English accents are definitely sexy. However, Una may be pulling your leg about moaning with an accent. Maybe it would be helpful to get the opinions of the Teeming Millions. Just record a fairly long and … er… fervent series of moans in the MP3 format and post a link. We’ll give you an opinion concerning any presence of an accent. No need to thank us; happy to help. 
Well, until about 18 months ago, I had a vague idea that all of you were terrifyingly brilliant, spoke Latin and French fluently, had impeccable taste in everything from baby names to refrigerator magnets, and never ever misspelled anything or put apostrophes in the wrong places. Oh, and that you couldn’t cook.
So then I went backpacking around the UK, fell in love with one of the locals, did some serious drinking with several others, came back over New Year’s to do some more traveling, came back again over the summer and got a succession of temp jobs, and somewhere along the way came to the conclusion that pretty much all of the stereotypes I started with were false, especially the “can’t cook” part. (Well, almost false: British academics really are terrifyingly brilliant, but since they make up about 0.01% of the population and most of the famous ones are dead, this doesn’t really matter. Except to me, since I will probably have to compete with the non-dead ones for jobs.)
Other than that, there isn’t a whole lot to say except that I think it’s a great country and the day I become a permanent, legal resident will be one of the proudest days of my life.
Let’s see, orthodontia was already mentioned, so I’ll kick out a couple more:
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Your food is bland.
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You have no sex drives to speak of.
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English men are effeminate.
These aren’t my personal opinions, but I’ve definitely heard them many times in many forums. You asked for stereotypes, after all.
I was going to take offence at this ( ) as I sat here eating cheese on toast, alone, watching Graham Norton (witty yet crude gay chat show host).
But then I realised I fancied all of Graham’s guests (Cher, Jessie Wallace, Andrea Corr).
So your stereotype is COMPLETELY inaccurate!
P.S. Fretful Porpentine, welcome to the country. You speak the language pretty well for a foreigner!
All right–enough with the crud about soccer, orthodontia, accents, and laughing at guys in drag.
Here’s a really important question…
…Is it true that you guys have orange- and coffee-flavored Aero bars?
We Murricans don’t get Aero bars at all. (Well, that’s not completely true. A search on the net showed me that we can have importers ship them to us for outrageous prices. My boyfriend, a Canadian officemate of mine, and I are thinking of going in on bulk shipments of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and mint chocolate Aero bars.) Do you actually get these odd (odd to me, at least) flavors of Aero bar? And, if so, is there any way we could make arrangements for you to ship a bar or two of each to me?
–Scribble, who is too big a foodie for her own good.
Well yes and no. You see to us your statement that you fancy Cher, Jessie and Andrea doesn’t say to us that you find them sexually attractive or that you would like to get in their knickers (panties is also so much more sexy). Fancy sounds like you have some innocent interest in them that also has an effeminate ring to it. Comprende amigo?
Cinematically speaking, they are the equivalent of eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Forget you asked, and walk away.
Ok, fine. They were a series of “grossumentaries” made by Italians for predominate distribution in Hong Kong. Mondo Cane was the first, and they grew exponentionally more disgusting from there.
What do I think about Britain? A keener question is how often do I think about Britain. At least once a day? Perhaps so! Of course, I’d assume the average American himself assumes the average Briton thinks about America at least once an hour.
F’rinstance, last night I was thinking this about Britain: you guys love your language, and justifiably so; but to the unjustifiable detriment of your other artists: authors and actors and, by extension, rock lyricists, get knighthoods (at least for the non-tax exiles)and life-peerdoms and so on, but composers and painters, even if knighted, still don’t get to sit at the grownups’ table. When Edward Elgar died in 1934 hardly anyone showed up at his funeral - as if you held his “imperialistic” music to blame for World War One.
Other composers, like Benjamin Britten, and painters like Francis Bacon and David Hockney, are more appreciated elsewhere than at home. As much as I love American Pop Art, I belive the English Pop artists like Richard Hamilton put more cerebral value into it than a boatload of Andy Warhols could. But you guys “the wogs start at Calais” notwithstanding, fall all over any Frenchman or Italian while utterly ignoring your homegrown product.
