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> in Shoeburyness in Southeast Britain Completely off topic, but this made me chuckle, and I thought it might be interesting to point out. This sounds complet

> in Shoeburyness in Southeast Britain Completely off topic, but this made me chuckle, and I thought it might be interesting to point out. This sounds completely weird to a British ear. For some reason, don't ask me why, we don't ever refer to North/South/East/West in the context of 'Britain' but only in the context of the countries within it. Southeast England is the 'correct' phrasing. Just an interesting and funny example of completey unintuitive local language quirks being exposed by an outside perspective. Of course it's totally logical to say 'Southeast Britain', and seeing that it looks weird made me, for the first time, notice it and question why we don't.

beschizza 9y ago
Another favorite American-perspective truth about Britain I enjoy is when towns in Essex are described as London suburbs. It's inconceivable to me (I lived in Chelmsford for a few years as a teenager) but quite true.
- colordrops 9y ago
  If you mean that it's too far out to be considered a suburb, places even farther out from Los Angeles than Essex is from London are described as suburbs of Los Angeles, so I don't know if it's an American perspective. Apologies if you meant something else.
  - tialaramex 9y ago
    Typically a suburb is related by function rather than distance. For example I grew up in what's called a "dormitory village" built in Metroland - which is a type of suburb. Like most cities London used to expand by gradually encroaching on surrounding non-urban land - most parts of what we'd now think of as inner London were originally villages on its outskirts, and the city just kept growing. The last batch of growth was "Metroland", the North West expansion of London's underground railway to neighbouring towns last century. And then people said "Enough" and the planning rules were altered to create a "green belt" into which London could not grow. But Metroland is still there, just stuck at the first phase where it's connected to the city but not yet urbanised. You can wake up in your nice cottage amid open countryside in the village of Chesham, walk a few minutes to a London Underground station incongruously sited amidst this setting and travel to your job in the City of London (which you need because a cottage in rural-seeming Chesham is fantastically expensive...). The dormitory villages don't make any sense without the huge city to absorb all these workers, so they're defined by it and by the transport links that make it practical to live in this village yet work in the centre of the city, they are suburbs.
- noja 9y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grZ6371HcJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grZ6371HcJE
- cup-of-tea 9y ago
  It's not true, though. Those towns have their own history and their own characters. Suburbs are places where housing is built specifically for people who work in the main urban area.
dictum 9y ago
To a non-British ear, Shoeburyness is what sounds weird ;)
- Aloha 9y ago
  I don't even mentally error check placenames in the UK - someone could tell me Wibly-upon-Fluberstuck was a place and I'd probably believe it.
  - oakesm9 9y ago
    https://www.anglotopia.net/ultimate-list-of-funny-british-place-names/ https://www.anglotopia.net/ultimate-list-of-funny-british-pl...
    - KJKingJ 9y ago
      Looking just on the London Tube and Rail map[0] alone, there's plenty of both odd and amusing station names (East India! Cockfosters! Cyprus! Barking! Elephant and Castle!), and many that are pronounced completely differently to how they appear (the number of visitors who I hear ask for directions to 'Lie-chester Square' for example!). [0]: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map....
  - noja 9y ago
    Very funny. (My cousin was born in Wibly-upon-Fluberstuck)
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  It sounds like it should mean something but it doesn't.
  - userbinator 9y ago
    A measure of how soft the ground is, by observing how far one's shoes get buried in it.
  - 9y ago
tzs 9y ago
I saw a made-for-TV movie about the Steven Stayner kidnapping [1]. Stayner was kidnapped when he was 7 while walking home from school in Merced, California. No one knew if he had been kidnapped, murdered, had an accident, or ran away. There's a creek named Bear Creek that runs through Merced. At one point in the movie someone in law enforcement suggests that they dredge "the Bear Creek" to search for Stayner's body. That probably sounded fine to most people watching, but it seemed very wrong to me. I lived in Merced or the surrounding countryside from 7 until I went to college, with several years living a block from Bear Creek, and I never heard anyone call it "the Bear Creek". It was always just "Bear Creek" or "The creek". I once made a list (since lost) of assorted creeks, rivers, lakes, and other prominent geological features around the US and what the locals called them. Some almost always used "the" and some almost always did not. I could not discern any pattern to which did and which did not. I wonder if a given locality is consistent on this? E.g., if they omit "the" from their local river, will they also omit it from their local lake? I wonder if intelligence agencies, when sending people trying to pass as natives to someplace to spy, train them on this level of local lingo minutia? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner
- btrettel 9y ago
  Reminds me that many people in southern California put "the" before highway names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California_freeways#Freeway_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California_freeways#F...
- Kluny 9y ago
  I'm from a town called Campbell River. There's a river called Campbell River running through it. The river is The Campbell River and the town, of course, is just Campbell River. Talking about the actual river was awkward. You had to say "We're going up the River next weekend," and people would ask "Which river?" because there are several in the area. Then you could say "The Campbell River." It was necessary to have this exchange every time.
  - whatshisface 9y ago
    Wouldn't "we're going to the Campbell River," and "we're going to Campbell River" be distinguishable?
cup-of-tea 9y ago
You don't have to put so much effort into not offending anyone. It's fine to say "that's not British English, by the way". Half of your post is dedicated to not offending delicate Americans by reassuring them that they're not wrong. I'm sure they know.

