Americans living in Britain have revealed what annoys them most about life on the other side of the pond, with answers ranging from the price of train travel through to ‘roving bands of lads’ at weekends.
The debate cropped up on Reddit, where one user asked Americans who had settled in Britain: “What annoys you about our country?”.
One person shared an entire list of their pet peeves, which included ‘fruit and veg wrapped in plastic at the supermarkets’ that are 'so clearly designed to make you spend more and horrible for the environment’, getting coffee in a ‘little 8oz cup’ and ‘the general undercurrent of the class system’.
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Not finished there, they added: “Roving bands of lads on a weekend night. Get them one on one during the week? Perfectly pleasant, lovely chaps. However when they stand next to each other on a night out they get strangely loud, aggressive, and totally obnoxious. Having said that that’s probably not unique to the UK!”
Someone else wrote: “During that one week a year when it’s hot, I hate how rare it is for anyone to have AC.”
Another said ‘at first it was shops closing at 5 or 6, and trains stopping on the tracks’, but that it had developed into a hatred for the ‘lack of directness’.
One person also said they don’t rate Brits’ ‘giant’ plugs, ‘upside down’ light switches and ‘not being able to plug things in in the bathroom’, while many admitted they weren’t too keen on the ‘double taps’ in bathrooms.
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Another Redditor added: “Lived here pretty much since 1991 and I would say the lack of housing and the cost of what is out there. We saved for decades and only a year ago have been able to buy a home in our late 40s. So I feel the pain of other younger Brits trying to do the same.”
One other also said: “How freaking expensive train travel is. I live in South London and spending more than £30 to get to somewhere that’s maybe 1 hour away by car is mind boggling.”
Things got a little weirder when one person offered up ‘toilets that don’t flush’, explaining: “This is not exotic technology. We know toilets were invented here. You pull the handle, it should FLUSH. The ones that work like a bilge pump make me just want to commit crimes.”
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Responding to their comment, another concerned user asked: “Not sure what you mean there, have you been pooing in the urinals?”
Jess Hardiman