Watch: Man Hilariously Demonstrates How British And Americans Greet Strangers

A video of a man demonstrating a ‘cultural difference’ between Americans and British citizens when it comes to addressing strangers is going viral. In the video, social media influencer Joshua Cauldwell, highlights that in America people mostly use ‘sir’ to address strangers but in the UK people use ‘mate’ very frequently. He then goes on to explain this fact by going into a store and buying a soft drink. As he chats with the cashier he uses the word ‘mate’. Even during his small talk with the cashier, Joshua manages to say mate a staggering eight times. While ending the video, Joshua says, “That’s how Brits do it. That is a genuine thing we do in the UK. We do say mate all the time. Like I’ll call my granddad my mate, like everyone is your mate, it’s crazy.”

This video has gathered over 65,000 likes since it was posted on January 19. Commenting on this video, an X user wrote, “I work in customer service in the UK and the only time I only ever say sir (and it’s always sir not ma’am) is when someone is being very rude to my staff and I’m trying to remain as professional as possible. SIR.”

Another observed, “He’s a lad (bro) and quite young. They call everyone ‘mate’. Most people in the UK however, don’t say this. You would never hear an older person call someone ‘mate’.” An account remarked, “To be fair it’s a bloke to bloke thing. As a woman I would not say mate to the supermarket cashier, in fact I wouldn’t say anything. Hello, Please and thank you, goodbye, yes but that’s it.”

Soon after Joshua made another video in which he showed how Brits address women. In the video, he goes to a store and greets the female cashier with the informal word ‘love’. In this clip, Joshua argues that while Americans address women as “Ma’am”, in England people go by many informal terms like “love”, “darling”, or “sweetheart” without it being awkward.

Commenting on this video, an Instagram user wrote, “If someone with a British accent called me Love, I wouldn’t think anything of it. If they had an American accent, I’d think it was weird. Probably not offended…just weird.” Another remarked, “I’m American and my in-laws are from the U.K. and I prefer to hear “hello Love” in that Beautiful accent way more than anything else.”