10 Hilarious Differences Between Americans and British People

I didn't expect culture shock when I moved to Oxford, England in 2013. I spoke English, after all. I come from an ex-British colony. How different could things really be across the pond?

And yet as I quickly discovered, things were VERY different. It took me at least a year to get to grips with all of it, and even today, some differences still catch me off guard. These are the 10 differences between Americans and Brits that I noticed during my 6-year stay in the U.K. I spent three years in Oxford, followed by three years in York.

(Note: these are broad generalizations from my experience in the U.K. - they aren't true of every single British person!)

1. British people hate America... but Americans don't think about England at all.

When I landed in Heathrow, I had this generic image in my head of a British person: someone gentle, maybe a little bumbling, who enjoyed drinking tea, eating biscuits, and blessing the Queen.

But honestly? I didn't think about England or the English very often. By contrast, I found that when I revealed my nationality, many British people would want to spend a very long time discussing our politics, the state of the country, our lack of healthcare, our foreign policy failures, our abject racism, and many other shortcomings as a country with me.

Then they'd end their rant by saying: "Eh, but I guess Americans all think the worst of the British too, right?"

I'd truthfully have to reply that Americans did not think about the British very much at all.

It was extremely clear that the British have a (one-sided) enmity against Americans, which I found quite funny.

2. Nobody does small talk to strangers.

I stood out like a sore thumb due to my propensity for small talk. If I was at a bus stop, I'd chat with a nearby bus patron. If I noticed I was looking at the same section of biscuits as another shopper, I'd comment on the varieties.

This is something I've done since I was young. Coming from the south of the States, we believe everyone's business is our business. I loved getting a small glimpse of someone else's life through these micro-interactions.

One of my new British friends, Sophie, witnessed me do this once. As soon as we walked away from my new grocery pal, she asked, "Zulie, do you know her?"

"No," I answered.

"Then why were you talking to her?"

I explained my philosophy, really startled that things were so different in the U.K. Sophie told me not only do British people never do this, they also find it a bit awkward and uncomfortable when others do it to them.

(Quick aside - I lived in the south of England for three years, where this held pretty true. However, when I lived in the north of England, in York, I found the people there much friendlier and open to strangers.)

3. You're friendly to people you don't like, and downright mean to your best friends.

My attitude to making friends is simple: I pretend they're already my best friend. I invite myself over, I invite them over, I gush about them to them, I chat to them without any awkwardness or shame. It's always worked for me.

However, when I moved to the U.K., I noticed that my soon-to-be-best-friend was acting super weird when I tried this technique on her. She was very cold towards me. Hurt, I left her alone.

I found out years later that she interpreted my over-the-top niceness as bullying. She literally thought I was bullying her. Conversely, I found that as soon as I became friends with someone, they'd mock me relentlessly. I found out later that that's just something British people do. The better friends you are, the more mercilessly you get teased.

Eventually I learned to take it a bit better, but my British friends know to be gentle with me!

4. Brits brag about being hungover.

When I started drinking at the tender age of sixteen while on a year abroad in Germany, I learned the number one rule of drinking: never confess to a hangover. It's a sign of weakness.

That's why I actually laughed aloud from shock the first time I went to a biology lecture and overheard one of my classmates exclaim that they were "hanging out of their ass" from too much beer the night before.

To British people, a hangover is a point of pride. They go into work hungover. They go to lectures hungover. The more hungover you are, the harder you went the night before. I experienced many bonding hungover breakfasts with my friends as we tried to choke down our full Englishes.

5. Public transport is a given.

In the six years I lived in the U.K., I can count on two hands the number of times I stepped foot inside a car. (It's 9.)

No matter where I wanted to go, I could almost always rely on public transport to get me there. In the States, I got used to driving everywhere - even if just to the grocery store a mile away - and understood that you need a car to get around. That's why one of the biggest surprises for me was that in the U.K., it's normal to go days without getting into a car at all, especially as a student. Most of my fellow students didn't have cars and didn't miss them.

I found reverse culture shock to be harder to deal with when I came home. Suddenly, I felt stranded in my suburb, unable to get anywhere unless I drove. I had to either find or be the designated driver when we drove the three miles to our local bar. I grew to detest the sight of strip malls along the road, which were much less common in the U.K.

There are advantages to driving, but I really miss having the freedom not to. (This was one of the reasons I ultimately picked Boston - it's a very walkable/public transport-y city.)

