American Reacts to Embarrassing Mistakes I Made In The UK

hey y'all welcome to the channel today we're checking out embarrassing mistakes I've made in the UK as an American these are probably things I would do as well let's check it out so that is a mistake again with a group of American friends not really started in the middle of the sentence waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting being like Oh my God the service is so slow here I know stupid Americans seriously hey guys welcome back to the girl gone London Channel if you're new here my name is Kalyn I'm an American I've lived in the UK for almost 10 years and today I'm letting you laugh at my embarrassing moments expert okay [Music] okay so I'm someone who strongly believes in laughing at yourself I like to think I don't take myself me too seriously I like that also you can't when you live in a foreign country because there are always going to be mistakes that you make and faux pas and just stupid things you do that you have to just laugh at because otherwise you would spend a lot of time adjusting here being very very uncomfortable I feel like no matter where you move to whether it was a Brit who moves to the US or an American who moves to the UK or someone who moves to any country in the world there's always going to be some sort of cultural mistake that you make I do not care all the people who comment things like you should have done your research before you moved to the UK because then you would have known every single thing about it and nothing would be new and you wouldn't make any mistakes unrealistic there's a lot moving to a new country from you can only imagine figuring figuring out like housing and how that works to basic language versus the U making mistakes and figuring things out because you looked stupid and did the wrong thing is just part of what we sign up for now if you like watching videos about life in the UK as an American definitely make sure to hit subscribe I feel like I say this kind of um in a lot of videos now and it means nothing but basically it really helps me out it helps you be notified that videos are available and who wouldn't want to spend your time watching me in my room talk about the UK versus the US also bonus points if you're a British person watching this and are interested in life in the US my Visa is supposed to come back very soon which means that I will be on my way to the US in not that long and I promise I will show you the grocery store aisles I'll show you the drive-through ATMs I'll show you all the weird and wonderful things that happen in America so make sure to hit subscribe for that content later on okay let's get on to the list so I made a list of the embarrassing moments slash mistakes I've made in the UK as basically an ignorant American who wasn't aware of the culture so let's begin number one waiting to be sir served at a pub we don't have pubs in the U.S obviously yeah and obviously we might have like an Irish Pub they call it or whatever yeah but it's not really we're familiar with what happens in a restaurant where a waiter or waitress comes over to serve you and you sit down the idea in a pub that looks to us like a restaurant a lot of them but the fact that you need to go up and make your own order is often lost on us particularly when I first moved here about 10 years ago I have definitely been in that group of American students again I was like 19 so let me off the hook a little bit but I uh we were waiting at a pub for someone to come and take our orders spoiler alert that's not how it happens absolutely not how it happens you need to in a pub go up with your order and tell them your table number I feel like I would have done that after like five minutes of waiting clock Where You Are but if you sit there waiting nothing will happen besides people will think that you're stupid or as well I believe after a long long period of time I think someone realized that we were Americans and had no idea what was going on and did actually come over to tell us what to do um so maybe you'll get lucky but you should know that just in case okay the next mistake I've made is waiting for someone to bring me the bill or check as we would say um in the US at the end of the meal so I'll do a whole video about eating out in the UK versus the us but in the UK the waiter or waitress is not constantly coming around checking on you I mean they are coming but not to the extent that would probably bother me and more importantly I'm spoiled I'll give you the bill until you ask for it wow you bring it with your food half the time yeah a little bit after this is just our culture in the states that's how we're used to it working and you know that you pay when you're finished but in the UK that's not going to bring your bill oh that looks good you ask and are ready for it you could sit there all night and they just basically think that you're chatting and that you want to be there and you're not ready for the bill yet so if you want the bill brought to you you need to ask for it so okay that's interesting I feel like in the United States the idea behind bringing people their bill is to like increase the turnover of who's in the restaurant but another approach would be I guess the UK thing is they want you to maybe they want you to buy as much food and things before they bring in the bill so that like that's a bigger Bill more money for them maybe it's a different strategy I don't know how's it work for the bill yet so if you want the bill brought to you you need to ask for it so that is a mistake that I have made again with a group of American friends not realizing when we first moved here waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and being like Oh my God the service is so slow here I know stupid Americans seriously and completely missing the idea that