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One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the diversity of people. I know England has had a lot of immigration over the last few decades, but it really pales in comparison to much of the United States. White people still dominate the middle parts of the country, but here in California where 1 out of every 8 Americans live, white people are the minority. Now, this is a little confusing since the Census says California is 75% white, but that's because Latinos/Hispanic aren't counted as a race since we're white, brown, black, or mixed (mostly mixed in California due to Mexicans being primarily Mestizos). Most major cities have an non-white ethnic group that dominates the culture. LA/San Antonio: Mexicans, San Francisco: Chinese, Miami: Cubans, NYC: Puerto Ricans/Immigrants in general (36% foreign born!)/Ethnic groups that used to not be considered white (Jews/Italians).
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Jun 6, 2014 01:32
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Ewan posted:For people in the North and the Midlands, they see it more as: Who in the world claims Manchester is part of the Midlands?
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Jun 6, 2014 06:25
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I live in Suffolk (east of england) any my friends down south often consider me northern. OP if you evrr fancy a tour of East Anglia (rural, non twee, englan) give me a shout. We have cool stuff up here (home of the anglo saxons and all) and it's not mind numbingly expensive like London. In fact, gently caress London - it's horrible and everyone is bloody rude.
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Jun 6, 2014 09:15
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haakman posted:I live in Suffolk (east of england) any my friends down south often consider me northern. I grew up in Ipswich, Suffolk but moved to Australia when I was 10. Does it have the country hick inbred reputation I think it does, just going by what other people mention in passing? (Ipswich that is, Not Australia  )
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Jun 6, 2014 10:20
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I work in Suffolk, but live in Cambridge because there's nothing to do in Suffolk. Londoners think there's nothing to do in Cambridge. East Anglia's layout reminds me of the US south - mostly farmland, with small towns every 20 minutes. More culture shock: peanut butter's out, Nutella's in. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 10:26
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Actually the US and UK are very similar in a few regards, in that you shouldn't listen to southerners from either country.
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Jun 6, 2014 12:00
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If visiting the UK - prepare for years and years and years of two very different potential outcomes form the Scottish Independence Referendum. Either: A): Scotland votes Yes, becomes independent country. Cue years of bad press about the bloody scots in England where they are blamed for everything under the sun, including but not limited to - the deficit, stealing England's hard earned money in subsidies for years and its bloody good they're going etc and various other forms of 'gently caress them - good riddance'. Scottish frequently subjected to different versions of "you have no idea how good you've had it for the past 300 years" and you have destroyed what it meant to be British you northern scum. or B): Scotland votes No, remains part of the Union. Cue years of press in varying degrees of smugness exclaiming that rationality has won the day, and that "The Scots rationally have understood what it means to be British  " (ie taxes set by English). Over the years laws will slowly come into place to prevent another referendum taking place again - with the justification that, "you've already have had a vote for this, it is clear you want the status quo to continue!!" UK focus remains firmly planted in the South-East and any questioning of what goes on up 'North' is limited to phrases such as 'don't we have nukes up there?', 'isn't that where our good ol' queen comes from?', 'oh blimey damien, shouldn't we buy some of those glens and lochs that have become available, the children would absolutely adore somewhere with enough land', 'that's where they based Game of Thrones don't you know, Winterfell is the old norse word for Glasgow' and 'isn't that where Peter Kay comes from?'Also, as a mate of mine from the US has pointed out -never ever EVER go to a scottish pub and accidentally refer to them as 'English' instead of 'Scottish'. (also best not to use British either as there's a 50/50 chance of you being twatted anyway).
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Jun 6, 2014 12:42
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Gromit posted:I grew up in Ipswich, Suffolk but moved to Australia when I was 10. Does it have the country hick inbred reputation I think it does, just going by what other people mention in passing? (Ipswich that is, Not Australia Suffolk is frightened of foreigners. Not a in UKIP-way, but in an anyone-outside-the-county-speaks-funny way.
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Jun 6, 2014 13:48
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I think I might have some fun with purposefully using English for all the British, no matter what. I'm from the American south, and every english calls me a Yankee even though it doesn't apply.
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Jun 6, 2014 14:13
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:I'm from the American south, and every english calls me a Yankee even though it doesn't apply. In Australia you'd be called a Yank, rather than a Yankee. We don't consider the term to be any more specific than "North American".
