From cockney to “Ey up! How’s tha doin?”, one South Korean has made it his mission to make sense of Britain’s baffling dialects.
Seong-Jae Kong, 25, known on YouTube as Korean Billy, took an interest in the diversity of the country’s speech last year while studying at the University of Central Lancashire as an exchange student.
“Most of my classmates were Scousers or from Preston. At that time I was really shocked to see my classmates speak with Liverpudlian accents because I didn’t even know that kind of accent existed at that time,” Mr Seong-Jae told BBC Radio Merseyside.
His videos, in which he mimics the accents and explains common phrases, have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, both here and in South Korea, where he now lives.
Accents from Wales, London, Newcastle and Manchester have featured, as have the differences between British and American English.
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The southeast’s glottal stop is ably demonstrated by the sentence “could you pass me a bottle of water”, which harks back to a certain Heineken advert of the 1980s.
Mr Seong-Jae has also embraced, or at least tried to explain, many aspects of the country’s culture, including assorted British snacks. In one video he and his friends try Frazzles, Twiglets, Wine Gums and Jelly Babies, with limited success.
As to what things his countrymen find most different about the UK, first on the list is the British tendency to cross the road without using proper crossings. Korean Billy says that “it seems like pedestrians are the most important on the road in the UK”.
Second up is the lack of world-leading internet coverage that South Koreans can find in almost every public space. Driving on the left and our coffee shop habits complete the list.