service is very different in the UK and that you do need to ask to basically finish your meal and pay the bill and they're not rushing you out the door like they often do in the U.S okay the next embarrassing moment I've had in the UK was responding to somebody who asked me or who said to me you are right with uh basically what was wrong with me at the time so the phrase all right or you all right which I know probably sounds weird coming for me it sounds much better coming from a British person but it's essentially a phrase that means what's up how are you there is no actual uh feedback required on how you actually are it's a greeting however we don't have this greeting in the U.S and so it sounds to us like someone is saying oh yeah are you okay yeah that sounds like a deeper question we do have the question how are you and you usually just respond with good how are you good and that's it but if someone came to me and said you all right I would think that they were really concerned for my well-being and that I needed to explain to them that yes I'm I'm fine thank you so I I get that it's just that's funny like someone is saying are you oh hey Sunny us is a very like caring thing it is kind of sensing that something is not okay probably emotionally or it could be like physically with someone if they've fallen or something right and saying are you all right does not mean the same thing here so I was feeling I think uh probably like homesick or maybe it was the winter and I wasn't happy about it and I was feeling I'm pretty sure I shared my actual feelings with some poor person who asked me if I was all right that's not the answer they expected uh so definitely make sure that if you do move here from somewhere else you get familiar that the phrase all right you all right or are you all right you all right basically this means what's up thank you please respond in a non-committal non-emotional way oh hello there I can't believe I just did that um okay today's question is if you could live in any country in the world which country would you live in and why and I mean like finances and your real life situation don't think about those just think about which country not would you like to visit but which country would you like to move to so that you can experience these embarrassing expat moments for yourself Switzerland go and let me know interested to hear what people think would you go to the US would you go to Europe would you go to Australia would you go to South Korea where in the world would you like to try and live okay back to my embarrassing moments okay the next embarrassing mistake I've made in the UK is missing my stop because I didn't realize that I had to press the button on a train to open the door and again you guys are going to be like who is this girl and why do I watch her YouTube videos she is clearly not the sharpest you have to push the button on the train in London you don't have to press the button on the tube for the doors to open in fact you look a little bit stupid um the buttons will like press in but it doesn't change anything so I've gotten used to taking the tube in London and things just happened automatically I took a train further outside of London um not always how the trains work so they will light up um and then you have to press the button to open or release the door and I was so panicky about why the door wasn't opening automatically that's one of those little things yeah it was stuck I'd be like being the one who needed to yeah or so I missed my stop and had to uh go back at the next stop and retrace my stuff that's frustrating very stupid um but it's just something that you know every city is one of those little things you need to know somewhere else where it does happen automatically or you're used to London know that outside of London a lot of trains uh are not going to open automatically you gotta press that button if you want to get off at the next stop okay the next mistake I've made is ordering still water when I wanted tap water but didn't realize that I needed to actually say tap water order tap water why would you want tap water in the U.S I didn't realize that we had so many different types of water I feel like I feel like when we order water we usually just get tap water at a restaurant a lot of times um maybe not in a fancy place but I'm not that fancy so in the places that I went and then I go we usually don't ask and it would usually be yeah probably here you've got tap water which is the free water which came out of like a hose in the back or you have still versus sparkling water and still water is amazing regular water um in like a glass jug or something and sparkling water is like okay um fizzy-ish water yeah so when a waiter or waitress comes to you at the table and says do you want still if you order water and they say do you want still or sparkling my first reaction was well I don't want start sparkling so I guess still is the other option but no there's a third option you should say oh actually can I just have tap water and don't drink tap water the but they don't always offer that to you depending on how fancy you are you sometimes have to be the one to actually ask for it so I ended up paying for it and getting Still Water instead of the free tap water that I wanted okay the next mistake I've made is looking the wrong way on the street now this is very much oh I'm sure I would do that I drive on the opposite side of the road yeah um in London in particular knowing how many International visitors there are they often have signs when I go to England I'm not driving it's on the street look left or no right to help you out which I think is really useful and really helpful but still if you go on autopilot it's very easy to look in the wrong direction to see if cars are coming I'm sure and you've put yourself in actually pretty