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Jun 6, 2014 14:47
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:I think I might have some fun with purposefully using English for all the British, no matter what. Well, if you get your kicks from people thinking you are an absolute douchecanoe, you go right ahead. Cultural identity is a really big deal to a lot of people here, with a lot more contemporary relevance than than a war from before any of us were born, and while you might not get the poo poo kicked out of you for a single honest mistake in a pub (depending on the pub really), persistently doing that sort of asinine trolling will result in some people getting aggressive, and others getting very pissed off. For content,one thing I noticed when working in America was that you were much more accepting of risk than the UK. By comparison, we seem very big into "Health and Safety", which tends to get blamed for a lot of things in the same way political correctness does. I don't think anyone's talked about queuing yet? That is taken very very seriously in certain contexts!
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Jun 6, 2014 15:17
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:I think I might have some fun with purposefully using English for all the British, no matter what. That's a smart way to find out what it means to get glassed in the face for being a oval office.
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Jun 6, 2014 15:39
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:I think I might have some fun with purposefully using English for all the British, no matter what. If you meet some actual Londoners (i.e. those who grew up there), you might find the term "seppo" used to refer to an American. This is cockney rhyming slang "seppo" --> "septic tank" --> "yank". (Yes, cockney rhyming slang is actually used by some unironically, and they normally omit the actual rhyming part). Some ones you may come across: "Have a butcher's" --> "butcher's hook" --> "look" "Having a bubble" --> "bubble bath" --> "laugh" "Up the apples" --> "apples and pears" --> "stairs" "trouble" --> "trouble & strife" --> "wife" There's many many more, but the above are the only ones I could think of that are actually used.
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Jun 6, 2014 15:56
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:I think I might have some fun with purposefully using English for all the British, no matter what. You're unlikely to insult anyone who is English by doing that since it's not uncommon for English people to do that too, and if it's just the English who are doing that to you it seems silly for you to purposely offend people from other parts of the UK. If someone from one of the other parts calls you a Yank and that bothers you, just tell them it's like you calling them English and they'll probably stop (if they don't I'd say just go right ahead and call them English). If you want to annoy English people like that start calling them Jerries with the justification that people from the EU are all the same to you. Or don't.
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Jun 6, 2014 18:16
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 Memorize this.
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Jun 6, 2014 18:33
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Ewan posted:No, we call you a "yank", this is not the same term as the American "yankee". It is a British (and Aussie) English derogatory generic name for someone from anywhere in the US. Yes, a lot of us know what a "Yankee" is (and that our word derives from it) and that it really means you're from Northern US, but we don't mean this when we use "yank" - it's just a generic term. And, while it is a pejorative term, it is often used in a manner that is not meant to be insulting, so don't think it's always a negative thing (in the same way we often call the French "the frogs"). Man, some British people are terrible at speaking English. Does Cockney rhyming slang confuse other British people? Scouse is another accent that I can barely decipher sometimes. Pretty sure the BBC even admits that American's speak better English in one of their documentaries on the English language. But anyways, one thing I've noticed is that a British/Canadian/Australian/New Zealander can come to the US and be here for all of a week and might complain about non-English speaking "foreigners"(like Hispanics in Florida) with a white American and neither party will be aware of the irony that that "foreigner" has likely been here for years and quite possibly born and raised here. Other English speakers don't seem to have any problem fitting in with Americans. I don't think there's much of a culture clash at all between most people from English Speaking countries, except for maybe people from regions with very distinct subcultures, like the Cockney rhyming slang you mentioned. Hell I'm from the US South and I can barely understand some people from the Appalachians and were both from the same region of the US. 100 years ago calling a Southerner a Yank would probably start a fight but today I think most would just be mildly irritated and would correct you
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Jun 6, 2014 18:44
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A good way to insult a Brit is to refer to him as "European". Yes, we are part of Europe, but a "European" means someone from the smelly continent, not our pristine island!
