Wow those are interesting laws. Where did you find them? Or do you have any more for us?

I always find those sort of dumb laws interesting, I think there are some dumb American laws that I remember as well, I'll get back to you on that

 

I think Lincoln is the best place to live imo, I really want to move there.

Although I've never found a place I've hated yet, I do dislike London as it's very smelly.

It's got fantastic history and remnants of a roman wall running through it.
Scotland is beautiful but to remote and I don't drive, so that would be a major obstacle for me.

I remember one law which say's you can't leave your parish for another, on a sunday without permission from your church. Also there's one that says if you ask a police man to show you a toilet, if he can't find one within 20 minutes you can pee in his helmet.

It's also illegal to kill a swan as they belong to the queen.
I used to know loads but I've forgotten most of them.

We also have some weird regional traditions, like cheese rolling and washing your hair in may snow.

I like learning about superstitions too because my family is very conscious of them. Like in my village it was bad luck to use the front door, and when someone dies you have to close all the curtains.

Litha

 

In my opinion East Anglia is the best place to live. It has just the right balance of urban and country.

There's enough green fields and forests for it to feel like the countryside, yet enough urban areas so that the nearest shops are never that far away.

Add to that the fact that it has the lowest crime rate in the UK and that it's within a reasonable distance from London. The only problem is that houses here are damn expensive. Even beach huts are expensive lol. I believe the most expensive beach hut in Southwold costs 150,000 pounds...

 

thats rather expensive

 

It's not too expensive, in northern ireland a good four-bedroom family home with an averaged size garden is about £450,000 and the average price for them is going up. Even in better areas they can go as high as 600,000 which i think is pretty crazy.

'Course for a beach house, 150,000 is a lot.

 

Wow, how do people come up with the money to buy that?

 

Not many people can afford it, which is why our housing market is in crisis.

Usually people who have quite well paid jobs buy houses, working class families just rent social housing.

I mean my dad bought his pit house (they used to be owned by the British Coal Board), when he paid for it it was around 35,000. Now it's worth about 75,000.

My dad and his brother are the only people I know, who have their own house. Which they both bought from the coal board, before all the pit closures of course.

Litha

 

I was lucky in that aspect, my parents inherited my house from my grandparents before i was born. After a bit of renovation it wasn't too bad.

 

What is the standard 'How are you going'/'How are you doing?' phrase in England? I know in Australia people say the former to mean 'How are you?' but you would never hear that in America (in fact no one would know what you meant)

Also, how prevalent would you say the term 'bugger' is used for a swear word and what level of swearing would you put it at?

What level of income would be considered low/middle/upper class in England?

Is "No worries" a common phrase?

 

As far as i know it's just 'how're you' or the equivelant. It changes from person to person. I've also heard people say 'how's you (kinda slang)', 'what's new' or just 'how are you' if it's more formal/serious.

Bugger is a very mild swear word, and not overly common. Kinda like damn or damnit. Or it can be a noun in some cases, ie. you bugger. But that's not very common.

I don't know about income, i think upper-class is probably anything above 50-70 000 pounds a year.

No worries is used but not extremely common. I hear no problem or don't worry far more often.



Btw, this is only were i live; northern ireland. Most speech/grammer is similar but their could be a lot of differences i don't know about.

 

I would say that lower class income is under 20,000; middle class 20,000 to 35,000, upper middle class 30,000 to 60,000; upper class 50,000+.

You will notice some overlapping. Also, it should be noted that class is not just defined by income or wealth: a person could be a millionaire and still be lower class.

To be upper class you generally have to be a land owner and have to have inherited a load of wealth - income isn't so important.

Of course, it is politically incorrect these days to say that classes even exist, so hush-hush.

As for bugger, it is often used and seen as a mild swear word, but I believe officially it is quite a strong one.

As for greeting people, we don't really have a national greeting... I say everything from "Howdy" (in a poor American accent) to "G'day" (in a half decent Austrailian accent) to "how's it going?"...it really depends on my mood.

 

Well in my area the lowest wage is around 11,000 a year, the middle wages being between 25k-35k, with the highest having no limit.

