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.

If I tell my true feeling, I think I will be shot down. So I won't say. Though I really only have good experience with Scottish people, they seem more down to earth and generally lovely.

No proper bread

A large proportion of Brita are positively tripping over themselves to out-homemade-sourdough the fuck out of each other.

Oh, and as I don't holiday in places that attract the worst kind of Brit I find that we are always made welcome, and I don't feel embarrassed to be English.

@KatharinaRosalie Spanish people often speak at least two languages, as the regions also have different languages, I am afraid in Spain Britt are seen as hooligans, blame the football mixed with the Spanish drinking laws, mainly unlimited 24/7, or snobs who won’t mix with the locals, for this blame the timeshares, after living so many years in the uk, they also have some funny conceptions about me

I think the poor hygiene and dental care stereotypes are quite a bit out of date. I know in my grandparents generation people didn't generally bath daily but I don't know anyone who doesn't now. Dental care is fine, we just don't go in for all the cosmetics which have nothing to do with dental health, just appearance.

@pastandpresent

If I tell my true feeling, I think I will be shot down. So I won't say. Though I really only have good experience with Scottish people, they seem more down to earth and generally lovely.

I think another one that is outdated is the notion that Brits are polite and stiff upper lipped. I think that has long gone, last seen a few generations ago.

My dutch other half thinks we are far too polite and should just tell people what we think (I do think his directness has rubbed off on me a bit and I have to reign myself in these days 😂) he is fascinated by our obsession with queuing even pre covid restrictions and still cant comprehend the amount of tea I drink in a day. He isn’t ever very complimentary about British food and did insist on wood flooring throughout the house (I won carpet in the bedrooms and a huge rug in the living room!) On the flip side he loves the British sense of humour and the stoic/stiff upper lip, he is an afternoon tea convert, NHS fan and does love a Yorkshire pudding! He is also highly entertained by regional accents

Dental care is fine, we just don't go in for all the cosmetics which have nothing to do with dental health, just appearance.

I agree. Our dentists focus on the health of our teeth and gums rather than the aesthetics.

TBH, I find the blinding white perfect teeth of so many Americans in the media so false that they are unattractive.

Great sense of humour
Eccentrics
Great scientists and innovators
Beer drinkers
Tea experts
Courteous drivers
Bad teeth
Boring food
We also always say Brits dont have sex. Suffice to say I was slightly taken aback on my first night out in Britain!

Belgium is seen as boring.

Ginfordinner

For people rushing to defend the British. I, and most of the people on this thread, are not giving our personal opinions. We're saying what the stereotype of the British is in other places. As a dual national, I know Britain pretty well and have lived here for a long time, I'm not saying I agree with the stereotype, I'm just saying what it is. For example, I personally don't think dental hygiene is noticeably worse here than other places in Europe, but the stereotype is that Brits have terrible teeth.

I'm Irish, but my Mum is English and I lived in England for a long time. I don't really see anyone as British, because each of the countries has their own identity. It is my view that if there was less of a push for everyone to identify themselves as British rather than English (or Welsh or Scots) then Brexit wouldn't have happened.
I think most Irish people know that it would be ridiculous to generalise about a nation. If pushed, the endurance of the class system is a bit of a mystery. It is hard as an outsider to see what the benefit of it is.
Good tv and music.

@Mydogmylife

“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 ?”

The Irish are not British (Northern Ireland is devolved, but culturally different in many aspects from the Republic). For the most part, many Irish people would have very different relationships with the scots, welsh and the English. Especially post Brexit.

@Napqueen1234

Well this is a depressing thread surely we aren’t that bad?! If anyone were to ask me my opinions on another country I think I’d generally be more positive than 95% of the comments. Never knew we were considered dirty who lives in these filthy houses?!

I've never heard of that before. I'm not British, but lived there a long time. I've never seen anyone with carpets in their bathrooms, they all have clean houses with tiled/hard wood flooring (maybe carpet on the stairs but that's it, and is usually to cushion a fall which I think makes sense) and British people ask people to take their shoes off before they come in (which is why most people have porches, I assume). So my idea of British people is that their houses are kept very clean.

I lived in Italy many years and they never took their shoes off inside and it made me sick.

@HappyDinosaur

I don't understand the shoe thing, no one I know wears shoes inside, I thought that was an American thing?

No. It’s seen as really rude in Canada and the States to not take your shoes off.

British girls are 'easy? It rains a lot, our food is awful. However, people in Europe have a real hatred of Russians and the Spanish and Greeks don't like Germans who buy up Majorca or parts of Greece (and shot a relative in WW2)

Lived in many places (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland and England).
Here are my opinions on the "British" and Britain:

Great sense of humour
Great TV series
Great music
Amazing countryside
Interesting and historical cities
Great supermarkets
Cleanliness in houses
People taking shoes off before entering homes
Queuing
Great daily routines for kids (I was a nanny, and I loved the reasonable bedtimes. When I was a nanny in Italy I was still working way past 11pm some evenings and expecting to have the kids awake for 6am which was a nightmare)
Amazing museums and galleries
Class system is very rigid

Mostly positives!
I understand that the British government are the ones messing everything up with regards to COVID, and that Brexit was a huge lie and far right parties grabbed hold of politically homeless working class people who would have voted for the Labour Party had it not been taken over by middle class "woke" people.

@Blackberrycream Interesting, I wonder where it is normal to wear shoes inside then, if anywhere. I know friends in Florida who always wore shoes indoors, but they must have been unusual!

Wow, lots of anti-British sentiment here. Usually even foreigners aren’t so rude as to say this to your face.

Full disclosure: I'm English. I lived abroad for 3 years and have studied in 2 other countries as well. In terms of negative things people have said to my face regarding my nationality (that I can remember), a couple of people just said 'Brexit!' at me and laughed I'm very anti-Brexit, so I didn't much appreciate that.

An Irish guy, when he met me, immediately said he hated English people.

Other than that I think people just judge you as an individual, I should hope so anyway!

I've often read about how disgusting and fat and ugly and badly-dressed English women supposedly are, and that's just straight up misogyny as far as I'm concerned.

It's true that British people don't speak languages very well, although not everyone everywhere speaks English fluently (not that I think they should have to, but it is something some people seem to believe.) Where I lived in Spain hardly anyone spoke English.

My OH generally loves it here, he thinks Brits are mainly friendly and good fun and really likes the self deprecating humour. He also loves the arts, music and culture.

He finds it very irritating that we don't say what we mean and are overly polite about everything - I actually agree with him on this.

His country folk do have higher cleaning standards than us. He thinks we have a 'that'll do' attitude to it. But who wants to spend so much of life cleaning it's very boring after all?

Interesting the thing about tea as I feel like we are becoming more of a nation or coffee drinkers.

I have to say, it is funny how we make such sweeping generalisations about each other.
My observation is that most nationalities are as bad as each other just in different ways.

Here, you are thought of as having gone politically cuckoo, and people are embarrassed for you as though you’d collectively tucked your skirt into your knickers and gone skipping off towards Beachy Head.

No, proper rye bread etc is hard to come by. Bread here is generally soft and spongy, even from the supermarkets own bakery. Gail's isn't proper bread either. Live in Scandinavia, the German speaking countries or Eastern Europe and you will understand.

Sourdough stuff is just trying to look posh at a fortune. Reality is its fluffy on the inside and the crust hurts your gums.