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Jun 6, 2014 19:48
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Ewan posted:A good way to insult a Brit is to refer to him as "European". Yes, we are part of Europe, but a "European" means someone from the smelly continent, not our pristine island! I've heard this from an English friend of mine before. Where do you think this viewpoint originated? After the Norman Conquest? Ferdinand the Bull fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 20:24
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When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America he mentioned that as a Frenchmen he viewed American's as basically as more radical Englishmen. He said something like "an American is the Englishman left to himself" ie completely English and with no continental European influences, like the way English Nobility always seemed to look to the continent due to their Norman heritage. edit for clarity: What he saw in American's were all the traits that made the English different from continental Europeans but they were more pronounced. Like the English loving liberty and freedom but the American's even more so. edit: and now that I think about it, I don't think American's ever lump the British in with Europeans, not that I've heard anyway. Mustang fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 20:44
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It's always surprised me how little the UK is. All those people packed in over there.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:26
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It's actually pretty big for an island though it's kind of funny how the former British settler colonies the US, Canada, and Australia all ended up with huge territories compared to the relatively small size of the British Isles. Any idea what % of the Earth's land surface the USA, Canada and Australia added together equals? Haha, maybe the small size of the UK is the reason it's colonies were so land hungry.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:38
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Mustang posted:It's actually pretty big for an island though it's kind of funny how the former British settler colonies the US, Canada, and Australia all ended up with huge territories compared to the relatively small size of the British Isles. Any idea what % of the Earth's land surface the USA, Canada and Australia added together equals? About 18% : Earth land surface 149 million km² Australia 7.692 million km² + USA 9.827 million km² + Canada 9.985 million km² = 27.5 million km²
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Jun 6, 2014 23:01
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Recently I have considered working in the UK, specifically London. It makes me curious about the differences between our two countries. Not necessarily negative differences, however; just the idiosyncratic things that we believe make our countries unique from one another. London is almost a separate nation, as far as the rest of the UK is concerned. Even in Georgian times, it was called the Great Wen (a 'wen' being a festering, rapidly-growing sore). It's still the least friendly city in the UK. No foreigner should come to London without a guarantee of six months' employment, pre-arranged accommodation, and route of escape if things go tits up, though you could safely try many other parts of the UK with much less of a plan. Like most capital cities, London is frenetic, venal, and merciless. How to argue with the British, aka “I'm sorry, it's 'Being Hit on The Head' lessons in here”: Health (apologies, but it is a hot button here): We grumble about it, but most of us are scared shitless of what we'd do without the NHS. It's inefficient, threadbare, patronising, and well into the 1990's, some rural hospitals had a ward or two that was actually a repurposed WW2 military barracks unit. But it's there. If you have a brain haemorrhage, a neurosurgical team will try to save you even if you're a pauper; if you unwisely choose to be born Cystic Fibrosis, you will get treatment. Gunplay: Most Brits I know are firmly against widespread gun ownership of anything more lethal or concealable than a double-barrelled shotgun – more than enough to blow one's mind should the need arise, and also to keep the hunting-and-shooting scene happy. Some think even this is too much. Every so often someone will run amok. The most recent managed to kill 12 people with just a shotgun and a .22 rifle (he was a taxi driver, which probably gave him an edge). We are baffled as to why most US gun rampages don't result in 20+ fatalities. Fine Food and Drink: Not even the Victorians had as many sorts of malted health drink as we have now. Even with its microbreweries, the US is a beer wasteland in comparison (before you think I'm crowing, English wine also exists: it's expensive and tastes like fine old battery acid). Also, British cheese is excellent, especially Stilton, king of blue cheeses. Even the French make Cheddar in secret, whereas we have never hidden our enthusiasm for Camembert and Brie. Decent ingredients are not hard to find, and we Brits should look like the population of Hogarth's Beer Street, strong sturdy folk, neither etiolated nor fat. Alas, we're pretty much the lardiest nation in Europe, with a dire fast food problem. The GBS thread on exquisite British cuisine did not exaggerate the many shameful kinds of crap you can buy in an average fish-and-chip shop. We have dozens of cookery programmes, but seem to have forgotten how to cook in practice. Haggis pizza exists in Scotland, also the primary consumer of the UK's most notorious bum wine, Buckfast Tonic, aka Buckie, a delicate blend of red plonk, brown sugar, vanillin and caffeine that leaves the drinker insensible to cold and pain. Scotland is the only place in the UK that can get geographically wild and isolated in anything like the way you get in the US. The hardy Scots are shortly going to vote on whether or not they really and truly want to leave the UK – I suspect the majority will say no, but it's up to them. Housing: The UK is packed compared to the US. Housing is horribly expensive and no-one on an ordinary income can actually afford to live in central London any more. The one person I know who lives near Portobello Road in London – famed for its antique shops – has managed this feat by being in supported accommodation for the intractably mad, and will be kicked out if she shows any sign of improvement. To buy a 3-bedroom terraced house somewhere like Kensal Rise (20-ish min tube ride from Westminster) you need two doctor/lawyer level incomes. Various London boroughs are seriously considering exporting their council housing problem as far afield as Merthyr Tydfil in the chronically unemployed Welsh valleys. This will be a bleakly funny social experiment if it ever comes to pass. Driving: US drivers will find this a baptism of fire, even in an automatic. Non-main roads are narrow and congested, street parking is frequent, roundabouts are universal. Some of our roundabouts have entry roundabouts. The most dangerous roads in the UK are moderately wide rural byways, which can be twisty, hilly, and rated at the national non-motorway speed limit (60mph). There is no way I can lose my driving licence as attempting to regain it would cause a nervous breakdown. A note on calling someone a oval office, since this comes up amazingly often: its current position over here is probably along the lines of what 'bastard' was in about 1800 – an insult hard enough to be fighting talk between men when used in earnest. Use in earnest therefore gradually becomes rarer than the safe use of 'You're such a great (male) mate, I can insult you and know you won't take me seriously'. Used seriously, to a man or a woman, it's still the worst of all the common insults, and as a greeting, it's only for blokes.
