There has been a lot of public pressure recently to take down most of the posters depicting Irishmen as monkeys. Likewise, you don’t see “No Irish Need Apply” signs as much as you used to either. The same can be said for the Italians. You are free to use the same bathrooms as regular people and sit close to the main seating areas in restaurants.
Americans actually like Irish people a lot. The Boston area supposedly has more Irish people than Dublin and I can’t think of a single area that still has any anti-Irish stereotype. Southern culture has a large Irish influence as does the Northeast so you probably have an advantage over Americans in some ways just based on the accent.
Absolutely. That was one of the things I was thinking of but the O’Hara name wasn’t chosen to be provocative. The Irish have a very long history in the South even as plantation owners.
I don’t know about Boston, but there was a time (it may still be true) that Chicago had more Irish than Dublin as well.
lobsang–could you chauffeur me, too? I’m going to have my very own valet (can women HAVE valets?) and chauffeur! I could do worse than a Stephen Fry look alike. Do you have a “posh” accent? Or will I be regaled with Cockney humor and pithy street smarts? Either will do.
Could I ask you to dress like Monty Python char?
Come live in my basement–you’ll share space (but not a room) with my #1 son (who is 16), the laundry room and the furnace…But–you will be 35 minutes away (by Metra train–electric commuter train) to downtown Chicago. We even have a genuine Irish pub one town away. The weather is much like UK–but HOTTER in the summer and there is much more snow. There is an ex-pat community here, but I have no clue about it. Come on over!
No seriously where would I excel in a job in America? I know that Irish stereotypes as potent as they were in the past have gone by the wayside. I must seem like the doper with the Oirish chip on his shoulder sometimes.
I don’t like the summers too hot, I’m not a city person, I gotta be near the ocean and I’m skilled in IT and Sales. Also I don’t care if it’s really cold in winter. Doesn’t bother me.
Is that the one with the “oi’s”? Coider instead of cider? If so, PLEASE work on your RP, mmkay?
I really don’t care–I’d take a Mancusian accent or Liverpuddlian…I can’t understand the Cornish one (IMS), but we could communicate in um, other ways…heh.
Then again, if you could just put on some Oxonian—yummy! essell-Re the must be near the ocean etc–how about the Boston area? Plenty of space within easy commute of the city, you’re near the ocean, New Englanders are MORE stand-offish then Brits*, yet it’s compact enough for you to feel at home…
*I’ve yet to meet a standoffish Brit. I take that back. I had a right bastard of a cab driver once, whom I refused to tip (gasp!) because he abused American tourists all the way to the Dover hotel I was staying at. Jerk. And I had a B&B lady in Durham who thought we were dirt under her feet–but her staff was really nice. Everyone else has been fantastic to us–it was a bit overwhelming, actually to be treated so well. I like your country, but I digress…
I don’t really know what the job prospects are for IT in the Greater Boston Area. If you don’t care what kind of sales you do I guess you can live pretty much anywhere. If it were me and I didn’t like cities I would go further north to coastal New Hampshire or Maine. Summers are generally nice (and the winters damn cold).
I really don’t understand the point of this question. We have several Brits working in our office. They do the same job, or at least the same type of job, that the Americans do. They have to have the qualifications for the job and the right to work in the U.S. I work in IT.
My wife is an elementary school teacher, and her school’s principal is a British woman.
You seem to be under the impression I’m asking if Brits can work in American jobs.
What I am actually asking is are there any particular jobs where being born and brought up in Britain is relevant or desirable. Such as… say… being an actor on a show that has a british character in it. Or doing voiceovers, or working in call centers where the British accent might put the person calling at ease (they operate the same principle here in Britain, where they will locate a call center in Ireland or Scotland for the specific purpose of being able to employ people with the respective accents as ‘research’ shows that these accents put the caller at ease.
I know that Irish stereotypes as potent as they were in the past have gone by the wayside. 