Hello this is Jack from ToFluency.com,

and welcome to this English lesson

where my wife and I are going to have a conversation

about our recent trip to the UK.

So stick around if you want to learn

some conversational English.

And if you want to know some of the differences

between life in the UK and life in America.

So Kate, welcome back to the channel.

- Thank you, it's been a little while.

- Yep, and if you are new here,

then Kate and I do these conversation lessons

so that you can learn conversational English.

And definitely check out the description for phrases,

and also some resources that will help you

improve your English including my free book,

the "5 Step Plan for English Fluency".

Okay, so firstly, we visited the UK a few weeks ago now,

and we spent about two weeks there.

And we visited two countries in the UK,

England and Wales.

Now how was your overall experience been in the UK?

What stands out to you on that trip?

- So first of all, even though we have been to the UK

several times as a family,

and I had been to the UK several times

before even meeting you,

I have never been to Wales before.

So that was completely new to me.

And also

this is the first time taking our son,

who is five and a half years old,

where he will remember this trip,

most likely. - Or at least have,

well one specific memory which we might talk about later.

But just to give you some context,

if you didn't know, Kate is American, she's from America.

I'm from the UK originally,

but I've been living in America for a few years now.

So personally whenever I go back to the UK,

I always see it with fresh eyes.

So everything seems new again.

Everything seems like I'm exploring it for the first time.

But then after a few days, it feels normal.

- It feels normal.

So what stood out to you

in those first few days

that you didn't remember or you remembered differently?

- Yeah, great question.

So for me, and I've mentioned this to everyone I've seen,

who asked me about the trip,

but the food.

- Oh yeah?

- Yeah.

- Good, bad?

- Amazing.

The food in the UK is really good.

It has a very bad reputation, right?

Everyone in America thinks food is bad in the UK.

But the meat and the cheese is just outstanding.

- And the produce.

- And the produce.

Fruits and vegetables, right?

- Yeah.

- But I think one of the reasons

that the meat is really good,

do you know what the reason is?

- I have a guess.

Should I tell? - Yes.

- I think that a lot of the produce in general,

and especially meat and cheese,

is from small local farms

where you can see that the animals are getting outside

and just having a better healthier life.

- Yeah, so especially when you're on a train

or when you're traveling on the motorway,

you see cows and sheep everywhere.

They're in the fields, they're outside,

and you see so many cows and sheep.

And in America it's not something you see.

- Yep. - But also the cheese.

(laughing)

I had so much cheese.

- You had so much cheese.

What's your favorite kind of cheese?

- Lancashire cheese.

Which, they say about Lancashire cheese,

that it doesn't travel very well.

Which means that it can't be distributed in long distances.

- Did you have any Lancashire cheese?

- Yep.

- You did?

- Yeah I bought some Lancashire cheese from that local shop.

And it was delicious.

And then you can have brown sauce on the Lancashire cheese

or Branston Pickle, which is very good.

- We don't have as many pickles or sauces as you do.

It's basically ketchup.

- What is?

- The sauce. - Oh here?

- Hm mm.

- Yeah, ketchup and mayonnaise.

- Ketchup 90% of the time.

- Is mayonnaise as popular as it used to be here?

Or is it just our friends, maybe?

- That's a great question.

I don't know.

- I'll look up the statistics later.

But yeah, food was excellent.

Meat and cheese, which I really liked.

And

(chuckling)

What else stood out to me?

I think that people are a little bit more direct in the UK.

Which,

all right we can work this out

because I'm not exactly clear on this.

- Go on.

- Because people talk about

people in the UK being very reserved,

and not as outgoing.

So if you're on public transport,

then everyone in the UK is staring.

They're not really looking at people

and making conversations.

Not that it happens a lot anyway.

But people aren't as open.

So if you are out on the streets

and you pass somebody in America,

you always say hello.

- Often.

- Often, but in the UK it's not as common.

- Sure.

