If I ever judged the UK by what I saw on TV when I lived in the US

[Tee2072]

Everyone in the UK would either speak with a Cockney or RP accent.

They would all either live in an over crowded terrace or a huge country estate.

All the schools would be crap.

The populace would spend their entire lives in pubs.

Now, I never believed any of that, being a relatively smart human being.

So am I being unreasonable to wonder how come I'm constantly battling US TV stereotypes here on MN?

It's a thread about many many many threads.

The American version of Milky Way is delicious.
It's a dark chocolate version crossed with a Mars Bar.
And you can get it in N.I now .

Ooh

There is an American sweatshop down the road so I will try that.

My daughter loves it in there. Bloody pop tarts for a fiver,

Why would they now where Wales is?

I remember when Catherine Zeta was in Zorro and people wondered where she was from given her colouring. Perhaps they thought Wales was I. Colombia or something.

This is probably shite, from a Heat magazine article in the 90s.

Which begs the question why do I remember heat articles over ten years later?

Catherine Zeta Jones is very confusing to place in terms of colouring/name/accent .

Trills, I know where South Africa is and I have never been, I could find New South Wales on a map although I've never been to Australia.

I find I get on better with USArians who own a passport... a shocking proportion of the population does not.

CT Near New London, Dh worked and got 23 days holiday rearly took it, but public holidays where frequent.
I purposely didn't mention drink driving, could not get my head round it, but I do think there is a sea change coming as a 23 year old daughter of a friend of mine when i recounted the story of losing my car for 6 weeks in the UK (I had no call to use it) before remembering it was outside a pub I had visited 6 weeks before my friend said "how did you get home?" I said "I walked" never been asked this question in the UK and her daughter said "you see Mum there is no reason to drink and drive people have feet!" her mum drove us back after drinking, I didn't have much choice could have remained at the Mohegan, but all the rooms where booked for 2 concerts that night.

oh my point is that distances are so large in the US walking sometime is not an option, we live in a crowded pedestrian and public travel world, the USA isn't, no point in compaining it is what it is, really made me appriciate the UK so much more, I worked in the NHS and have always had a soft spot for it, since I have been home I have just wanted to cuddle it.

I found the care I got in a hospital in the USA was well below par 4 hour wait to even get triaged?, SARs at a head at that time and all the coughing people wearing the masks on their head like a party hat, doctor examining everyone without curtains in his goldfish bowl of an exam room, being asked to sign consent after glasses removed, and then being over charged for treatment!! that took months to sort out.

these are just some of the issues I had during my so called superior private health care and what made me madder was that the insurance company could not give a fig I had been over charged?? they where paying it, but to me that means all insurance premiums go up if this is common and when I finally found someone in payments who had a brain she found it was a computer glitch and said Oh. looks like we have over charged a lot of people in the past couple of years....and I was the first to throw it up?? really?

I loved living in the US really enjoyed my time but it is not a perfect world no where is.

Benny Hill was popular in USA.

LA was built for the car

see I had thought LA was built for the tram and that was why they built long steep steps to get down to the road

I thought the car and the freeway came later
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23724797
www.tundria.com/trams/USA/LosAngeles-1941.shtml

ubud - but if you take europe as the same sort of size as aus and USA and then most uk residence don't travel out of the EU so it wouldn't be much different.
www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ott/overseas-travel-and-tourism---monthly-release/june-2013/stb-monthly-overseas-travel-and-tourism--june-2013.html#tab-Trends-in-visits-abroad-by-UK-Residents--Reference-tables-3-4-5-

We came to the UK a few weeks ago, and tbh, I would have rather have stayed in the US and gone on a roadtrip. There is SO much to see and do here, it's crazy. That said, I loved seeing our families.

And, incidentally, DH gets 30 days leave plus (lots of) public holidays, but he made that part of his contract when he went onto a local contract. However, not every company observes every public holiday. Martin Luther King Day, for example, is a bit hit and miss. The schools are off though.

This is a map of the states, with Oregon marked. Oregon is roughly the same size as the UK.
Look how far they could travel, and what variety of country an American citizen has at their disposal without leaving their own country.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oregon_in_United_States.svg

An American never leaving the US is like someone from the UK never leaving Europe. I imagine that is a lot of people. I have never left Europe unless you consider the canary islands or Cyprus to be outside of Europe, and most people don't.

It's not really like never leaving Europe though is it. Different languages, different ways of life. The US is a big and varied place but it is all one country united by one public life, one history (at least in the way it is taught), one set of national traditions that bind everyone. There might be regional variations as there are in every country but they also share a lot more than Europeans do. They all share Oprah, Obama and Independence Day - oh and speaking English. The equivalent would be all Europeans from Sweden to Sicily and from Ireland to Poland speaking English and sharing Cameron, Lorraine Kelly and Guy Fawkes Night.

