A Brit living in America revealed a hilarious gap in US residents’ knowledge that no one would have expected.
TikToker @amberinamerica suggested she may have “accidentally figured out how to confuse your entire nation”. She admitted she was prepared for some things to be different, such as “different weather, different food, pants are the things that you put on over your pants”.
But she did not expect the confusion that arose after asking her friend to tell her the time.
Amber explained: “We had some friends come over last night. We were watching a movie and my phone was on the breakfast bar.
“My friend went to go and help himself to a drink and I said ‘oh, will you just knock my phone and let me know what the time is?”
Her phone showed 20:45 – leaving the American baffled.
“I didn’t know that Americans don’t use the 24-hour clock!” she said. “He had absolutely no idea what time it was – couldn’t tell me.
“So I said ‘okay, what are the numbers’, he said, ‘20:45’, and I said ‘okay, quarter to nine.’
But this too left him scratching his head.
“You don’t say that either?” Amber said incredulously. “Quarter to? Quarter past?” Half past? Not a thing.”
Comments on the video said that while Americans are usually aware of 24-hour times, they tend not to use it day-to-day.
“We call a 24 hour clock military time,” one said. “I know how to read it but don’t use it in normal life. People here do say quarter til or quarter after though.”
Another added: “The older generations will say half past, quarter to or after. but unless you are in the military, law enforcement, medical field… you don’t use 24.”
In another time-telling travesty, an American living in the UK found themselves under fire after saying they were confused about clocks “not having numbers on them”.
A video posted to the TikTok account @Swfinds, who described themselves as a “US living in GB”, showed them wandering around Paddington Station before panning in on one of the station’s four-faced clocks.
They captioned the video: “How do British people tell the time if all British clocks don’t have numbers but strange lines instead I’m so confused?”
As the camera focuses in on the clock, viewers can see they are looking at a clock face that displays Roman numerals rather than actual numbers.
The video racked up nearly a million views – but commenters didn’t take lightly to the confusion, ridiculing whether the American had even heard of Roman numerals.
One person quipped: “By “strange lines” do you mean Roman numerals.”
Another wrote: “Even if you don’t know Roman numerals it’s not rocket science to know where numbers are on a clock.”
More videos on @Swfind’s TikTok page show a lot of British customs which they say leave them confused. It’s not known when the account is genuinely confused by things we do over here, or if they’re only joking for fun.