- But I find that with your friends,

people are a little bit more direct.

They'll say what they are thinking.

Did you pick up on that?

- I think that there's a combination of things.

In general, I think that Americans are friendlier.

- Hm hmm.

- Or the expectation is that people will try to be friendly,

whether it's on the street,

whether it's somebody who is helping you.

- Service.

- Service, hm mm.

Whether that's in a restaurant or a bank or at a shop,

people are generally friendlier here.

But at the same time, I think that we do try to keep

everything kind of positive and nice.

- Yes.

- And smooth, and maybe that's not true for the UK,

but yeah. - Wow.

It's quite a criticism in a way. (chuckling)

- But I think when things are bad,

you have a habit of understating it.

- Yes.

- Whereas we tend to probably overstate it,

and be more dramatic about it.

- I think not just when things are bad,

but when things are good as well.

Where, yeah, if somebody asks you how's everything going,

are you having a good trip,

are you having a good time?

Americans just say, - American.

- Yeah, it's amazing. - It's amazing.

- This is awesome. - It's awesome.

So great.

And what would you say?

- Yeah, it's good.

- Or you would even say it's all right.

- It's all right.

- Ah ha. - It's all right.

And all right means good. - Amazing.

- All right.

- All right means amazing, in American.

- Yeah, and that's a little exaggerated

but that's definitely a difference.

- If it's bad, we say oh it's terrible.

It was awful, it was horrible.

And you say?

- Erm, not the best.

- Not the best.

- Yeah. (chucklings)

It's not the best.

That's a really good point.

And another difference I noticed was that

everything seemed smaller in the UK.

So when we're talking about houses, cars,

cars are a lot smaller.

- A lot smaller.

- And the roads.

It's just everything in general, I feel.

- Hm mm.

- And portion sizes?

- Yep.

- Well one thing that is bigger in the UK, a pint.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

(chuckling) A pint in the UK is 20 ounces I think.

In America it's 16.

- Well then.

- Yeah, that's one thing that's bigger in the UK.

- So we have cars, houses, roads, buildings,

food. - Buildings.

- But you have beer.

- Beer.

Or water, a pint of water.

A pint of lemonade.

But yeah everything felt quite dense.

And even in the north.

Because in London,

that's the most populated area,

then the southeast in general.

And the north is, people think

oh it's a little bit more open and not as dense.

- Hm mm.

- In terms of the population.

But it did feel like there was a lot of traffic

a lot of the time.

- Yes.

- Especially in Manchester.

And Manchester's changed a lot since we were last there.

There are cranes everywhere,

new buildings going up all the time,

and I feel that is just gonna get

even crazier in terms of the traffic.

- Do you know what's fueling

all of the growth in Manchester?

- I think what's happened over the last 15, 20 years,

or probably longer,

is that all the opportunities for work,

they're in one city in the northwest,

which is Manchester.

So

all my friends who are from Branston,

now live in Manchester.

My sister lives in Manchester.

And if you think about that in Yorkshire,

then it's probably Leeds.

So people go to Leeds, same in Birmingham.

So all the opportunity is in one city.

So that's why it's growing like that.

And just population growth in general.

- Interesting.

So we've established, more density,

more compact cars and houses.

- Hm mm.

- How did that feel to you

after you've gotten used to living in America?

- Yeah it felt a little bit,

I wouldn't say claustrophobic,

how would you describe it, a little bit crowded?

- Hm mm.

- Yeah, I think it's worth saying as well,

there's no clip on this one,

that

our experience in America,

is also based on a smaller town than Manchester.

- True.

- But even if you go to Atlanta and Charlotte,

I've been to those cities recently,

everything just seemed bigger still

and it just seemed like there is more space.

The traffic is terrible in Atlanta.

- Yes.

- But their roads are so much bigger.

- Hm mm.

- Yeah.

What did you notice this time?

- Well I kind of notice this every time.

And please don't be offended.