Americans are shocked to discover what counts as 'near' in Europe, highlighting a vast cultural difference they hadn't considered before

04.11.2023 - 10:11 / insider.com

Americans have been left baffled by a British woman's perspective of what locations were considered close to her hometown, sparking a conversation about the vast geographical differences between the countries, and their differing takes on distances.

On September 19, Melody Snook, a TikToker with 1.1 million followers from Bournemouth, England, posted a comedy skit where she posed as an American who quizzed her on where she lived in the UK. In the clip, Snook repeatedly shut down the American character who asked if her hometown was close to major English cities like London or Manchester, as the TikToker insisted that they weren't.

The video blew up with 1.4 million views and over 3,000 comments, many of which appeared baffled by her take — Americans pointed out it took just under three hours to drive between Snook's hometown and the English capital, which they felt meant it was basically on her doorstep, and questioned what the European definition of close-by really meant.

"Is 'near' to you guys like within visual range?" one viewer wrote alongside a face with tears of joy emoji, in a popular comment.

Others explained that in the US it is common to drive much further than that just for a concert or a sporting event and make a return trip the same day. People discussed what people in the US would consider a lengthy distance instead, with some determining it ranged between six and 10 hours drive.

On November 2, the conversation blew up all over again when a TikToker who goes by @manbrose_usmc posted a stitch response to Snook's original video, and also insisted the two locations in England were close to one another. 

The TikToker said he grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and he could drive for 13 hours without doubling back and still wouldn't leave his own state, while in England, the furthest town he could find from London was Berwick-upon-Tweed, which took just half of that time to travel to from the capital.

"So by American standards, your whole country is near London, as far as I'm concerned, all of England is just a suburb of London," he concluded.

The upload received 1.5 million views and over 4,700 comments, many of which appeared to be from viewers in the UK, who wrote that US standards didn't apply because the countries were completely different geographically, and since Britain was much more compact and densely packed with towns and cities, a 2-hour drive was considered lengthy by comparison.

While many American commenters remained unconvinced by the logic, one viewer put into perspective just how vast the geographical differences between the US and Europe were, pointing out that the cities of Paris and London in France and England respectively are around 212 miles apart in a straight line —