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// WHO AM I
Hi! I’m Kalyn, an American expat in the UK, and I’m super glad you’re here (yes, I’ve lived in the UK for almost 10 years and the word “super” is still very much part of my vocabulary!) Whether you’re thinking about moving to the UK or just visiting, I have plenty of information and other resources for you below, so make sure to find your section and let me help you make the most of your trip or your move to the always-sunny, beautiful, and historic UK (okay, two of those things are true, but if you squint really hard at the lights when the London Underground is coming into station, you can kind of pretend it’s the sun?)
----MOVING TO THE UK (OR DREAMING OF IT?----
//GIRL GONE LONDON BOOK
Check out the Girl Gone London book on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3iobJGt), a humorous guide to life in the UK that every future expat needs to read.
//MOVING TO THE UK COURSE
If you want more practical tips, my comprehensive course on moving to the UK is the perfect gift to yourself to save hours and hours of time and tons of headaches. Use code “Friend” for $20 off and check out everything that’s included here: https://courses.girlgonelondon.com/courses/the-ultimate-guide-to-moving-to-the-uk/
VISITING THE UK?
//ULTIMATE LONDON’S VISITOR’S GUIDE
This is the most all-inclusive, up-to-date visitor’s guide (that’s always kept up to date, thanks to be virtual, no more trying to go to a restaurant that no longer exists! Your London trip is no small cost, so make sure you are truly ready and making the most of it with the guide here: https://courses.girlgonelondon.com/courses/the-ultimate-guide-to-london-for-visitors/
CONTACT:
For all subscribers and partnership enquiries, please use kalyn@girlgonelondon.com
And make sure you subscribe to my channel!
DISCLAIMER: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. In addition, I participate in several other affiliate programs that allow me to earn while I recommend products that I use and love.
MUSIC: https://www.bensound.com
Some people have asked for a small way to say "thanks" if they've found my information helpful or entertaining. There's no need, but if that's you, I have a little "buy me a coffee" option here (okay, or tea, we're in the UK, after all): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/girlgonelondon
Check out the Girl Gone London book on Amazon, a humorous and practical guide to life in the UK as an expat: https://amzn.to/3iobJGt
// CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE: https://girlgonelondon.com/how-to-move-to-the-uk-from-america-2/
// WHO AM I
Hi! I’m Kalyn, an American expat in the UK, and I’m super glad you’re here (yes, I’ve lived in the UK for almost 10 years and the word “super” is still very much part of my vocabulary!) Whether you’re thinking about moving to the UK or just visiting, I have plenty of information and other resources for you below, so make sure to find your section and let me help you make the most of your trip or your move to the always-sunny, beautiful, and historic UK (okay, two of those things are true, but if you squint really hard at the lights when the London Underground is coming into station, you can kind of pretend it’s the sun?)
----MOVING TO THE UK (OR DREAMING OF IT?----
//GIRL GONE LONDON BOOK
Check out the Girl Gone London book on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3iobJGt), a humorous guide to life in the UK that every future expat needs to read.
//MOVING TO THE UK COURSE
If you want more practical tips, my comprehensive course on moving to the UK is the perfect gift to yourself to save hours and hours of time and tons of headaches. Use code “Friend” for $20 off and check out everything that’s included here: https://courses.girlgonelondon.com/courses/the-ultimate-guide-to-moving-to-the-uk/
VISITING THE UK?
//ULTIMATE LONDON’S VISITOR’S GUIDE
This is the most all-inclusive, up-to-date visitor’s guide (that’s always kept up to date, thanks to be virtual, no more trying to go to a restaurant that no longer exists! Your London trip is no small cost, so make sure you are truly ready and making the most of it with the guide here: https://courses.girlgonelondon.com/courses/the-ultimate-guide-to-london-for-visitors/
CONTACT:
For all subscribers and partnership enquiries, please use kalyn@girlgonelondon.com
And make sure you subscribe to my channel!
DISCLAIMER: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. In addition, I participate in several other affiliate programs that allow me to earn while I recommend products that I use and love.
