British things that just make sense (except not really)

the UK is full of British things that just make sense to British people only hi everyone it's me for those of you who don't know me my name is atanta and I'm a Canadian but I have been living here in the UK for the last 7 years and today I'm going to show you things that just make sense but not really so without further Ado let's go plugs do you mind if we talk about plugs for a few minutes so welcome to the floor this is like behind my chair where I normally film hi have a look at my plant he's going crazy anyo this is the flood light that I use for most of my YouTube videos like behind my chair and it is plugged into this beautiful Outlet here British things that just make sense this this is so stupid but I've never seen this before having power outlets or power switches on plugs I'm not using the right word I've never seen onoff switches power switches on Outlets that's what I'm trying to say now when I first moved to the UK nearly 8 years ago I know my God am I still relevant I hope so this drove me crazy because I was obsessed about turning everything off at the plug and I'm sure some people say oh it saves you money if you turn it off at the plug does it really where's the data on that now let me tell you I wasn't really doing it for the money concept I was doing it because I couldn't stand say it's like this where this one is off and this one is on and there's nothing in it wow I can't no no no now nearly 8 years on my OCD around the onoff switch on plugs has kind of died down but I'll tell you there's there's one at the gym this is so cringe there is a outlet did you hear that truck outside sorry there's an outlet at the gym there's never anything plugged into it it's just there it's like where all the lockers are and stuff so I see it all the time and I go in never anything plugged in but if one of the sides is on and there is nothing plugged in you know I'm turning it off I literally can't stop as a Canadian I spent a lot of time in America as well as a North American never seen this across the pond with the little switches um just fascinating and it's one of those things that you never really think about until you move to a foreign country and you're like wow the power outlets are weird aren't they here in the UK your vacum might have a face on it yes who doesn't love Henry look at that little smile hey guys atanta here oh look at that face anyway do you know that I live stream on Twitch it's a little bit like YouTube after dark it is a very funny community and it is free if you want to hang out so I am there every Sunday and Wednesday nights starting at 5:30 p.m. local time here in the UK I will just say a lot of people see the word twitch and they think video games and they're like I'm not interested which fair I get it sometimes we play games but more often than not we're just hanging out sometimes I'll do a craft it's really just a community live stream hangout so please come join us at twitch.tv/ adventures and apps if you follow me on Twitch you'll be notified every time I go live but I am always there Sun and Wednesday nights now I can safely say that my vacuum back home in Canada did not have a face a personality or a family did you know that yes of course we have Henry but there are many other in Henry's family like way more than I thought I had to write them down because there's so many so of course we have Henry the patriarch of the Hoover family but we also have Henry Hol Henry pet Henry allergy Henry extra large plus Henry cordless Henry wash Henry e and Henry extra then we have heti seemingly the only female Hoover um we also have heti but yellow and heti but lilac then of course we have James George Charles and Harry the whole family is here now years ago I used to have just the Classic Henry Hoover and as much as I love his little face and his little smile I actually kind of hated it there was something that was so frustrating about hoovering vacuuming my flat and he his little squat body would get stuck on a corner on an edge of something and i' be like tugging to try and get him loose drove me crazy crazy I don't like vacuuming on the best of days so when Henry got stuck on something I was going to lose my mind now I will say I didn't know this and I don't know how well known this information is but did you know you can get like the Henry range but in like the the newer design where you're not pulling around his his carcass behind you his little body he's like in the upright situation did you know that those exist because they do leave a comment down below do you have a Henry perhaps Henry extra or Charles even or heti the yellow one stairs now here in the UK the first floor is not actually the first it's the second now this one still confuses me and the problem I have now is I can't remember what North America does versus what the UK does like when I'm here I don't know is it the Brits that do ground floor first floor or is that America so it's actually first floor second floor I just I can't keep it in my head which one is which so at this point if like I'm going to an appointment or something and they're like oh we're on the first floor do you mean the first one or the second one do you mean the ground floor first floor first floor second floor in my humble opinion ground floor first floor makes s sense I get it but also first floor second floor it makes sense too doesn't it or is that just me I guess my main problem is like I don't know which country does which so when I'm in any country I just hope it never comes up in an important conversation because I just can't remember ground floor first floor I don't know another British thing that just makes sense well of course it's browsing hours now I naively did not know this was a thing until it was too late so one day I went to the gym um and I realized that I didn't have something for lunch like I literally just needed like chicken and one other thing and I was like okay well I'm disgusting from the gym but I'm just going to pop into Morrison's real quick just run in get my things and go home so I get to Morrison's I grab my two things I run over to the HS and they're all shut and I thought is something wrong like something happened there's nobody at the tills but also the self checkouts were locked you could not use a self checkout so I'm standing there and I'm disgusting because you know sweaty and gross and I'm holding my two things and I realize that there's like a little cue around the self checkout I was like I don't understand what's going on we're all just standing around like lemons and then I realized it was the stores browsing time which still blows my mind so basically there are laws around trading hours in stores on Sundays so from my limited understanding for large shops in England and Wales so shops of like a certain square footage on Sundays they can only be open for six consecutive hours between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. but what I didn't realize is this particular Morrison opened at like 9: so you had this like hour browsing hour right so the store is open and you can browse but the shop is not legally trading the only time you could actually check out would be between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. so like I get it it's like a little mini loophole the store's still open if you're doing like a big shop you know you could Mosey on through the store but you cannot check out until 10:00 a.m. it just I get it but it's also so weird especially now with so