah, or you could
get a rhythm going with cha, cha, cha, cha. Okay. I'm going to stop, but I'm really proud
of it. You can also find the PDF which contains the transcript of this lesson with important
vocabulary. This is a great listening practise. I've also added subtitles to this video that
you can use. That's all there on the website as well. So click on the link or just go to
englishwithlucy.co.uk.
Okay. Now I've launched my website to all of you. Let's get started with the 20 weird
things that British people tend to do. Okay. So the first one is that we put carpet in
our bathrooms. Not everyone does this, but I am currently living in a house that has
a carpeted bathroom. And I will let you know that yes, we have had an overflow situation
with that toilet and in a carpeted bathroom, it wasn't pretty. So this is quite an old
fashioned thing to do. We don't tend to do this anymore, but if you go to a house that
hasn't been renovated or updated in a long while, or you go to the home of somebody who
is very traditional then yes, you might find carpet in your bathroom. We've got it here.
It wasn't my choice, but it's here. My grandparents have got carpeted bathrooms as well.
Number two is, "Waaay"? Okay. And this is something that we shout in a very, very specific
situation, which is this. When somebody smashes a glass in a pub, the whole pub should shout,
"Waaay." Sorry. I had to rerecord that. That was so loud. Now I worked as a waitress for
three years. I dropped a fair few glasses. We had to carry these drinks on tiny round
trays that you had to balance. I couldn't do that. So I've had my fair share of, "Waaays"
in my lifetime. Now my mother's best friend forgot where she was once. And she did the,
"Waaay" in Portugal. A restaurant in Portugal, some poor, poor waiter dropped a load of glasses.
They smashed everywhere and there was just my mom's best friend there on her own shouting,
"Waaay." The next one is number three, which is excitement over fireworks on Bonfire Night.
So on the 5th of November, all around the UK, we have bonfires. We let off fireworks
and we do this because it's the anniversary, the 5th of November of a failed attempt to
blow up to explode the Houses of Parliament. On this event we burn guys. And these are
dummy men used to represent the man who was going to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
He was called Guy Fawkes. So sometimes we call it Guy Fawkes Night as well. Now on this
night or on the evenings surrounding this night, depending when it falls, if it falls
on a Monday, then you might have it on the Saturday before, for example, people who have,
no experience or business dealing with explosives, get incredibly excited. They go to firework
shops, they do them in their garden, and it's just really dangerous. My dad always really
enjoyed setting up the fireworks and setting them off in a neighbor's garden.
And my mother was always absolutely petrified. She was so scared he was going to get hurt
and rightly so. And one day they played this terrible prank on my mother and all of the
other worried wives, they let off a load of fireworks and then they came screaming covered
with soot, with black ashes all over their face as if they had had the explosion in their
face. And the women went crazy and they were not best pleased to find out it was all a
joke. Number four, we think that a cup of tea will cure or help at least any bad situation.
And a lot of us genuinely believe this. When something bad happens, our first response
is, "Okay, I'll put the kettle on." If somebody told you some devastating news and you don't
know what to say, you can just say, "That's awful. Do you want a cup of tea?"
Number five is the phrase, Oh, go on then. Okay. Said like this, "Oh go on then." This
is something that we say when we are offered something that we know we shouldn't have,
for example, a very unhealthy food or maybe a cigarette or a drink of alcohol. When somebody
offers you something naughty or considered to be naughty, "Go on then, go on then." I
wonder if you have a similar phrase in your own language, I would love to hear it. Because
I think that's just such a key phrase in our vocabulary. Number six, Colin, the Caterpillar
Cake. Need I say more. Yes, I need to say more so that my viewers understand. Any British
person watching this will understand Colin, the Caterpillar Cake. They will probably feel
excitement running through their veins. Okay? A Collin, the Caterpillar Cake is a long chocolate
roll. I think that's what you call it.
It's a roll of cake, covered in chocolate with the face of a caterpillar on the end.
And if it was your birthday at school, your mum would buy you a Colin the Caterpillar
Cake. It was very easy to slice and lots of slices for all of the children. And if it
was your birthday, you got to eat the face. I remember my first Colin, the Caterpillar
Cake. I remember being served the face of this cake, and I remember it being disgusting,
but I ate it anyway because it was my birthday and because I'd earned it and I'd spent the
whole year watching everyone else eat their caterpillar faces. These are typically sold
in Marks & Spencers, a shop here, food shop here, quite a posh food shop here as far as
I'm aware. And if you ever go to a British person's birthday party, I really think you
should bring one.
