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Living in the UK: pros and cons
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Hi everyone, it's Agnieszka Merdok from 5 Minute Language. Welcome to my channel. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already and give this video a thumbs up. So this video is slightly different to what I normally share on this channel. Usually I talk about language learning advice, but I recently decided to kind of broaden the remit of this channel a little bit and include a little bit of kind of cultural knowledge, talking about different places, maybe talking about travel. Let me know what kind of topics you want to see and I will incorporate them into my schedule. So today's video is about the pros and cons of living in the UK.
I have lived in the UK for the last 14 years and I've lived in two different places. I've lived in London and I've also lived in Sheffield, which is in the north, but for the last 10 years I've lived in London, so my experience is kind of mainly based on living in London, but I will try and cover other kind of areas as well if I can, if I think there are any differences.
So in terms of the pros and cons, I'm going to cover the kind of practical aspects of living in the UK, to do with jobs and living and money and you know all these kind of practical things related to living in a country, but I'm also going to talk a little bit about the cultural aspects of living in the UK and the pros and cons of that. So let me just explain, I grew up in Poland and I lived there for the first 18 years of my life when I was at school and then I moved to the UK to go to university.
In the meantime I also spent some time in France and then I went back to the UK. So I have experience of living in three different countries and that's kind of, I guess, what my perceptions are based on. So let's start with the pros and then we're going to move on to the cons. So the first one I want to mention is quite a practical one. In the UK there are a lot of opportunities, there are a lot of opportunities for jobs, for a career, for education.
Once you've kind of finished your education there are a lot of different things you can do, you can do internships, you can get a job, you can apply for various different apprenticeships and projects. So basically it's a place where there is a lot of opportunity compared to other places in the world. Like I said, jobs is one of the reasons why a lot of people move to the UK from abroad. The UK does have a good jobs market at the moment.
I'm filming this video in 2019 so I don't know what the situation will look like going forward but at the moment it's a country, it has been a country where there are a lot of job opportunities and if you work hard you can have opportunities to progress in your career, to get more responsibility within your job and maybe move on to something bigger. The kind of opportunities that I know that don't exist in some countries, in some places and I'm not saying that it's perfect and everyone is really wealthy and earns a lot of money but there are those opportunities here and unemployment is very low, especially in London. There are plenty of job opportunities out there.
The third one which is quite practical is it's very easy to start a business in the UK. There's a lot of guidance on the government website on how to start a business. Paperwork is very limited that you have to do and then actually running a business you can do it just as one person. You can do it all yourself if you want to because there are some clear rules about accounting and tax and how to do different things as a business. So it's quite easy and also tax is quite low for small businesses. If you're for example only just starting out you don't have to pay lots of tax and national insurance.
There are lots of exemptions so that kind of encourages in my view, encourages people to start businesses and being creative and entrepreneurial. So the next big one which I'm going to cover is education and culture. So education in the UK is, well some of it is free and some of it is not free. So when you're a child you go to school it's free and there are obviously fee-paying schools as well but the majority of people go to state-funded schools and education is good. It is really good compared to other countries and then when you go to university it's not free.
It's actually quite expensive so I should probably mention it in the comments not the pros but university education is really good as well and I think what I like about the education system in this country is that it encourages people to be creative, encourages them to think for themselves, to challenge ideas, to be critical like in a good sense of the word and it just kind of helps foster this kind of like free-thinking creativity.
I would say it's not too focused on facts which some people don't like because when I went to school in Poland, I don't know what the system is like now, but when I went to school in Poland we had to learn a lot of things off by heart and then we had to like kind of like recite them back to the teacher or write them down in a test and whereas you know today like you can look up facts online in like one second so what's the point? Well you obviously have to have some basics but I would have really appreciated having the opportunity to think a little bit more critically about what I was learning when I was at school so that's what I like about the education system here.
I mentioned culture. Culture is very big in the UK so there's a lot of going on in terms of theatre, music, film, literature and a lot of stuff is free so a lot of museums for example are free, you don't have to pay which is quite surprising. I know for American people who come to London where they you know in America you have to pay a lot of money to get into an art gallery or a museum and so that's really good. Okay the next one I'm going to say is quite important from the kind of practical and cultural point of view.
It's a very advanced democracy so obviously there are people in this country who disagree with you know certain things like they criticize certain things but which is fair enough you always want to make things better but if you compare it to other countries where democracy is not as advanced you can see the difference really clearly. I personally as somebody who lives in the UK I have trust in the institutions, I have trust that you know I'm gonna you know I'm gonna get paid by my employer or I'm gonna if I go to court I'm gonna have a fair trial that kind of stuff.
