America versus UK

[chell5544]

^^ i can see why look at that view lol

 

[Leids]

This is what the 'high rise' apartments/condos look like from my city (actual image from my city):
https://liveworkplaywilmington.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Exterior-dusk1.jpg

And soda (fizzy drinks) is typically what's offered here to adults, generally kids aren't supposed to have any due to sugar and caffeine. People in the midwest US call soda 'pop'.

Since I live in a Chinese household it's generally just tea and coffee for me though. Occasionally I'll do mountain dew or root beer.

My husband actually got offered a temp position in the UK with his company but turned it down due to the obscene cost of living. We would be scraping by whereas here we're doing really well. Pretty crazy!

 

[keela]

One "weird" thing I've noticed about the US is that while in the UK if you were a guest at someone's house you would normally be offered tea or coffee, in the US you get offered fizzy drinks! Pepsi, Coke etc.! I never realized until I lived here how much fizzy drinks are part of the culture here. Back in UK I always got the impression they were more for kids... I don't know many British adults who drink coke etc. regularly, everyone drinks tea! But in the US, it seems like fizzy drinks are the normal grownup drink to offer guests? Am I wrong?

ETA: I drive my inlaws mad because I hate fizzy drinks and always insist on just drinking tap water haha. D:

Yeah... Everybody drinks "fizzy drinks" some really health conscious people won't drink them but its rare in the south where I live. Around here all fizzy drinks are called "coke" there I a running joke that in the south if you ask for a coke they will reply "what kind" lol
Up north they are called "pop" and my friends from the Midwest call it soda or soda-pop. It cracks me up to hear the different words

In my house right now I have coke, dr pepper, ginger ale, fanta orange, and sprite. Although the coke is caffine free.

 

[staralfur]

Canadians make fun of people who call it "soda".

Generally I'd only offer someone coffee or tea if it was morning, or after a meal. Otherwise it's pop, juice, water...or beer or wine, depending on the company.

 

[erikab922]

When I lived in the States I never drank pop (POP IT IS CALLED AND SHALL FOREVER BE SUCH, SODA-DRINKERS BE DAMNED) but *everyone* I know did, hellloooo diabeetus. I drank iced tea morning noon and night. I miss it so so much. My best day ever would be to go to a diner (don't have them here) and sit down and have someone bring me a pitcher of iced tea. Not sweet tea, just regular iced tea. I think I'd cry.

Oh, and about high rises - I used to work on the 76th floor of the Sears Tower (SEARS TOWER IT IS CALLED AND SHALL FOREVER BE SUCH, WILLIS TOWER BE DAMNED) and you'd look outside and it would look lovely, you'd go out for lunch and it would be raining. We were above the weather!

 

[Bevziibubble]

Wow that must have been amazing. I've only ever experienced that on a plane!

 

[erikab922]

Wow that must have been amazing. I've only ever experienced that on a plane!

It was great until it was a windy day and the building would sway - even worse when you're in the elevator (sorry, lift) and because the elevator shaft can't move but the building can you'd get all rattled around going down and then they'd have to suspend service - and by suspend I mean literally, they'd put the brakes on the elevator and you'd be suspended like 60 stories in the air waiting for the wind to die down. Fun times!

 

[mommy0629]

Do Americans say faucet instead of tap? I alway used to wonder what that meant!

Both actually lol. I'll say "tap water" but if my ds leaves the water running while brushing his teeth for example, I'll say "turn off the faucet". We also use the term tap to refer to beer in a bar (pub) that isn't canned or bottled, it's from the "tap".

The pop/soda thing, I'm in the north and NO one here calls it pop, you'd get looked at weird, that's more of an old fashioned term. We call is soda. and if you ask for a "coke" it means whatever cola soda the place has (could be Pepsi or any other brand, we still ask for a Coke LOL).

EDT: Oh, and I almost never keep soda in my house, I drink water and coffee mainly, ds drinks water, milk or juice and dh drinks iced tea. I drink hot tea also so I usually offer guests coffee, tea or iced tea. We only really drink soda if we're out to eat or brink home fast food or take-out. And at parties or cookouts in the summer.

 

[Bevziibubble]

Wow that must have been amazing. I've only ever experienced that on a plane!

