dizzyheights

Hi everyone,

My sister is moving to Kentucky for 9 months this week to study at a university.

What differences/quirks are there between US and UK? What did you wish you knew before you left?

I have heard that it is hard to get cheese and onion crisps and that VAT/TAX is added at the checkout and isn't included in the price?

Thanks!

civilservant

The US is a foreign country. You'd be surprised how many forget that - they see movies and assume they know what it's like. The US and the UK share a language but almost nothing else culturally or otherwise. It's very hard to be poor, hard to get around without a driving license, and hard to make real friends because of the way people are.

There is no VAT. Sales Tax differs in each state and is added at Point of Sale rather than in shelves. This allows companies to print the sale store labels for all stores rather than different ones for each state.

It's something I have to remind myself of - 'Thats a good deal, but add the 6% sales tax and not so much...'

Medical insurance is a big deal, and something she should ensure is in place. A simple trip to the ER can result in $20k of fees.

Pulaski

I've never seen cheese onion crisps here, but sour cream and chive flavour is very common. Most stores have about five or six flavours to choose from, incl S&V, barbeque, and dill pickle (which is nasty!)

Over the counter pharmaceuticals ALL have different names, not just brands, but sometimes even the drug name in the small print can be different: e.g. paracetamol = acetaminophen.

Hopefully the college campus has lots of facilities on site, because just about everywhere outside of a few cities mostly in the north east really requires the use of a car just to get around. The local uni campus here is "just across the road" from a restaurant and retail development, but the uni buildings (even the closest ones) are set waaay back from the road (and the campus sprawls over a huge area) and so are the shops, such that to get from one to the other is going to be a ten minute walk. And the road in between is a dual carriageway with no pedestrian crossings, no bridge, and no tunnel, so all things considered I'll guarantee that almost everyone drives from one side of the road to the other!

Jerseygirl

Just about everything you can think of is different...even the language.

In most major areas you can find shops that sell British goodies. My local wine store sell Walkers Cheese and Onion Crisps and a while host of other British stuff.

Speedwell

Driving on "the other side of the road" is fairly easy. I'm a Yank, and when I went to the UK, I rented an unfamiliar car at the airport and drove it off the lot to the hotel three miles away without incident (though also with whitened knuckles, lol). The following weekend, I took a four-hour road trip through the Cairngorms, a trip that one of the secretaries in our Aberdeen office said she wouldn't even have attempted. It's really understanding the different road signs and rules that make it difficult. It should be possible to find explanations online for those, though, so the driver can study in advance. Fortunately you are used to miles per hour on the speed limit signs... a funny story I tell my colleagues is that when I went to Scotland that first time, I assumed the speed limit signs were in kilometers per hour, due to the narrow roads, and got upset with all the people honking behind me.

Michael

Sales tax is a state and local tax. Each state is different. Some states don't have a sales tax and in other states, sales tax can vary by county and/or city within a state, most don't have a sales tax on food unless it is served in a restaurant, some have sales tax only on restaurant food and sweets in a supermarket, etc.. Usually gas (petrol) has a sales tax on top of a federal and state tax and is usually included in the listed pump price. Some mom and pop stores include it in their listed price but I'm not sure that is legal. Usually if you have a coupon that is redeemed at the store, the price is reduced before sales tax is applied but if the coupon has to be sent to the manufacture for a rebate, sales tax is normally charged on the full price of the item.

The concept of sales tax is to make the consumer aware of taxes that are being paid where income and excise taxes are more hidden.

Speedwell

I'm thinking of the things my husband has said, "I wouldn't have known you did it that way over here" in the last month. There haven't been many.

Sales tax is the biggie, but even more, he was initially confused because here, most regular supermarket food and some medicines don't have sales tax applied (this also varies by locality). This weekend, clothing was also exempt because of the tax-free back-to-school "holiday". He's also finally stopped asking me what the coin values are when he counts change (where the denominations are marked, they are tiny and hard to read when you're dependent on eyeglasses).