And of course there’s always Ireland. Now you may think Ireland is more “English,” with ample argument, than we could say that Vietnam was linked to America, but in both cases, wouldn’t history have been better served if we’d each climbed back into our boats and paddled away?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by glee *
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Mmmmmm. Cheese on toast…
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Who is Irish, not British.
Well, no one has mentioned my particular curiousity yet…
This whole “having tea” thing. I don’t get it. First of all, do all people living in England (gosh, I don’t know whether to call you British or English now) have to have tea daily at like 5 p.m.?
And what about people who work 9 to 5 every day? Do they take time out from work to have tea? What 'til they get home? Or is this ritual done only on weekends perhaps?
Or am I just totally clueless, and this is a mere stereotype and doesn’t occur at all…
Not British(Irish) but I think I can field the tea question as we drink the stuff like it’s going out of fashion aswell.
Everybody doesn’t have tea at 5p.m. Tea is also used as a term for a light meal in the early evening. eg. “What would you like for your tea”.
Most young people I know drink more coffee than tea but I love a good cup of cha.
When I was a kid my dad took my brother and me on one of his trips to England. We were at the zoo one rainy afternoon. We happened to be walking by the sea lion enclosure when it was feeding time for the sea lions. A London mother said to her child, “Look, Trevor, the sea lions are having their tea.”
Being Americans, we thought that was neat.
England is a very interesting place. It is divided into several sections, these being north, south, west, Cornwall, and London. England is mostly countryside with small villages which boast Norman churches. Castles are scattered all over England. You can’t walk 2 miles without bumping into a ruin of some sort.
The north is made up of Yorkshire, which is like Wuthering Heights in places, but is mainly James Herriot-land. It is full of sheep and farmers who say ‘nowt’ and ‘owt.’
The south is green and slightly hilly, and full of: Bright Young Things who live in manors and drive too fast, upper-class twits, gentle doddering old peers who were rips 50 years ago, and horsey girls with large teeth.
The west has lots of crop circles and henges and people who think they’re druids.
Cornwall is entirely rocks, fishermen, and relics of King Arthur. Wales, a country to the north, is similar to Cornwall, but it also has green farms and sheep.
London is full of Cockneys and small bookshops where you can get old books for practically nothing. Also expensive restaurants and cabarets and shows.
Nobody in England can cook, which is what they import French cooks for, but they are all wonderful bakers. They read a lot, and are very intellectual, when they aren’t gardening or housekeeping. Everybody knows all about history and linguistics.
–This is the impression of England you get if you read a lot and don’t drink, and watch lots of BBC productions of novels and Monty Python and other comedies but not Absolutely Fabulous or gritty shows.
Now see, that’s an important question to a chocoholic like me!
We get Aero in original, orange, mint and coffee.
I can ask my mate about bulk buying, because he does that sort of thing. But it all comes from a warehouse operation called ‘Cash and Carry’, and you have to pick it up yourself.
Sorry, us English don’t speak any other languages.
But I get your point.
It’s just that we chaps are trained to be discreet in matters of the heart.
So perhaps I should have used the word ‘woody’ concerning Cher, Jessie and Andrea. (Does that mean what I think it means?)
greenlady,
I’m English (from London) and I live in England which is part of Britain.
It’s similar to being a Texan and an American.
As for tea, it is certainly a big thing to the older generation.
If you visit my Mum’s house, you will be offered a cup of tea. (I don’t drink tea myself, and it has caused astonishment on occasion.)
Tea can also mean a mid-morning or mid-afternoon break (hence tea-break).
genie,
spot on, old boy! 
What I wanna know is, do British people ever think American accents are sexy?
.:Nichol:.
who has a natural Southern accent, and is PROUD of it, dammnit!
It’s a matter of exposure, isn’t it? How many American accents could the average English person identify? To me my own voice sounds far different than that of someone born in the south, the west, or NY (and even different than the accent of people from other New England states) but maybe it wouldn’t to someone who only occasionally heard it… What I’d id as the aforementioned “Queen’s English” though does sound quite lovely(as do the Irish.)