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Jun 7, 2014 00:47
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Carnival of Shrews posted:Recently I have considered working in the UK, specifically London. It makes me curious about the differences between our two countries. Not necessarily negative differences, however; just the idiosyncratic things that we believe make our countries unique from one another. London is a big mess full of jerks. Carnival of Shrews posted:
Carnival of Shrews posted:Gunplay: Most Brits I know are firmly against widespread gun ownership of anything more lethal or concealable than a double-barrelled shotgun – more than enough to blow one's mind should the need arise, and also to keep the hunting-and-shooting scene happy. Some think even this is too much. Every so often someone will run amok. The most recent managed to kill 12 people with just a shotgun and a .22 rifle (he was a taxi driver, which probably gave him an edge). We are baffled as to why most US gun rampages don't result in 20+ fatalities. Large public buildings, such as high schools and whatnot, often have small police stations on site, and are of course on priority dispatch for this sort of thing. Carnival of Shrews posted:Fine Food and Drink: Not even the Victorians had as many sorts of malted health drink as we have now. Even with its microbreweries, the US is a beer wasteland in comparison (before you think I'm crowing, English wine also exists: it's expensive and tastes like fine old battery acid). I know for a fact this is a blatant exaggeration. My English friend was taking pictures and nerding out at the fact you can get a growler filled with craft keg beer at a large number of gas stations and grocery stores within the US. The US has really come into its own with beer, it's undeniable, man. Carnival of Shrews posted:Also, British cheese is excellent, especially Stilton, king of blue cheeses. Even the French make Cheddar in secret, whereas we have never hidden our enthusiasm for Camembert and Brie. Decent ingredients are not hard to find, and we Brits should look like the population of Hogarth's Beer Street, strong sturdy folk, neither etiolated nor fat. Alas, we're pretty much the lardiest nation in Europe, with a dire fast food problem. The GBS thread on exquisite British cuisine did not exaggerate the many shameful kinds of crap you can buy in an average fish-and-chip shop. We have dozens of cookery programmes, but seem to have forgotten how to cook in practice. British cheese, as well as sausages and pies, are almost uniformly delicious. Unfortunately, I have only had one English friend who was decent at cooking, but he preferred to mostly ate dinners of instant curry. Carnival of Shrews posted:Haggis pizza exists in Scotland, also the primary consumer of the UK's most notorious bum wine, Buckfast Tonic, aka Buckie, a delicate blend of red plonk, brown sugar, vanillin and caffeine that leaves the drinker insensible to cold and pain. Scotland is the only place in the UK that can get geographically wild and isolated in anything like the way you get in the US. The hardy Scots are shortly going to vote on whether or not they really and truly want to leave the UK – I suspect the majority will say no, but it's up to them. I will try this haggis pizza, as well as this bum wine, and get back to you later, sir. Carnival of Shrews posted:Housing: The UK is packed compared to the US. Housing is horribly expensive and no-one on an ordinary income can actually afford to live in central London any more. The one person I know who lives near Portobello Road in London – famed for its antique shops – has managed this feat by being in supported accommodation for the intractably mad, and will be kicked out if she shows any sign of improvement. To buy a 3-bedroom terraced house somewhere like Kensal Rise (20-ish min tube ride from Westminster) you need two doctor/lawyer level incomes. Various London boroughs are seriously considering exporting their council housing problem as far afield as Merthyr Tydfil in the chronically unemployed Welsh valleys. This will be a bleakly funny social experiment if it ever comes to pass. I have no desire to live in a swanky neighborhood, nor do I have the desire to live amongst a bunch of trust-fund adult babies in whatever the London equivalent of Williamsburg is. Conversely, I don't want to live in the sterile suburbs or deep within the council estates. Perhaps this eliminates all neighborhoods of London, I'm not sure. Carnival of Shrews posted:Driving: US drivers will find this a baptism of fire, even in an automatic. Non-main roads are narrow and congested, street parking is frequent, roundabouts are universal. Some of our roundabouts have entry roundabouts. The most dangerous roads in the UK are moderately wide rural byways, which can be twisty, hilly, and rated at the national non-motorway speed limit (60mph). There is no way I can lose my driving licence as attempting to regain it would cause a nervous breakdown. Carnival of Shrews posted:A note on calling someone a oval office, since this comes up amazingly often: its current position over here is probably along the lines of what 'bastard' was in about 1800 – an insult hard enough to be fighting talk between men when used in earnest. Use in earnest therefore gradually becomes rarer than the safe use of 'You're such a great (male) mate, I can insult you and know you won't take me seriously'. Used seriously, to a man or a woman, it's still the worst of all the common insults, and as a greeting, it's only for blokes. Ferdinand the Bull fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 02:25
