Thursday 22 February 2018

15 Amusing things International Students find odd

So this term, as I've been becoming aware of more and more British things my international friends find weird. Now obviously some of these may be odd things I do, and it's likely more nationalities than I've mentioned think the things are strange, but you get the jist! Obviously plugs, which side of the road we drive on, binge drinking, North/South divide and queueing came up but that's nothing new!

1. Two Tap System (China, Poland, Spain, Cyprus, Italy, Germany)
2. We wait outside the room (at uni), whether it's for labs or a workshop, until the lecturer is there we'll remain outside. It just feels wrong after the years of school where it was a rule (Romania, Scotland)
3. How big the cucumbers are (Iraq, Cyprus).... and the size of the chickens (Poland)
4. This is a satsuma. (Lithuania, Germany, Cyprus)
5. Using multiple words for the same thing in one sentance. I'm very guilty of this in the case of America as my mum if from there. I can easily use USA, US, The States, America, United States all in one train of thought. (Spain/Germany)
(similar...)
6. Number of words we have to mean drunk (Hong Kong)
7. Ignoring each other in the street (Portugal)
8. How many accents we manage to have in such a small area (Spain)
9. Never seem to dress for the right weather (France)
10. The word "acknowledgements" (Lithuania)
11. Saying "maybe" or "We'll see" when we mean "no." (Germany, Hong Kong)
12. Using tea bags, not one of these! (Romania)
13. (my housemate was upset this came up) (Spain, Venezuela)
14. Our cuisine:
          Chips and Gravy (Cyprus)
          Love for Gravy (France)
          Eating eggs without salt (Germany)
and my favourite... "the pride the British have on their cuisine (is) a bit ridiculous considered by that it is not very varied and without any indigenous ingredients" (India)
15. TV is very strange, I can sympathise...

Now what's going to be really interesting, is if everything goes to plan, I'll be an international student next year!! It'll be amusing to be in this situation from the other side!