many self checkouts which is what I use right normally I just have a couple of things I just want to run through self checkout and get out right and so seeing the self checkout it's all locked and all of us just standing there with our stuff just it was a real cultural experience for me hello I would like to talk about British TAPS in particular how much I love this one now of course British that just make sense I'm talking about separate hot and cold Taps now you might be saying Atlanta that's not a separate hot and cold and yes you would be correct I have lived in four different properties here in England this is the first one that has this a combined tap now historically Taps were kept separate because hot water was stored differently than cold water um I think hot water was usually contaminated and so they were trying to keep the the water streams separate so you'd have two Taps you'd have your hot tap and you'd have your cold tap and the thing that I always loved is the hot tap would scold you immediately and the cold tap would be like ice so if you needed to wash your hands or God forbid wash your face you have to decide do I want to scald my skin so badly that it falls off or would I like to be frozen the choice is yours now I'm very grateful for these I never thought I would even think about this kind of thing cuz of course combined Taps are the standard in North America you might see separating really really old homes but otherwise no you ever just think about your life like I never considered one day I would be here talking about a tap and how much I love it but here we are do you still have separate Taps leave a comment down below and if you do I'm so sorry it sucks I know it's just one of those things that really made me question my own existence I just hated them so much you know what I totally forgot about them until this video and I was like wow I am so grateful for this another British thing that just makes sense is asking someone if they're all right and praying they don't actually answer you want to be polite but you don't actually want them to respond now this really threw me for the first few years living in the UK because back home in North America if somebody asks you are you all right it's because you look like you're going to die the only time you would ask anybody in North America are you all right of course Brits usually say you all right they drop the are you all right are you all right is because you look really really bad you're either actively crying or you're so horrible looking that they think you might pass away so here in the UK When a Stranger would ask you all right I thought my instinct my gut reaction was like wow I must look terrible today but of course it is a very non-committal kind of greeting here in the UK Brits will ask you all right they really don't want you to answer in any sort of meaningful way because that would be quite awkward they're just trying to be polite it's just like a throwaway greeting so back home in the US and Canada it's very similar to saying like hey what's up it's not really like a deep question you're just kind of like hey how's it going you just sort of like it's a throwaway line personally I don't say you all right to strangers because it sounds so bad in my accent like I just can't you all right so I can't say it yet um and I was kind of feel a little bit bad when I don't say it to to a British person I don't want to seem rude it's just like it sounds so heinous in my accent but if you are a foreigner here in the UK whether you've come to live or to work or for school or just hanging out if a British person asks you all right you better not answer okay don't tell them about your or latest doctor's visit or um about how your cat just died or like your your your favorite TV show just ended and you're really upset or your boyfriend dumped you okay no no no no no don't say any of that simply respond saying yeah you another British thing that just makes sense a cup of tea can solve all your problems bad day at work have a Cupa just been dumped have a Cupa your house just burned down your job made you redundant and your wife left you have a CA I've definitely turned the corner on tea I never drank tea in Canada ever like probably twice in my 22 years of life living in Canada and I still have a coffee every morning that's not going to change but there is something to be said okay there is something to be said about a nice Kaa and sometimes especially now beautiful November it's actually sunny out today which is shocking but guess what that Sun is going to set at 4:12 and it's going to be dark and depressing and you know what I am going to have a Kaa and it will solve most of my problems something that still I really struggle with especially um here on YouTube is how do I put this pronunciations British people what is going on the UK knows how to spell words and how to pronounce them in ways that you would never imagine recently I did a video about bombfire night um and there is a place in the UK spelled like this that has a huge bombfire celebration it's very famous lots of people watch videos about it um to me that looks like lse okay I'm an English speaker that looks like lse however people tell me it is pronounced LS okay we also have this one which again as an English speaker English is my first language contrary to popular belief I would think this looks like by Chester right kind of segment the word by Chester something like that no not close how about bister this one is a personal favorite I'm just looking at look at all those letters wow would you ever look at that and think oh I love Chumley even the river temps when I look at that word in my head I'll tell you right now well let's be honest I'll tell you between you and me I say themes in my head I see that word and I say themes it's just you'd think I'd be over it by now but I just I can't and God help me if I say the river themes out loud no no no River temps I know it's River temps don't worry about it but in my head it's a different story and of course this word which I refus to pronounce so we're just going to leave that one there and that is just like the smallest list ever I've done videos on my channel like trying to pronounce places um and it just it never ceases to surprise me year after year I hear a new one and I think there's no way that word is pronounced that way I'm so sorry part of me thinks the UK does this to be funny you know hundreds of years ago they got together they wrote these towns and cities and Villages they wrote the names and they said you know it be really funny if this is actually pronounced Chumley wouldn't that be funny leave a comment down below what is a British thing for you that just makes sense if you'd like to watch another video which would be totally awesome why not check out this one is British food better than the knockoff versions but as always thank you guys so much for watching and until next time bye

Channel: Adventures and Naps

Views: 114,140

Keywords: british culture, american vs british, uk culture, british food, great britain, british vs american, us vs uk, weird british things, adventures and naps, alanna naps, expat in the uk, immigrant in the uk, foreigner in the uk, living in england, living in the uk, british things that just make sense, weird british things that don't make sense, british people, stand up comedy, american in england, american reacts to uk, american reacts, american reacts to uk england

Id: 5at0XpEsMdI

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2023