MUSIC: https://www.bensound.com
Category
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PeopleTranscript
00:00We are not offended in the absolute slightest by the use of this word around us because we have no context of it being a
00:07Rather obscene swear word. Hi and welcome back to the Girl Gone London channel. My name is Kaitlyn
00:12I'm a dual UK and American citizen and today
00:15I am talking about some British insults that I had never heard before moving to the UK. Now
00:20I would like to say that not all of these have been directed at me during my time here
00:24Some of them have but half the time I didn't know someone was insulting me or what they actually meant
00:28So it didn't matter. Anyway, we often talk about words and phrases that are used in the UK
00:33But not used in the US and so I just thought we'd take a little bit of an insulting slant now British people in their
00:39Minds right now are probably thinking the most obscene insults that you can think of because I feel like that's just how the British work
00:44This is a family channel kind of so we are going with some of the less intense
00:50But still quite funny silly and still insulting phrases that are used in the UK and not so much in the US
00:57Now the first on my list is the term Muppet, which is often used in the UK
01:03like you Muppet you forgot your keys or
01:06You Muppet you I don't know did something foolish
01:11It's kind of like an incompetent person, but it's meant in a sort of affectionate way
01:16It's not really an intense or really bad insult. You couldn't be like that angry
01:23Calling someone a Muppet
01:25I had never heard the use of the phrase Muppet to insult somebody though in America
01:31We would typically just default in our heads to the Muppets
01:34So if you said this to an American we would be thinking that you're comparing us to Kermit the Frog or Miss Piggy
01:40Which I would say is not an insult and the next UK
01:44Insulting phrase on my list is definitely like a kid friendly one
01:48And it's I've heard people call their kids silly sausages
01:52Again, it's quite a nice insult. It's said affectionately if that's possible
01:58It's a very gentle comment about doing something silly or doing something daft
02:03again, it's not something that you say like in anger when you're actually like yelling at somebody or
02:09Disciplining someone you would then look stupid calling someone a silly sausage, but we don't call people silly sausages in America
02:16This is a very like
02:18quintessential British phrase I feel like
02:21And it's quite nice next on my list is kind of a list of phrases so you could say someone is
02:26Thick as a plank thick as mince
02:29I've heard thicker than a submarine door is one that I found on the internet and this is referring to someone who is
02:36Stupid so thick meaning stupid not intelligent
02:41You can get creative with the ending. So comment below. What's your favorite thick as blank?
02:49Insult, but we wouldn't really use this in the US because we don't use the word thick to mean stupid
02:54Typically when we hear the word thick we are literally thinking about something. That is large
03:00or
03:01Actually thick so it has to do with a measurement as opposed to someone being stupid
03:06So if you called an American thick as a plank
03:09We'd most likely think that you're calling us fat rather than stupid now
03:14The next one on my list is another kind of cute one
03:16Wall-e
03:17Again, it's a more gentle insult, but it refers to someone who is inept and based on my research
03:25The lore is that it originated at a festival in the late 1960s
03:30Like a music festival when a man named Walter got separated from his friend group
03:35Allegedly, they all started searching for him calling Wall-e and eventually the whole crowd got in on the joke chanting
03:41Wall-e again kind of like as a joke. Did this really happen? Did I find?
