Differences between Brits and Americans

[Opull]

Dh and I moved to the US for his work post brexit.
I knew there would be differences but I would say that I have come to learn that those differences are far more pronounced than I had anticipated. And in ways I had never imagined or predicted. We moved to Connecticut. Its only as I have come back to the UK has it really got me thinking.

Im curious if you have experience of both cultures. And what less obvious things did you pick up on.

One that stands out for me is that in general discussions and debates are often shut down very quickly. Even over low stake issues. I remember pointing out something very obvious once and the people around me just started playing dumb. In the UK I would have no problem talking about middle aged women and how our sex lives become more comfortable and less exciting. The Americans kept trying to make out that this wasn’t necessarily the case for everyone. I guess it stems from Americans being quite optimistic and Brits being more on the cynical side. I just found it meant conversations and connections could never really go beyond a superficial level. I missed group bonding by sharing the less perfect aspects of our lives.

Has anyone else had similar less obvious observations?

This was more likely because of liability, it is illegal and those in charge could be found liable if something happens. It was probably drilled into their heads that is shouldn’t happen and I doubt they were actually horrified by it.

It's still illegal to drink when you're under 21. It's also illegal to supply alcohol to underage drinkers. The job and reputation of the 21+ guy who flounced off were potentially at risk from your drinking. A camp counselor who was present when others broke the law would be looked askance at. Questions would be asked about his sense of responsibility. Maybe he really needed that job.

It wouldn't happen in the UK for a number of reasons, mainly to do with the fact that drinking at 18 is completely legal and only legal at age 21 in the US, so it's not a cultural difference, but a difference between the law of one state and the law of another.

It's also to do with the fact that there's less tolerance for drinking and general asbo (for want of a better word) behaviour by teens in the US. American teens are expected to be more responsible and law abiding than British teens are, if we're looking for cultural differences.

I don't know how sleeping in the car would not be a problem. Even from the pov of personal safety it is problematic. It's not odd at all that it would be illegal - it's a public nuisance, associated with playing loud music, drug taking, indecent exposure/ public or semi public sex, littering, and public defecation or urination, none of which are really tolerated. I'm glad the worst that happened to you was the rude awakening from the police. It really wasn't safe.

Nothing personal here either - but I think (again with observations of differences in mind) that some of your assumptions were based on the idea that police in the US are as lax and unconcerned about misdemeanours as they are in the UK.

I feel Americans have a stronger self of defending themselves and their property.

You only have to look at the online responses/ commentary to the recent events in the White House to see that there are enormous fault lines in American society.

There are people crying with shame and people crowing and saying it was about time.

Maybe not all of Texas (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, etc), and maybe not all of New Yorkers (Vermont, Illinois, California), but the generalization holds true.

Very uncommon name in the states. I'm 45 and have never met anyone with that name. I also always wonder why people get so offended why some words are pronounced differently in different countries. English as a language has changed drastically over time. Languages change and die all the time

Imogen wasn't a sympathetic character in the Katy books iirc. I'd say Imogen Heap would be a more familiar reference but only to a certain cohort or fan base.

Imogene would be a more familiar version to Americans thanks to comic actress Imogene Coca, who was still going strong up to the 90s.

Neither name is popular though.

Indeed.

Case in point, Group B strep testing for pregnant women is not routinely offered.

But it would generally replace Yorkshire pudding and/or potatoes, so it's just a different carb.

Not in my experience! It goes alongside mashed or roast potatoes, or even chips!

I have travelled all over the US and have many US friends.

I know there are real differences between states, but the idea the differences between states are larger than between European countries simply betrays total ignorance of Europe. Someone talked about Paris and London being similar, two international cities geographically close to each other. But look at other European countries. Romania and Iceland for example are very different from each other culturally.

And of course US insurance companies decide what treatment they will fund. It is very usual for medics and patients to fight insurance companies to get authorisation for various treatments and medication. Just talk to people actually working in the healthcare system. It is also very usual for insurance to only cover certain hospitals or medics within their insurance scheme. So you are restricted as to who you can see or be treated by.

The real differences in the US are the level of adherence to religion, the commitment to optimism and a positive attitude which can be very wearing, and an acceptance of a level of poverty that is not acceptable in many other rich countries.

The UK National Screening Committee does not currently recommend testing all pregnant women for GBS. This is because: many women carry the GBS bacteria. In most cases, their babies are born safely and do not develop an infection.
This is because group B strep is very common and testing cannot predict whether a baby will get an infection.

