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15 Things British People Secretly Judge You For 🇬🇧

Unlock English with Hannah

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British culture, British etiquette and British English: 15 things British people may judge you for. From queue jumping to tea etiquette, discover the unwritten British rules nobody tells you. 🇬🇧

British people are famously polite… but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re not judging you. The problem is: we probably won’t actually tell you when you’ve broken one of our unwritten social rules.

In this video, I’m decoding 15 things that can quietly annoy British people.You’ll also learn some natural British English, including to tut, budge up, keep yourself to yourself and make a fuss, as well as how to recognise those little signs that a British person might be less happy than they appear...! 😅

📘 FREE LESSON PDF: Review today’s key vocabulary, phrases and examples here → https://bit.ly/15thingsbritsjudgeyoufor

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📌 Timestamps:
00:00 – When British politeness isn’t quite polite
00:49 – How to spot it
01:40 – Unwritten Rule #1
02:47 – Unwritten Rule #2
03:33 – Unwritten Rule #3
04:11 – Unwritten Rule #4
04:48 – Unwritten Rule #5
05:34 – Unwritten Rule #6
06:13 – Unwritten Rule #7
07:08 – Unwritten Rule #8
07:29 – Unwritten Rule #9
08:05 – Unwritten Rule #10
08:45 – Unwritten Rule #11
09:23 – My embarrassing confession
10:24 – Unwritten Rule #12
10:40 – Unwritten Rule #13
11:38 – Unwritten Rule #14
12:29 – Unwritten Rule #15
13:04 – What they all have in common
13:21 – “I don’t want to make a fuss”
13:55 – What if you get these rules wrong?

📺 Watch next:
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British Etiquette Mistakes You Might Be Ma...

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→ Atomic Habits — James Clear — https://amzn.to/4aPGDTW

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#BritishEnglish #BritishCulture #LearnEnglish

20 Comments

@UnlockEnglishwithHannah Creator 1 month ago (edited) Pinned

Which of these unwritten British rules surprised you most? And have you ever realised afterwards that you might have broken one? 😅

🎁 I’ve put together a free PDF with the key vocabulary and phrases from today’s lesson so you can review them afterwards:
👉 https://bit.ly/15thingsbritsjudgeyoufor

Of course, the UK is a wonderfully varied place, so these won’t apply to everyone!

P.S. I’m loving how strongly everyone feels about the shoes 😂 As I say in the video, there’s no universal British rule, and I think the comments are proving the point beautifully!

@pamelabough2008 1 month ago

For a year I was in a carriage of the 1st train in the morning to get to work. Every morning a man would get in a 4 stops away and sit at the other end of a section. We never spoke. One Saturday I went to a Black and White charity dinner. Seated opposite me was the early morning 'train' man. So, I wouldn't drink and drive a friend dropped me off. 'Train' man offered to take me home. 3 weeks later he asked me out. A year later we married and we're unbelievably happy until he became very ill and died.
Moral: don't ignore that special person on the train. Forget those silly English rules. From Canada 🇨🇦 😀

@silviggi 1 month ago

I find hard to have relationship of any kind in the uk because of this lack of communication and directness. Also what you call niceties come across to me as fakeness, and I need authenticity in people.

@tytan7772 1 month ago

In Poland breaking a line will be like: "Hey, the end of the line is there!"

Immediately 😂

@soraninja 3 weeks ago (edited)

As a Brit i fully reject the bs of rule of "the last one" if its been sat for 10 mins and no ones taken it ... just take it... i work in hospitality and i see so much food wastage BECAUSE of this stupid unspoken rule

@kasiazielinska2138 3 weeks ago

I'm Polish, and all of that sound very relatable - the only thing we do much differently is the "how are you" smalltalk, we feel compelled to share all the recent disasters, health issues and such ;)

@survivefinland358 1 month ago

As a Finn I kind of feel very comfortable with these rules

@7rich79 3 weeks ago

I'll never forget this story from a hotel I once worked in. A tourist bus full of elderly Brits and their otherwise lovely British tour guide arrived very late and so they missed out on dinner. The kitchen had closed and all that was available for them were biscuits and tea. One of the tourists complained that it was impossible to get a proper cup of tea outside of Britain. The tour guide who had just had enough snapped back: "It's hot. It's wet. Drink it!". There was not a single peep out of any of them before heading to bed.

