Question for English people

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How do you feel about Americans or Canadians having an interest in your country, or at least certain aspects of it (ex. British Invasion music, literature, royalty, rugby, Victorian England, etc.)?

How do you feel about Americans or Canadians typing using British spellings and phrases? Does it annoy you? Do you find it amusing? Does it cause you to think, "Well, at least not all of them spell incorrectly"?

hi Idaho Rose

The English (particularly) are an eccentric bunch. But of course there are Welsh, Irish and Scottish people also to consider.

Apropos spelling, I think the Americans have it right and words that come to mind as examples would be "gray" and "tire" (as in on a car or auto if you prefer!)...

Americans like quirky comedies of ours like Fawlty Towers and also show an interest in our monarch and for some strange reason, London!

Myself, I don't really relate well to American people and I hope you do not mind me saying that, it is because of personal experiences and obviously I cannot generalize because there are good and bad souls everywhere... as someone once said - "It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at!"...

I find it a super mashing idea

My family members that live in Canada take an keen interest in there family history both my mother & I help them out with looking into our Irish roots.

The Americans & Canadians that visit my city that talk to take an keen interest all things to do with Liverpool, am luck I have a family member who is a local historian & artist of the city's architecture, his fourth book is coming out two weeks time.

I do find that thovs of you your side of the Pond who visit the UK take more interest in us & that's bested on personal experience.

Hi squonk! Thank you for your response!

I was addressing English people specifically rather than English people plus the Irish, the Welsh, etc. because I myself have an interest in certain aspects of English culture. It was initially born out of my love of Alice in Wonderland, because that's where the original books by Charles Dodgson AKA Lewis Carroll were written and Alice herself is an English heroine.

You are right about Americans being interested in quirky comedies. Monty Python is quite popular over here with some people. You are also right about Americans being interested in the monarchy - all of the major entertainment news shows and magazine covers are counting down the days to Prince William and Kate's wedding!

I honestly don't mind that you have trouble relating to Americans. I understand how you feel, because I have gotten to know people from many different countries, and there are a few groups which I have had a lot of difficulty connecting with.

hi again...

I think what I said about relating (and probably quite badly too) to Americans can be put as just because I have had fall-outs or disagreements with them does not reflect on that fact that they are American!

And, I dug this out for you, perhaps thinking you may see that it attempts to portray some American eccentricity... it's by two British comedians, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse...

LOL I find this especially relevant for you - listen out for "Badiddlyboing, Oh-doh-Idaho!!"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7H6v1xSZIU[/youtube]

Last edited by squonk on 16 Apr 2011, 1:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

I wouldn't say that. I'd say that a lot of English people are quite conformist. The English don't generally like eccentrics but they will (just about) tolerate them. Many countries don't tolerate independence of thought in the same way as the English.

Anglophilia is fine by me.

Good morning Tequila!

I think that's true about acceptance of eccentricity/behaviour, perhaps I should have written that the English can be eccentric rather than always are.

Thank you for the clip! I like the fact that the couple mentioned that they are from Idaho. I have to say that they did a very good job on the American accents. Their portrayal of how Americans behave is not far off from the truth, especially in regards to older people like the ones in the skit. My mom has been to England before and she says that we Americans are very "in your face" compared to those of you across the pond!

Maybe that's what I encountered that I didn't like.

Similarly, this is likely the best part from the classic Fawlty Towers episode "The Americans" and is worth a look if you haven't seen it before... I wanted to find a clip with the following exchange too but there wasn't one available...

MR. HAMILTON (AMERICAN GUEST):

"Took five hours to get here, couldn't find the freeway - had to take a little back-street called the M5"! !

BASIL (HOTEL OWNER):

"Well I'm sorry if the roads weren't wide enough for you - a lot of the English cars have steering wheels"! !

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHTTMkq5RE[/youtube]

Also there are a lot of dissenters apropos the forthcoming Royal wedding...

There going to live in Wales, the land of my fathers (my father is Welsh)
The thing I got to say to that is this cadw Cymru yn daclus, Keep Wales tidy!! !

I'm glad they find it interesting, most people who live here just complain a lot!



I wish they'd do it more! "American English" is ruining our language, and even worse, people here are starting to miss letters out of things too (and I think we mostly have American spell-checks to blame for that, f**k you Microsoft Word).

How hard is it to put a "u" in "colour"? I mean really.

Here Here my good sir, its time them across the Pond use the Queen's English, its my 2nd language, Scouse is my 1st language.

It's cool with me. But it can be quite cringeworthy the way some of them try to seem English or they obsess over English things that only a small part of the country actually identifies with. Oh and the posh toff stereotype. It's like the Anglophile version of weaboos.

I'm with Mr Webster and the Americans on this one. Faultless logic. Why does "colour" need a "u" exactly?

British-English is archaic and confusing. Did you know that in Italy they don't even have a word for dyslexia? It doesn't exist. Whereas here we have to invent a disorder which just means 'wasn't taught to read or write properly as a child'.

That's down the American view of a limited parts of our country, there's more to the UK than London. Our national media don't help with there focus of the South-East.

I spend many a time correcting yanks about my city. they only think its only the home of The Beatles, the true is there more to my home city than the fab four.