Americans Don't Understand British Communication: here's why

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[GirlGoneLondonofficial]

Please leave your best "what I'm saying is not what I actually mean" saying or phrase below!

[oopsdidItypethatoutloud]

Can you check if the window is open = close it
Can you check that the window is open = open it
❤ from Northeast England ❤️

[longbeardbobson]

'When you get a minute' DOES NOT mean 'do this now'. If someone has asked you to do something, it is important to them and they want to see it done but they also want to show respec to your time and work by recognising that you might have something more urgent to work on. Show repect in turn by managing your time to fit it in.

[skellious]

Just to add: does anybody want anything? Is very much a genuine question. But you should only ask for things that wont inconvenience the person, and always try to give them the money for the thing you asked for (they may refuse, and you dont have to keep insisting)

So if i say im popping out to greggs for lunch, does anyone want anything? It would be reasonable to ask me to pick you up a sausage roll as greggs sell those. It would not be reasonable to ask me to stop by McDonalds on the way and get you a burger.

[jonathanmccoll]

Heard a joke once, but punchline phrase is standard Scottish.
A professor of language lecturing students in Glasgow pointed out that in some languages a double negative in a sentence meant a stressed negative (that is not NOT real), in others it meant a positive (that is not unreal), but you could never get a double positive to mean a negative.
'Yeah, right' shouted one of his students.

[domsdos]

When Americans say "You're doing great, great job!" it just sounds like the most insincere thing anyone can say.

[tibsie]

A lot of this sort of thing is due to the desire to not appear rude.
We don't want to actually call out a boss/coworker as an incompetent idiot, we just want to heavily imply it.

[ceejay]

I have a counterexample to American directness. The context was a rafting trip with a group of Brits, in which the guide was American, and we came to a stretch of river that required us to paddle really hard. We were giving it everything, and the guide called out "That's good!", and we thought she was pleased with us so we kept paddling like crazy. A few seconds later she called again "I said that's good!" We carried on, until finally she yelled "Stop!" at which point we stopped. She asked "Why did you keep paddling when I said 'That's good'?" Apparently in American that means something like "you've done enough so you can stop", which was far from obvious to us. It seems that not everything in American communication is as direct as you might think!

[tomburnham]

British doctors know that if a patient says "Oh, by the way..." at the end of a consultation, that's what they're mainly concerned about.

[davidcook]

Being a Brit that worked for US companies for over 20 years, I can tell you, your video is absolutely brilliant.
You should start a corporate British / American communication company.
You do not come over to the UK and in front of all her employees, tell them that their female MD, here, is full of spunk.

[andyleighton]

Had a mate at university, somewhat older than us, who described everything from absolute perfection to an utter clusterfuck as "marvellous" - it was all in the pitch and spin, you knew exactly what he meant.

[winterlinde]

German here. Having watched so many American YouTubers complain about The German Directness, this is fascinating. 😊

[thisisnev]

As a British native with Asperger's, I feel your pain. But be assured, it only takes a few decades to figure it all out!

[johnwillett]

First one - asking you to check THAT the window is open means it needs to be open - asking you IF the window is open means that it needs to be closed.

[owensmith]

UK born and raised here. I immediately thought of Yes Minister the TV series: "Brave decision Minister" which of course caused the Minister to go into paroxysms of worry that it was an extremely bad decision.

[jockeyladjockeylad]

Following a fire at the welding/fabrication shop I was working at at the time - a hydraulic pack had sparked off &, despite us emptying six fire extinguishers on it, was cheerfully consuming several million pounds worth of equipment not to mention severely damaging the building - & all we could do was stand at a safe distance & wait for the Fire Brigade - my manager turned to me & said "That's a bit unfortunate, isn't it?" To which I replied "Yeah - I think we are going to have a little bit of trouble getting this weeks orders out." An American listening in would probably think we were experiencing a minor inconvenience rather than watching half the business go up in flames.

[laadygeeke]

My (northern English) husband taught me (southern English) to understand his mother. When i asked her if she wanted something, if she said "i don't mind" this was an enthusiastic yes. If she said "I'm not bothered" that meant she *really* didn't want it.

[philipjolly]

Your last point about the statement - ‘when you get a minute’ doesn’t mean do it now, it means that I don’t know what you are currently doing, or how important that is, so can you do what I am asking as soon as you can!

[watcherzero]

The 'Im just popping out for Lunch, does anyone want anything?' Isnt a hard and fast I dont want peoples orders, they will often be quite happy to get one or two items like a chocolate bar or a can of drink for one or two people. They just dont want ten people giving them a full lunch order.

[davidrhodes]

We Brits are masters of sarcasm, banter, and not saying what you mean. Unless someone from another country is VERY aware of this, i can imagine how difficult it would be to get to grips with it 😂😂