You also have a layer of unemployed with benefits of 5,000 a year. That's just counting Jobseekers allowance. If you're disabled there is Incapacity Benefit, Disability Living Allowance, Income Support. This would bring your income up to 6,600 a year approx. People of low income can also get Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

Income Support is also given to single parents along with Family Allowance
Most of it is a pittance and keeps you in a poverty trap, if you're not careful.

The class thing is more of an issue the further north you get, although most of Wales is considered working class.
There was a period of political correctness where class was ignored. Although as the gap between rich and poor is even bigger, it's kind of had a revival.

I haven't really heard it mentioned down south but, as my area is predominately unemployed it's a bit more obvious.

I use bugger when my mums listening, a bit like bloody.

Round my way people use 'Hey up' as a greeting, or 'oi, you' if you're being rude.

Litha

 

There's this saying that I find intersting that my Economics teacher told our class:

If everyone in Britain were to walk past you in 60 seconds, and their heights were proportional to their incomes, then for the first few seconds you would have a load of sub-terrainian beings, then about 40 seconds of dwarves, then about 15 seconds of normal height people, then for the last second you would have people who's heads were above the clouds.

I suppose that's true for pretty much any society, but it's a clever saying.

 

class isn't determined by income, so much as blood, family, connection, bearing and opinion.

 

I thought I'd post the British system of film/music/game age classifications.
I'd be interested to know how they correspond to FF.nets classifications.

U - Universal (unrestricted admission)

PG - Parental Guidance. some scenes may be unsuitable for young children

12 - Passed only for persons of 12 years or over

15 - Passed only for persons of 15 years or over

18 - Passed only for persons of 18 years or over

If a Hollywood production has enough money behind it, and a target audience with a lower age than the certification classification would allow, then they just create a new one specially. (i.e. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring's catchy rating "PG Fantasy violence and battle scenes may not be suitable for under 8's")

From end of August 2002
The 12 rating is revised to a 12A which allows the under-twelves to get in with an adult. But there will be a warning under the certificate explaining what type of naughtiness might be in the film.

Litha

 

I hadn't thought of that Litha, nice one. It should be noted that ireland has a different system, or board of ratings or something.

What I came to the thread to post about today was that what americans call an Ice Box, is actually called a fridge. The fride stores things that need to be chilled but not frozen. For freezing thigns we use a freezer.

In middle class families, fridge-freezers are quite popular. Its the one tall unit, maybe 7 or so feet high, split about halfway down to be separate the fridge unit and the freezer unit. we rarely have the gigantic damn-near-large-enough-to-be-a-walk-in freezers that seem to be very popular in america, or at least thats what folk here think about them. They are horrifically expensive.

As a matter of interest, in america, how old does somethign have to be before folk start to think of it as old?

 

It should also be worth noting that some people still use pantries.

A pantry is basically a cool storage cupboard. Also fridges/freezes are classed as white goods, due to them usually being white in apearance.

Thanks Mordecai. I've wanted an american style fridge for ages, but the cheapest is £900.

Litha

 

Those are the same things that we have here, and they're called refridgerators, or fridges for short. In fact, I don't think that I've ever heard anyone call a fridge an Ice Box. And I've never seen a "damn-near-large-enough-to-be-a-walk-in freezer."

It's not really the age that defines someone as old, but they're appearance. If there is some guy with a Santa Claus beard that's only 40, he's considered ancient. But on the flipside, if there is a man with thick, colored hair on his head and a more youthful face, and is 40, he's considered just "adult."

Go figure.

 

i was actually thinking about buildings Fue, how old are they when folk start to think of them as old.

 

Ok, a question for all the brit-pickers here:

Asshole

Do Brits say it (as an insult, not as an object)? Or is it maybe arsehole? Maybe there's some replacement for this word?

Another one on the same note:

Smartass

Or maybe Smartarse? Also a replacement?

Any more ass/arse insluts you'd like to share?
I've searched the whole thread for 'ass' and found none... wait that didn't sound right...