If I want to demonstrate I can go out on the street and demonstrate freely if I'm being discriminated against I can go and complain about it so I think these are things that we don't normally think about when we're used to them we can take them for granted but surely you know other countries are not as fortunate and they don't have that so it's something that I really appreciate.
The next one is equality and again people may disagree with this because obviously there is a lot of work to be done in this area but all in all equality is pretty good in the UK and so you know it doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman or if you're from a different ethnic group or follow a different religion there is equality of that and if you ever feel you're discriminated against there are processes for tackling that and obviously people talk about improving equality all the time so there is a debate an ongoing debate about it which is also really good which I know in some countries there aren't as many debates about that.
So the next one is also quite practical it's healthcare which is quite developed and quite good you can go to the doctor for free so it's not like in the United States for example where you have to pay insurance every month and obviously you know everyone who is working is already paying tax here and then that money is used to fund things like healthcare so you never have to like go to a GP and pay with money basically which is really good.
Okay so I'm now going to move on to a more kind of like cultural aspect which is people and I couldn't not mention that because obviously the UK is made up of people so the first thing I'm going to say is people in the UK are very friendly and open and you know you can go to a shop and have a conversation with someone or like if you're at work you're in a lift with a colleague you don't really know very well and people always like try to make conversations so that's quite different to other cultures.
In my experience people are very friendly and also they're not intrusive so what I mean by that is you know like the stereotype of a British person is that they're reserved but really the way I see it is it's not being reserved it's being non-intrusive basically so for example you know people wouldn't ask you personal questions unless you express an interest in talking about personal ideas like personal things so people just wouldn't be too nosy about you if you didn't want to whereas in some cultures that's the case people are quite like direct and straightforward and can be a good thing but it can also not be a good thing.
Also people in the UK are extremely helpful if you go to a bank for example and you have a problem then they will try to help you they will not try to say oh you didn't follow the rules so it's your fault so goodbye see you later solve it yourself but they will try to help you out so in my experience you know whenever I go back to Poland I think the difference the main difference is here people are focused on helping you whereas in Poland people are focused more on the process and the rules so if you went somewhere and you didn't have like this one document they'd be like you have to come back with that document whereas here they might be like okay we can still do it and then you send the document later so that's the difference I suppose.
The next one is the culture it's very inclusive and it's focused on conversation so there's a lot of ideas obviously within society very different people and people are still kind of open to having conversations having debates and agreeing to disagree you know you can still live together you can still be friends even if you don't have the same ideas.
The next one I should have mentioned this at the start but the UK is a very multicultural place well first of all because it's a country that's made up of four different countries England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and many people from abroad kind of forget that and they think it's a uniform country but actually it's very very different and if you've ever met anyone from Scotland versus somebody from England they will be very different and in in many different ways and also even within England there will be different regions so people from the north and people from the south may have like different cultural kind of little things about them that will make them different but also it's a it's a kind of multi-ethnic society with people from different cultures and different ethnicities living together especially in London if you go outside of London maybe less so but it's definitely a multicultural society that kind of is made up of lots of different ideas and lots of different traditions which is great.
The next one is also cultural I really love this one the sense of humour I personally really love British comedy I used to watch it even before I moved to the UK and I loved it and I know some people don't get it but I personally love it but generally people in the UK like to laugh at themselves and their sense of humour can be quite like dark and sometimes quite dry but funny at the same time I don't know how to explain it but if you've met a British person you will probably know what I mean.
The next one you're probably going to be shocked by this one but I'm going to say the weather is a pro of living in the UK. The weather here is very mild and it's not extreme so there are obviously periods of extreme weather where you can get like a week of constant rain or like a week of extreme heat but generally it's quite a mild climate especially in the south of England where I live. You know that in December you can expect it to be maybe like 10 degrees celsius sometimes and that's quite normal. So the next one I'm going to say that will also shock you is food.
So you have probably heard the stereotype of British food being really disgusting and maybe that was something that was true in the past but at the moment I can tell you with 100% honesty that British food is amazing and you know Britain is really crazy about its food at the moment. There's lots of really nice gastropubs, really nice British restaurants that serve local food which is done in a really nice way.
