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This isn't America you know...

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  • This isn't America you know...

    Two different stories from two stages in my career. Both caused by American citizens who moved into England.

    I'm standing at gate, a small podium where tickets are ripped. It's quiet apart from three customers. A mother (GC), son and the SC.

    GC: I thought I should tell you, the man there was on the phone saying 'I've got loads of sweets and I'm on my way out now.'
    Me: Thank you.
    (I approach the man, who is heading towards the stairs with two tubs crammed full of Pick and Mix, easily worth a good £14 at the time)
    Me: Excuse me, do you have a receipt for those?
    SC: I'm going to go to the toilet first.
    Me: In that case sir, let me take them to the refreshments counter and you can pay for them afterwards.
    SC: Are you accusing me of trying to steal them?
    Me: Of course not, but you are telling me you're going to somewhere without surveillance with company property, not to mention it's unhygienic.
    SC: I'm a citizen of the United States of America! I can do whatever I like!
    Me: Sir, I am not encroaching on your rights, however, until you pay for those sweets they are company property.
    (He hands them over, goes to the toilet, only to find I have put them on the back counter, he tells me and a colleague that he is going to have a cigarette, and doesn't come back, since he was seen using his hands, the sweets were damaged off)

    The other one was at the end of last year, it involved a grandmother and two children, although only one spoke. At this chain, there is a teen ticket from 13, and a child is 12. So if someone going by themselves asks for a child ticket to a 12A, I ask for their date of birth.
    G: Two child tickets for Fred please.
    Me: Could I ask your dates of birth girls?
    Ch: 1999!
    Me: I'm sorry, but these children cannot go by themselves to see this film. It's against the law.
    G: What are you talking about? They're both 12!
    Me: This girl has just said she was born in 1999, it's 2010, so she is 11 this year.
    G: They started high school this year, so they must be 12!
    Me: With all due respect ma'am, I started secondary school at 11 and didn't turn 12 until just short of the summer holidays that school year.
    G: I'm a teacher! How dare you claim that I don't know the school system!
    Me: Well, I still cannot let them in because this girl has said she's 11 this year and the film is certified as 12A.

    She complained to the manager about a lack of professionalism and how the customer is always right. The manager said that's not always true, which annoyed her.

  • #2
    Those pesky Americans!

    (I love Americans. Ok, scratch that, I love AN American. My fiance. I gots no beef with you yankees ya'll cool.)

    The two countries are so alike yet utterly different ^^;; A lot of the Americans I've known have been utterly surprised by the way we do things, especially on movies and age-restrictions. I think it was while I was lurking on here some time ago that I read about someone seeing some moron bring his small children to see Watchmen with him- it just would never happen in the UK, something I'm endlessly glad about. I have a very bad feeling cinema experiences for me when I emigrate aren't going to live up to my Uk experiences ^^;; (but then my nearest cinema is an awesome Vue...the one nearest my fiance is a crappy falling-apart DanBerry cinema).

    Something tells me that second lady must have been lying about being a teacher...American or not, I find it highly unlikely that a teacher working in the British education system would ever refer to Secondary School as "High School"...there is a difference after all...

    And as for the first guy...so being an American means you never steal? Or does it mean that you eat candy while on the can? Hmm? What sort of image of your country are you trying to portray, because to me it sounds like you're just a theiving, dirty twat :P

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    • #3
      Idiots/SCs come from all countries.
      "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you.This is the principal difference between a man and a dog"

      Mark Twain

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      • #4
        Quoth Frantic Freddie View Post
        Idiots/SCs come from all countries.
        Exactly. Well said

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        • #5
          Sadly, this is true. And is shouting "I'M A CITIZEN OF [any random country]" supposed to impress somebody? Yeah, you and several million other people (depending on the size of the country, LOL) -- so what?

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          • #6
            and actually in America you usually start High School around 14 years of age. Primary is K-5 or 6 , JR High is either 6/7-8 or 7-9 depending on state and high school is either 8-12 or 9-12 (usually 9-12 still.) most kids start kindergarten around 5, 1st grade about 6 so hit 8th grade around 14.

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            • #7
              I was 13 when I started high school, and I was almost universally the youngest person in my class. Since they changed the cut-off date a few years after I started high school, unless you start early or skip grades, you will very rarely find anyone starting 9th grade (typical high school start) that isn't at least 14. I suspect that they go to a combined secondary school that starts with 6th grade (usual middle school/junior high starting grade) and would result in the new students being 11 or 12 in most cases.

              However, that's all completely and utterly irrelevant, since the girl had already stated that she was born too late to be 12 at the time.

              ^-.-^
              Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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              • #8
                Quoth Frantic Freddie View Post
                Idiots/SCs come from all countries.
                So very true. Idiotic behavior is the only thing I know that truely knows no bounds by country, race, income level, age, education, religion, sex or any other qualifier I can think of.

