A lesson on Britian for AMERICANS

reply to post by Dutch Frost


And yet, you read it anyway and felt the need to comment..

Now, as for the name of the country, do try to get it right. You'd be pissed if we described the whole US as California or Nebraska, wouldn't you?

Or if your a Dutchman, you should get pissy if we called the Netherlands, Holland. It's the same thing. It isn't too much to be curteous and use the correct terminology, is it?

no one really cares about that, thats just details and I really dont think I am smart because I know some information that is totality useless for my life

just saying ...

Originally posted by rival
Here is a brief synopsis of what (I thought) I knew about Britain and the
British. FYI, I am a truck (lorry) driver from Texas.

I had a chuckle as a I read thorough your list, seems you have fallen under the spell of Hugh Grantism...

Originally posted by rival
I thought Ireland was a separate country.

Yep, right there.... Except for N. Ireland.

Originally posted by rival
The British have beans for breakfast.

Sometimes. Maybe on toast, maybe with a fried breakfast, or maybe we'll just have weetabix. Depends on what you fancy!

Originally posted by rival
Lunch is referred to as tea.

Now, this is really an interesting thing. Depends on where in the country you are. To me, lunch is lunch, but tea is an early afternoon snack. Dinner is around early evening, or you can wait and have supper in the later evening. It also depends on your "social class", as it were, as to what you name each event and if you're likely to take it.

Originally posted by rival
Spotted dick is a dessert, not an affliction requiring antibiotics.

And yummy too, despite the name!

Originally posted by rival
You drive on the wrong side (ooops) OPPOSITE side of the road.

I think you'll find it is YOU who drive on the wrong side

Originally posted by rival
Crisps are chips...chips are crisps.

Crisps are indeed what you call chips. What we call chips, you call fries.

Originally posted by rival
You have no guns, and in central cities are heavily surveilled.

A bit of a myth this, but it could start a whole tangent away from the OP if I elaborate.

Originally posted by rival
Women with British accents are hot.

What British accent? Scouse is NOT an attractive sound, Geordie can be (mmm...Cheryl Cole).. Then there are the 100 or so other random dialects around England alone...

Originally posted by rival
You mostly all live quaint little countryside communities with picket fences
and gardens and have benevolent little aunts and uncles that help you out of
tight financial spots.

AHAHAHAH! If only

Originally posted by rival
You have huge pop stars Americans have never heard of.

As do you! Often it's some random hip-hopper getting air time over here that is apparently the "biggest rapp star in the world" that is never heard of until h/she goes on Jonathan Ross or something!

Originally posted by rival
Cricket has a funny bat, and a funnier way of pitching the ball, (that is
all I know about that game.)

Evfery nation needs a game that is boring and pointless. You have baseball, we have cricket

Originally posted by rival
You have to put the milk into the cup BEFORE you pour in the tea, else
you scald the milk.

This I never understood. If you put the milk in first, you don't get as strong a cup and all the nutrients in the tea don't leak out. I always brew my tea first and then put the milk in.

EDIT: Unless using a teapot, where the tea is already brewed, then I will likely put the milk in first.... Tea ettiquete is important...


[edit on 3/4/10 by stumason]

"What about 2nd breakfast?"

Funniest line from Lord of the Rings.

Rudyard Kipling had an entire disseratation on the drinkling of tea:

No suger, milk not cream.

Gotta luv the Brits!!

Jason

[edit on 3-4-2010 by hthjason]

[edit on 3-4-2010 by hthjason]

reply to post by hthjason


We have a mealtime for every part of the day

I try to limit myself to just 3 or 4 mealtimes though....

One thing about it...real Americans love the British..or UKs or whatever you want to call them. They have been our truest allies through thick and thin and we know it. Americans identify with the British people. They are us and we are them! Believe it or not, most of us feel the same way about Canadians and Australians.

Originally posted by TyrosMike
One thing about it...real Americans love the British..or UKs or whatever you want to call them. They have been our truest allies through thick and thin and we know it. Americans identify with the British people. They are us and we are them! Believe it or not, most of us feel the same way about Canadians and Australians.

Good on ya mate!

We have a ton in common.

As Strother Martin said:

"Why can't we all just get along?"

Jason

What I love about being an American is not caring about you. We beat you in the Revolution, tied you in the War of 1812, and saved your country from destruction in WW2.

You haven't really contributed anything in awhile, so why should I care about your crappy cameras everywhere big brother state?

