In general, I’ve found Brits to be rather friendlier than us Merkins, for one thing. Although this is quite possibly an impression formed from having spent most of my time in Britain out in the boonies, where I think people tend to be somewhat friendler in general. More considerate drivers, always excepting London, with marvelously narrow roads which date back to a long time ago. It’s one of those many traditions to which you people cling and which I never quite understood but always sort of enjoyed anyway. Marvelous sense of humor, and a strange obsession with bizarre sports. Very civilized, which I credit to the habit of afternoon tea. Can’t spell worth a damn. I mean, really, centre?
The stereotyped food is awful, but I’ve always eaten well over there. Not that I’ve had much in the way of traditional British food, mind you. Afternoon tea is the most civilized meal around. English biscuits are, I think, a cut above American cookies. And God bless Cadbury’s.
In general, I think I view the Brits as being these people who are much like us, although quaint does work its way in there, as does sophisticated, somehow. I’ve always enjoyed being over in the UK (the same can be said for Ireland, I might add).
I also have this expectation that a lot of my impressions are horribly misinformed, since I get them from some bizarre combination of British TV and regrettably limited personal experience. You’ll have to provide funds so I can come over for, oh, 6 months, to really form an honest impression…
Oh, I guess that’s true now that I think about it. I’d call it a “baby carriage” though. Maybe it just depends on which you heard first, “rubber baby buggy bumpers” or “first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes xxxxx with the baby carriage.”
A few months ago I started a thread about British/American English differences that went on for a while if anyone’s curious enough to search for it.
You’ll not be wanting to try some bread’n’dripping, then?
British buggy = American stroller (not sure if this has been pointed out yet).
Maybe this isn’t the place to say it, but I’m gonna anyway. As a Brit I feel the world is a safer, better place with you Merkins “at the helm”. You’re a great nation which stands for all that is good in the world. IMHO. There, I’ve said it … :o
Hey, even if I don’t totally agree myself, it’s just nice to hear that from a British person for once. I am no fan of the US’s current political direction, but I can’t help getting my back up when I see so much hate from British, Australians, and Chinese every day.
Yes, sorry, that’s what I meant to say, not that a buggy WASN’T different from stroller or jogger (it is), but that they are pretty rare so the term isn’t really used any more.
All in all I like the Brits, though my experience directly has been with immigrants to the USA.
Like has been said, Good TV, interesting food, great literature, and a fine history, although I’m not so much on the whole “Church of England” bit.
On the downside, I’d have to say that BT is the worst I’ve ever dealt with. When are they actually working on telephone/data service calls? It seems they started at 10, lunched from 12-2, and left at 3.
I do, however, prefer some of the spellings (colour vs color, flavour vs flavor) and I certainly use some of the expressions.
GB is certainly on my list of places to visit, even if you all did try to starve out my ancestors (Irish, )
To me, the question is akin to asking us what we think of Southerners. We’re so intertwined that the line between the two countries is blurred. [ul]We had a war with the south a long time ago. We had a war with the British a long time ago. There’s no chance it will happen again anytime soon.
Southerners sound different, but we can understand them. Same with the Brits.
Southerners eat weird stuff. Same with the Brits.
History and culture are important in the south. Same with the Brits.
[/ul]
I have many British friends, and many southern friends. I grew up with it. There are so many British people over here that there is no novelty. I guess, in short, I see the British as people. Wereas I would see a Norwegian or a Polack as a novelty.
I work with a bunch of Brits and in general like most of them. Of course, there are individuals that I don’t care for, but for the most part I like 'em.
It’s not a “now” thing. It’s a great-depression era thing that continues to exist- it may have existed earlier, of course, but it became popular then. For reasons I don’t quite comprehend, steak was cheaper than chicken during (at least part of) the great-depression, and cooking steak this way tastes so good that it’s survived as a cooking style even though the problem doesn’t really exist any more. I love cookbooks that give you history lessons along with the recipes
“Chicken fried steak” is said to have come from Germany originally. It is made of well-pounded beef fried in (usually) bacon grease and served with a gooey gravy coating. It is popular in parts of the South. Then again, if people in some parts of the South knew what was good, they wouldn’t be living in some parts of the South.
The Romans did conquer the British. That is how they were able to build Hadrian’s Wall to keep the people up north out.
Some Americans have a fanciful idea that all or most English people are like Noel Coward or David Niven; suave, intelligent, and terribly well groomed at all times. Others are more sophisticated, and appreciate that other stereotypes also have some validity, such as the lower class family on Keeping Up Appearances.
There are Americans who care inordinately about the Royal Family. Often this seems to involve some sort of vicarious fantasy of wealth and prestige. There are actually magazines sold at the larger newsstands which carry nothing but gossip and trivia about royals (perhaps they are published in Great Britain), and supermarket tabloids will pay for photos of the furnishings in Buckingham Palace.
[strongbad]OHH, I’ll TELL you what I think of the ENGLISH! [/strongbad]
Actually, I think they’re pretty cool, and I find their spelling and pronounciations quite interesting. I’d like to study it. Plus, they have wicked accents. Liverpool, especially.
Bit of a typo there, what I meant to say was “what do you honestly think of us YOUR little brothers”
Pram/buggy/walker/stroller
A pram or PERAMBULATOR was originally a small cart used by a milkman, it just got abbreviated over the years.
Hadrians Wall is roughly 73 miles long and stretches from Wallsend on Tyne in the East to Bowness on Solway in the West.
There are some very excellent and beautiful “Wall Walks”,Wallsend-on Tyne is near Newcastle on Tyne in the North East and is not all that far from Scotland
In my head, I always picture your country as being one that isn’t in real color, but rather in a washed-out grayish or almost black-and-white.
And I’ve actually BEEN to England, and seen little to dissuade that impression.
Professional British humor I find amazing. Some of the world’s best. On a personal level, though, I have often found individual Brits’ humor to be quite inaccessible, their sarcasm unreadable (no obvious facial cues that a 'merkin can discern), and often downright mean–much meaner than would be acceptable in casual circumstances over here. The things that make pro-level Brit humor so great (in an obviously comic context) make it brutal one-on-one.
Love the Hob nobs, though. Yum. And overall, I second (or third, or fiftieth) the overall impression of “quaint”. Sunconsciously, many of us have trouble picturing you as ever having left the Victorian era.
