Hello again and welcome back to Across the Pond, episode number three. 又到了英美大不同这个版块 In today's episode, we're going to continue our new segment Across the Pond and continue our conversation with Anlan and James. In this new segment, we're going to ask Anlan and James the same questions and see how their answers can be different. Then you will understand this segment a bit more.

Hello James.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, Anlan.

Hello, everyone.

Ok. Next question is going to be purely imaginary, is a pretty bizarre question. Here it goes. So, earth gets invaded by Martians. The Martian king thinks you are the leader of the earth and he comes to see you at your house. What would you do? Let's have James first.

So, I'm gonna answer this question as if it was an average American and I'm sorry but we all have a problem if this is the case.

Okay? Why? Because you assume that they're definitely going to be hostile. They are going to attack or.

No, no. Most Americans are gonna be we know super friendly, but they're gonna be overly posting you know saying how oh, you think I'm leader. I'm not the leader, but you're in the greatest country in the world. This is the best place ever because Americans, an average American would be very much like that. And you would say it's like you really should go to Washington D.C because that's where our leader is. You should talk to him.

Okay? So, you actually point him in the right direction.

Uh yeah, they would.

Would you invite this Martian king into your house?

Oh, yeah Americans and bottom it's like come on in. Let's have some, well you know have a meal, do some barbecue, offer them a cold drink.

Okay, sounds very friendly. Um. Let's see what Anlan has to say.

I would say the average for this person would invite them in for a cup of tea and give them a few biscuits.

Tea for everyone. Would you at least give them better biscuits, the fancier one?

You will give them nice biscuits and you’ll try to explain that you’re not the leader of the earth and you just try to kind of make them feel comfortable just in case they decide they want to destroy humanity. So it's all gonna be very very polite I would say it's all gonna be rather proper as well.

And maybe point into your queen or your royal family.

Uh that's not really sure who would point them to, probably the United Nations or might even call the police. Come and help.

Okay thank you, Anlan. A bizarre question indeed. Next one this is again short and simple when someone asks you a question when you have a mouthful of food so you're still chewing what would you do? I know for a fact that is quite impolite to talk with your mouth full in most of the cultures. I mean I grew up my mom used to say that you should never talk to people when you have food in your mouth. But if people decided to talk to you, what would you do? Let's start with Anlan.

I would say what we would do is we'll just kind of try to cover our mouth and try to finish what we're eating as quickly as possible. And if that was the case, we might start eating a little bit more slowly uh because if they are asking you questions or trying to speak you while you are eating and that could be a sign that you're eating too fast.

Oh how considerate so you would actually try to see if you are eating too quickly or you're eating or you're taking in too much in a mouthful. And what about James?

Well, Americans would hold up one finger, like a sign for, wait a minute and then we'll try to finish the food in our mouth as quickly as possible and then answer the question um because it is incredibly rude to talk with your mouth full. But in America it's also equally rude to ask somebody when you know they have food in their mouth.

Right? You would think that they are not being particularly considerate.

If they could know you're eating, then yes. If it's if they didn't know it's not an issue but like if you're sitting at a table and they know you're putting food in your mouth and they ask you whether you do this. That's considered quite rude.

Um. Okay, thank you. Thank you, James. Right moving on to the next question. It’s your birthday and you've asked your friends not to buy you a present. So don't buy me a present this year. So they followed your instruction and they don't buy your present. What would you think? Let's start with the American side first James. So you told people not to buy your present. They don't.

I don't see a problem.

So, you'd be okay with that.

Sure, because I specifically said don't buy any presents. It just means my friends are good listeners.

Okay. What about Anlan? I'm sensing the you know the answer is going to be different.

I wouldn’t probably say anything. But I would be slightly disappointed if they didn't buy anything. Doesn't actually necessarily have to be a present generally this type of situation. If it's someone's birthday you would at least buy them a drink.

But why would you say don’t buy me a present in the first place? Was it just being polite then? In some situations?

It would just being polite and if they didn't even offer then part of you would feel a little bit uncomfortable about that.

A little bit let down.

Slightly. Yeah.

Um, it does seem that you have, I would say British culture is perhaps a little bit what we call a bit more higher context culture. So it's a lot of things are left unsaid but people should understand. Right?

Yeah. I think a lot of it is subtext. It's all a little bit about the understanding uh from body language and what people do as well.

It’s quite complicated for one to understand if you're not actually within that culture.

And once you actually get presents even after you told them， oh don't bother getting the presents but they still get some sort of presents for you. Usually you can say, oh you shouldn't have.

Yeah, we would do things like that as well.

Americans just say I told you you didn't have to buy me a present.

So, would you actually take offense if you told them not to buy a present, but they still do. They still did.

But you wouldn't take offense. Uh but you would remind them that was a wholly unnecessary.

Um, okay. Okay moving on to the next one. This is about what you actually mean as opposed to what you say. So, when you say you are entitled to your own point of view, you are entitled means you have right to. So you're entitled to your own point of view, we hear this a lot. What does it actually mean in British culture and in American culture. So let's start with James.

I think you're wrong.

Okay categorically you're wrong.

It was like categorically you’re wrong. It's I think you're wrong because something would say in more of an opinion or discussion type situation. People will use this phrase to say, yes you can have that pinion. But when we saying this what it is, yes, you can have your own opinion but I fundamentally disagree with that point of view.

Ah so it's like, agree to disagree you're not gonna convince me. I'm not gonna convince you.

Pretty much. Yes.

What about Anlan?

That would mean that I know you're very, very wrong.

Oh, so it’s much stronger.

It’s much stronger. If someone says to you in British culture, you are entitled with your own view that's actually quite argumentative.

Quite confrontational.

Very confrontational. That would mean I'm tired of talking about this anymore. That's it. But I disagree with you.

Yeah. Okay, so next time if you hear this sentence being said you know that the other person, no matter if it's, you are from American culture or British culture they are tired of the discussion and you're not gonna convince them. All right, last question, this is a fun question. So your child asks you to make them a fancy dress costume for a school event which is very common. Okay. So the only requirement is that it has to in some way relate to America or Britain. But to make this fun we're going to do crisscross. I'm going to ask Anlan first so being British if your child needs a costume that has to in some way related to America. What would you make them as Anlan first?

I would say probably either Uncle Sam or a cowboy.

Cowboy. Oh okay. Let's have James then what is quite essentially British.

Well Americans if they had their kids dress up represent Britain in like elementary school, they would have a dress up like a red coat which is a British soldier from the revolutionary types.

Okay you are going back into the history. Um. Any other ideas?

May be Shakespeare if they're more modern they might even go up to dress up like the Beatles.

Okay. I'm quite curious to see that if this is in a reverse situation. So, to Americans what represents America? If it's, you need to have a fancy dress costume for your kids that represents America what would?

Cowboys.

Cowboys as well. All right what about Anlan. something represents Britain?

Oh difficult to really say, maybe kind of a police officer’s um kind of a policeman's outfit maybe or a soldier’s outfit. It's very difficult to say to be honest. Um if you're talking about representing Britain or you’re talking about representing a famous British person, I would say it's slightly different because I'm English. There are not really many kinds of costumes that truly represent being English. It's not like Scotland for example or wales where there are kind of outfits that would represent that but I don't think we would really have that.

Um okay. So that was all the questions for this round and hopefully you had as much fun as I did with my co-hosts and if you're interested in this session, share with us in the comment section what some of your answers would be and thank you again Anlan, thank you again James.

Thank for having me.

Until next time, bye.

Bye