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Ewan posted:No, we call you a "yank", this is not the same term as the American "yankee". It is a British (and Aussie) English derogatory generic name for someone from anywhere in the US. Yes, a lot of us know what a "Yankee" is (and that our word derives from it) and that it really means you're from Northern US, but we don't mean this when we use "yank" - it's just a generic term. And, while it is a pejorative term, it is often used in a manner that is not meant to be insulting, so don't think it's always a negative thing (in the same way we often call the French "the frogs"). Yank is the single most unimaginative thing you Europeans can say to us. It's the American equivalent of calling me welsh. It's dumb. Ferdinand the Bull fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 02:29
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Hate to be a smart arse (that's a lie, I'm British so I love it) but the term Yank was popularised by Americans themselves. Yankee came from the Dutch words Jan Ke (or something like that) which I think means Little John. It first turned up around the time Britain captured New Amsterdam (later New York) from the Dutch so the term referred to people from that sort of geographical area. It gained some prominence during the American War of Independence when a British officer came up with the "Yankee Doodle" song to mock Americans (doodle roughly meant idiot back then). However the Americans, in the first and last recorded instance of American self-deprication, took the song for themselves and sang it back to the British. To this day it is a patriotic song in America (presumably only in New England) and I think is an official state song somewhere. This is absolutely bizarre as the song is basically saying that Americans are so stupid that they think they can look classy and cool by walking around with a feather named after a piece of pasta. And we say Americans can't do irony! Anyway, the term wasn't used very much until WW1 - few British people came into contact with Americans and the ones that did tended to be sailors in the Royal Navy. They have always had about seven thousand nicknames for everything and their names for Americans were no different, although none of them really stuck. No nickname for British people really stuck in America either; Limey wasn't recorded until 1918. In Britain they would just be referred to as Americans, as the term was so new that this was practically a nickname itself. With Americas entry into WW1 suddenly a lot of British people were going to come into contact with a lot of Americans, so a standard nickname was inevitable. Soldiers entertainment in those days consisted of entertainment halls behind the lines with singers, burlesque etc. You've probably heard the song "It's a long way to Tipperary" which was popularised at this time; the Americans came up with a similar tune to galvanise American troops but also to be performed at British entertainment halls to let them know their American allies were standing shoulder to shoulder with them. What was this songs name? The Yanks Are Coming. This of course wasn't enough to cement the nickname completely. The first American troops to arrive in France were 5 divisions of the American Expeditionary Force. The best of these divisions were the 1st and the 26th; the nickname for the 1st was "The Big Red One" whilst the 26th kindly helped me win an argument on the internet 94 years later by calling themselves "Yankee Division". The name stuck amongst British soldiers although most of the American troops went straight to France so it didn't become particularly widespread straight away. All would change in the 1940s though, when over a million American soldiers would be stationed in Britain awaiting the invasion of France. We all know they brought stockings, chocolate and other goodies that rationed Britain had no access to, but they also brought something else:  Yank Magazine was the little brother of the US Armys more famous magazine Stars and Stripes. Yank Magazine was published weekly, printed in colour and crucially was written by enlisted men in a fun and lighthearted way. It is extremely hard to overstate just how much of an effect this had on British people and servicemen at the time; Britain had been under rationing for 3/4 years meaning newspapers were printed on recycled paper with as much text squeezed on as possible. The news was heavily censored and light hearted human interest stories were unheard of - Britain did actually have a history of satirical journalism before WW2 but it had all but dried up by 1943 and Yank Magazine blew it back up again. British forces magazines were like newspapers: dull and boring, giving the fewest details possible, and Yank was the opposite. It was the precursor to modern British tabloid journalism (love it or hate it, it's massive in the UK) and most importantly was the first magazine to feature a "pin up girl". The pin up girl was the mother of Britains Page 3 Girl which again love or hate has become a loving national institution. The magazine was so popular - and widely sold to British civilians and soldiers - that many weeks it would sell more copies than there were Americans actually in Britain. Soon it had so many British enlisted men contributing and sales of British forces magazines had collapsed to such an extent that Britain was forced to publish its own virtually identical magazine (in concept), Soldier. Soldier was conceived by an officer who went on to become editor of the Tatler (a British lifestyle magazine) and the Express (a tabloid newspaper). It became an overnight hit with British soldiers and suddenly made British war journalism relevant, with Soldier reporters even being the first journalists into the Belsen concentration camp. After Yank Magazine the nickname became firmly rooted in British culture and I'm afraid it's here to stay. If you don't like it then have a word with the US Army! Oh, and this neatly brings us onto something else: British people are usually quiet, polite and reserved, but give us an opportunity to have a heated argument about something completely irrelevant and we'll dive right in. Usually down the pub after five pints.