Local bus fares here are a single price no matter whether you are getting off at the next stop or have to transfer three times to get to a destination two hours away (not impossible in Houston). In contrast, he is used to paying based on the stop where he gets on and his declared destination.

I bought a digital kitchen scale that measures in grams and in ounces. Of course, this has a lot to do with the seven or eight excellent British cookbooks he bought me for a wedding present (we are sort of foodies). He considers Miracle Whip an acceptable substitute for salad cream, A1 sauce for HP, and Crystal Light mix for Robinson's in the bottle. We get British sweets when we find them marked down. The only "real" British foods we couldn't do without are Bisto (only because it is readily available here), British prepared mustard in the yellow jar, whisky/whiskey (both Irish and Scotch), and Punjana tea, which sort of became our relationship "tradition".

Important thing I just thought of: Make sure your prescription medication is available in the US. Sometimes, if it isn't, it can be obtained without a scrip. My husband's prescription eyedrops are a specific formulation sold mostly for veterinary use here, though they are actually packaged for human use, and I order them from pet supply stores. He'd switch if he had to, but they're very inexpensive.

RoadWarriorFromLP

This one might have confused you.

Speedwell

And how. I initially thought it meant the end of a road was approaching!

I had to train myself to use roundabouts, too. There are about two or three in all of Houston, and nobody knows exactly what to do with them. I still mentally go "whee" every time I drive through one in the UK.

Tipping. I almost forgot tipping protocol. Don't make this thread about tipping though!

civilservant

Especially considering you cant go 10 yards (seemingly) without a helpful roadside in the US telling you speedlimit. Or maybe thats just GA.

rpjs

Politeness is different here. Unlike the UK, it is not necessary to include "please" or "thank you" in every single sentence when you interact with someone in a service environment. It it is necessary to say "How are you?" when you begin the interaction though. You can't just say "Hello, could I get <whatever>" like you would in the UK. (I realised that I was starting to go native when I bounced up to the immigration officer at LHR on a trip back and said "Hello, how are you?" and he looked somewhat surprised and replied "Very well sir, thank you for asking.")

It's also perfectly polite in the US when talking with a group of people to refer to someone with you as "he" or "she" rather than by their name - that threw me a little when I had it applied to me when I first started working here but I quickly realised that no offence was meant. It's also a bit jarring when you see someone make a hand signal for "two" and they do it the rude way round by our lights.

Back in the UK, when I would be queuing to buy something, I'd often check my change and so have the right amount ready by the time I got to the till. I can't do that here because of the sales tax! I usually just drop any change I get in the tip jar if there is one, and any I still have goes into the change jar when I get home. I can see why Americans simply won't take to using dollar coins.

I think we Brits tend to forget that America has been separate from us for a very long time now, and has moved quite a way apart from us culturally in that time. Visiting English-speaking Canada felt much more "British" than the US does.

Speedwell

I have a tendency to rest my chin in my hand with two fingers supporting my cheek. This amuses my husband in much the same way as me accidentally copying his Northern Irish dialect, but did not go over terribly well in corporate conferences in Aberdeen.

What might you do that is embarrassing in the US but not in the UK? I think the top thing is the word represented by the handy mnemonic, "See you next Tuesday", and rhymed with "punt". Seriously excise that word from your consciousness and forget you ever heard it. Seriously. What else? Oh, right, don't expect to be treated in pubs the same way you are in the UK. Don't assume that you can walk up to anyone reasonably friendly looking and strike up a conversation. People tend to keep to themselves in pubs here and may think you're a weird, overfriendly, annoying drunk. The bartenders are petrified lest anyone actually get drunk in the first place, so they may refuse to serve you much sooner than you expect. Drinks cost a lot, too, and you must tip.

hungryhorace

I still find the protocol here of referring to someone as 'he' or 'she' as exceptionally rude. I used to pick people up on it when I moved over as I was so offended to be referred to as 'him', but now I realise they just don't know any better so i've let it go.

RoadWarriorFromLP

Some limits are more precise than others.

civilservant

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