beschizza 9y ago

Another favorite American-perspective truth about Britain I enjoy is when towns in Essex are described as London suburbs. It's inconceivable to me (I lived in Chelmsford for a few years as a teenager) but quite true.

colordrops 9y ago
If you mean that it's too far out to be considered a suburb, places even farther out from Los Angeles than Essex is from London are described as suburbs of Los Angeles, so I don't know if it's an American perspective. Apologies if you meant something else.
- tialaramex 9y ago
  Typically a suburb is related by function rather than distance. For example I grew up in what's called a "dormitory village" built in Metroland - which is a type of suburb. Like most cities London used to expand by gradually encroaching on surrounding non-urban land - most parts of what we'd now think of as inner London were originally villages on its outskirts, and the city just kept growing. The last batch of growth was "Metroland", the North West expansion of London's underground railway to neighbouring towns last century. And then people said "Enough" and the planning rules were altered to create a "green belt" into which London could not grow. But Metroland is still there, just stuck at the first phase where it's connected to the city but not yet urbanised. You can wake up in your nice cottage amid open countryside in the village of Chesham, walk a few minutes to a London Underground station incongruously sited amidst this setting and travel to your job in the City of London (which you need because a cottage in rural-seeming Chesham is fantastically expensive...). The dormitory villages don't make any sense without the huge city to absorb all these workers, so they're defined by it and by the transport links that make it practical to live in this village yet work in the centre of the city, they are suburbs.
noja 9y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grZ6371HcJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grZ6371HcJE
cup-of-tea 9y ago
It's not true, though. Those towns have their own history and their own characters. Suburbs are places where housing is built specifically for people who work in the main urban area.

dictum 9y ago

To a non-British ear, Shoeburyness is what sounds weird ;)

Aloha 9y ago
I don't even mentally error check placenames in the UK - someone could tell me Wibly-upon-Fluberstuck was a place and I'd probably believe it.
- oakesm9 9y ago
  https://www.anglotopia.net/ultimate-list-of-funny-british-place-names/ https://www.anglotopia.net/ultimate-list-of-funny-british-pl...
  - KJKingJ 9y ago
    Looking just on the London Tube and Rail map[0] alone, there's plenty of both odd and amusing station names (East India! Cockfosters! Cyprus! Barking! Elephant and Castle!), and many that are pronounced completely differently to how they appear (the number of visitors who I hear ask for directions to 'Lie-chester Square' for example!). [0]: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map....
- noja 9y ago
  Very funny. (My cousin was born in Wibly-upon-Fluberstuck)
maxxxxx 9y ago
It sounds like it should mean something but it doesn't.
- userbinator 9y ago
  A measure of how soft the ground is, by observing how far one's shoes get buried in it.
- 9y ago

tzs 9y ago

I saw a made-for-TV movie about the Steven Stayner kidnapping [1]. Stayner was kidnapped when he was 7 while walking home from school in Merced, California. No one knew if he had been kidnapped, murdered, had an accident, or ran away. There's a creek named Bear Creek that runs through Merced. At one point in the movie someone in law enforcement suggests that they dredge "the Bear Creek" to search for Stayner's body. That probably sounded fine to most people watching, but it seemed very wrong to me. I lived in Merced or the surrounding countryside from 7 until I went to college, with several years living a block from Bear Creek, and I never heard anyone call it "the Bear Creek". It was always just "Bear Creek" or "The creek". I once made a list (since lost) of assorted creeks, rivers, lakes, and other prominent geological features around the US and what the locals called them. Some almost always used "the" and some almost always did not. I could not discern any pattern to which did and which did not. I wonder if a given locality is consistent on this? E.g., if they omit "the" from their local river, will they also omit it from their local lake? I wonder if intelligence agencies, when sending people trying to pass as natives to someplace to spy, train them on this level of local lingo minutia? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner

btrettel 9y ago
Reminds me that many people in southern California put "the" before highway names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California_freeways#Freeway_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California_freeways#F...
Kluny 9y ago
I'm from a town called Campbell River. There's a river called Campbell River running through it. The river is The Campbell River and the town, of course, is just Campbell River. Talking about the actual river was awkward. You had to say "We're going up the River next weekend," and people would ask "Which river?" because there are several in the area. Then you could say "The Campbell River." It was necessary to have this exchange every time.
- whatshisface 9y ago
  Wouldn't "we're going to the Campbell River," and "we're going to Campbell River" be distinguishable?

cup-of-tea 9y ago

You don't have to put so much effort into not offending anyone. It's fine to say "that's not British English, by the way". Half of your post is dedicated to not offending delicate Americans by reassuring them that they're not wrong. I'm sure they know.