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Jun 7, 2014 05:53
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Let me preface this by saying I really do love the British Isles and its inhabitants: I've spent a little less than a year total in England over the past decade (I'm now almost 30) and got to experience a wide swath of British culture from the places I've visited. Even though I'm an American who was born in Los Angeles and have lived in Seattle, Iowa, Texas and now again California I look pretty English: http://imgur.com/B367uoA I visibly startled people when I would say "Y'all". A quick note on beer: English beer is fine but pales (har!) in comparison to most other nations. California currently produces the finest beer on the planet Earth. If you don't believe me, ask the British/French/German tourists who crowd into this place on a nightly basis: http://tonysda.com/beer/ Professional life: Especially in London, youth dress for the most part impeccably for work most would consider unworthy of needing a coat and tie. I was very impressed by the fact that young men making 10 quid an hour at a shop wore a perfectly starched shirt, tie and tailored suit. This is a far cry from the wrinkled polo/khakis standard in the United States. Behavior: Ah, yes. I am a gregarious outspoken American but I am careful with my volume (a little less after a few) and I always do my best to stay up to date on local news/culture/politics as if I were a local. (loving UKIP, right?) However, the average English person's ability to keep their speaking volume at a minimum and their behavior dignified goes right out the window the minute they board that EasyJet flight for holiday. The English are the WORST vacationers in the world - Loud, impolite, drunk, oafish and disrespectful. Perhaps it's an outlet for being so bottled up the other 330 days of the years? In the United States, we generally exchange pleasantries and conversation with whomever is serving us at a restaurant/bar. Many English people I observed treat servers/waiters as they would a servant at a manor 150 years ago. Again, this was more prevalent in London than the rest of the country. I mostly enjoyed walking into a semi-empty pub out in the middle of nowhere where my accent would generally raise a question of "How did you end up here?" after I sat drinking a pint for a few minutes in silence. MaoistBanker fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 07:39
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MaoistBanker posted:A quick note on beer: English beer is fine but pales (har!) in comparison to most other nations. California currently produces the finest beer on the planet Earth. If you don't believe me, ask the British/French/German tourists who crowd into this place on a nightly basis: http://tonysda.com/beer/ I was literally just there  Had some pretty tasty sour beer. Acaila posted:For content,one thing I noticed when working in America was that you were much more accepting of risk than the UK. By comparison, we seem very big into "Health and Safety", which tends to get blamed for a lot of things in the same way political correctness does. So what is 'health and safety' exactly? All I know is on shows people will be like, 'health and safety innit'.
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Jun 7, 2014 08:43
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Captain Mediocre posted:Depending on where in the US you are from, you might find it a tad jarring that people in London don't really talk to or acknowledge strangers. I'm a Londoner and when I visit the US I'm struck by people saying 'good morning' etc. in the the street or striking up conversation at a bus stop/train platform. We don't really do that so don't be offended if you get ignored more than you are used to. That said, nobody is going to properly freak out if you try to initiate a conversation or anything. I never really understood this stereotype about Americans. I've lived in Seattle all my life and random strangers never strike up conversations with me... Also, the guy claiming the UK has more beer options than the US is way off-base.
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Jun 7, 2014 08:44
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Ron Don Volante posted:I never really understood this stereotype about Americans. I've lived in Seattle all my life and random strangers never strike up conversations with me...
