Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

489 replies

Tee2072 · 03/09/2013 10:09

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.

OP posts:
Nancy66 · 03/09/2013 13:41

Americans are obsessed with eggs!

HighJinx · 03/09/2013 13:46

Americans are obsessed with eggs!

It's true Grin They have a great deal of terminology simply to order eggs.

SPsTotallyMullerFuckingLicious · 03/09/2013 13:51

Tee All I think off when I see American TV is the food and extreme couponing Grin

I'm heading over the the Emerald Isle next month btw! Dont think I'm anywhere near you though.

Beastofburden · 03/09/2013 14:00

When I watch Hollyoaks, Corrie, Eastenders etc it seems like another country to me too, and Im a Brit Grin.

Seriously, all this falling out with people and the aggression and the sleeping around. really?

not like that here is Boringsville, I can tell you [puts her cardie on for a nice snooze]

JerseySpud · 03/09/2013 14:07

They have seriously better chocolate and fizzy drinks in the US. Peanut butter m&m's for a start!!

Nancy66 · 03/09/2013 14:08

Ewww no - chocolate is HORRIBLE in America. Hershey bars? Yuk.

LeGavrOrf · 03/09/2013 14:12

I don't like American sweets. Dd loves them though, and I have nicked some if hers. The chocolate isn't very nice.

My brother used to live in LA and he sent me some luxury chocolates once and they were delicious, but they were the equivalent of Godiva chocolates. Can't remember what they were called which is a shame as I would love to order some.

farrowandbawl · 03/09/2013 14:12

The chocolate is horrid but Milk Duds are ace!

Beastofburden · 03/09/2013 14:12

god yes, the chocolate alone is a reason NEVER to move stateside.

LeGavrOrf · 03/09/2013 14:20

The names of the chocolates make me laugh though.

BalloonSlayer · 03/09/2013 14:21

mine would be

  • all Americans have good teeth
  • all people who live in the south are fat and/or rednecks
  • all people who live in New York are thin
  • all people who live in New York are witty
  • New York apartments are really spacious and glamorous (ie a chef and a waitress / an office drone and an unemployed actor can afford to rent massive ones) I know this isn't true cos I read it somewhere Hmm and apparently the reason New Yorkers are always going out to dinner is because their apartments are so tiny you can't cook a meal in their kitchens . . . not sure I believe that one either
BalloonSlayer · 03/09/2013 14:24

Paper boys throw the paper on the lawn.

kim my very rich sister lives in Australia and has a paper round. Hmm I hear you say - yeah that's how she got rich, by being a tightarse.

My DCs did it with her and loved it. She drove the car and they chucked the papers out into the front gardens.

Nancy66 · 03/09/2013 14:25

Everyone who works in New York carries those one cup coffee flask things with them.

HighJinx · 03/09/2013 14:26

Anyone who lives in New York is lucky to be alive amongst all the shooting, car chases, corrupt cops...

HighJinx · 03/09/2013 14:27

But anyone who is a victim of a crime in Las Vegas will be OK because they have a brilliant CSI team .

LeGavrOrf · 03/09/2013 14:27

All American baby boys are circumcised.

Poor Americans in New York have baths in their kitchen.

Chefs in New York only seem to work 4 hours a day (based on Monica Geller).

SueDoku · 03/09/2013 14:28

Sadly, the takeover of Cadbury's seems to be moving them in the same direction as American chocolate -- I don't know what they've done to Dairy Milk, but it certainly doesn't taste the same any more - in fact, I've stopped buying Cadbury's chocolate altogether Sad

farrowandbawl · 03/09/2013 14:28

All cab drivers are either really helpful and chatty or grumpy arseholes...oh, yeah hang on. That IS true.

farrowandbawl · 03/09/2013 14:29

I've stopped buying chocolate for the same reason Sue. We don't eat anywhere near as much of it now. Cadbury have really let themselves down.

mignonette · 03/09/2013 14:33

The erroneous belief that there is no class system in America. There is, but as a Brit, you'd not be so aware of it.

What was the old Bostonian rhyme?

"And this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod.
Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,
And the Cabots talk only to God"

                       John Collins Bossidy (1860?1928)

When you read about the Mayflower Association, Daughters of the Reolution (DAR), you realise that the class system is alive and well in the USA too.

PiperMaru · 03/09/2013 14:35

I kind of agree with a lot of the US stereotypes of Brits.

Our houses are small and have no storage and quite often the plumbing is not as good as it could be. Insulation is done on an ad hoc basis, despite this having been a cold wet country for far longer than houses have stood.

We value our backgrounds more than we should, for something which is essentially random. I can't help where I was born and who my parents were and where I went to school. All of that was out of my hands. Yet it essentially defines me in the UK.

We tend to mistrust people when we first meet them - maybe because we haven't yet got the measure of their backgrounds. This does close us off a bit. I had a decade of living with Americans (in the UK) and when I went back to hanging out exclusively with Brits, I found it ever so ever so hard to hold back the friendliness. Sad But it is so necessary.

And frankly dentistry is quite poor over here, although I would argue that a lot of the perfecting that goes on in the US comes under cosmetic surgery and we don't readily go in for that over here. FOr moral reasons, as much as anything.

HighJinx · 03/09/2013 14:36

That's interesting mignonette. We were discussing regional accents in the office recently and an American colleague said that strong accents in America nowadays are 'a class thing'. I have no idea is she is right or not but clearly there is some sense of a class system.

mignonette · 03/09/2013 14:37

I also adore my American brown bags. I have large brown sacks and smaller sandwich/packed lunch ones. They are the coolest thing ever and my children loved taking their lunches to school in them.

Everybody that sees them wants to know where I get them from.

mignonette · 03/09/2013 14:41

High i am fascinated by US culture. I have a large USAF near my home town and get to meet lots of Americans. I have been told that people depict the Minnesotan/Wisconsin/North Dakota accents w/ its strong Scandinavian overtones as 'country' (I love it) and of course the 'New Joisey' has been equated w/ the 'Essex'/Estuary English accent.

I, myself am a sucker for a Southern drawl and their sayings! 'Duller than a row of tents'; 'so good it makes you wanna slap yo momma round the head'; 'dumber than a box of rocks'.....So creative although i do not approve of violence against one's Momma.

nickelbabe · 03/09/2013 14:45

i was very surprised in the Gordon Ramsey programme on hotels that they're all in hospitality but were swearing a lot
whenever i've spoken to an American on the telephone, they haven't liked swearing at all and call me ma'am Grin

dunno about general stereotypes, but judging by health issues - all births are highly medicalised in case you're a complete loon/hippy and choose a MW.
there's NO GAS AND AIR ShockSad