An international student examines the stranger habits of our tea-sipping, apology-loving island.
Being surrounded by international students at uni is great. You get to learn about their language, their culture and their country. But have you ever wondered what they think about British life? Here are the ten questions that every international student asks themselves!
1. Why do British people eat dinner so early?
6pm? Really? What are you supposed to do for the rest of the night? How do you not get hungry two hours later? Coming from a country where having four to five meals a day is commonplace, my English flatmates’ meal times really confused me.
2. Also, why is lunch called dinner and dinner called tea?
I was offered tea and was given a plate of food instead of a teacup. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t complaining – who am I to turn down food? But why doesn’t the whole country just call it the same thing so there’s no confusion?
3. Why am I always being asked if I’m alright?
Do I look lost or upset something? How do I respond to this? The first time someone asked me this question, my response probably confused them. I genuinely thought they were concerned about me!
4. Wait, I get to call my lecturers by their first names?
This is considered really rude in my country. Coming here, I felt so uncomfortable calling them by their first names. As far as I was concerned, all my lecturers were called Excuse Me for the first few weeks. Now we’re on first name terms and it’s all good.
5. Why are crumpets so good?
Coming across these was like finding gold -cutting it open and watching the butter melt and ooze through the crumpet, thinking it can’t get any better than this. But then it does! You take your first bite and you’re in seventh heaven and you just forget about everything for a little while. Mmm, crumpets.
6. How are people this polite!?
There are so many things that will make a person say sorry. I've now learned to never, ever say 'it's okay'. Apologise back. Immediately.
7. Why don't bus drivers wave at each other in every country?
Seriously, this makes my day.
8. WHy do you queue for everything?
Coming from a country where pushing and shoving to get to the front is commonplace, this was a total shock to the system. Getting tuts and dirty looks in public left me licking my wounds for days.
9. What's the obsession with tea?
There is always an excuse to drink tea here and I love it!
10. How are there are so many different accents?
I’ll be in Morrisons just doing my thing and I overhear people speak in this language I’ve never heard before. So naturally/creepily I linger to see if I can figure out which country they’re from. Almost half of the time it turns out they’re just from another part of Britain.
That's it!
Got any more questions about British life? Tweet us at @StudentHutUK and let us know!
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