It will make them so excited, probably. Number seven, something else we find ridiculously
exciting, way more exciting than it should be, J2O's. I don't know if you have these
in other countries, but they are a non alcoholic juice drink. Not juice, juice drink. That
means it's not 100% juice. The most famous flavour is orange and passion fruit. But the
thing is they came in glass bottles that were the same size as beer bottles. So when you're
a child and you were at a party, an adult party, you could feel like an adult with a
similar beer bottle. Very exciting. I remember taking it a step too far when I was younger
and taking my parents beers bottles that were green, Stella Artois always and refilling
them with Apple juice and carrying that around with me and completely confused when my parents
were so angry with me and saying, "No, Lucy you don't do that. Don't do that."
We also had another drink called Schloer, which was alcohol free, like a sweet grape
juice, fizzy as well. And I felt like such an adult when I had a glass of Schloer at
Christmas. Do you have any drinks that you used to have as a child that made you feel
grown up? I bet there are. Number eight is the phrase to pop. Okay? Sounds a bit random.
But we use pop in many phrasal verbs and it's a very warm way of asking somebody to come
or go somewhere. Do you want me to pop over? Do you want me to come over? It implies a
short amount of time. Why don't we pop down the road for a coffee? Why don't we just quickly
go down the road for a coffee? I remember one of my Spanish students in London, they
were appearing for a British family and they were so confused by the word pop because you
can pop around, pop up, pop down, pop over, just treat it as come and go.
Number nine, British people like to base the entire country's economic state on the price
inflation of a frog shaped chocolate bar called a Freddo. Yes, you heard that correctly. We
base our economics on a frog shaped chocolate bar called a Freddo. When we were young, Freddos
were known to be the most affordable chocolate bar. They were a little frog and they were
typically, I think 10 P when I was young, I remember being given a pound to spend on
sweets at a party. I could have one big packet of sweets or I could have 10 Freddos. The
logical answer is to go for all of the Freddos. However, every time I see the price of a Freddo
rise, I am outraged and the rest of the nation is too. I'm going to search now, current price
of Freddos. 25 P, 25 P. So what... That means I could have bought 10 and now I can only
buy four. That is outrageous.
Okay. Number 10, pigs in blankets, we get so excited about this particular food called
a pig in blankets. It is a little cocktail sausage wrapped in bacon. And typically we
only have them at Christmas. There's no reason for this. We could have them every Sunday,
but if you go to a pub and your Sunday roast comes with a pig in blanket or some pigs in
blankets, it's the best roast ever. We absolutely love them. "Oh, you already have them at Christmas,
why is that?" Number 11 one of our most popular TV shows is a TV show of people watching TV
shows. It's called Gogglebox. I imagine this concept has arrived in other countries now.
They basically film families, watching the TV highlights, and then they compile their
witty remarks and then we watched them. It's a very good programme. It's very metta. Number
12 dog poop in Facebook groups.
Okay. In the UK. And I imagine in lots of places in the world, we have Facebook Groups
for our local community. So I'm in quite a few of the surrounding villages and towns.
And there is a new phenomenon and it is the people that are getting so frustrated with
people not picking up their dog poop, especially if it's on someone's property or on their
front lawn. People are taking to taking pictures of the dog poop and posting it in these community
groups. I don't know about you, but I normally check my phone for the first time in the morning
when I'm about to take my first bite of breakfast, normally porridge, and to have porridge approaching
my mouth, opening my phone and seeing a massive dog poop, it's just not ideal. So now people
are rebelling against the dog poop posters and there is just, Oh, there's just huge civil
unrest online at the moment.
Those who want to shame the dog poop leavers and those who want to shame the dog poop posters.
It's very complex. I hate dog poop, it's absolutely horrendous, but I also don't want to see it
all over my Facebook Timeline. I've seen enough. We know it's a problem. Number 13, drinking
in rounds. When we go on a night out with a group of friends, we drink in rounds, which
means if there are five of us, instead of everyone buying their individual drinks, one
person will buy five drinks and the next person will buy five drinks. I'm sure many of you
are aware of this concept. I'm sure it has a different name where you're from, but the
very British thing to do is to shout, "Whose round is it?" When you know exactly whose
round it is, and you just are trying to make them actually by their round. Because there
are a lots of people who will participate in rounds, wait till last and hope that they
won't actually have to buy that round.
Thus escaping with a lot of free drinks and a very full wallet. And it's very annoying.
Now we can be considered quite passive aggressive. So instead of saying, "It's your round, go
and buy your round," just shouting, "Whose round is it?" Is a much easier way to avoid
confrontation. However, my fiance, he said at university, there was one guy who was so
bad at buying or paying for his fair share of drinks that they actually grabbed him,
marched him to an ATM, a bank, took his card out and forced him to take out the money.
Some people are adjust what we would call here, tight. If somebody's tight, they don't
like spending a lot of money. Number 14 is we can't always be bothered to use an umbrella.
