US Perceptions of the UK and vice versa

[DesEsseintes]

And if an English person had been so lip-curling and dismissive of America and a bunch of Americans jumped on him for disparaging their country, would you then call them out for overreacting? I think not. This guy was being dismissive and rudely ignorant, I called him; if you think I overreacted, well, it's your right; personally I think I put an ignorant racist in his place.

It's not possible to be racist towards the English. It slides off our condescending backs, or shrivels in the shadow of our enormous self-regard.

I speak, of course, as a proud Englishman.

 

[LadyVer]

And if an English person had been so lip-curling and dismissive of America and a bunch of Americans jumped on him for disparaging their country, would you then call them out for overreacting? I think not. This guy was being dismissive and rudely ignorant, I called him; if you think I overreacted, well, it's your right; personally I think I put an ignorant racist in his place.

Well, of course, you have the right to think what you want, but if I responded to every derogatory Yank comment on the board, I'd have carpel tunnel syndrome. Besides, the Brits are known for their sense of humor.

 

[oggbashan]

The UK and the US are possibly the most hated countries on Earth.

Power, even former power, attracts enemies.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Yes we do still have book shops. They are under threat, but in small towns there are still some small independents.

If you want to support independent bookstores in Britain, guys, shop at Hive not Amazon. They are often just as cheap and sometimes cheaper than Amazon and you can pick a favourite independent bookstore to whom they give a bit of the money as they work to support small shops.

It's not possible to be racist towards the English. It slides off our condescending backs, or shrivels in the shadow of our enormous self-regard.

I speak, of course, as a proud Englishman.

*cough* RugbyWorldCup *cough cough*

 

[sinagainChris12]

I like peas.

 

[beachbum1958]

If you want to support independent bookstores in Britain, guys, shop at Hive not Amazon. They are often just as cheap and sometimes cheaper than Amazon and you can pick a favourite independent bookstore to whom they give a bit of the money as they work to support small shops.



*cough* RugbyWorldCup *cough cough*

You had to say it, didn't you, just when it was starting to stop stinging...I was ready to send each of them a white feather, a drawing of a noose, and a note saying "You know what to do..." Luckily my (American) wife, who doesn't understand that rugby is one of the cornerstones of the civilised world, and the basis for all intelligent life in the universe, was ready with her usual words of wisdom; 'At least it wasn't the Superbowl...'

Thank you dear, remind me, please, exactly why did I marry you...?

All that's left to hope for now is that a small nation like Samoa or Fiji somehow work their way to a final showdown with Wales, and kick the living shit out of them...

 

[redzinger]

All that's left to hope for now is that a small nation like Samoa or Fiji somehow work their way to a final showdown with Wales, and kick the living shit out of them...

u ok hun?

Maybe you want to go for a swim to cool yourself off?

 

[beachbum1958]

u ok hun?

Maybe you want to go for a swim to cool yourself off?

Good one - I'm just a little fed-up with my welsh neighbours leaning on the fence and asking me what happened every time I walk past. I'm trying to be philospophical and remember it's just a game, and then someone will start all over again; as I'm not allowed to set the dogs on them, and I have to live here after this World Cup is just history, I find other ways to vent. Oh well, there's always next time round, and maybe our disgraceful team will do better in the Six Nations, although I'm not taking odds on it...

 

[stickygirl]

Question for the 'mericans
How many times do you kiss on the cheek when saying hello?
I only ask because in the UK we seem to have imported kiss-greets from somewhere foreign and now I don't know what to do: it varies from one to three and there's no way to know in advance. It can even result in two and half kisses, a head-butt and apologies.
Is a faucet a tap - you know, you turn it and water comes out or is a faucet the thing you pee in?
Do you think it's weird when UK people start a PM with Hello and sign off with a 'something' like cheerio? Some of the PMs I get are like I've passed them on a corridor and overheard a conversation, with no formality of hello and goodbye.

