“Perhaps you might like to think about….”

We had a 9-5 training on cultural awareness and differences regarding living and working in the UK from a British woman that lived in the US for about 14 years. Here are a few things I learned.

• Typical British impression of Americans: loud and superficial
• Typical American impression of British: stiff and formal

•It takes a very long time for things to change in England because they like things the way they’ve always been and cling to the past

•British are non-confrontational and speak indirectly to avoid confrontation.
o If my supervisor says, “maybe you should consider it this way”….she actually means that is how I need to do something.
o READ BETWEEN THE LINES….There’s probably a hidden message a Brit wants to convey.

•British enjoy humor and are fairly sarcastic, but probably mean what they are joking about.

•It takes a long time for a friendship relationship to form.

Kent management has this same training -- only reversed -- next week. I wonder what they will say about stereotypical Americans?

Some more word differences
Pants = underwear
Trainers = tennis shoes
Hair slide = barrette
Queue = line
Bobby = cop
Guillotine = paper cutter
Plaster = band-aid
Car park = parking lot
Chips = French fries
Crisps = chips
Restroom = loo, toilet, w/c (water closet)
Mom = MUM --- I wish I was kidding.