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.

• Thought I'd do some reading about football hooliganism. Oh, the Brits are featured in this list - no doubt about that! But Europe seem to be as bad as each other when it comes to football thuggery.


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1035747-20-most-thuggish-fan-bases-in-world-footballl_
•

"FC Barcelona have been on the radar as violent and outspoken for years. Some of their most violent times come out during the Classico Rivalry with Real Madrid, as well as the Barcelona derby with Espanyol.

These people throw pigs heads, cell phones, beers and chant racist chants whenever the opportunity arises, making them pretty thuggish."

Agree after living abroad I got really upset when I came home that people I knew would try and ignore me in the street!

Although that said I've got used to it again. Sometimes it's just not a good time to chat!

V interesting the comments about how we handle death as well as giving money to parents. I'm obsessed with a show called 90 day fiance where Americans marry foreigners and they always argue about sending money home and make them out to be taking advantage. I think this is actually a common practice in developing economies - in the 50s my grandpa was sending money to his parents and paying for his brother's education. It is what decent people did when there was no security net from the state and before capitalism replaced the family.

I love how the stereotype is that British women don't clean their houses properly, not British people in general.

That's not one I'll be rushing to change in a hurry.

@user1471523870

I am originally from Italy (but been living in England half of my life). Just to comment on the 'dirty houses and people' I think this is mostly something from the past, related to the presence of carpets in bathrooms and the fact dishes didn't get rinsed.

And I don't agree at all about the comments I still hear about the cleanliness!
However, to bring clarity on the point here's some few things:

• carpets are seen as 'dirt catchers' as they can'/don't t get washed every day.
• in Italy you don't eat on a table that is not covered with a clean table cloth. Cutlery put directly on the table in restaurants is something many people get horrified about.
• there are no bidets in the bathrooms, meaning people don't wash their bits multiple times a day after using the toilet.
• generally speaking in Italy people tend to bleach every surface in their houses within an inch of its life, they are very house proud.
• there is no eating potatoes with skin on in Italy. You peel the potatoes. Always. Skin is dirty.

I will try and think about other examples of what people have commented on during the years!

This is amusing, I live in Italy and agree with some of the observations/stereotypes, particularly regarding lack of bidets and not rinsing dishes. The dirty house thing I may have reinforced as I’m between cleaners and far too busy to clean my house and that’s probably been associated with my English side.

No one I know uses bleach as we’re all pretty eco friendly, although ammonia is liked for the odd deep clean.

Yes with the potato skins! The first time I served potatoes with their skins on I got asked if we were in prison. 20 odd years on there is even the odd restaurant serving baked potatoes.

The one big thing is the drinking, Brits are renown for drinking far too much. So much so that when I go out for an aperitif with groups of people and I order a second drink, it always gets explained to new people in the group that it’s because I’m half English so I drink a lot . People will sometimes have copious amounts of wine with a meal but I’ve never seen anyone swaying drunk or falling over in the street drunk (only tourists!).

One thing I don't get about the UK is why school kids can't shower after PE?

We had to at secondary school in the 1970s, and we hated it because the showers were communal with no curtains. I think the issue now is that it could possible be too open to accusations of abuse and bullying, sadly. Besides, no school has 30 privates showers so that a whole class could shower at the same time, and it would take too long.

I find it interesting that a few Indian posters have posted about thorough washing. Surely this would only be the preserve of families with bathrooms? Not every house in India would have this facility, surely?

I also feel that a lot of the stereotypical behaviour on this thread belongs to just one section of British society ie the less privileged, as a PP has already pointed out.

Yes with the potato skins! The first time I served potatoes with their skins on I got asked if we were in prison

😂😂😂

@Fink

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.

I am British and in my opinion that perception is pretty spot on.

The rinsing dishes thing - I don't know anybody that doesn't have a dishwasher.

I am curious to know what people do in countries where they don't queue. Do people just push rudely past each other? Maybe that's where our sense of fairness comes in, in that people wait their turn?

Do these people who don't queue just push their way thrugh queues in airports where queuing is pretty much a given?

Gin you just sort of mill around in the general area and then when it’s time you converge at once but there’s very little pushing and shoving.
That’s my experience in Germany and Austria anyway
Other places such as Hong Kong there is plenty of pushing and shoving

Primary education is seen as brilliant. Secondary education seen as very narrow very young. The expectation that teens will drink heavily and from an early age is seen as bizarre and unhealthy. Parents are seen as detaching from their kids and having very little influence from the early teen years. Teens aren't expected to participate or help in the family.

There's deep rooted misogyny with girls and boys playing different sports and with very poor provision for girls in general. Little girls are out into shoes that are ornamental and made to wear skirts/dresses as uniform that discourage movement etc.

I work with an awful lot of people from other countries. None of them would ever consider going home. As one colleague said to me , “go home to what, there’s nothing worth going back to.” Having worked in quite a few countries myself ( I am multilingual ) I know exactly what she means. So you want find me slagging this country off.

@lazyfecker you should come round for a cup of tea

@Ginfordinner
We queue here, in shops etc, often there is a number system, but not at busstops, trains etc. which can give a little dog eat dog attitude in some pushier persons . Normally it's okay though, it's when there is not a single file problems occur.