Also the OP didn't mention chocolate. I gather US chocolate is something of an acquired taste

 

[sr71plt]

Question for the 'mericans
How many times do you kiss on the cheek when saying hello?
I only ask because in the UK we seem to have imported kiss-greets from somewhere foreign and now I don't know what to do: it varies from one to three and there's no way to know in advance. It can even result in two and half kisses, a head-butt and apologies.
Is a faucet a tap - you know, you turn it and water comes out or is a faucet the thing you pee in?
Do you think it's weird when UK people start a PM with Hello and sign off with a 'something' like cheerio? Some of the PMs I get are like I've passed them on a corridor and overheard a conversation, with no formality of hello and goodbye.

Also the OP didn't mention chocolate. I gather US chocolate is something of an acquired taste

Zero on the cheek greet. Any who do picked it up from the European continent.

A facet is a tap. The liquid comes out.

American chocolate is sweeter than European chocolate. And it's not an acquired taste if you're an American.

 

[redzinger]

Question for the 'mericans
How many times do you kiss on the cheek when saying hello?
I only ask because in the UK we seem to have imported kiss-greets from somewhere foreign and now I don't know what to do: it varies from one to three and there's no way to know in advance. It can even result in two and half kisses, a head-butt and apologies.

Oh god. This. So very much this.

I must admit, I'm a prime offender though. Having lived in Spain and Portugal, two is the standard for me. Sometimes followed by a hug. I'm so confused.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Question for the 'mericans
How many times do you kiss on the cheek when saying hello?
I only ask because in the UK we seem to have imported kiss-greets from somewhere foreign and now I don't know what to do: it varies from one to three and there's no way to know in advance. It can even result in two and half kisses, a head-butt and apologies.
Is a faucet a tap - you know, you turn it and water comes out or is a faucet the thing you pee in?
Do you think it's weird when UK people start a PM with Hello and sign off with a 'something' like cheerio? Some of the PMs I get are like I've passed them on a corridor and overheard a conversation, with no formality of hello and goodbye.

Also the OP didn't mention chocolate. I gather US chocolate is something of an acquired taste

I don't kiss at all, I have four hulking older brothers, we live in a state of armed truce, and if I'd moved in for a 'hello' kiss, they'd have assumed I was going to bite them. I still haven't mastered the 'hello' kiss or the 'huggy', even after 18 years in England - which cheek is first, and how many times, and how long is too long? 'Kissy-kissy' air-kisses with my girlfriends is about as good as it gets with me. I now call faucets 'taps', the parking brake is now the handbrake, jelly is jam, and cookies are biscuits, which confuses my family back home no end, but then they claim I'm so English they can't understand me any more. They don't seem to understand if I went around using Southern slang and dialect where I live, in rural Oxfordshire, no-one here would understand me either; I still get the occasional puzzled look when my accent defeats some rural patient, although the kids seem to have no problem with me sounding like something from one the TV shows on Disney or Nickelodeon.

My family are used to me using 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' or 'See ya' on my PM's and emails, they just think it's one of the things my Brit husband has corrupted me with, because they certainly don't use greetings or anything more personal than 'later' as a sign-off; diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

And in answer to your question, American chocolate is so different, to me at least, that when I moved here I couldn't eat the stuff here for years; milk chocolate tasted sickly sweet, whereas my husband asserts to this day that my national icon, Hershey's, tastes like asphalt and makes him feel sick. Now of course, Cadburys Dairy Milk is stashed all around the house, and I find myself unable to indulge in my former addiction, Hershey's Milk chocolate with Almonds, it tastes wrong, although I still have a bundle of Peanut Butter M&M's shipped to me on a regular basis; some loves never die...

 

[redzinger]

American chocolate is sweeter than European chocolate. And it's not an acquired taste if you're an American.

It smells like dog poo. Yes, Hershey's actually does smell like shit.

Definitely an acquired taste. Otherwise you'd vom.