@snowbear1877 1 month ago (edited)

Try going to Japan:
1. Don't talk in the lift or on public transport.
2. Don't talk on your phone in public.
3. Don't walk and eat.
4. Don't eat or drink on the street.
5. Carry your rubbish with you: there are no rubbish bins.
6. Don't blow your nose in public.
7. Use your chopsticks correctly.
8. Stay silent on public transport.
9. Don't eat or drink on public transport, except the Shinkansen.
10. Keep your distance from everyone.
11. Bathe before and after the Onsen.
12. Don't chew gum.

@1CelloOne 4 weeks ago

Any psychologist will tell you, when you judge others, you’re really judging yourself.

@KerryHopkins 1 month ago

I’m English and I hate too much self deprecation so I’ve stopped doing it to myself. Words have power. Now I just say “thank you”. Much better.

@MariaD-k7v 1 month ago

😂😂😂I thought I was nuts 😂😂😂I come from Spain and on my firts year, when I went to the pub and,they asked me at the bar 'are you ok?' I used to tell them my life story 😵‍💫😂😂😂😂

@GabrieleAnna 1 month ago

Over here in Germany Nr. 1 would get exactly the same reaction! Even more so: if a man in an empty train chooses to sit close to the only female passenger, he must be aware that she would be extremely uneasy, thinking he’s coming on to her. She even might change seats - that perhaps being the difference to British people - not suffering endlessly.😉
Nr. 2 is also very similar, but here you may more often encounter somebody telling you: “oh, you mistook that for the end of the line, but it’s over there…” - a little bit more passive-aggressive I think.
And not btw but honestly: thank you for the effort you put in creating that content - it’s always refreshing to look and listen to a real person not generic AI content. 😊

@ivt6545 1 month ago

British culture has many similarities to Japanese culture. People are reserved and indirect when it comes to refusing or complaining about something.

@francosecchi9288 4 weeks ago

We call that behaviour being passive-aggressive...

@yuukihoffner8433 3 weeks ago

Politeness vs repression of feelings, that's the question. Being too "polite" ends up in lying, too much repression produces neurotics. Indirect, never spoken rules are a sign of a high context culture (see the anthropologist Eward T. Hall). This kind of culture was often developed in non democratic empires like Byzanz, Rome, the Ottoman and the Hapsburg Empires, not to forget the French and Russian Courts and the British Empire too. All in all, a democracy can only survive with a certain degree of honest dialogue.

@foksachange 1 month ago

I particularly appreciate when my host (I often go to airbnb's) offers me tea. All the more that I like having tea after a long trip.

@Iceageonmars 1 month ago

As an Irish person living in England for a long, long time what I found hard to get used to was the seeming indifference to who you are. In Ireland people get all your personal information out of you very quickly, for all sorts of reasons, there is a genuine interest in understanding just who you are that has its positives as well as negatives. When I came to London I found nobody asked me anything about me, that results over time in a certain loss of identity. Maybe it’s just big city life where you just are one of millions, a very small fish in a much bigger pond.

@lucybarratt7873 3 weeks ago

What ever happened to thanking drivers for stoppping at a zebra crossing? I hate it when people take their shoes off in my house, this has come from abroad, we never ever used to do this.

@carolbialy5920 1 month ago

As an American who moved from the state of Maine to New York I’m often criticized for being too polite, self deprecating and too many “sorries”. Allowing others to go ahead of me in line etc. Imagine my chagrin when I found myself in a situation in London where I made a bit of a fuss in a cue. I got the look. I’ll never forget it. 😅