‘What’s a British thing you thought was normal until you realised it’s not?’ – 23 uniquely UK-based oddities

You might think people from other countries have some interesting and strange ways of doing things, but have you ever considered that it’s actually British people who are the odd ones? What’s completely normal to you might be utterly bizarre to somebody new to the UK.

The fine people on the AskUK subreddit have been chewing this over, after user sacrebleu92 asked ‘What’s a British thing you thought was normal until you realised it’s not?’ and followed up with their own example:

You ever have that moment where you mention something completely normal (to you), and someone from another country looks at you like you’ve lost the plot?

For me, it was when I found out most countries don’t have separate hot and cold taps. I just assumed everyone either burned or froze their hands like we do.

There were plenty of people ready to jump in with their own oddities.

1.

‘Pantomimes. Have an annual trip to one with work and my coworkers from other countries were so baffled by the concept.’
–Extension-Tip113

2.

‘Christmas Crackers. I was talking to an American friend about them the other day and they were completely mystified.’
–Atomlad360

3.

‘Apologising for not smoking if someone asks if you’ve got a lighter. ‘Have you got a light mate?’ ‘Sorry, I don’t smoke’.’
–Outrageous_Giraffe43

4.

‘Bathroom light switch outside the room or on a string.’
–SequinSquirrel

5.

‘Washing up bowls. Apparently this is something that utterly baffles Americans.’
–International-Bed453

6.

‘I’ve heard that using the term ‘fortnight’ in a meeting with US colleagues elicited much amusement. Who knew?’
–Chinook2000

7.

‘Putting crisps in a sandwich. Most of the world don’t seem to be able to get the idea and find this akin to pouring coffee on a salad.’
–tradandtea123

8.

‘Having manners for people disembarking trains, allowing them to get off before barging on. DEFINITELY not common amongst non-Brits I have noticed.’
–MonkeyGooch123

9.

‘I think things like growing a prize marrow might not make sense to someone from a warmer climate.’
–VanishingPint

10.

‘Costa coffee! Thought it was a global brand but I was very wrong.’
–BoxmanPwnz

11.

‘Litter and vandalism. I discovered that litter and vandalism weren’t givens when I visited Switzerland on holiday as a kid forty years ago.

Among the clean streets and parks, there were giant public chess sets, the boards ungraffitied and the giant wooden pieces unmarked and, bafflingly, unstolen. In the UK, they’d be gone/destroyed within a week.’
–OminOus_PancakeS

12.

‘When I was clearing out my mum’s house after she died, I found an old matchbox containing my baby teeth. I showed my Romanian partner, who looked absolutely horrified and asked why anyone would keep a box of teeth? I tried to explain the tooth fairy but it took a while to convince him that this was an actual thing that British people did.’
–maliciousopera