                Madness takes it's toll....
                Please have exact change ready.

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                • #9
                  Just to clarify, the reason for my title is:

                  1) The first customer claiming he can do as he pleases as a US citizen
                  2) The grandmother in the second conversation seems to believe a different system to the one that the British typically follow. As I mentioned, I was 11 when I started secondary school and I didn't turn 12 until the following July. Her accent and use of the term 'high school' gave away her origins.

                  And for extra irony, I had to resist the urge to tell her that if I go with one career I'm thinking of (primary school teaching) I'd be a third generation educator (my mother's a Maths teacher and my grandmother was a psychiatric nurse who also trained other nurses). Yeah, that's really going to convince me you're not trying to flout BBFC's rules.

                  Also, someone asked me which was better between Fred and Gnomeo and Juliet. I told him, 'Let's put it this way sir, why fork out for cinema tickets when you can watch Fred on YouTube? That's where the act was born.' his choice there and then was G&J.

                  I do also get Americans who believe that we follow the same system as they do (in that children can come into films they are otherwise too young for with someone over 18), but usually when I explain the censorships they simply apologise and choose a different movie.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth Teskeria View Post
                    and actually in America you usually start High School around 14 years of age. Primary is K-5 or 6 , JR High is either 6/7-8 or 7-9 depending on state and high school is either 8-12 or 9-12 (usually 9-12 still.) most kids start kindergarten around 5, 1st grade about 6 so hit 8th grade around 14.
                    Or - Elementary school - K-6; middle school - 7&8; high school - 9-12

                    New Mexico switched from the elementary-junior high-high school just after I graduated high school. And I constantly date myself by calling it "Zia Jr. High" even though it's been a middle school for over 20 years.
                    It's floating wicker propelled by fire!

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                    • #11
                      Same thing would have happened here Stateside.
                      So generally, the guy was a douche who was trying to steal. I have no idea where my countryfolk abroad got the idea that saying that they're American is supposed to make magic happen....make the rest of us look bad, the jerks...

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                      • #12
                        Please, please, PLEASE don't assume all us Americans are dumbasses like these! I'm a born Texas native (my family fits the steryotype almost to a T-my dad's an ex-bullrider who does long haul truck driving now and isn't seen anywhere without his cowboy hat, my sister was a barrel racer and show rider, I raised calves, goats, horses and chickens, owned a rifle at a very young age and know how to gut a deer, I owned a mustang horse, ect) and I'd never pull some bull like that.

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                        • #13
                          Here in Australia a movie like "Kill Bill" was rated R18+ which means you don't get into the theatre unless you are 18 or over. Not even with your parents.

                          I sat in there and there was a little girl sitting right next to me who was somewhere between 5 and 8. She was not really watching the movie, she was singing to herself and kicking her legs the whole time the movie was on.

                          That means that her mother (who was sitting the other side of her) must have smuggled her in somehow.

                          I don't go to the movies any more - I stay at home and get them on DVD.

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                          • #14
                            In nov I will have been married to a lovely british lass for 10 years, but after spending time in wales, I know understand why most people think yanks are nuts.

                            My future wife and I were walking up to our favorite resturant, oddly enough called the Celtic, when a tour bus rolled in and off loaded. we didnt care we had all the time in the world. We stood in line to get seated and while we were waiting, this "pack" (2 men & 2 women, with thick southern accents) were whining about how they didnt like the uk. they didnt like the weather, they didnt like the tour.

                            They just kept on bitching...

                            I lost it. I yelled, "if you dont like it over here go back to the states and shut the hell up, cause some of us yanks do like it over here." Everyone looked back at me, in all my glory. I lived up to my nickname of "The BFY" (Big Fucking Yank) I stood a good head above everyone and at that time I had a full head of hair and bright red beard, it was a sight to behold. Everyone but the pack were cracking up and my now wife was clinging on my arm and chirping "I knew there was a reason I kept you!"

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Clover View Post
                              Please, please, PLEASE don't assume all us Americans are dumbasses like these! I'm a born Texas native (my family fits the steryotype almost to a T-my dad's an ex-bullrider who does long haul truck driving now and isn't seen anywhere without his cowboy hat, my sister was a barrel racer and show rider, I raised calves, goats, horses and chickens, owned a rifle at a very young age and know how to gut a deer, I owned a mustang horse, ect) and I'd never pull some bull like that.
                              Oh hey, we don't. Every country has it's good people and its idiots. Case in point: I'm Canadian - have you seen our current Prime Minister? He's a tool. Not my fault. I personally think your family sounds like excellent neighbours, if only because the likelihood of BBQs increases dramatically in the presence of Texans. I do love me some good BBQ.
                              What colour is the sky in your world and how high of a dosage do you need before it turns back to blue? --Gravekeeper

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