6. Walking and cycling are not exercise - they're a commute.

This brings me nicely to my next point - in the U.K., walking and cycling are simply a way to get from point A to point B. I cycled or walked the half-mile to my lecture hall. I walked to the grocery store. Especially when I first moved over, I'd always wear exercise gear when I cycled anywhere, even if it was just a mile or two up the road. I slowly learned that a mile of walking or biking is not really seen as "exercise" but simply a commute.

This is partially because cities and towns are set up differently. I believe because British towns sort of sprung up organically, rather than being built for cars, it's much more possible and enjoyable to walk from your house to your local. Here in the States, I could have cycled the three miles to school, but honestly, it wasn't safe or easy to do so.

7. If it's 70+ degrees, it's summer.

Is it embarrassing to admit this? The main reason I wanted to come back to the States was because I missed summer. I grew up in the South, where temperatures of over 100 degrees and humidity levels of 98%-99% were the norm. By contrast, I found myself wearing jumpers well into the British "summer."

One of the funniest experiences I had while in the U.K. was when my boyfriend and I went to Scarborough for that day, which is considered a "beach" town. I put beach in quotations because the only beachy thing it had going for it was the sand. We went in May. It was perhaps 50 degrees. And there were people splashing around in the freezing water. I shivered under my layers to see it.

To a Brit, summer simply means any time between the months of March-October when the sun is out. Prepare yourself to see many pasty shoulders and legs bared in shorts and sundresses as soon as the thermostat shows any temperature above 70.

8. Pub culture is real.

It's hard to describe a pub if you've never seen one, because there's no real American equivalent. (I'm excluding gastropubs or the more commercial Spoons for the sake of this article.)

Picture yourself in a dingy, low-ceiling building with a series of connected rooms in a confusing layout. The floors are carpeted and smell like old beer. There are paintings on the wall, but not any you recognize. There are no TVs. There's no food, only some old crisp bags and maybe some peanuts. The lady at the bar greets you with a "What can I get you, m'love?" There are thirteen ales you've never heard of on draught.

You look in the corner, and there's an old man with his cap still on. He has an empty pint glass in front of him, and he's working on his second even though it's only 11 am. His dog sits quietly at his feet as he works on his crossword puzzle.

It's unbelievably comfortable. It's cosy, especially if you go during winter and the fire is blazing. The vibe is very alien to the typical sports bars I've been to, and it's not quite like a cafe either. If you're lucky enough to go to England and find a good local pub, you're blessed beyond measure.

9. Brits have mastered the art of the understatement

The weather in the U.K. is pretty consistent: grey, drizzly, and chilly for 4/5ths of the year. But one time we had an absolute snowstorm, very out of the norm. I remember it vividly because one of my lecturers commented to the snow-bedraggled class, "Bit of a spot of tricky weather, isn't it?"

This is a classic example of the British Art of Understatement. If things are terrible, a British person will say they are mildly inconvenienced. If things are going tremendously well, a British person will confess to having an OK time at the moment. If there's an emergency, you'll know for sure because of the calm, mild-mannered Brit letting you know that "you might want to consider exiting the building, as long as it's not too inconvenient and it's not a bad moment, as there's a spot of trouble."Once, I scored a near-perfect mark on a paper and was disappointed because my lecturer told me it was only "quite good."

It took me many months before I learned how to translate British Understatement into American English.

10. It's always time for tea.

I'd be remiss if I finished this article without including the tea. I knew British people liked tea, of course, but I was unprepared for how fully they were committed to it as a beverage.

When hanging out with friends, it was unusual if we didn't all have cups of tea. When arriving at someone's house, the host will instantly offer you a cup of tea. If you're at a lecture, you'll see many thermoses of tea that (hungover) students prepared to fortify them through the hours of learning yet to come.

I arrived in the U.K. more of a coffee person. I left as a full-blown tea addict, never happy unless I had a lovely warm cup of tea in my hand, at all hours and in all weather. I even learned to take it with milk, like a true Brit.

Six years of British living taught me this:

British people are very different from Americans. It may be the same language, but everything from the sense of humor, the manner of speaking, the way you treat your friends, and how emergencies are handled differs wildly. These were the ten main differences I experienced, but there were infinite tiny quirks I could write a book on.

If you're an American going for a visit or to live for years, prepare to be fully immersed in a totally different culture to our own. Don't take anything for granted (the British are surprisingly and devastatingly sarcastic when you least expect it). And get ready to enjoy a lot of excellent tea and beer while being made fun of by the people you call your friends.