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Hello and welcome back to Across the Pond, 英美大不同。In the previous episode, we talked to Anlan and James about a few awkard scenarios at home. Let’s continue with more scenarios and see how they respond.

Question number six. Now this sounds a little bit scary. It's way past midnight and you are in bed when you hear a sudden bang from somewhere downstairs, you have no idea what it is, where is it coming from? What would you do being an American?

Get the gun.

I would have thought so, but do most people have guns at home?

No most don't, but they would... a lot of people would go check it out. They would maybe grab a baseball bat or something like that. Where I grew up, you hear something like that, the first thing you think is...

Danger?

No, actually it would be like animals digging in your garbage can. So, like a raccoon or something that's getting in there or where I'm from, bears, we have bears.

I guess it really depends on the neighborhood or the town or the city sort of the environment that you live in. Because for some people, their go-to response is: this is danger. But probably for other people like danger is or security risk is the last thing on their mind when this happens.

Like what I said it’s true, from where I'm from, it's animals, it's most likely just wild animals making noise, and sometimes you'll need to shoot those animals because they will kill your dogs and cats.

I come from London, so it doesn’t really happen a great deal. We don't really have many bears going around.

Foxes?

Foxes yes, you do get a lot of foxes. I guess if I heard a bang, I would assume this from outside. I would go down and investigate, but if it was someone actually breaking into your house in a city and that loud...

Then they're not very good at it.

They are not very very good at it.

It is probably tweakers?

And it's probably just outside.

Probably people who are drunk or on drugs maybe, or animals.

Yeah, when I was growing up, most of the sudden loud bangs in the middle of night were normally me trying to get home after the pub.

We know a little bit more about Anlan’s past. All right.

So, question number seven，the doorbell goes just as you get into the shower，you're already naked. It's a delivery that you urgently need, and you probably have to sign for.就有快递要你签收，这时候你已经脱光了准备洗澡，what would you do？Being British, what would you do Anlan？

Bear in mind that to actually be there for a delivery, you need to actually be at the door when they come to deliver.

What do you mean at the door?

Pretty much if you wait even 10 seconds, the delivery man or delivery person would have already left. And they’ll give you a note saying you have to go to the post office to pick up this parcel. Generally, it doesn't really matter if you’re naked, doesn't really matter whatever you're doing, you'd rush to the door to make sure you get that parcel.

That seems to be a running joke. I've heard that about British delivery service in some of the TV shows, I've experienced it myself, it’s like they really don't wait for you. Not at all.

That’s not unique to the UK, American delivery is the same.

They wouldn't even try to call you, for example?

They would not.

They never call.

So it’s not like the Chinese 快递 situation.

No, Chinese 快递 is fantastic because it's like they get to the door they call you it's like I'm knocking on your door, are you at home? Oh, when do you want us to deliver it? Whereas in America there's a delivery that needs to be signed, it's like, Knock，knock，oh, nobody's here, bye.

Yeah, it's almost like they expect you not to be there so that again they just get on with it.

Yeah, they just wanna put it in their distribution centers like they leave the little sticker on the doors, like we came by at 7:52 am and you were not here, even though you maybe 1 minute away from your own door.

Yeap.

You just have to go to the distribution center to pick it up yourself.

The next day.

I see, that makes me appreciate delivery system a lot more in China. All right.

Question number eight, this is really awkward. It's also about shower, but this time not you are going into the shower. But for example, you're staying at a friend's house and you walk in on your friend's wife, having a shower, hopefully accidentally after standing frozen in the headlights for a few seconds, being British, being American. What would you do? Being American. Let's start with James.

Wrong door.

Would you actually say that or just back out?

A lot of people would just back out. And probably depending on how close you are with the couple; do you make jokes about it pretty soon afterwards? But that really will depend from group to group. Just a part that the question is like you just stand there frozen for a little bit, so it's like little bit awkward.

Some people they are So, I think, they freeze not because they wanna look, it's simply because it's so awkward. They are so much in shock and they don't really know what to do.

Probably, it's just I can imagine the wife and the shouts like get out throwing shampoo bottles or something at you.

I see. But it's even worse if she is shampooing and did not really notice you. All right, and what about Anlan?

I probably would say sorry, I can’t find my glasses. Have you seen them?

That is a horrible answer because the fact that you can see someone in there, you're actually asking them obviously you know who they are. I have a question though, on top of this, it's like, why would this friend's wife shower without locking the door when you know your husband's friend is sleeping over?

Maybe she's an exhibitionist.

That is really weird to me like if I have guest at home, I definitely would lock the door when I shower. We're not going down that road. Two more questions to go.

The next question. Number nine, this is not necessarily about being at home. This is more about on the phone. So you're calling someone and for example, this person says to you, oh, you know write down my number and then they want you to take down the number and they said all these telephone number and then you pretend to make notes, you know you're not gonna call them, you pretend to take notes. But then they ask you to repeat it back to them. What would you do? That would be a very awkward situation. It's like you being caught in a white lie. You said I'm writing it down, but you actually didn't. What would you do? Anlan?

Pretend it was a really, really bad line and hang up.

Oh, you're ...like...clicked, bullet dodged.

Yes, I’ve done that a few times.

Really, that actually works, okay? What if they call back?

Then. It’s still a really bad line.

No one blames this.

Then I will panic.

What about James?

Honestly, Americans would never not write down the number. They would like hold on, let me get a pen and paper. Like Americans are really ...they know about this situation. They will make sure like, hold on, you want me to write it down. Let me go get a pen and paper, and they will really write it down.

What if you don't really like this person? Is this person he or she is volunteering their Information that you don't really care about?

Step one, just check the caller ID and repeat back the called ID number. It says you are “U-N-L-I-S-T-E-D”, ok, there's your number.

Just get them to send it to you in a text. Easy. It's a bad line. You can't hear them.

You can never hear them.

I can't.

The last one is very very simple. I think this applies to all aspects of life. When you text someone saying no worries.给人家发短信息的时候说no worries. What does it actually mean？We know the literal meaning of “no worries” is don't worry. But does it actually mean don't worry in British culture and in American culture. Let's start with James.

Yeah, it actually just means no worry, no problem. Don't worry about it, don't think about it. Not a big deal.

So, It's truly lighthearted.

It’s truly lighthearted.

I'm sensing in British culture it's not.

Any sentence where use the word worry normally means you should be worried.

What if like never mind is even worse, yeah.

Never mind is even worse. No worries or don't worry is normally a sign that you should worry.

What if it's you're truly trying to tell people not to worry what kind of sentence would you use them?

Just say it's gonna be okay. It's all right.

It's all right.

Yeah

But James.

Americans say it's going to be okay usually means it's not going to be okay.

So confusing.

Okay, it's not okay. Don't worry is something you should worry about.

Well, no one said it was an easy language.

It's not just the language and it's also the culture but I mean you guys both have lived in China for so long you know that in Chinese there's so many of these little twists and terms between the lines.

Yeah, we just pretend to know.

But I mean when you are obviously a learner of the language, a foreigner in China, you probably given a way out if you misunderstood someone, then people wouldn't really necessarily hold you to that standard.

Yeah, we can just play the foreign card, just like, I don't know this language very well. Sorry. I made a mistake.

I have a lot of problem.

And on that note, we're gonna wrap up here. Thank you very much for coming to the studio for our new episode of Across the pond and I hope all of you have enjoyed this episode. If you have any other different answers to these ten questions, leave us a comment in the comment section, we would love to see them. Thank you again, Anlan and James.

Thank you for having me here today. It's a lot of fun.

Thanks a lot.

See you next time.

Bye everyone.