Why do English people look German?

[sarahlayton06]

Why do some white English people (especially women not so much men) look so extremely German? Not French or Italian or Spanish but German.

This is not so much the case with Welsh or Irish or Scottish people.

For example, don’t you think Samantha Womack (who plays Ronnie Mitchell in Eastenders) looks extremely German?

I often had people trying to speak Spanish to me a few times when I was in the USA - at that point I only spoke English! I presume it was my colouring.

That's specifically a Bayern stereotype, is it not?

Easy to tell the difference - Germans are the ones wearing comfy looking sandals, always wondered where they got them from.

In Northern France, people tend to assume I am Dutch or German because I speak French with an accent, but genetically I am Norman French and Huguenot. Obviously blended via 1000 years of Ango-Saxon and Celtic intermarriages. I too was hounded out of French bars in the 70s for looking like an Allemande (although that might have been my travelling companion, who really was pale and blonde). I was dark blonde and tan very fast, and after three weeks picking grapes in the sun, I could have been anything from Catalan north.

I don't know about German but I can a
make out Irish people when I'm abroad. It's not the eyes, but the skin colour. So many pasty white Irish people. Clothes will often be a giveaway as well.

We're also Irish but we have Anglo Saxon blood and tan well so people generally assume we're English or American. I've been mistaken for Greek 😝

There are no rules but generalisations often apply!

Locally, and I think in the Atlantic counties of Ireland, the swarthy dark-haired trope is thought to originate with the Spanish armada shipwrecks.

You’re not wrong that clothes and body language constitute a significant proportion of a national ‘look’.

As I and my friends (fairly international bunch, and scattered around the world) get older, another thing I notice is how faces age differently depending on what language the person habitually speaks.

An American friend of mine has lived in Paris for 25 years, and has a sister close in age who lives in the US. They used to be very similar-looking, but it’s quite noticeable that my French-speaking friend’s facial lines are coming in different places to her US-English-speaking sister’s.

Do you mean the Royal family? 😊

This explains it better than I could

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-19-who-do-you-think-you-really-are-genetic-map-british-isles

OP you win today’s prize for the most stupid thread title 🏆

Wtf? Not even sure what you mean by ‘look German’ - do you mean blond/blue eyes as was the nazi dream, but is also more Skandi than Germanic? Reckon Germans are as diverse as most other nations these days.

I look spanish/italian. According to ancestry.com I have english ancestry dating back to the shakespeares (cousins of the famous one). All my family are olive skinned brunettes. As are a lot of my friends.

I have to agree! It's so extraordinary that I had to stop and read!

Or is it that sone German people look
English ?

Why would they have a fit? They would be talking among and about themselves.

You don't think some Moroccan bloke in Morocco might see another bloke in his town, have a chat and think "Oh, I thought he was Moroccan but it turns out he's from Tunisia. Well I'll be darned. Actually he looks more like my BIL and he's from Algeria. Fancy that." BIL from Algeria turns out to have one grandparent from Ethiopia...

Are you waiting for an English response? nobody will bother as it would be racist.

WTF?

Do me a favour. If it was anyone other who was white .. MN would
be up in arms.

I agree @Papyrophile but some social justice warriors will be along soon to tell you're 'wrong' and only white English people are 'bad.'

I may well be wrong, but they have to prove they are right, and that isn't any easier.

Well it isn't, so it's not.

Have you never heard of anthropology? Or linguistics, or genealogy?

Why are you so indignant at comparisons being made between the peoples of geographically connected countries?

To be honest I do regularly get spoken to in German when on holiday in holiday resorts popular with both English, German, french tourists. Guess I'm just an average white middle aged woman.

Womack is her ex husband's name

Generally going back to the first issue, Greeks, Spandiards etc are darker skinned than those of us in Northern Europe. My family are from UK/Ireland on all sides back to the 1700s and some scandinavian genes probably because we are from NE England (the Vikings used to come across to there) and also had some Orkney ancestors.

Of course we can look into our DNA, do family trees, look at where we are all from - indeed that can be absolutely vital in the literal sense - some genetic and other conditions differ between different people (just as some medicine needs to be different between men, women and also children).

Only when wearing lederhosen