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Jun 7, 2014 08:48
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Ron Don Volante posted:I never really understood this stereotype about Americans. I've lived in Seattle all my life and random strangers never strike up conversations with me... You reminded me of this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze "Newcomers to the area have described Seattleites as being standoffish, cold, distant, and not trusting"
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Jun 7, 2014 09:38
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InterceptorV8 posted:It's always surprised me how little the UK is. All those people packed in over there. I always feel the opposite about the US, whenever Americans talk about it online. The idea that moving to a different city can mean being genuinely cut off from family etc just feels really weird. Almost all of our cities are a few hours on the train at most (except Cornwall )Ron Don Volante posted:I never really understood this stereotype about Americans. I've lived in Seattle all my life and random strangers never strike up conversations with me... The funny thing is, we get people saying the same thing. All my northern/midlands friends talk about how cold the south is, and London especially, because nobody will strike up conversation or whatever. But at least living in the south and the midlands, I've never really seen it happen anyway 
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Jun 7, 2014 10:13
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MaoistBanker posted:I visibly startled people when I would say "Y'all".
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Jun 7, 2014 10:35
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The British police interact with you as if they were American customer service, and the British customer service interact with you as if they were American police.
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Jun 7, 2014 10:44
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Ron Don Volante posted:Also, the guy claiming the UK has more beer options than the US is way off-base. And about the NHS. It's actually *incredibly* efficient, but as a non-EU national you can't have most treatments for free until you've started paying into National Insurance through employment. You are probably also SOL when it comes to non-emergency dental work on the cheap. I firmly believe that people who want to substantially downgrade the NHS (unless they stand to personally profit) are basically talking from a position of 100% ignorance of other countries' systems. It's the most financially efficient healthcare system in the world, and if we spent as much per capita on it as the French or Germans spend on theirs, it would also be the unquestioned best.
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Jun 7, 2014 11:54
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:London is a big mess full of jerks. True since at least the days of Shakespeare, and it now attracts the finest jerks from Russia and the Middle East as well. Ferdinand the Bull posted:Very happy to hear this. I plan on getting extensive dental surgery done on the cheap while living in your lovely country. You will can get free treatment, after a wait, if you have serious problems with your teeth or jaws. Unsurprisingly, you can't get NHS treatment to make your grin any lovelier, and if you are an adult with a job you will have to pay for standard dental procedures, though it's a bargain compared to going private. Good luck finding an NHS dentist, they are a wary lot with waiting lists as long as your arm, and locals swap their names in whispers. If you need crown or root canal revision, this could still be worth a serious try. For the full British dental experience, Radio 4 or Classic FM should be burbling in the background as the dentist goes to work. Ferdinand the Bull posted:Large public buildings, such as high schools and whatnot, often have small police stations on site, and are of course on priority dispatch for this sort of thing. Yes, I found it hard to get used to seeing armed police just ambling about in America. You will never see armed police over here unless at a major event like the Olympics, or if some really serious violence has happened very recently. The sight of them automatically makes me think 'terrorist attack/rampaging armed lunatic'. Ferdinand the Bull posted:I know for a fact this is a blatant exaggeration. My English friend was taking pictures and nerding out at the fact you can get a growler filled with craft keg beer at a large number of gas stations and grocery stores within the US. The US has really come into its own with beer, it's undeniable, man. This seems the best way to get into an argument with anyone. Craft beer in the US is indeed great compared to American beers that get exported to the UK (in Germany, anything that has more ingredients than malt, yeast, hops and water can't legally be called beer at all), but it's often almost as fizzy as lemonade which seems odd to me, though not unpalatable. By most country's standards, British beers are served fairly flat. Some over here are bitter enough to be a definite acquired taste – confusingly, 'a pint of bitter' will get you the basic house ale, not imposing in either strength or hoppiness. You can buy craft beer by the keg here, but not at a petrol station, I admit; you'd need to order it from the brewery. Ferdinand the Bull posted:I have no desire to live in a swanky neighborhood, nor do I have the desire to live amongst a bunch of trust-fund adult babies in whatever the London equivalent of Williamsburg is. Conversely, I don't want to live in the sterile suburbs or deep within the council estates. Perhaps this eliminates all neighborhoods of London, I'm not sure. Whenever I visited London, I used to crash at a friend's flat in Kilburn, in a grim-looking block in mixed private and council ownership. Kilburn is maybe the sort of area you have in mind - it's not the land of blazers and Pimms, but neither is it hideously impoverished, the high streets are generally kind of ugly, and racially the area is very mixed and full of every sort of little supermarket selling goods from all over the world. I've just wandered around Kilburn again on Streetview, and it's much as I remember, with basic blocks of flats cheek-by-jowl with Victorian brick terraces; the Wikipedia entry on it was succinct and pretty much on the money, though I was surprised to see how many celebs have lived there. A single room in a shared house there will cost about £500 a month, not including utilities, which is hideous, but we're talking London here. London has a poisonous invention called a finder's fee, which means that the letting agents charge you for finding the flat that you discovered yourself by looking at their property list. Such gouging should be illegal, but far from it – estate agents have also recently tried charging a 'finder's fee' on properties that are actually being sold, sometimes as high as 1%. If you can present yourself as convincingly honest and hygienic, with a good credit record, it may be worth trying the private letting sector using a site like Openrent, where you won't encounter the finder's fee (they will want pristine references and will check your credit). As London's market is massively weighted in the landlord's favour, private ones will be ultra-choosy. Ferdinand the Bull posted:Could I swap out 'oval office' for 'limey' and enjoy similar effect? Sadly, I have never been called a limey, by an American or an Australian. I think most Brits would consider it the insult equivalent of a small collectable antique.
