My wife has a pen pal in England. She stayed with us for a couple of weeks last year. Her accent was cute and quite understandable, although she did have a few sayings that I had to have her clarify.
She has a high speed Internet connection is computer savvy, and the two of them had exchanged many emails over a period of months. She still had some surprising misconceptions. Although we do have dozens of vintage firearms in our collection... which she enjoyed shooting immensely, especially my wife’s WWII era .30 Carbine. So she very well may have gone back and told her friends that we are gun nuts.
I had an English kid on my staff when I was recreation director at a Summer retreat.
I really liked him and like you said, I had no trouble understanding him. The girls all thought his accent was lovable and he dated the cutest girl there.
Also like you mentioned, there were a few phrases which were different. I remember he called the hood of a pickup, “the bonnet”, etc.
Also just like everyone says, he had to have his tea. He even kept a hot water pot at the rec shack. Also was a soccer nut, and an extremely good player.