It was great until it was a windy day and the building would sway - even worse when you're in the elevator (sorry, lift) and because the elevator shaft can't move but the building can you'd get all rattled around going down and then they'd have to suspend service - and by suspend I mean literally, they'd put the brakes on the elevator and you'd be suspended like 60 stories in the air waiting for the wind to die down. Fun times!

Yikes that sounds scary! I'd feel like the building was going to topple over if it started swaying

 

[keela]

Do Americans say faucet instead of tap? I alway used to wonder what that meant!

Both actually lol. I'll say "tap water" but if my ds leaves the water running while brushing his teeth for example, I'll say "turn off the faucet". We also use the term tap to refer to beer in a bar (pub) that isn't canned or bottled, it's from the "tap".

The pop/soda thing, I'm in the north and NO one here calls it pop, you'd get looked at weird, that's more of an old fashioned term. We call is soda. and if you ask for a "coke" it means whatever cola soda the place has (could be Pepsi or any other brand, we still ask for a Coke LOL).

EDT: Oh, and I almost never keep soda in my house, I drink water and coffee mainly, ds drinks water, milk or juice and dh drinks iced tea. I drink hot tea also so I usually offer guests coffee, tea or iced tea. We only really drink soda if we're out to eat or brink home fast food or take-out. And at parties or cookouts in the summer.

That's weird. Everybody I met from PA at college always said pop lol must be regional in the state too lol

I have a question for all you UK peeps... What is squash? I keep seeing post about drinking squash and I keep picturing putting a straw into a zucchini or yellow squash LOL

 

[Wildfire81]

Here's something I've wondered- do you get village/local shops in America or do you always have to get in the car and go to a big supermarket to buy just little bits like milk/ a paper?

I generally go to Sams Club for anything I can buy in large volumes (toilet paper, diapers, soda) and a supermarket for thing I use weekly (milk, bread, meat). Sams once a month supermarket one every week. I drive what I am sure would seem big in the UK, a newer Cadillac deville. Our roads can be good or bumpy, depending on how lazy the city was being with the repairs. Oh, and my paper gets delivered. They toss it in the yard usually.

 

[Tasha]

Squash is a juice that you put a tiny bit in and add water

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?img...2jmUIrsBceY1AWx7YCoBg&ved=0CE4Q9QEwBA&dur=914

 

[maisie78]

I think squash is called cordial in the US. You add a small amount to water to make it flavoured. A bit like Crystal Lite but in liquid form. They do sell Robinson's squash in some supermarkets where a lot of UK tourists go (have it in Wal-Mart and Publix in Fl) but it costs a bomb.

 

[KittyVentura]

FAUCET!!! THAT'S what she says. Since I was a girl the scene in Grease with the ear piercing sleep over baffled me as to what was said when co was asked for. But I think it must have been "why don't you let the cold water run and stick her ear under the FAUCET"

DUHHHHHH

 

[lozzy21]

If a newspaper boy tossed the paper in the garden their would be hell on, through the letter box or nothing.

 

[kerrie24]

FAUCET!!! THAT'S what she says. Since I was a girl the scene in Grease with the ear piercing sleep over baffled me as to what was said when co was asked for. But I think it must have been "why don't you let the cold water run and stick her ear under the FAUCET"

DUHHHHHH

Yeah thats it!

 

[kwood]

If a newspaper boy tossed the paper in the garden their would be hell on, through the letter box or nothing.

In my last job in the U.S. I was stilled payed with an actual Pay check (cheque) and some bugger used to steal (knick) our mail (post) out of the mailbox. We had to get a PO box at the post office in the end. I like that the post comes into my house through the letter box.

One thing I do miss about the U.S. is drive up bank tellers. Here I have to drive to the town centre and pay to park just to visit the bank (luckily people don't deal in cheques that often anymore). That being said I really miss free parking - almost everywhere you want to park in the U.K. and you have to pay. Even had to pay to park at the hospital when having my LO.

 

[urchin]

Couldn't care less - enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

 

[CeeDee]

I’m late to this thread, but I love it.

We have two different accents in my city (West Baltimore and East Baltimore). LOL

We call it soda here too, but we typically don’t keep it in the house. We drink punch or kool-aid/crystal light.

 

[Mrs W 11]

When I lived in the us I missed squash so much!! There was nothing similar for me to drink!

Others are.....

Plaster = band aid
Lorry = truck
Spring onion = scallion
Courgette = zucchini
Loft = attic
Bath = tub
Rubbish = garbage

Xxx