 

[redzinger]

Good one - I'm just a little fed-up with my welsh neighbours leaning on the fence and asking me what happened every time I walk past. I'm trying to be philospophical and remember it's just a game, and then someone will start all over again; as I'm not allowed to set the dogs on them, and I have to live here after this World Cup is just history, I find other ways to vent. Oh well, there's always next time round, and maybe our disgraceful team will do better in the Six Nations, although I'm not taking odds on it...

See, I'm happy to be quietly smug as whatever goes around, comes around. Unless someone says something anti-Welsh. Then, I'll let them have it with both barrels.

 

[sinagainChris12]

Question for the 'mericans
How many times do you kiss on the cheek when saying hello?
I only ask because in the UK we seem to have imported kiss-greets from somewhere foreign and now I don't know what to do: it varies from one to three and there's no way to know in advance. It can even result in two and half kisses, a head-butt and apologies.
Is a faucet a tap - you know, you turn it and water comes out or is a faucet the thing you pee in?
Do you think it's weird when UK people start a PM with Hello and sign off with a 'something' like cheerio? Some of the PMs I get are like I've passed them on a corridor and overheard a conversation, with no formality of hello and goodbye.

Also the OP didn't mention chocolate. I gather US chocolate is something of an acquired taste

I'm a born and raised American. American chocolate...how to say this without pissing off the people on my side of the pond. Unless you get a good kind like Lake Champlaign or Jer's or something similar...The chocolate here blows. European chocolate is so much better. Had some in Paris this summer that literally made me turn and grab my husband and practically rape him. After one piece.

Kissing on the cheek here depends on where you live/how close friend/family you are. I've lived north/south/east/and west. It is most prevalent in New England. One kiss, otherwise. You're drunk, go home.
A faucet is a tap. A toilet or (for you boys) a urinal is what you pee into.
I expect a hello when I am greeted in any form and most often a see ya, later, goodbye, or when being saucy I'm out might occur. Cheerio just makes me smile and go awwww. He's she's British.
And when my husband's friend who's British texts him and says something like ok, mate. It makes us all warm and fuzzy for being so cute.

 

[beachbum1958]

I'm a born and raised American. American chocolate...how to say this without pissing off the people on my side of the pond. Unless you get a good kind like Lake Champlaign or Jer's or something similar...The chocolate here blows. European chocolate is so much better. Had some in Paris this summer that literally made me turn and grab my husband and practically rape him. After one piece.

Kissing on the cheek here depends on where you live/how close friend/family you are. I've lived north/south/east/and west. It is most prevalent in New England. One kiss, otherwise. You're drunk, go home.
A faucet is a tap. A toilet or (for you boys) a urinal is what you pee into.
I expect a hello when I am greeted in any form and most often a see ya, later, goodbye, or when being saucy I'm out might occur. Cheerio just makes me smile and go awwww. He's she's British.
And when my husband's friend who's British texts him and says something like ok, mate. It makes us all warm and fuzzy for being so cute.

Problem with my ID, reposting shortly,

Lori

 

[sr71plt]

It smells like dog poo. Yes, Hershey's actually does smell like shit.

Definitely an acquired taste. Otherwise you'd vom.

Not that you're being provincial or anything.

For the millions who grew up on it, it's not an acquired taste. You're just showing your chauvinism. If you don't want to eat it, don't. There are any number of British dishes that turn my stomach but I don't react as if those who grew up on them shouldn't enjoy them.

 

[beachbum1958]

See, I'm happy to be quietly smug as whatever goes around, comes around. Unless someone says something anti-Welsh. Then, I'll let them have it with both barrels.

And Wales is up against Australia on 10/10, which should be interesting - they're almost perfectly matched, but I wonder if you can guess who I won't be shouting for (although to be honest I'd have to think hard about it- I'm not exactly a fan of the Aussies either...).