I disagree re travel (well, I would, I make the comment about passports .

Even if you only travel within Europe you encounter different cultures, languages, different ways of doing things. Yes, in terms of landscapes, climate zones and experiences you could travel a lilfetime in the States and always see something new ('tis one of the things I love about the States). And yes, there are some different culture ie between the Deep South and New England, or Hawai or Native American cultures. However IMO a lot of the native culture for a tourist only feature as cheap tat or a postcard and popular culture is the same everywhere.

But I accept that no amount amount of travelling in Europe (or the US or Canada) prepared me for Africa...

You don't sound like tourists though, you sound like explorers and that is a different mindset. The majority of people leaving the UK on holiday do not crave a completely different experience, they want better weather and to see different things but not necessarily to have to struggle with a language or a transport system.
Sun, sea, a hotel with a pool and English speaking staff, or a villa in an area where the locals are geared for tourists is the height of happiness for many.

That's true silverapples - and I wouldn't mind a holiday like that myself. Brits are not naturally more open or adventurous than Americans or anyone else. Everyone likes their home comforts and their familiar ways of doing things - it's just we have to travel a bit further to get to do enjoy themselves in the sunshine...So I agree with you.

But, the fact is that British people do travel - because if they want sun they have to - and have become familiar with other countries and foods - even if only incidentally. But for many, that then becomes interesting and they find out more or go further afield next time.

I think we probably also do tend to be a bit more intellectually aware of the rest of the world because we are a part of a big international block, have an international history (Empire) and frankly, have a much better quality of public discourse than they do in the US. You can access intelligent debate here via the mainstream media pretty easily so you only have to be a little bit interested and you can access lots of material. Listening to US TV and radio news makes me want to cry.

"It's not really like never leaving Europe though is it. Different languages, different ways of life"

Not in that way, but I've never been on a flight longer than 4 and a half hours and I've been to 3 different European countries and 2 north African ones...if I lived in the middle of America the same flight times would still only take me to different parts of America.

I actually met huge numbers of people who had never left the state they lived in. I found that astonishing considering we only lived 50 miles from the state line.

Then again, many americans i met who had travelled were amazed that i lived in England and had never been to Bath.

yes ut there are a lot of people in the uk that travel to Europe and never experiance the different culture, language or the different way of life - they are spoken t by spanish hotel staff that speak fluent english and eat egg and chips and other typical english food as for seeing culture they do try the spanish beer

Oh and if they do come across a person that doesn't speak english - well then they speak loudly and slowly as that will get them to understand...

I don't think that Americans or any other nation are in themselves more or less adventurous or open to new stuff than others. But they get away with it due to the vastness of their amazing country.

And sometimes that parochialism shows... .

Maybe it's just a matter of extremes being more memorably?? I've heard the most astoundingly ignorant statements made about Europe from Americans and I've had some of the most interesting and well-informed conversations with some.

Yy, I think language has a huge impact on an understanding of a culture. And there is the whole 'The Us is The Best Country In The World' thing that just makes me itch. Yes, it has a whole lot going for it (historically and currently) but there are IMO quite huge downsides to the whole set up too that are just impossible to discuss with some rabid 'patriots' who froth at the mouth at anybody questioning 'anything'.

DH and I were in Boston on 9/11 and were totally caught up in that sense of utter disbelief at what was unfolding literally live on TV in front of us. BUT - it was equally quite staggering how people around us (just randong strangers sharing the same small hotel and its staff) could not begin to see that there might just be some people in the world who may have some reason to Hold A Grudge against the US. Or its policies. And (unfairly and outrageously) took that out against its people.

Re the travel... My step-dad is a perfect example of the stereotypical American. He is in his late 50's and was in the military when he was young. He wa stationed in Japan for about 6 months, and that is the only place he's ever been. He's never renewed his passport, and when I invite my mom and him over, he says there's no reason to come. He's been outside the US before, and there's no need to go again; there's enough "culture" there for him (ha!).

However... I have a real issue with Brits who have a go at Americans for not leaving their country when the only place they've been on holiday is to a Thomas Cook resort full of other Brits. Just because you're drinking by the pool in another country, it does not make you a "worldly" traveler.

Sorry, have just seen that I x-posted with about four other people saying the same thing

To change the subject, something that seemed quite normal to me when I was growing up was saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone I know here is astounded that we were required to say it every morning, and looking back on it now, it really does smack of brainwashing and propaganda!