03:47First-person resources who said I was there and this happened. No, so take this with a grain of salt
03:52But that is the kind of tail behind it now
03:56We wouldn't use the name or the insult of Wall-e in America
03:59Even our version of where's Wall-e is called where's Waldo in the US and we have no idea what it meant
04:06If you called us a Wall-e
04:08We wouldn't use the term Waldo in the same way
04:11So we wouldn't call someone a Waldo as an insult when I think of the word Wall-e I think of like a wallaby
04:19Which may be actually as an insult could be an insult in and of itself. But the term Wall-e again is a very kind of
04:25British sounding insult to me that we don't use in the US
04:29Next on my list is three slices short of a loaf or a sandwich short of a picnic
04:34This is another way to say someone is dumb or lacking intelligence
04:38But using food to basically illustrate that you're not all there. You're not all with it
04:44America has similar types of insults
04:46We actually have a lot but we tend to use things like not the sharpest knife in the drawer
04:51Not the sharpest tool in the shed, which is part of a famous
04:56Song we might also say and you can let me know if you say this in the UK
05:00We could say the lights are on but nobody's home. The elevator doesn't go to the top floor
05:06Not the brightest bulb or not the brightest crayon in the box
05:10But we wouldn't necessarily use the bread or picnic or sandwich inspired version that I've heard in the UK
05:16Now the next insulting British thing on my list that I hadn't heard of before moving to the UK is actually a gesture
05:23And it is an insulting gesture to do to someone where you put two of your fingers up at them
05:29And I'm not gonna do it on the camera though
05:32It means nothing to me, which I'll explain in a minute
05:34But you basically do a peace sign with your fingers with your palm facing yourself. It's definitely not nice
05:39It could be used jokingly between friends or someone that you know well, but it could also be
05:45Put up to someone who just cut you off in traffic or whatever it is now
05:49I could guess what this gesture meant when I first moved to the UK if I had to
05:53But I had never seen this particular gesture because in the US we don't do this
05:59We do something very similar, but that's putting your middle finger up
06:03This is a widely known insulting gesture in the US putting your middle finger up at them and it's called
06:09Giving someone the middle finger, but once you add another finger to the situation to an American
06:16We would just be confused at what you're doing and the next British insult on my list is one
06:20I've actually always wanted to talk about and it's the word bloody
06:25Now the word bloody in the UK is not necessarily an insult, but it is a swear word now
06:31one of the most fascinating things that happens to me in the UK is that someone will say this word around me and
06:37Unlike other swear words. Well, they'll just keep talking often
06:41If someone says this they'll apologize as if they've just said something pretty intense and I get this particularly from generations who are older than me
06:49Americans do not use this word at all in the same way
06:52We would use bloody as just a descriptive word and maybe you cut your finger and your fingers bloody. That's where it ends
06:59we've only heard this word as like a
07:02Swear word in Harry Potter basically and this has created an experience for Americans in the UK whether visiting or living
07:10Where we basically don't think of this word is anything serious because what is Harry Potter?
07:16It's a fantasy story for children. So the word bloody to us
07:22Sounds like a funny word not that serious a
07:26fantastical word associated with flying unicorns or whatever else
07:30we are not offended in the absolute slightest by the use of this word around us because we have no context of it being a
07:38Rather obscene swear word and this is what I love about language because again somebody who did grow up in the UK again
07:45Particularly of certain generations could say this word
07:48Around me and feel like they've possibly offended me or they need to apologize for saying something obscene
07:53Whereas to me it doesn't even clock it doesn't even register as something that would be
07:58Insulting or obscene the next phrase on my list is again could be a group of phrases, but one that I found particularly
08:06Repeated often is a face that would frighten a police horse
08:10People would also say this like a face like a insert the blank fill in the blank with something
08:17insulting the only similar insult that we would use often in the US is a
08:22Face only a mother could love and that means someone or something is ugly
08:27But I feel like in the US we don't get quite as creative with the options here
08:31We just like go straight to making you feel insecure that only your mom loves you
08:34Whereas in the UK this phrase is often often associated with like horses and donkeys
08:40But you can also say other things. So let me know your comments below
08:44How would you fill in the blank in this insulting British phrase a face?
08:49Like a blank or a face that would blank and the last word on my list is
08:55Numpty it's mildly insulting again. It can be used as an affectionate phrase
09:00It's not necessarily the meanest insult that you've ever heard it started around the
09:051980s in the UK and it means that someone again is being like daft or stupid in the UK
09:11We do have a similar word. We would use the phrase numbskull, which again is not particularly scathing
09:18But this is actually said to be the origin of numpty so similar
09:23But we don't really use the phrase numpty in the US now that brings me to the end of this video
09:28So if you're not from the UK, you've just learned some interesting insults, and if you are from the UK leave a comment down below
09:35What's your favorite British insult if your comment doesn't show up? It's probably because YouTube deleted it and censored it not me
09:42But I would love to hear some of your more
09:44Creative insults that you can think of that are used in the UK as always. Thanks very much for watching and I'll see you next time