Many years ago I queued to get on board a ferry (people just clumping up in front of the doors) there were some very entitled regulars (pensioners going back and forth all day, felt ownership of seats etc) one very pushy lady felt she should be in front of the queue and since she wasn't, she tried to get under the double railing... she got stuck and on top of this she had been so vocal that sympathy wasn't exactly coming her way .

I live in here for many years now and absolutely love it. Though foreign majority of my friends are British. I have always struggled with the indirectness of the british people. It is almost like it's impossible for them to say anything negative directly to someone whether professionally or personally and issues, even simple ones, are dragged out and complaints made behind the persons back rather than directly to the person (not on MN of course) . Lack of emotions/empathy (though this doesn't bother me as where I come from emotions are rarely shown). Lack of punctuality (though this might be the people I have encountered or because where I am from people are obsessed with keeping time)

Obsessed with wealth and class but also a very open disdain for the wealthy. Never understood the carpet thing, the want to own things no matter the cost even on credit (though Americans are worse), the obsession with keeping up appearances, lack or want of learning foreign languages (though this is changing), the drinking, though the drinking itself is not the problem but the inability to control themselves when they do, they drink to get drunk rather than enjoyment (again I come from a place where many enjoy drinking but have never witnessed the drunkenness and behaviour that follows to the extend that I do here). Shocking and unacceptable poverty levels for a first world country and the littering drives me up the walls. I am also always shocked at how the Brits speak negatively about their own country.

On a positive note the sense of humour is fantastic, I find the country to be a very tolerant one, people can be very friendly, though not uncomfortably so like those from Southern Europe or America, privacy is valued, never personally encountered a dirty british home or person, stunning places to visit and live throughout the whole country, the country is very culturally diverse, lots of opportunities here too no matter your background, and the people at least when they are in front of you are unquestionably polite, there's also nearly nothing that you cannot find in Britain whether that is food or other goods, guess this is because of the many cultures that live here. As for food, there is so much choice here albeit not all british but more choices than many other European countries I have lived/visited. Oh and the Gin is absolutely fantastic.

@Ginfordinner

I am curious to know what people do in countries where they don't queue. Do people just push rudely past each other? Maybe that's where our sense of fairness comes in, in that people wait their turn?

Do these people who don't queue just push their way thrugh queues in airports where queuing is pretty much a given?

Yes! And I can't tell you how much I hate it after several decades spent in England. Now when I go back to Italy literally everyone passes in front of me in any queues! They push sometimes, but more often just don't give a damn about any minimal (pre-Covid) personal space and if you stay more than few inches far from the person ahead of you they just assume you are NOT in the queue and place themselves between you and said person. There is no sense of fairness, it's more survival of the fittest!

I just realized I am generalizing a lot myself. This happens often and in more restricted environments, rarely in airports....

No carpets in my house, shoes off indoors keeps floors cleaner too. I always rinse after washing up and as for the toilet...I always wash with tissues using water from the tap which is closer to the toilet in our small bathrooms.

How awful we are thought of as dirty.

I am Spanish and to be honest, I feel more British than Spanish sometimes, I agree more with the way things are done here in general, but there are things that still don't understand...
Carpets everywhere (I've seen them in bathrooms and kitchens, even though I know it is not the most common). I think once one person sees something like that thinks dirty. I cannot understand for the life of me why anybody thinks that's a good idea...
Sometimes inflexible thinking. For example, there is a rule for something but then clearly, for a particular scenario, it doesn't make sense, but generally Brits seem incapable of being flexible and not applying it.

On the other hand, great sense of humour.

The way of raising kids much better in my opinion.

Wete supposedly so terrible and yet....
So many people want to live here.
Strange that.

It seems to be an insult that British women are 'easy' or dress provocatively. Is like to point out that the men sleeping with these women are just as 'easy'. Some foreign countries might like to check their acceptance of misogyny!
There's actually nothing wrong with either sex having sex with another consenting adult.

I also don't see why the Scots are seen as better than the English. If this stems from colonialism, the Scots were just as involved as the English. Maybe people abroad shouldn't form all their opinions about us by watching Outlander

Washing up bowls go back to when there was only one sink and so there was nowhere to put tea slops or whatever. If you have a washing up bowl you can pour things down the sink while the bowl is in it. Now one and a half bowl sinks are common there is no need for a bowl (although I still use one ). We had stainless sinks in the 1950s. My mother used to bath me in it and I have seen the pictures. Belfast (or butler's) sinks were regarded as very old fashioned. Before plastic, washing up bowls were often enamel.

I cannot for the life of me think why people think that carpets in clean, poorly insulated houses in cold, damp climates are a bad idea. Do these people with hard floors wash all the floors in their homes every day?

Yes, or Downton Abbey as someone suggested earlier or Bridget Jones Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral, a Room With A View is obviously how we still see the world outside of England - the hilarity!

The practical approach to clothes is not a thing in this country as fashion is seen as Art it is a way of expressing yourself. My teenage boy is not interested in just keeping warm or being dressed for the weather and my little girl is not being primed for a life of wearing elegant attire from 18+ she would scoff at the suggestion now because she just doesn't care and I say thank fuck for that! I think it is a good job that English men like English women going on this thread! My DH hates the polished look on women so I suppose it swings in roundabouts!

@yetanothernamitynamechange

Oh also, regarding the Portugese guy who said English woman generally arent adventurous in bed. I reckon he was playing you to make you be "adventourous" in the way he wanted.

Sorry to disappoint you, I'm not easily played