Kidding aside though, I don't really care who wins, as long as it's a good series and we see some great rugby, and my pals and I can drink some of that Fullers IPA stacked in the cold-room. What would make it perfect would be to see Chris Robshaw made to throw in the last ball in the final dressed as a girl, because he bloody played like one - of course if Wales are in the final, and they get trounced, well, I can be philosophical about it...

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

I'm a born and raised American. American chocolate...how to say this without pissing off the people on my side of the pond. Unless you get a good kind like Lake Champlaign or Jer's or something similar...The chocolate here blows. European chocolate is so much better. Had some in Paris this summer that literally made me turn and grab my husband and practically rape him. After one piece.

Kissing on the cheek here depends on where you live/how close friend/family you are. I've lived north/south/east/and west. It is most prevalent in New England. One kiss, otherwise. You're drunk, go home.
A faucet is a tap. A toilet or (for you boys) a urinal is what you pee into.
I expect a hello when I am greeted in any form and most often a see ya, later, goodbye, or when being saucy I'm out might occur. Cheerio just makes me smile and go awwww. He's she's British.
And when my husband's friend who's British texts him and says something like ok, mate. It makes us all warm and fuzzy for being so cute.

I sure wish my family was as welcoming and interested as you obviously are; they live in Savannah and Charleston, and behave towards my poor husband like he's some kind of plague victim, never missing an opportunity to snipe at him or disparage the UK, the royal family, his accent, his speech and mannerisms, and yet, they had the sheer gall to demand that they be allowed to use his family crest on their stationery, because 'we're all family now...'
His father was of the opinion that he'd be dipped in the brown stuff before he let that happen.

My husband comes from a very old family, but that didn't stop one crow-necked old bitch from sitting in front of him and launching into a diatribe about how I'd disgraced the family by marrying a Eurotrash foreigner when there were so many fine ole Southern boys to choose from - presumably she meant her buck-toothed, slope-foreheaded, web-footed bayou-dweller sons. All through this, Will never once took the opportunity to bite back; he was in my home, he was a guest, so he was exercising what my family obviously couldn't; self-restraint and good manners.

And yet they're constantly at me to invite them to his family home in Somerset, or our place in Oxfordshire, so they can lounge around the place as though they belonged there - they even got highly offended when Will's daughter married a French boy; apparently, she should have been sent to them so they could pick out a suitable bridegroom from the whiskey-swilling, tobacco-chawin' good ole boys they had in mind; they actually thought they had some kind of right to expect that.

The flip side of that though reveals all the Medical Corps surgeons he served with in Iraq and Afghanistan, who don't care where he's from, only that he was a fine surgeon and a superlative communicator; none of them, Americans all, ever commented on his accent, word use or vocabulary, all they knew was his directions and training in the OR was clear, succinct, and helped them save lives.

When the survivors get together these days in my home, I don't hear any English/American thing going on; all I hear is a bunch of people grateful to have got out of that meat-grinder alive, and the stories they tell of the horrors and tragedies, and the gallows humor as well. Will served 5 years altogether in both theaters, alongside American, Dutch, Polish, and MSF teams, as well as the British Army team he was seconded to, and other ISAF teams, and there's no difference between any of them, they're not Americans or Englishmen, they're just colleagues and friends now.

 

[sr71plt]

Move up to Charlottesville, Virginia. We have a long history of mixing. (E.g., Lady Astor was a Charlottesville girl; Lord Ashley--Laura's husband--lived here.)

 

[Handley_Page]

I sure wish my family was as welcoming and interested as you obviously are; they live in Savannah and Charleston, and behave towards my poor husband like he's some kind of plague victim, never missing an opportunity to snipe at him or disparage the UK, the royal family, his accent, his speech and mannerisms, and yet, they had the sheer gall to demand that they be allowed to use his family crest on their stationery, because 'we're all family now...'
His father was of the opinion that he'd be dipped in the brown stuff before he let that happen.

