That list, from the other perspective

Following what sounded like a very pleasant holiday to the UK, an American gentleman by the name of Scott Waters put a list together of 100 differences he noticed in rural England. To everyone’s surprise the list went viral and has been shared over 50,000 times, sparking an international conversation about the differences between two countries.

I sincerely doubt my list will go viral or have stories written about it in Metro or Mashable, but I’ve endeavoured to do the same and have compiled an equivalent list of the differences in New York City, as I originally come from the same quaint countryside Mr Waters was talking about.

His list is pasted here…

…and mine is here…

• People are mostly polite
• The quality of food varies drastically depending on where you go
• Guns are on the belt of every single police officer, traffic cop and security guard you’ll see
• The ground floor is counted as the first floor
• Tower blocks don’t have a 13th floor, it usually just skips from 12 to 14
• Sitting at the bar, drinking on your own is not considered odd
• No one has any clue what box junctions are, even though they’re painted on the roads
• Everything is more expensive than the price tag says, because the figure doesn’t include tax
• You’d better like cheese, they put it on almost everything
• The paper money is straightforward, but the coins have names that don’t refer to their value
• It’s extremely rare for apartments to have their own washing machines
• Rented apartments have wall switches for certain plug points, not ceiling lights
• Fag is an offensive word for gays
• It’s not deliberate rudeness, but no one even thinks to hold a door open for anyone behind them
• Everything is bigger, taller and generally more impressive
• In New York, supermarkets only sell beer; for wine and spirits you need to go to a separate shop
• They call tomato ketchup “catsup”
• They fry everything
• It’s really hard to find normal-tasting butter as everything is made with “sweet cream”
• Americans pronounce the name of the English supermarket “Sains-berries”
• The favourite food is pizza and they’ll use virtually anything as a topping
• Coriander is “cilantro” and spring onions are “green onions”
• A red pepper is a “capsicum” and a courgette is a “zucchini”
• Every New York police officer looks at you like you’re a potential terrorist
• You rarely see a female police officer
• NYPD officers aren’t exactly rude, but they’re abrupt, discourteous and often unhelpful
• Spanish is spoken almost as much as English
• “Light” beer is drunk just as much as normal beer
• Beer is “lager” and no one knows what bitter is
• You’re expected to tip for everything
• Corner shops are called “bodegas” [pro: bo-day-ga]
• $1 coins and $2 bills actually exist, but you’ll never, ever see one in circulation
• American football is “football” and football is “soccer”
• Despite having a team in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the game only turned professional in 2016
• They have three national sports, not just seasonal ones
• In America, a hooker is someone with a very different profession to that of a rugby player
• They have counties and states and the laws can vary significantly from state to state
• Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas
• People say “how are you” as a greeting and don’t expect an answer
• There are too many channels on TV to even count
• The New York Times is the closest thing to a national broadsheet
• The sky here seems so much bigger somehow
• Anyone over 6ft tall will find a New York yellow taxi cab extremely uncomfortable
• Making sure beer is cold is as important as breathing air
• Every shop door opens outwards, into the sidewalk and the pedestrians who happen to be walking along it
• There are fire stations everywhere in Manhattan
• Every American thinks we love Harry Potter and Dr Who as much as they do
• It’s difficult to get a cup of builder’s tea; it has to be either earl grey, English breakfast or green tea
• A grill inside an oven is a “broiler”
• Their curries are more like the ones you get in India, not the English versions, so no one knows what a balti is
• They write the day and the month the wrong way around
• Regardless of your age (I’m in my 40s) you get asked for ID upon entering bars
• Any period longer than about a week when no one gets shot in New York makes national news
• Cars with manual transmission are just something other countries have
• Their banknotes are all the same size and colour, regardless of denomination
• Americans can’t tell the difference between English and Australian accents
• The New York Subway is quite different to the London Underground and takes a little getting used to
• It’s still cheaper to buy stuff here from a shop than it is at the duty free in Heathrow Airport
• After watching the adverts on TV for an hour, you’ll be convinced you’re dying of a disease you’d never heard of
• New York has more interesting history that most of the inhabitants know about
• America tends to gloss over one or two less-than-perfect chapters of its history
• New Yorkers dress however they want; Londoners especially, are far more concerned with fashion
• Going to see a doctor or a dentist can be really expensive
• No one knows what the overtaking lane is for on the freeways
• A highway is a busy, wide road – a freeway is a motorway
• Cars are under no obligation to stop for pedestrians at ‘zebra’ crossings
• Their tabloids aren’t as merciless as ours
• A large percentage of Americans have never left America
• You’d be forgiven if you thought the hot dog was the national dish
• Everyone seems to have an over-inflated job title
• Take the number of bars and restaurants that you think are in New York and multiply it by 100
• Most bars stay open to at least 2am, even if there’s only one person in it
• Not every UK electronic device will work out in the US
• You can have anything delivered to your door, for a price
• A tap is called a “faucet”
• It’s not uncommon to see passengers sitting with their pets on domestic flights
• Americans can fly within the USA with any photo ID; a passport is not required
• Virtually every hotel in the US offers free Wi-Fi as standard
• Cellphone numbers in the US have the same configuration as landline numbers and they have area codes
• Pizza is often called “pie”
• Americans pronounce it arse-some, the English pronounced it oar-some
• In most bars, the barman will make sure you have a topped-up glass of water the whole time you’re there
• Americans don’t know what a Buck’s Fizz is, they call it a “mimosa” and put less champagne in it
• Your last name is never referred to as your surname
• An American pint is about 20% smaller than an English pint
• You can buy cigarettes in a chemists, which they call a “pharmacy”
• Americans haven’t embraced rail travel and their cross country network is seriously in need of an update
• Most railway crossings in the US don’t have barriers and people often get killed by oncoming trains
• It’s not unheard of to take your pet to work with you
• In the UK, “We must meet up” usually results in a meeting. In the US, “We must meet up” means nothing at all
• The Tube is the “Subway” and a subway is an “underpass” but in both countries it can also be a sandwich shop
• The word “herbs” is pronounced with a silent “h” but it’s emphasized in “vehicle” [pro: vee-hickle]
• In American, “junk” is slang for the same thing that “tackle” and “crown jewels” are slang for in England
• A car boot is the “trunk” and the bonnet is the “hood”
• Man hole covers sometimes catch fire and explode when the snow melts in New York
• Halloween is a really big deal
• A degree is known as a college degree even though you get it from university
• Almost anyone can legally buy a gun
• Everything is indeed just a little bit different