Tipping in the UK

I am just curious, in the UK people need tipping at a cafe? and at a restaurant as well?

When I go to a cafe or tea room in the UK, I always add some money as a tip when the payment.

Could you give some your experience or tell me if it’s true or not.

My job I used to work for the publisher. It publishes monthly food magazines. I was in the advertise department and doing color correction and proofreading.(checking the draft) We were busy at work before deadline. Staffs in the editorial department often slept at the office but looked so fun. I worked there for about three years and after quitting the job I transferred to the trading company. Because I wanted to do something completely different from publishing and related to English.

The differences between British English and American English When I was a student, I liked studying English. That’s because I was a big fan of British Music, so I used to translate English lyrics to Japanese using an English dictionary. I just wanted to know the meanings. So I thought I was used to BE(British English). In Japan, However, We learned English from American side as a second language at school. And we have watched loads of Hollywood films so far. Actually I got used to AE(American English). Anyway, I found some differences between BE and AE. Firstly, pronunciation. for me, I would say, other Japanese people as well, BE is easier to imitate. Especially sound “R” in AE is really difficult for us. If I pronounce “car” like AE way, (actually I can’t though) I feel so embarrassed! Because we have no “R”sound like AE. “T”or “O” of AE are difficult as well.( Party, hot water better...) Secondly, words and sepelling. Football Soccer, theatre theater... Finally, intonation. It’s so hard for me to explain. I would say BE is clear and bit strong, on the other hand AE is very soft. Anyway, I would like to find more differences between them including culture or custom while learning English.

Please check my English sentences. Yesterday evening when I got off the train, it was bucketing down outsid. I had no idea (or I didn't think) that it would rain today. As I didn't have an umbrella, I was in a long line to buy it at a convenience store. But I got soaking wet on the way home.

Do these sentences sound natural. He is a third year junior high school student. His school has the high school, so he doesn't need to study for the entrance exam for the high school. But he has to hit the books to go to his first choice collage. They are defiant to me. So it's so tough for me to deal with them.

Saying Hello to someone When I lived in Germany, I would go to the huge supermarket which is called "Real" to buy a lot of foods for whole week every Saturday. Sometimes it was going to be more than 100 Euro at a time. When I paid at the register, I said Hello to a cashier and when leaving there, we said "Bye, Have a nice day"(Tschuess, Schoenen Tag noch) with smiling to each other. I think this custom is wonderful! The relationship between customers and shopkeepers is equal like friends. And there are nice communications in a daily life. In Japan, it's quite different. We don't have the custom like this. We don't say Hello and Bye to shopkeepers. But they always say to us "May I help you? Is everything Ok?"which is too much polite! It looks like the position of customers is a lot higher than shopkeepers. We don't try to communicate with someone. Is it that because we are shy or island nation? I'm not sure. Anyway, saying Hello to someone with smiling is a really good way to have a good relationship (or get along) with local people in the foreign country.