What do other nationalities think of the British

[Baggingarea]

For non UK MNers, what are your general impressions of the British?

I was watching a documentary recently and a Spanish man said our houses are all dirty. I'd never heard that before but can see why someone might think that with muddy weather etc etc.

What do you think about us? Promise I won't be offended (no racism/sexism/general bigotry though please). Can't vouch for others though.

Actually most people said British not English.... Am still wondering what folks think of the Scots though

Dh and his family are foreign. They think we are incapable of saying what we actually think, and that our children are repressed beautifully polite and well behaved.

Politically they think we’ve gone insane.

I'm following thread with interest can I ask that posters add in their own nationality? No reason apart from the that I'm interested... I'm English btw

I have always wondered why the British put a wash up bowl in the sink. Why not just use the plug?

I used to wonder this, even though we'd always done it. When I tried using just a plug I realised exactly why - you can't pour anything down the sink if you fill up the whole sink with washing up water. If you use a washing up bowl it means you can still use the plug hole without having to get rid of all your washing up water.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

It would be interesting to know what the nationalities of each PP is.

(I am British but could be English soon depending how things holds together.)

Agree re knowing nationalities!

Snobs. First and foremost. Snobs.
Except the hooligans, of course. and Gangsters.

When abroad, I found if people distinguish Scots from the English, the Scots are usually seen more favourably. (I'm not a Scot but used to live there.)

Where I travelled, the English were seen as loud, rude, cold (as in too formal), and crap at speaking other languages. It was best not to be found out as English. Now, people tend to add Brexit and Covid into the evaluation and think the English are even worse or just feel sorry for us.

Why everyone has to take their shoes off to enter a house.

It’s funny because I’ve seen debates about this on mumsnet, with people vehemently defending their side.

I’m British but live abroad. Sadly, we’re definitely now a laughing stock due to Brexit, Boris, Covid etc. Our neighbours told us they believe British eat very badly (chips with everything) big drinkers, very reserved, sometimes snobby and not very friendly. Whereas the Irish they can’t speak more highly of. Scottish too, they say are more friendly etc.

No proper bread.

Beating around the bush rather than be frank.

Why are people wearing their outside shoes in their living room?

Less stress as not everything needs to be perfect (love this)

How many types of ham can there be on one supermarket shelf? What about all the other meats that can go into sandwiches?

My dh is Spanish. When he first met me he said that I was too pretty to be British . He thought that I was Irish

Americans think that British people have horrible teeth and are the most unattractive Europeans.

I'm British (and another nationality) and have lived abroad. The general consensus is that British people don't say what they mean, it's hard to understand them past the euphemisms and pleasantries. That they don't talk about important things and will just want to discuss the weather and other small talk endlessly. Very polite, although in quite a rigid, codified way. Reserved/repressed. Enjoy queuing and making passive-aggressive remarks to perceived social faux pas (such as not queuing). A bit old fashioned and class-bound. Harldy ever bother to learn foreign languages. Very ethnically diverse and welcoming of people's otherness (compared to other European places where, e.g., wearing a burqa is banned in public). Terrible cuisine. Obsession with tea. Good at sport and history. Can be racist and anti-European. Kind and generous. Good universities but not a great opinion of the school system (insofar as they know anything about it), school uniforms are seen as indicative of generalised excessive formality and living in the past.

There was a series on R4 a couple of years back called 'As Others See Us'. It's available on BBC Sounds still. It looks at other countries' opinions of Britain. It was very interesting.

Good sense of humour
Fundamentally decent
British TV is of a higher standard than we get (obviously not the reality stuff)
I adore the weekend papers

@fink I'm going to look up that series! Great shout!

First of all, i love this country, and it has given me opportunities my home country hasnt. People are a lot more openminded and in with the times( altough that might be more of a London thing) than my 'home people'.

I have been bere for almost 20 years and im still shocked at how British people dont seem to feel the cold. Shorts and flipflops in 18C?!
I work as a nanny, and i have worked for a lot of different nationalities and some of those houses were freezing! Babies and toddlers crawling on tiled floors, no socks on. Some of the kids didnt have winter scarves, the parents looked at me puzzled when i asked for them. I think Eastern europeans tend to overdress their kids and Brits are the opposite. When i take the kids to the playground i see such a broad range. toddlers in snowsuits next to kids in jumpers and leggings.
A positive thing though that i also noted as a nanny is the kids go to bed at a reasonable time and have a proper routine, which i think is a good thing.

What people in my home country think of British people is not very positive, sorry (stereotypes):
-that women have wide backs and are not very pretty

• they drink their tea wrong
• they all love the Queen
• dont have nice food
• have a dry sense of humour
• they say sorry for no reason, like when walking past you..
• they ask how are you but dont wait for a reply

Having lived here for so long, i came to like the milky tea. I like the sense of humour. I know the Queen is not loved by all.
I think the typical diet is pretty awful, they are a lot of obese people and so many obese children.
I say sorry and talk about the weather a lot too now :)
On the other hand Brexit still hurts.. :(

Gosh this is interesting, never heard the dirty house one before.

Interestingly I have a family member who lives in a popular European resort and apparently the local tourist industry have really missed the Brits this year as they spend the cash!

My Spanish students (adults and those I got to know well) said we eat weird sandwiches and that it's strange how we have so many carpets in bathrooms. They don't understand why Brexit got voted for (nor do I to be fair) and think our food is boring. They also used to say we do good cakes, have pretty villages, drink tea all the time and start celebrating Christmas far too early.

Interested to know if people have different views of the devolved nations? Ie is British really just English ( a particular bug bear of mine) do Scottish Welsh and Irish have their own character ?

@nosswith

Go abroad and admit you are British and you will find out. I do my utmost to avoid being identified as British when abroad- speaking the local language, not having clothing with any design that would do so.

Unless you are Scottish. I get asked with suspicion ‘English?’ when I say ‘Scottish!’ I’m greeted like an old friend .

@BashfulClam

[quote nosswith]
Go abroad and admit you are British and you will find out. I do my utmost to avoid being identified as British when abroad- speaking the local language, not having clothing with any design that would do so.

Unless you are Scottish. I get asked with suspicion ‘English?’ when I say ‘Scottish!’ I’m greeted like an old friend .[/quote]
Also my experience @bashfulclam

Re. Brits. and excessive carpeting - they used to even put it up the wall as well - but only for a few years in '70s!

The washing up bowl thing might be because in olden days we had ceramic sinks and crockery would have broken and it's carried on even though we have stainless steel and plastic sinks now.

I'm going to defend us a bit because I think some of these assumptions are unfair. Starting with food (my first priority), I think we do eat a variety - we have assimilated food from lots of different cultures into our daily lives.
I would also dispute that we don't say what we mean - there's a code in our language, which appears circuitous - maybe non Brits don't immediately 'get' the code, but we all know what we mean. I sometimes find DH's Scandinavian relatives blunt to the point of rudeness. There's room for social niceties.
Also I like our reserved nature. It's not necessary to vomit emotions all over the place. I love my American sil but when I watch say yes to the dress American TV all the women seem to scream and screech and bounce up and down in fake excitement. Being cold reserved is a plus.
I think other nations might be right about our teeth - the NHS isn't big on veneers or dentistry just to make our teeth look lovely.

I think the rest of the world thinks about Britain and British people a lot less than most Brits assume they do.