The only thing I know about Britain and being taught in Texas is that you Brits got your butts kicked at the Battle of the Alamo!

reply to post by VonDutch


Liberated you lot from the Nazis in ww2 though didnt we??? How soon you forget... There is much Uk blood spilt on your land for your sake... Show some respect

Originally posted by deltaboy
The only thing I know about Britain and being taught in Texas is that you Brits got your butts kicked at the Battle of the Alamo!

That was between you and the Mexicans.
The place where you kicked our butts was New Orleans.
Even the British know better than to tangle with Davy Crockett.

Originally posted by MahNameABorat
What I love about being an American is not caring about you. We beat you in the Revolution, tied you in the War of 1812, and saved your country from destruction in WW2.

You haven't really contributed anything in awhile, so why should I care about your crappy cameras everywhere big brother state?

You like Borat though, Sacha Baron Cohen, British

Uhm OP I already knew most of those facts about Britain, and I would say that a good bunch of Americans do. After all America gained it's independence from Britain, did they not?

Don't assume all Americans are ignorant about the world based on a select few. Plus it's not their fault for being poorly educated, but I do appreciate a thread to help them learn

Look alls i know is that is that im extremely proud to call myself british or english or whatever it is!, and i that i always wanted to travel to america and have a drink with some guys over there.

America and england are like brothers now we have sibling rivalry but in the end wed back it till the end! i wouldnt have a problem going to war if say america had been getting invaded by china or russia or something.

Here are a few things that i have come to realise about us english.


We like getting really pissed


We like to get really pissed and to beat eachover up


we like to get pissed beat eachover up and pull some birds!


Im english and i dont really drink tea at all (i know wtf?)


We moan about the rain and bad weather (national pastime)

But when we get good weather we moan that its too hot

You missed the bit where England made America, the founding fathers were British. So technically America is really really really old religious cast away English .

Originally posted by MahNameABorat
What I love about being an American is not caring about you. We beat you in the Revolution, tied you in the War of 1812, and saved your country from destruction in WW2.

Hmmm.. I'll bite just to show him up..

The Revolution you would have lost without French help! I know, the French of all people! That's emabrressing for both of us!

I'd hardly call 1812 a draw. We burnt down the White House and razed Washington, did we not? Didn't the US start the war to try and take canada and failed miserably? Hardly call it a draw...

WW2, saved from destruction? By the time you guys got invovled, the tide had turned anyway, but that's another story...

You haven't really contributed anything in awhile, so why should I care about your crappy cameras everywhere big brother state?

I beg to differ. You wouldn't have any of the fancy tech you "won" WW2 with if it wasn't for the Tizard mission by the UK, where we basically handed over every state secret to you guys, which brought you up to speed with the other beligerents on the War. Without that, you'd have no radar, no jet engine technology, no nuclear programme, etc..

And since then, we've been world leaders (or near enough) in many different fields of science and industry. To say anything else is a just BS.

As for the Big Brother state, that just really displays you utter ignorance. I won't even bother to waste time correcting you, in fact.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
reply to post by DISRAELI

 

when i went travelling, i met quite a lot of Americans and Camadians who actually thought we have "Tea time", they thought the whole nation stops for a cup of tea at 4pm. I had to explain that people drink tea at all hours of the day here.

I worked in the US, in Washington DC for a bit, friends there couldn't believe that the police here in the Uk didn't carry guns and asked if harsh language worked instead.

Also, they thought that London was always foggy and some were astonished to find that we had black UK citizens too.

(If you are going to the US and you are from the UK, fanny means arse! Don't laugh if a woman asks you if her fanny looks large in her pants.)

They also believe we are very prudish and reserved, grins

I guess we all have wierd views on each others cultures, most aren't true.

Now lets all play nice. How are the poor American's suppose to understand the geography of the U.K when a large percentage can't point out their own continent on a world map.

The USA is just another failed U.K colony working under the old Roman Senate System.

Hehe...

The first thing that came to mind when reading that seriously abbreviated version of English history was the saying that little kids often learn when practicing their counting...
"1, 2, skip a few, 99, 100"

The OP is right though, we Americans do tend to become so self-absorbed that we tend to overlook the fact that there's a world out there.

Nice post. I have to admit all I knew about them before this post was that... 1 They got taken over by the infected in 28 days later.
2 the U.S Army came over to help rebuild but then the infected took over again in 28 weeks later.
3 We saved their butts in ww2
4 You guys like tea.
Thanks for the post.