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  • - All right, three, two, one.

  • 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.

  • - I'd never be offended.

  • - The weather is so gray.

  • - Yeah.

  • It was quite sunny though,

  • for 50% of the time we were there.

  • - 50%? - Yeah.

  • - No. - Yeah, I think

  • it was sunny about 50% of the time.

  • But it was colder.

  • Windier. - 50%?

  • - Yeah.

  • Again we'll look up the statistics

  • but the weather is worst there.

  • - The weather is worst, hm mm.

  • - And

  • something else I noticed just by watching the weather,

  • was the difference between the north and the south,

  • in terms of temperature.

  • - Hm mm.

  • - It's still there.

  • And sunny days.

  • So if you're in the southeast,

  • it's a lot warmer and less rainy.

  • I forgot about that.

  • - That's also true in the United States.

  • Maybe even more so because it's such a big country

  • that you get a huge variety between like Maine and Florida.

  • - Oh yeah, it's much more different here.

  • But in my head, because the UK is so small,

  • or at least like, just taking England,

  • I felt like no it's more or less the same wherever you are,

  • but no it's different.

  • It's definitely different.

  • Let's talk about Wales.

  • What struck you about Wales?

  • - It was gorgeous.

  • It was so beautiful.

  • I wasn't expecting the way how dramatic it looked.

  • We were in a little town called Abersoch,

  • which was just--

  • - Abersoch.

  • Just a little joke.

  • - Everyone was speaking Welsh a lot,

  • which was really really neat to hear

  • but obviously I don't speak any Welsh

  • so that was really interesting.

  • It just seemed to have a really good character to it

  • and just be a really beautiful place to visit.

  • The beaches were gorgeous,

  • there was a lot of things to do, activities.

  • I wish that we had gotten to go sailing

  • but there was sailing and there was a lot of space to walk.

  • - Sorry I just don't want the microphone.

  • This lesson is all about our microphones.

  • Your hair is just getting on the mike

  • so I think it's affecting it.

  • - Who knows.

  • Maybe they'll listen to my hair in English.

  • - Or in Welsh. (chuckling)

  • - Or Welsh. (laughing)

  • - Do you remember the word for slow in Welsh?

  • - No.

  • - We kept saying it all the time.

  • - Are you sure you're gonna pronounce it correctly?

  • - No, but I can't remember it now.

  • But we kept saying it.

  • But yeah it was really interesting

  • to listen to everybody speaking Welsh.

  • And people who speak Welsh, they can also speak English,

  • or at least everyone that we met spoke perfect English,

  • at the same time.

  • And I think it does vary by region, in Wales.

  • - Sure. - In terms of the level

  • of Welsh that people speak.

  • But we were in a very small beach town

  • which has become popular over the last few years

  • but it still felt

  • very open

  • and it's not really built up, is it?

  • - No, hm mm.

  • - And a lot of people still live there from that region.

  • And it was just a really interesting place to visit.

  • And hearing people speak Welsh

  • was really interesting for me.

  • So I've been to Wales a few times but mainly to,

  • if you like soccer tournaments,

  • we went camping once in north Wales.

  • So having that experience was quite interesting, yeah.

  • - And there were castles.

  • - Yeah.

  • Yeah, we had a trip to Caernarfon Castle,

  • which was very interesting.

  • - Yes.

  • - And, built by Edward the First,

  • who conquered Wales,

  • I think this is correct,

  • and wanted to control Wales,

  • so they built castles in the 13th century

  • to control the population,

  • and that castle was still there,

  • and it was kind of scary, wasn't it?

  • - It was, okay,

  • it was amazing but it was terrifying.

  • And if we haven't already talked about our fears,

  • we probably should sometimes.

  • But we are both

  • terrified of heights.

  • - Yeah.

  • Yeah, we are.

  • We're scared of heights. - We're scared of heights.

  • - And in the castle, they had these, what do you call them?

  • The winding stairs?

  • - Like a spiral staircase?

