What I Learned from my British Roommate

When I lived in Bolivia, I was part of a small international team of missionaries. I lived with a gal from Wales for a year's time. The team leaders were from England and Northern Ireland. We also had a South African family. I spent a good bit of time with my British teammates, and here are some things that I learned.

1. Geography lesson:
someone from Wales is called Welsh
someone from Scotland is called Scottish
someone from England is called English
someone from Northern Ireland is NOT called Northern Irish. (I don't think there is a specific title)
all of the above are from the UK and are called British

an Irish person is from the Republic of Ireland which is not part of the UK

2. Having slightly different vocabularies comes in handy when you are playing Taboo.
There are a lot of words that are used differently in different English-speaking countries. For more on this topic see this post on a new friend's blog.

3. You do not have to rinse the soap off your dishes.
None of the British people on our team bothered to rinse the soap off of their dishes. I asked about this practice and was told "A little Fairy Liquid never hurt anyone!"
As for the particulars, scientifically, I was told that the soap will either drip off while they are air drying, or you will wipe it off when you are towel drying them.

One day I noticed that my roommate was rinsing the dishes. "Oh" I exclaimed, "did you start to rinse the soap off the dishes?"
"no," she said, "but I thought that when you were around, maybe I should to make you feel better."
I replied, "I thought maybe you had started to notice some subtle signs of soap toxicity"

Back in the States, I found some Fairy Liquid brand dish soap in a British import store and I had to buy some, of course. I no longer rinse my dishes, I am a convert. My new policy is "a little Palmolive never hurt anyone!"