What I found astounding about accents, though, is that Americans aren’t the only ones who are silly enough to immitate other people’s. I almost fell out of my chair when I heard Gavin Rosedale’s imitation of a US accent in the “Greedy Fly” video- It was flawless(and midwestern.)
Back to the OP…
- It rains there a lot, and is foggy. I still don’t know if you get snow.
- Since you have hedgehogs, you have cuter garden pests.
- You seem more serious about politics than we are.
- You still have some great bands, but unless they’re pop you’re not listening to them as much as we are (Bush and Muse come to mind as being more sucessful in the US)
- It’s maddening that not one of you will tell me if you have the equivelent of a buttermilk biscuit there (it’s not a cookie, a scone, or a roll. They’re a light and fluffy bread product)
- You’re lucky to get US tv shows and mini-series on VHS and DVD that we don’t, which is odd and unfair
- You only have a few tv stations, and your tv show’s seasons are considerably later than ours
- Your colleges are much more fairly priced
- Sadly, sports are also a big deal there, even though yours are a bit different (and more dangerous)
- the term “made redundant” is as stupid as “laid off” since neither are really very descriptive of what has happened to the worker
- There aren’t many rural areas, so probably most of the country bears more of a resemblence to, say, Chicago, than where I live. I’m guessing there are lots of apartments, few houses, some sub-standard housing with rats.
Everything else I think of comes from reading the Adrian Mole series, so you can decide how far fetched my impressions of the average English life style are.
I’ve always liked England, and thought it was a cool place.
Some of my Favorite tv shows are from England.
[li]Allo, Allo[/li][li]Are You Being Served?[/li][li]Ab Fab[/li][li]Vicar of Dibley[/li][li]Keeping Up Appearances[/li][li]As Time Goes By[/li][li]Dad’s Army[/li]
Plus, The Beatles and Agatha Christie are British. So, I am an American that likes England a lot.
I can distinguish between a Liverpool, Cockney, and the Queen’s English.
I think that in general, Americans are just crazy about the British. As someone else has alluded to, we love your musicians, authors & actors even more than you do. Americans are just gaga over the Royals. Margaret Thatcher was more popular here than in Britain. We thought you kicked ass in the Falklands. There’s a huge attraction here to the whole ancient history & culture; the Celts, Druids, Stonehenge, medieval chivalry, castles & knights. We also just love the legends, fiction & fantasy like King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes and the Hobbits. {How about that for a band name?}
I was lucky enough to be able to spend about 2[sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub] weeks there five years ago, but I do have some questions:
I found that many things were much smaller there - hallways, restrooms, cars, pub tables, chairs & roads. Is this because people used to be much smaller, and the sizes of things just haven’t changed?
Do people generally take their own washcloth when they travel, or do they just not use them?
Does anyone really enjoy cold toast? How do you get the butter on it?
Are you aware that the Scots are printing their own money?
Just curious. I loved all of the country I was able to see, and the people were wonderful. I hated to leave when I did, and I’ve wanted to go back ever since then. Next time I’ll bring a washcloth.
Sue D.
P.S. About the Billy Bob thing - there certainly are people like that. And yes, they do chew tobacco & have pickup trucks with gun racks. Down here in the South we call them Bubbas. They seem to like that.
Thanks, glee and yojimbo for your explanations on having tea. I have a better idea now. Yes, I could most certainly not drink tea instead of coffee either. Tea tends to give me a headache generally.
Another observation I’ve made about T.V. shows from England are that the comedy ones have the characters talking extremely fast. I mean, I have to really concentrate sometimes to understand what they’re saying because if I don’t, it just sounds like a foreign language to me. Reminds me of the FedX guy talking really fast in the FedX commercials, remember?
I agree. I didn’t really know how much this was true until recently, however, when the British Prime Minister ([sub]uh, oh, can’t remember his name[/sub]) and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani sat together a few times for various occasions. People were like, yeah, man, cool.