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British vs American culture quiz

Join Megan and her American friend Chris as they test each other's general knowledge about UK and US culture.

Instructions

Watch the video and use the subtitles and the transcript to help you understand.

Transcript

Megan: Hi, everybody, and welcome back to another video for the LearnEnglish Teens website and their YouTube channel. Today I’m joined by my friend, Chris. Do you want to introduce yourself?

Chris: I’m Chris. I’m from New York – America, for people who don’t know where New York is! And, yeah, I’m currently living in Hanover as a language assistant.

Megan: In this video I’m going to be testing Chris on his cultural knowledge of the UK, and he’s going to be testing me on my knowledge of America. OK, question number one. I’m going to give you three options: A, B and C. What street, or what is the name of the street, that the British Prime Minister lives on? A: 10 Downing Street, B: 11 Chichester Road or C: 10 Dorchester Street? Do you recognise any of those names?

Chris: A sounds the most familiar but I don’t … is that right?

Megan: It’s right!

Chris: Oh my God!

Megan: 10 Downing Street is where the Prime Minister lives.

Chris: OK, so my first question is …

Megan: Oh, I’m scared!

Chris: How many states are there in the US?

Megan: 50.

Chris: Ha!

Megan: What is the name of William and Kate’s oldest child?

Chris: I wouldn’t know …

Megan: This is Prince William, by the way.

Chris: OK. No, I don’t know. Not off the top of my head.

Megan: If I say it begins with ‘G’ …

Chris: George?

Megan: Yeah! George, Prince George.

Chris: OK. I think this one’s a little bit harder, but we’ll see.

Megan: OK.

Chris: What do the stripes on the American flag represent?

Megan: Oh, I don’t …

Chris: There’s 13 of them.

Megan: Was it, is it something to do with the founders of the Constitution?

Chris: No. It has to do with the colonies.

Megan: Thirteen colonies of America?

Chris: Yep, that’s it.

Megan: I didn’t know that. Which sport is Wimbledon famous for?

Chris: Oh, tennis! OK, we kind of talked about this before but this is kind of hard, so we’ll see.

Megan: OK.

Chris: So, what do we call the four years of college in the US?

Megan: What do you call the four years of college? Oh, I see – I have to name each of the separate years?

Chris: Yeah.

Megan: Oh, I thought … OK, sorry. I thought there was, like, an overall title. OK, so there’s freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.

Chris: Yeah! That’s it.

Megan: Yeah! I’m glad I got that. OK, good. Well, I got half a point, really.

Chris: That was a hard one. That was, like, four questions in one.

Megan: Yeah, it was actually! OK, erm – when did London host the Olympic Games? What year?

Chris: Was it in the 2000s?

Megan: Yep. Relatively recently,

Chris: Was it, erm, 2008? 2012?

Megan: 2012, yeah!

Chris: Cool.

Megan: Nearly!

Chris: OK. Well, this one’s fun, I think. What do we call biscuits?

Megan: Cookies?

Chris: Yep!

Megan: I knew that! I definitely eat loads …

Chris: Who was the first president of the United States?

Megan: I knew you were going to ask me this and I was, like, ‘Oh, I’ll just double-check’, and I haven’t double-checked. I don’t want to get it wrong! It’s George Washington?

Chris: Yep!

Megan: OK, good! Because I’m always unsure whether it’s George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.

Chris: Abraham Lincoln was, like, 13th or something, I think.

Megan: Yeah, yeah. OK. OK. Whew, I’m glad I got that! That could have been really embarrassing. OK, question number five: what is the nickname for an East End London accent? I have A, B or C, but if you know it, then …

Chris: I don’t know it.

Megan: OK, A: Brummie, B: Geordie or C: Cockney. It’s quite a well-known accent.

Chris: Is it Cockney?

Megan: Yeah. What is the nickname for London’s underground? So, what British people call it?

Chris: Oh, the Tube?

Megan: Yeah! Who created The X Factor? The name of the guy who … I mean, he’s one of the most …

Chris: He’s British?

Megan: Yeah.

Chris: Is it Simon Cowell?

Megan: Simon Cowell, yeah! You’re definitely doing better than me so far, oh my gosh!

Chris: I feel like my questions are harder, though. I don’t know.

Megan: Yours are gradually getting harder.

Chris: Are they? Well, why don’t we just have two more, and they’re both just American words that I’m pretty sure British people don’t use, so …

Megan: Oh, I like questions like this. OK.

Chris: So, what’s a doohickey?

Megan: I mean, when I hear the word ‘hickey’ I definitely think of something …

Chris: It’s not a hickey!

Megan: OK, got it! A ‘duehickey’?

Chris: A doohickey.

Megan: A ‘do’? D-O?

Chris: D-O-O.

Megan: I have never heard of that, ever. There’s probably loads of people watching, like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so obvious.’

Chris: I honestly don’t say it that often. I think it’s a kind of older word, but …

Megan: Can you give me … in what context would you say it? Can you say it in a sentence?

Chris: Like, for example, I’d be, like, ‘Oh, can you give me the doohickey?’

Megan: Is it like a thingy?

Chris: Yeah.

Megan: Ah! So, would you say it about, like, a TV remote?

Chris: Yeah, if I can’t think of the word, I’ll just be, like, ‘Oh, give me the doohickey.’