It rains so often, and not unless it is absolutely pummeling it down, I didn't mind getting a
bit wet.
I remember when I was in Spain, the minute the first drop hit anyone's hair, they would
whip out their umbrella. Everyone had it. Everyone knew the weather. I just never knew
how people kept track of whether it was going to rain that day or not, but it was more of
a rare occasion there. And it's very, very common here. So I did use to walk into my
classrooms, soaking wet sometimes just normal. Number 15, we don't put fridges in the eggs,
wrong. Number 15, we don't always put our eggs in the fridge. I don't know if this is
weird for you. I remember going abroad and seeing fridges in the eggs, fridges in the
eggs. I remember going abroad and seeing eggs in the fridges. I remember some fridges arriving
with egg holders. I thought that was so weird. Now, I like a nice room temperature, egg.
Oh, yes.
Why does that sound like a nuendo? 16, this one goes without saying we are obsessed with
the weather, even if it's so boring, "Oh, it's slightly grand windy today." We will
tell you that, "Oh it's a bit grand windy. Isn't it?" It does change so much that it
is quite entertaining. We've got, sometimes we don't have that much in our lives to talk
about. So the weather is just a really good one to go for. Number 17 scone or scone. Okay.
This is the conundrum. And actually there's a part two to this conundrum as well. That
is a baked good, which I call a scone, but other people call it a scone. And there's
a big fight, a big divide in the UK about whether it is a scone or a scone. I don't
want to get involved in that.
I'm not going to say scone is wrong, but I do prefer scone. Scone [inaudible 00:17:01].
The other part of this conundrum is the order in which you put toppings. Typically we serve
scones or scones with jam and clotted cream. They are absolutely to die for. If you come
to the UK, make sure you have an afternoon tea with scones or scones. Now I always put
clotted cream first, then jam. But some people will swear you have to put the jam first,
then the clotted cream. I'm not going to tell you, which is right.
You're just going to have to try it out for yourself. But I think logistically cream first,
then jam. Number 18. We are terrible at ending conversations. Honestly, this is the most
annoying thing ever. There is a huge culprit of this, and this is my fiance, Will. Typically,
when we want to end a conversation, we will say, "Right," and kind of, "I need to be heading
off." Or, "I must get a move on." Or, "I need to get going." But for some reason, some people
really struggle with this. And when you have two people that struggle with ending conversations
coming together, you could just go on for eternity. It's really, really troubling.
You all right?
Yeah. Could you hear that?
Yes.
Come and say, hello. Admit to your problem. This is Will, don't worry about his face.
You know your problem. You're almost perfect.
Is it on ending conversations?
It was ending conversations.
Yeah, it's a tricky one.
It's fine if you were talking to someone who can end the conversation, but it's when you
are with another person that also finds ending conversations difficult.
Well, it's nice to get out. Isn't it? [crosstalk 00:18:51]. It's really tough here for everyone.
Maybe to it.
All right. I'm almost done.
Cool.
Number 19, we really overuse the word, sorry. This was further solidified in my mind last
night. We watched Bridget Jones and there was the scene where Mark Darcy or Colin Firth
and Hugh Grant were fighting and they were knocking over things on people's tables, in
a restaurant and they were still apologising. We just can't help it. I find myself apologising
for apologising too much.
Number 20. The final weird thing that British people do is consume a lot of pre-made sandwiches.
It's a bit of a random one, but there is something very exciting about going on a short car journey
and stopping off for lunch. And lunch will be a pre-made sandwich in a box. You can get
them from petrol stations or you can get them from supermarkets. I know Tesco does something
called a meal deal, where for a certain amount of money, you get a sandwich, a snack and
a drink, and people absolutely love it. And they try to get the most value from that meal
deal. They say, you can tell a lot about a person from what they choose for their meal
deal, but I've travelled to a couple of countries and I've never seen the sheer amount of options
for pre-made sandwiches that we have in the UK.
It's crazy. Every flavour, every feeling so creative as well. Prawn is my favourite, Prawn
Mayonnaise. I absolutely love it. The Christmas range is in full swing at the moment. We have
turkey and stuffing sandwiches. Awesome. I saw a [reduct 00:20:34] La Roche sandwich
the other day. I wouldn't say it's something I recommend. Actually, if you want to have
a British experience, when you come over to the UK, go to a petrol station, buy a sandwich,
then you will feel like a Brit, right? On that note, that's the end of today's lesson.
I have got the full transcript of this video with important vocabulary on my new website,
englishwithlucy.co.uk. I'll link it down below. Don't forget to check out the interactive
phonemic chart. Very, very excited about that. I can't wait for you to make me sound like
a robot. Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook,
my Instagram and my website and my email list as well. I will see you soon for another lesson,
mwah!