I'M AMERICAN AND I THOUGHT MY BRITISH PARTNER WAS LAZY UNTIL WE MOVED TO THE UK
There will always be adjustments to make when moving to a new country. Everywhere does things differently, whether it's the food, approach to work, or just the general lifestyle, and adjusting can be a struggle.
One American woman who now lives in the UK has spoken out about something she thought was odd when she first met her British partner - but has grown to appreciate after spending time in Britain. Mandy regularly shares looks into her life as an American living in the UK on her YouTube channel The Hickson Diaries, and recently posted a video comparing the pace of life in the two countries.
"One of the culture shocks that really has stayed with me since I've lived here, and I even struggle with and fall prey to, is the pace of life here in the UK," she said. "It's not that you don't have hustle culture, you definitely have hustle and bustle, especially in the cities like London, Liverpool, Birmingham.
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"Even on a Saturday afternoon in town or lunchtime in town, there's hustle and bustle, definitely. It's just different.
"You're hustling, but once you get where you gotta go, then you're cool and you're calm. That's the way you go for the rest of the time that you're there, the hustle's kind of over. It's really strange.
"The other thing that kind of goes along with that pace thing is, you all are ok with doing nothing. Like, you don't have to have every single minute being productive.
"Not gonna lie, when we lived in the United States, I thought my British partner was quite lazy because he would be happy spending the entire Sunday afternoon watching football for like six hours, doing nothing else, and that would be satisfying for him. I used to think what a waste of time, like, you know how much else you could be doing while you're watching football in the background?
"American culture is so hustle that even when you're relaxing you have to kind of [be] productive still, you have to move the needle on some level, it's a really strange concept.
"But now that we're here in the UK, I must admit that I find it very much more relaxing. I must admit that I find a quiet joy in just being able to spend a few hours watching a movie all the way through without being distracted, or taking a long walk and enjoying the weather and having a long conversation uninterrupted and undistracted."
Concluding she said the pace of life in the UK, even on a busy day, is "still calmer than the average calm day in America, in my opinion anyway."
People had a range of reactions in the comments. One said: "It's not doing nothing - it's simply NOT obsessively hustling for every buck. It's called LIVING - and for most mentally healthy people, working to pay the bills is just a necessary side-show to our actual life."
Another said: "When I was in America, there was a never ending list of stuff to do - you can't even enjoy food or have a drink (coffee). I still can't walk and drink a tea or coffee."
Someone else said: "The most 'nothing' thing I do is going for a long country walk (exercise, fresh air, de-stress, long chats with my co-walkees), or just sitting in the sun with a cup of tea for [a] while. With a full-time work life all in the digital world, sometimes quite stressed, those 'nothing' periods are needed."
Another wrote: "I go out of my way to do nothing. A cup of tea forces you to sit and do nothing whilst you drink it."
Someone else said simply: "I did nothing all weekend and I plan to do next to nothing today."
2026-03-23T13:46:01Z