There are a lot of Michelin style restaurants in the UK so there is really really nice restaurants to choose from and obviously I'm going to mention all the foreign food restaurants especially in London but also all around the country you know you can get really nice Chinese, Indian, Thai food and in many countries you don't get that kind of variety. So living in London I'm really fortunate because I have access to that and I'm a big foodie myself so I just love being able to you know have some Japanese or have some Indian and it being quite authentic and delicious. And the final one I'm going to say is quite a practical one.
The UK has a really good public transport system and really good roads so if you're a driver you will be happy to know that roads are quite safe and they are well maintained and also public transport is very reliable. I know some people will disagree with me but you know if you compare it to other countries in Europe and around the world the public transport system in the UK is is really good like most I take public transport most days and it is reliable. So now I'm going to move on to the cons of living in the UK.
I haven't got too many because I guess I live here if I didn't like it I wouldn't live here but I have come up with a few kind of potential drawbacks. So the first one is a very high cost of living so you will know if you've ever visited London for example or another British place that it is quite expensive to live here it's expensive to pay for your accommodation especially you have to spend quite a significant chunk of your income on your accommodation and also on transport. So I've just said that public transport is really good but it's also very expensive so traveling by train for example sometimes it's a lot more expensive than flying.
You know if I wanted to go after Edinburgh I might actually fly which is not very environmentally friendly I know but it's a lot cheaper than taking the train. So cost of living and also if you have a family the cost of child care there is no sort of like free child care when you have a baby there's no like free nurseries. I mean you get some free hours but child care in general is very very expensive and then when your child goes to school that's when it becomes free so that's fine.
So the next one which is a possible drawback is taxes in the UK are quite high compared to other countries so especially if you live in the United States or some countries in Europe and then many countries in the world have much much lower taxes. So I think the lowest income tax in the UK is 20% and then that goes up to 45%.
So the next one I'm going to say is I know I mentioned equality in the pros but also there is inequality and there is quite a bit of poverty as well which of course you know it's a prosperous country in general there are job opportunities but when people are less fortunate then they can end up in quite a difficult situation. So it is visible especially in big cities like London there are homeless people living on the streets and you don't really see that in a lot of countries so if you come from a country which is like more equal you might not be used to that and it might be quite a shocking thing to see.
There is also some inequality when it comes to you know there's like a lot of very wealthy people and then very poor so I guess the differences between very poor and very wealthy are much bigger than other societies.
So the next one is quite related to that which is about it being like slightly an elitist country so for example when you look at like senior judges or lawyers or like people in certain professions who are successful and who are like at the top of the hierarchy they tend to you know come from certain social backgrounds and then there are other people who are not really represented in those kind of circles who come from very different backgrounds so yeah there is like a little bit of that and I think you know anyone who lives here will have probably heard that you know there is an ongoing debate about it and ideas people discussing ideas for how to change that.
The next one I'm going to say is healthcare again I mentioned that in my prose that healthcare is good and free but also it sometimes people complain about it because sometimes you go to a GP and they don't really help and you know like you can't go to a specialist doctor for example you have to go to your GP first for them to assess you and then give you a referral so if you need like a dermatologist you can't just go to a dermatologist.
So the next one is a cultural one it is about how in the UK people can be quite private about things so I've just mentioned that people are non-intrusive which is a good thing but also they can be quite private they which means that the relationships you build with people may not be as kind of deep and personal maybe as in other cultures because there will be certain areas of people's lives that they don't want to be discussing maybe so I guess that's like a slight cultural difference especially when you come from I mean certainly Poland but also you know some South American countries like Brazil I know that Brazilian people are like very open about things and maybe in some Mediterranean countries people tend to be a bit more open as well so that's like a slight drawback in terms of culture.
And I've got two more so the first one is the weather I know I said it was great and mild but also if you live in a hot place and you come here then it's going to be a bit of a shock because the weather is not really hot at all. Sometimes it is hot in the summer but most of the time it's just kind of average mild but it's yeah it's not guaranteed that you're going to have a sunny day all day every day for two weeks nothing like that so you might be a bit disappointed if you move here for the weather.
And the final one is the aesthetics some people might see the UK as like slightly less pretty than other countries you know like when you go to Spain or Italy things are very pretty but yeah maybe it's not like that here. Okay so that's it the pros and cons of living in the UK I hope you guys enjoyed this video make sure you subscribe to the channel and give this video a thumbs up and I'll see you next time bye. .
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Skrybot. 2023, Transkrypcje video z YouTube
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