dangerous situation so the best rule of thumb if you're not used to driving or having the traffic flow be on the other side of the road you should always look three ways you should look left right and left again or right left right again which way does It Go um just look all the ways as many times as possible back and forth back and forth until you're sure no cars are coming from either direction don't go off your gut that tells you which way to look because especially if you've just moved here it's going to be wrong so the next mistake I've made in the UK as an American is going to the wrong floor of a building so in the UK the floors of a building start with the ground floor and that is floor number zero that is the ground floor and floor number one starts the next one up oh first floor of a building is not the floor that opens to the street oh yes we start with one as basically the ground what what is the ground floor here the one that opens to the street so when people give you instructions on oh yes you can go up to the fourth floor uh your employer is ready to interview you end up on the completely wrong floor searching and searching and searching for the off office that doesn't exist because you're on the wrong floor but you don't realize that would confuse me yeah you you are an American who's just a minute here and clearly has not watched enough British television or YouTube videos to figure out what the situation that's another one of those little things don't do that make sure you keep in your mind that the ground floor of the UK is the first one and number one does not get labeled until you go one up from the floor seems very weird to me okay the next mistake I've made is a pretty funny one that has to do with language and accents so um depending on where you live you might be familiar with something called Spar which in my accent sounds funny to me you know everyone around me says Spa it's basically like a convenience store like a tiny grocery store in our like in villages around us and for the longest time people would say oh we should go to the spa shop or oh can you pick up some cheese from the spa shop and she heard Spa maybe they didn't say Spa shop they just said like a from spa resort and in my head I'm like I don't understand why first of all that's kind of an odd store to have but okay maybe they sell like I don't know like like bath soaps and things like that oh can you get some and I was like cheese from the spa makes no sense British people are very strange why are we buying cheese in a shop for the spa bar itself turns out it's spelled s-p-a-r I would call it Spar should I call it with their accents it sounds like Spa so that was something for the longest time that I was like I don't understand this Spa shop and they basically just meant this Spar little convenience store um finally it clicked but it was one of those pretty funny moments of me realizing based on accents that I was hearing something completely that would be confusing to what they were trying to say for sure and the last mistake that I've made in the UK is not understanding British humor particularly British humor when they insult you and then it's supposed to be a joke but you take it as an insult because um it sounds like they said something really mean about you and that's not what they meant I give you an example much better grasp of British humor now um but it's still something that's very difficult to adjust to as an American A good rule of thumb is a British person is often not going to insult you to your face they're going going behind your back and talking to you to everyone in the village I'm fine with that family um or just kind of to their significant other they're not going to tell you to your face usually um that you are stupid that they hate you they're just gonna like smile and pretend that they like you okay I'm okay with that do insult you it's probably a joke probably um it's just part of the culture often times of like taking them or it's like your friends Josh and yeah banter showing that they accidentally if you're an American moving to the UK or living here definitely try and like read the room does this person have a reason to hate you again if they do hate you they're probably gonna pretend to your face that they like you because hating someone opening to your face is far too much confrontation for most British people I've met so if you're insulted usually take it as a joke that's just part of the humor so I made that mistake a lot of us thinking that people were saying really mean things about me and I didn't understand and my feelings were hurt until I kind of realized that it was part of the humor and just the way weirdly enough that they can show affection a really interesting video there's got to be a million tiny little things like that that just don't come up often or people just don't talk about like pushing the button on the train for the door to open the spa I think it would make life a little more interesting to have those little things confusing you I like to get lost every once in a while a great video thanks for recommending if you have any other recommendations put them in the comments below thanks for subscribing and I'll see y'all next time bye

Channel: JJLA Reacts

Views: 25,580

Keywords: Cross-Cultural Encounters, Cultural Learning, International Perspectives, Interpersonal Growth, Global Reflections, Cultural Differences, UK Adventures, Cross-Country Insights, Personal Development, Language Mix-ups, Cultural Awareness, Humorous Misunderstandings, Global Connections, Navigating Diversity, Cultural Immersion, Learning from Mistakes, British Culture, Cross-Cultural Communication, Embarrassing Moments, Friendship Across Borders, New Experiences

Id: hrOJNG53sM8

Length: 18min 3sec (1083 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 12 2023