My husband comes from a very old family, but that didn't stop one crow-necked old bitch from sitting in front of him and launching into a diatribe about how I'd disgraced the family by marrying a Eurotrash foreigner when there were so many fine ole Southern boys to choose from - presumably she meant her buck-toothed, slope-foreheaded, web-footed bayou-dweller sons. All through this, Will never once took the opportunity to bite back; he was in my home, he was a guest, so he was exercising what my family obviously couldn't; self-restraint and good manners.

And yet they're constantly at me to invite them to his family home in Somerset, or our place in Oxfordshire, so they can lounge around the place as though they belonged there - they even got highly offended when Will's daughter married a French boy; apparently, she should have been sent to them so they could pick out a suitable bridegroom from the whiskey-swilling, tobacco-chawin' good ole boys they had in mind; they actually thought they had some kind of right to expect that.

The flip side of that though reveals all the Medical Corps surgeons he served with in Iraq and Afghanistan, who don't care where he's from, only that he was a fine surgeon and a superlative communicator; none of them, Americans all, ever commented on his accent, word use or vocabulary, all they knew was his directions and training in the OR was clear, succinct, and helped them save lives.

When the survivors get together these days in my home, I don't hear any English/American thing going on; all I hear is a bunch of people grateful to have got out of that meat-grinder alive, and the stories they tell of the horrors and tragedies, and the gallows humor as well. Will served 5 years altogether in both theaters, alongside American, Dutch, Polish, and MSF teams, as well as the British Army team he was seconded to, and other ISAF teams, and there's no difference between any of them, they're not Americans or Englishmen, they're just colleagues and friends now.

Wow!
A model of restraint, if ever there was one; I congratulate the both of you.
And I love the descriptions.
I'd be interested to know the reaction of the Southern family to his military service and good he managed to do.

 

[sinagainChris12]

I sure wish my family was as welcoming and interested as you obviously are; they live in Savannah and Charleston, and behave towards my poor husband like he's some kind of plague victim, never missing an opportunity to snipe at him or disparage the UK, the royal family, his accent, his speech and mannerisms, and yet, they had the sheer gall to demand that they be allowed to use his family crest on their stationery, because 'we're all family now...'
His father was of the opinion that he'd be dipped in the brown stuff before he let that happen.

My husband comes from a very old family, but that didn't stop one crow-necked old bitch from sitting in front of him and launching into a diatribe about how I'd disgraced the family by marrying a Eurotrash foreigner when there were so many fine ole Southern boys to choose from - presumably she meant her buck-toothed, slope-foreheaded, web-footed bayou-dweller sons. All through this, Will never once took the opportunity to bite back; he was in my home, he was a guest, so he was exercising what my family obviously couldn't; self-restraint and good manners.

And yet they're constantly at me to invite them to his family home in Somerset, or our place in Oxfordshire, so they can lounge around the place as though they belonged there - they even got highly offended when Will's daughter married a French boy; apparently, she should have been sent to them so they could pick out a suitable bridegroom from the whiskey-swilling, tobacco-chawin' good ole boys they had in mind; they actually thought they had some kind of right to expect that.

The flip side of that though reveals all the Medical Corps surgeons he served with in Iraq and Afghanistan, who don't care where he's from, only that he was a fine surgeon and a superlative communicator; none of them, Americans all, ever commented on his accent, word use or vocabulary, all they knew was his directions and training in the OR was clear, succinct, and helped them save lives.

When the survivors get together these days in my home, I don't hear any English/American thing going on; all I hear is a bunch of people grateful to have got out of that meat-grinder alive, and the stories they tell of the horrors and tragedies, and the gallows humor as well. Will served 5 years altogether in both theaters, alongside American, Dutch, Polish, and MSF teams, as well as the British Army team he was seconded to, and other ISAF teams, and there's no difference between any of them, they're not Americans or Englishmen, they're just colleagues and friends now.

