What I Learned While Abroad in England

This is the first post in a study abroad series that I will writing over the next few weeks.

Last September, I left the US for a 9 month adventure in England. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Though even with all the internet browsing I did before I left, I wasn’t fully prepared for what greeted me when I arrived. 

I had a wonderful experience living in England. I am so thankful that I had this opportunity and I wouldn’t change any of it; even the hard parts.

I thought I would share some of what I learned with you. Hopefully those of you who are thinking about studying abroad and/or are interested in another culture will find this post interesting and useful. 

Without further ado here’s some of what I learned:

THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

In the US when you enter college or university you do not have to decide on your

major right away. You can explore a varity of different subjects and areas of interest. You also can take a few years before declaring your major. This is not true in England. 

The univeristy system in England is very differnet. When you apply to your schools you state what subject you would like to study. Once you started univeristy and are taking modules (classes) it is hard to change you course (major). As well, there are not as many options for electives. However, there are fewer exams over the course of the year.

This may only be true for my univeristy, but it is my understanding that this is true for almost all English universities.

EVERYDAY CUSTOMS

There are many everyday customs that are very different from what I experience here in the US. They took a little getting used to, but by the end of the 9 months they all seemed relatively normal. 

Some of the main differences I experieced were greetings, and customs regarding talking to strangers. In the north (which is where I was living) a common greeting is “you alright?” At first, I thought this was greeting similar to the US’s “Hi, how are you?” I was wrong. It is simply a greeting that is used like “hi” or “hello” (at least for the most part). I had to go through a quite a few awkward conversations before I finally got used to not actually answering. 

In regards to talking with strangers, you often don’t. While visiting London, I experieced a very quiet ride on the Undergound. While on buses in my city I found that you don’t really talk to those around you. You may talk to your friends, but it’s not very common to strike up a conversation with the random person sitting next to you. 

Another custom that took a little getting used to was the use of knives and forks. I learned that it is unpolite to eat your meal without using both a knife and fork. I’ve grown up on the West Coast of the US, and here we mostly just use our fork and if you can’t cut you food with the edge of it, then you would grab you knife. By the end of my stay I had become a more adept at using both ustenils for the entire meal.  

UNIVERSITY LIFE

The college lifestyle is also a little different from what I experienced in the US. Since the drinking age is 18 in the UK, drinking is a much, bigger part of university life. There was a pub and a club on campus. Many of the sports and clubs had social nights, which commonly invovled drinking and going out. This took a lot of getting used to, espcially since I am not much of a drinker.

Also, in the UK students seem to have fewer class hours. Again this has just been my experience, but it seems relatively universal for English universities. Because there are less class hours, you end up having more free time. This was an adjustment, and even by the end of the year I wasn’t entirely sure I liked it. It was sometimes hard to make myself study outside of class (the expectation that comes along with having fewer in-class hours) when I had the “time” to go off and do something else. Even so, it was a nice expeirence and I learned a lot about how I prefer to study. 

FASHION

I have to say right from the start that I don’t know a lot about fashion, but have been getting into it more over the last couple of years. Coming from the West Coast, I am used to a lot of outdoors clothes and styles as well as a lot of color and patterns. During my time in England, I was surprised at few people  I saw wearing bright outfits. I saw a lot of people wearing dark and neutral colors more often than I would have in the US (even in the winter). I didn’t see nearly as many patterns as I see here in the US. However, I did like a lot of the styles I saw and have started to impliment them into my own wardrobe. For example, I have a grey jumper that I got while in Edinburgh, Scotland and I absolutly love wearing it. 

VOCABULARY

I could go on for ages about the differences in words and sayings. I always found it fasinating to learn new words. It was also very statisfying to finally figure out a meaning of a word I had been hearing for weeks.

There are so many words that are different between British English and American English.

Here are a few of my favorites:

bobble – hair tie

tea cake – dinner roll (this one is only in certain areas of England)

fringe – bangs

dungerees – overalls

noughts and crosses – tic tac toe

quaver – eighth note (for music)

takeaway – take out (I heard this one all the time)

touch wood – knock on wood

zebra crossing – cross walk

I had a wonderful time in England. I can’t wait to go back and see the friends I made while I was there. Studying abroad allowed me to learn about another culture in a way that I could never do at home. The things I’ve mentioned above are only some of the many customs and lifestyle differences I saw while in England. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you have any requests for posts or questions regarding studying abroad or my time in England please let me know in the comments or via the Contact Me page.

 Be on the look out for the next post in the series; it should be out some time next week!