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Jun 7, 2014 12:16
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:My English friend was taking pictures and nerding out at the fact you can get a growler filled with craft keg beer at a large number of gas stations and grocery stores within the US. The US has really come into its own with beer, it's undeniable, man. Given that 'growler' is slang for a lady's bits, I am not surprised that he wanted to take a photo.
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Jun 7, 2014 12:57
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Filboid Studge posted:And about the NHS. It's actually *incredibly* efficient, but as a non-EU national you can't have most treatments for free until you've started paying into National Insurance through employment. You are probably also SOL when it comes to non-emergency dental work on the cheap. I reckon everyone in the UK would be worse off if the NHS was downgraded, as some treatments are so expensive that hardly anyone can fully insure against needing them, but that doesn't mean it's efficient. I suppose the NHS might seem efficient compared to the US, because you don't see anyone getting an inflated receipt for everything from an MRI scan to a sticking plaster. But the waste on some things, especially data management, has still been dire; the worst offender has been PFI. Boring NHS history: in 1992, the UK government (it was the Conservatives back then, but subsequent Labour governments didn't stop the process) began something called Private Finance Initiative, which resulted in many new hospitals being built by private construction firms, then bought back by the local health authority on a 35-year mortage. This also happened with some other public works, such as schools. It's not surprising that neither of the two major parties is keen to jog the public's memory now that PFI has been revealed as often being crap value. The PFI-built hospitals are still running, their vast mortgages siphoning money from the health budget, but the only reason many haven't gone bust is that it would look terrible for whatever government was in power when it happened. The full cost of this debacle to the Exchequer won't be clear for another 10-20 years. I don't want to derail, so here's a story about a British WW2 veteran who didn't take kindly to being told he couldn't attend the D-Day commemorations in France: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-27735086
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Jun 7, 2014 13:07
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It doesn't matter which country has the best beer as the goal of drinking in England is to get poo poo faced as quickly as possible. You can choose fifteen pints of bitter for a long night or drink a bottle of vodka in an hour, these are pretty much your only options. From the Americans I've met they tend to pace themselves whilst watching a television and then start talking about sports or politics. From the Americans I've talked to they seem obsessed with facts and statistics and dates. They seem quite literal; a sarcastic comment might be taken on-board and then the conversation goes in a totally different direction and we're too embarrassed to point out we were taking the piss. I think with Americans there's a little more what you see is what you get, whilst in England we can tend to be a little more understated and view anyone over-friendly as suspicious. Besides Americans. As for language, it can vary with who you're with. There's a definite lad culture in England that will happily call you a oval office between bottles of Desperado and lines of poo poo coke, and I wouldn't say this is limited to younger men. Thanks to the NHS we may not shoot you, but we will happily fight as we can get patched up for free. We are also quite hench as a nation, you will often see people drinking protein shakes whilst riding their bike to work in the morning. Meeting women in England consists of sitting in a Wetherspoons all night whilst smearing your hand over your phone as you bash through as many Tinder profiles as you can. Here is a list of hot topics in England that are guaranteed to get you ahead in life; UKIP - this is a right wing political party ran by a man called Nigel Farage. They are racist. Madeline McCann - she is a child who went missing on holiday a bunch of years ago. The parents probably killed her. Boris Johnson - a blonde rubbery-lipped toff who is the Mayor of London and an imbecile. Idiots love him. Where to get gluten free pizza - this is good knowledge for dating Scottish Independence - Will Scotland get independence or not? Most people in England will say no. Football - Pick any team besides Manchester United Britain's Got Talent - Sometimes people who aren't good looking are good at things, so laugh at them Also read this at least once a month; 
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Jun 7, 2014 13:18
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appropriatemetaphor posted:I was literally just there UK equivalent of OSHA, but bemoaned far more.
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Jun 7, 2014 13:21
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