My husband is Texan, I was raised in Illinois. His family and I do not agree on a great many things. Unfortunately for them, my husband has basically wiped off all that Texan "EVERYTHING'S BETTER IN TEXAS" BS and adopted a better way of looking at things (none of it was my doing.) I don't want to get in a north vs south fight, but there are a LOT of differences between the two, and if you're on either side of it, you have a really hard time liking or considering the view point of the other. I am extremely biased against certain areas of my country based on the way I was treated while living there.
I much prefer where we live now, and we would move to Europe in a heart beat if we could. Alas, my husband has a career that grounds him on this side of our borders for work.
And yes, I completely agree.....colleagues...friends...family now. Some people get it, unfortunately others just do not.

 

[DesEsseintes]

*cough* RugbyWorldCup *cough cough*

I have placed that in the small, lock-down part of my brain, along with Ashes whitewashes and when it is my turn to do the hoovering.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Wow!
A model of restraint, if ever there was one; I congratulate the both of you.
And I love the descriptions.
I'd be interested to know the reaction of the Southern family to his military service and good he managed to do.

My idiot family aren't impressed at all; he wasn't out there killing indiscriminately, so whatever he did was of no real consequence - but then, adding all their IQ's together would barely make two digits, so it doesn't trouble me in the slightest.

My dopey older brother had the cheek to ask him what his intentions towards me were when we first said we were getting married, like it was any of his damned business, and Will replied 'alas, strictly dishonorable, and we have to go now, the motel is charging me by the hour; wish me luck!'
For one breathless second, I really thought that fat-head was having a coronary, he went such a strange color; if he had, I wasn't going to operate on him, I couldn't stand him, and Will was still just an Orthopedic surgeon in those days, cardio was outside his training...

My two oldest brothers both served in Vietnam; Bob flew 'Sandy' escort pilot for the rescue helicopters, and Sammy flew A-4's and A-6 Intruders off USS Hornet (and a couple of others, I forget which ones). When Bob starts telling his war stories, mostly about napalming villages, the rest of those morons gaze adoringly at him, and blithely ignore my comments that what he did would today probably be regarded as a war crime; they don't care, because he made big bangs and tallied a body-count. Sammy at least never killed anyone; Intruders were unarmed, his job was to make SAM's chase him away from the bombers.

Will was only a trauma surgeon, so in their eyes rebuilding kids caught in booby-traps, or saving the lives of young soldiers who should have been at home fixing their cars or knocking-up their girlfriends just wasn't that important. He lost so many friends out there, and now I'm hearing about him operating in armor because the soldiers they'd brought in still had live munitions inside them; all that means nothing to my family at all, because he wasn't carrying a gun.

Will suffers from PTSD now, so he can't be a surgeon any more, not that he wants to; what he saw, and had to contend with, has turned him from medicine forever, although he's nostalgic about his days with Medecins Sans Frontiers before the war kicked-off. Now he spends his days writing, training his gun-dogs, playing with Ferdinand, his pet pig, rough-shooting, or doing forestry work in our 65 acres of managed deciduous woodland.

 

[LadyVer]

Question for the 'mericans
How many times do you kiss on the cheek when saying hello?
I only ask because in the UK we seem to have imported kiss-greets from somewhere foreign and now I don't know what to do: it varies from one to three and there's no way to know in advance. It can even result in two and half kisses, a head-butt and apologies.
Is a faucet a tap - you know, you turn it and water comes out or is a faucet the thing you pee in?
Do you think it's weird when UK people start a PM with Hello and sign off with a 'something' like cheerio? Some of the PMs I get are like I've passed them on a corridor and overheard a conversation, with no formality of hello and goodbye.

Also the OP didn't mention chocolate. I gather US chocolate is something of an acquired taste

No kiss-greets in Texas.
Faucet and tap mean the same thing here.
I get confused when people use "cheers." Is "cheers" the same as "cheerio"?
I don't know about the differences in chocolate. I like dark chocolate, and if it's good, I don't care where it's made. I think it's just as easy to find chocolate made in the states or elsewhere these days. Even in Texas.