  • - But then you could never get a really good

  • foot position on them.

  • - No.

  • 'Cause they go down to nothing.

  • So there was maybe this much of a stair on the inside,

  • which is where the rail was,

  • to put your feet.

  • - Yeah. - Uh huh.

  • - And we had to carry children.

  • - We had to carry children.

  • It was so steep. (exhaling heavily)

  • - But it was fun though.

  • It was really interesting. - We were sweating.

  • And like trying to hold on for dear life.

  • But also trying not to seem scared

  • because we were there with our kids

  • and we wanted them to have fun.

  • So we were just smiling like this the whole time.

  • (laughing) - Hm mm, yeah.

  • - But when we made eye contact,

  • as we were going down these staircases,

  • I could just tell that you were terrified.

  • - Yeah.

  • - Could you tell that I was terrified?

  • - Yes.

  • On my own, I felt okay.

  • But carrying children was different.

  • And then there were just big holes

  • in the castle. - Big holes.

  • Arrow holes.

  • And our kids were trying to look out them

  • and climb into them.

  • Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

  • - Yeah, it was.

  • - It was very impressive.

  • - Yeah, so yeah we saw the castle in Wales.

  • We won't talk about it too much

  • but we went to a fantastic wedding.

  • - Oh yeah.

  • - Where one of my best friends got married

  • and it was just a fantastic day.

  • We had a lot of fun.

  • - A lot of fun.

  • - And so we did that.

  • We saw family.

  • The beach in Wales was fun as well.

  • - Oh yeah, I love the beach.

  • That is my favorite place on earth, wherever we go.

  • - Yeah.

  • We spent all day there one day.

  • And then we saw friends, we did other things.

  • - We had to be bundled up though.

  • So we were all bundled up in towels and rain jackets

  • and eating ice cream.

  • - Mainly because of the wind.

  • - Yes, it was very windy.

  • I kinda like that though.

  • Like I like a windswept, kind of dramatic beach.

  • - Well, and cold.

  • - And cold.

  • Coldish. - Yeah.

  • Was there anything else that stood out for you?

  • - Hm mm.

  • I'm trying to think.

  • I think I just love seeing

  • Thomas was able to make really good friends

  • with a family friend that we saw while we were on vacation,

  • and they just got to play together everyday

  • and kind of talk about their different lives,

  • in two different countries,

  • and that was probably the highlight of the trip for me.

  • It's to feel like we're raising our kids in a way

  • that they get to see another country and experience it.

  • And that also that we're trying to make them aware

  • of growing up in a world that's bigger

  • than just the town and the region

  • and the part of the country that we live in.

  • - Yeah, that's great.

  • - What about for you?

  • - Anything else that stood out?

  • - Hm mm.

  • - I think that's it 'cause

  • I just keep thinking about the cheese.

  • (laughing)

  • - If we had a like thought bubble over your head

  • the whole conversation,

  • it would just be Lancashire cheese, Lancashire cheese.

  • - Yeah.

  • It's very good.

  • Okay. - It's an acquired taste.

  • Oh, we'll talk later.

  • So thank you so much for watching this conversation.

  • If you have found it interesting,

  • then please leave a comment

  • with suggestions for topics for us to talk about.

  • And then also definitely go into the description,

  • go download that book,

  • the 5 Step Plan for English Fluency.

  • Have a look at the phrases

  • that we've used here and then learn about

  • how you can get premium resources as well.

  • But before we go,

  • Kate's question.

  • - Ooh my question is,

  • would you prefer to travel to the UK or America?

  • - Very good. - USA.

  • - Yeah. - Hm mm.

  • - All right, so thanks again for watching.

  • And we'll speak to you soon.

  • Bye bye. - Thanks for having me.

  • - Bye. - Bye.

  • (lively music)

- All right, three, two, one.

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英会話を学ぶ。アメリカとイギリスの違い (ep #12) (Learn Conversational English: The Difference Between the USA and the UK (ep #12) )

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    洪子雯 に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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