Megan: Whereas I’d just say, ‘Give me the thingy.’ Oh, OK. I quite like that, ‘doohickey’! That’s cool. Oh, it’s my go.

Chris: Last question.

Megan: This is my last question, yeah. What is the nickname for the flag of the UK?

Chris: I feel like I should know this, but I …

Megan: Mmm, I don’t know. It’s quite …

Chris: I don’t know. Do I get a …

Megan: It’s three words. The first one, ‘the’.

Chris: I feel like when you tell me, I’m going to know it, but I don’t, I can’t think of it right now.

Megan: Are you ready to give up?

Chris: Yeah.

Megan: The Union Jack.

Chris: Oh, yeah! I’ve definitely heard that! OK. OK, my last question is …

Megan: I really want to get this right.

Chris: What’s a faucet?

Megan: A faucet?

Chris: A faucet.

Megan: Again, I think I need a sentence. I’ve never heard of it, so …

Chris: Umm …

Megan: How are you spelling it?

Chris: F-A-U-C-E-T.

Megan: Oh, OK. Does that have anything to do with …

Chris: So, like, turn on the faucet.

Megan: Turn on?

Chris: It’s in the kitchen.

Megan: I have never …

Chris: You get water from it.

Megan: Tap?

Chris: Yeah!

Megan: You call a tap a faucet? That sounds like a different language! That doesn’t sound like English.

Chris: I mean, it probably came from French, I’d say.

Megan: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it sounds French. Cool! So, is that it? Are we done?

Chris: That’s it, yeah.

Megan: Well, Chris, definitely … you’ve definitely won. Thank you ever so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this video and, if you did, like this and subscribe to the British Council’s LearnEnglish Teens. Thank you very much.

Chris: See ya!

Megan: Bye!

Worksheets and downloads

British vs American culture quiz – transcript146.33 KB
Discussion

How did you do? Did you get any right?

Language level
B2 Upper intermediate
C1 Advanced
Topics
countries
Britain and UK
quiz
Average: 3.3 (3 votes)
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Comments

Profile picture for user Andrii

Submitted by Andrii on Sat, 12/25/2021 - 18:19

I only knew answers for questions "Who was the first president of the United States" and "What do Americans call biscuits".
Profile picture for user Kostantinus

Submitted by Kostantinus on Fri, 03/26/2021 - 14:44

I did not bad. I answered right on questions about the first US president, Wembly and cockney.

Submitted by Tengor on Mon, 10/22/2018 - 15:38

OMG. I my mind has exploded!

Submitted by 9A13 on Thu, 07/12/2018 - 03:30

These two cultures have definitively broken apart, and this particular video shows a little bit of that difference in vocabulary and also shows what an average American or Brittish know about each other’s country and culture

Submitted by 9B32 on Thu, 07/12/2018 - 00:00

well, was an interesting video ,shows us the difference of culture, also vocabulary, many words change and teaches us a lot culture general...

Submitted by 9A11 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 23:39

This video helps a lot with some facts of the american and british culture, and also gives a good vocabulary to work with, good pronunciation and very interesting :D

Submitted by 9B23 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 23:33

Its a very great video, i can understand the diferents topics that the youtuber show and its fabulous have this kinds of information when you can't go to that place

Submitted by 9B28 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 23:19

There are some differences about the British and American culture but in my opinion in general they are very similar cultures, but for example some questions probably might only be answered by a British person, or some of them that it might be answered by Americans , for example the question about the stripes in the American flag, someone from outside probably never count the stripes but someone from the states obviously knows more about his country and knows much more about his history and culture.

Submitted by 9B30 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 23:15

In the video we can see two diferent cultures, they both have their differences but they look alike in many aspects, many of which are the ones that most attract attention. Is a good video, and the questions were a bit difficut. It's easy to understand everything they say.

Submitted by 9B24 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 22:45

The video it's so interesting and I can see that there are so many differences between the UK and the USA. I think that it's so important to see and know all these differences between those countries because even they speak the same language there are so many differents words and they accent it's so different. And I think that the video also teach a lot of general culture.

Submitted by 9A14 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 21:52

the video guve us a example of the diference between the North American culture and the british culture and in the same way the video teach us difference between the accent and words like (biscuit and cookie) etc.

Submitted by 10A12 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 02:47

the video shows us that both cultures are very different, and in terms of language they use different words.

Submitted by 10A16 on Wed, 07/11/2018 - 00:41

that is a good video, sometimes, we can't recognize, the different cultures of those two countries, is a fun way explain for a video, that information is easier to learn in that format , and also i could learn a little things of a general culture

Submitted by 10A05 on Tue, 07/10/2018 - 22:55

I knew a new vocabulario, words that I totally ignored, but apart from that I knew two totally different culturas, two different lenguages and how American English Isabel different from British Interesting video.

Submitted by 10A07 on Tue, 07/10/2018 - 20:52

The video teaches us about the culture and characteristics of the United States and the United Kingdom, some questions I already knew their answers like: how many states are there in the U.S? and what was the first president of the United States ? and a general question when did London host the olympic games? but I did not know the answer of the UK questions, maybe because it is more common to talk about the United States to the United Kingdom. I thought the accent the British had was very different from the Americans, but I could understand everything he said without problem.
Profile picture for user Lickma

Submitted by Lickma on Fri, 04/27/2018 - 09:31

C cool
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