A British mother who moved to the US with her family has revealed some of the most surprising differences she noticed – and one of them left her confused.
Posting on TikTok, Caroline – who moved to Boston – shares her experiences of living in the US. One big difference she noticed was “how sensitive” Americans are compared to Brits.
In the recent video, she said: “I didn’t realise how sensitive Americans are, everything is very very literal. Like I could be like ‘the sky is blue’ and someone will argue with me and say ‘sometimes it’s red’.”
But she added that Americans have been “very welcoming and very friendly” despite their apparent sensitivity.
Recalling a kind gesture from a neighbour, she said: “Our neighbour came round with a bag of popcorn and it said ‘Just popping around to welcome you!’ before she broke into light laughter and joked: ‘Ha, that would never happen in my country’.”
After moving to the East Coast, she said she finds more people on her wavelength. “People [in Boston] are a little bit more firm which is a lot more like British people and I think I land better with Bostonians than with southern people”, she explained.
The Brit also confessed that she wasn’t aware of the array of accents Americans had, saying: “I think that probably goes both ways”.
“I just thought it was like California, and East Coast and Texas. I didn’t know that there was like a Minnesota accent – I love it.
“My husband says Minnesotan accents sound more Canadian than Canadians”.
And while a lot of Brits are jealous over America’s vast fast food collection, Caroline isn’t the biggest fan.
“I think Chick Fil A is one of the best foods”, she said, speaking of the popular US chain. But she found ordering food confusing, explaining how the “waiter walks away with your credit card”.
She added: “In the UK they have to do your payment at the table. You would follow them and be like ‘Give me my card back’ because there’s so much fraud with that.
“It’s weird how in America most things are signature still, and even chip and pin but contactless is not really a thing here. I know some newer places have it but it’s not as common because in the UK you could just not go out with your bag at all, everything’s on your phone”.