Cigna, the fourth largest health insurance company in the US, rejected 18 per cent of its claims. It is being sued in a California class action over its mass denials of coverage.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-often-do-health-insurers-deny-patients-claims

@JoyousGreyOrca Often claims are initially rejected because insufficient/erroneous information was submitted. A large percentage of the claims that are initially rejected end up being accepted.

But it is often an unnecessarily cumbersome process that adds to the overall cost of healthcare. Insurance companies are notorious for convoluted billing and coding practices which doctor's offices are forced to deal with. More staff = higher charges.

My point wasn't that every European city has more in common than different states, it was that geography isn't necessarily destiny and other factors can play a much larger role than coincidence of birth.

A liberal, post grad degree educated, anti-gun, African American educated atheist scientist from Boston who has travelled widely would likely have much more commonality with a similar counterpart in Bucharest than they would have with a 15 years older, white, non-college, NRA supporting, MAGA, fundamentalist Christian hairdresser from Galveston Texas who has never left the state.

Both people in this example are obviously stereotypes, but it would be perfectly understandable if the fact they were both born in the US gave them nothing in common.

I'm from NYC. I once went home with a university boyfriend to his family farm in Kansas. He and I had stuff in common as we were at the same university with a common friend group studying something similar. His family was lovely, but other than asking each other lots of polite questions, our life experiences and beliefs wee so different, we might as well have been from different planets.

Allowing for the fact of individual variations, it's easy to underestimate the vast regional differences across America, which is one of the reasons it's so polarised.

And the result is babies getting entirely preventable sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis.

The strange cost benefit analysis applied to this test in the UK means babies are at risk, and because of wide disparities in quality between different trusts, that risk translates into serious consequences for babies, depending on where they live.

The gold standard (ECM) test costs £11. The RCOG recommends it. Some trusts offer it. Some offer substandard tests. Some don't even inform mothers of the GBS risk.

Around 800 babies per year develop group B strep infection, of whom 50 die and 70 are left with catastrophic, life-changing side effects. There are huge financial and emotional costs to this completely preventable problem.

No, testing does not predict whether a baby will get an infection. Testing that leads to administration of antibiotics in the US means that early onset GBS infection rates are low, meaning lower numbers of babies needing hospital treatment for preventable and serious illinesses, and obv fewer dying and fewer left with devastating effects to deal with.

I think you've contradicted yourself there.

Many other rich countries don't accept the degree of poverty that is acceptable in the US - the countries of Europe, for instance, and Scandinavia.

What people are talking about is a shared European moral sensibility or theory of a just society that developed from the 19th century on, broadly labeled socialism, with a spectrum of political groups that are mainly Christian Democratic or Social Democratic in philosophy. Virtually all mainstream European political parties are to the left of all American political parties.

There is a recent resurgence of nationalism in some quarters but the majority of voters all throughout Europe are happy to cast a vote for parties that support common European goals and a common European idea of what a society should do for its citizens. No such consensus exists in the US, where a big chunk of trump support comes from the desire to put an end to the administrative functions of government. Hence the chainsaw circus, complete with clowns.

There are bedrock assumptions that the majority of Europeans have - that science will inform health policy, that science will inform school curriculums, that welfare is a good and useful thing, that healthcare is a human right, that are shared by some Americans, with the rest inclined to shriek in horror at the word 'socialism'.
.......

Yes, having specific doctors and hospitals covered by certain insurance policies is called a preferred provider organisation or PPO. The alternative is an HMO, where primary care doctors act as gatekeepers, deciding who should be referred for specialist treatment.

The NHS is basically an HMO. You are restricted in who you can see and where, and the quality of care you receive depends entirely on where you live.The NHS also rations care via refusal of GPs to refer, and slow uptake of treatments like Tamiflu or universal GBS testing for pregnant women. Unlike the US, litigation isn't always used as a means of making failing trusts straighten up and fly right.

I think it’s called consideration for others!

I wanted to say it only became popular in the UK within the last 10 years but I've just realised all the many baby Imogens that suddenly appeared in my circle of acquaintances all at the same time are actually about 16 now! (I have heard of Imogen Heap but growing up the Katy book was my only reference. And my dad was in the army so I moved around a lot and met people with many different names!)

It's also to do with the fact that there's less tolerance for drinking and general asbo (for want of a better word) behaviour by teens in the US. American teens are expected to be more responsible and law abiding than British teens are, if we're looking for cultural differences

This is really a thing. I’m always surprised at the tolerance toward antisocial behavior in England (and Ireland, I have to say) among teenagers. We just don’t tolerate groups of kids ‘loitering’ around in public.

Perfectly safe areas in the UK can look trashy because kids just gather around throwing litter everywhere and bothering/menacing passers-by and doing petty crime.

I don’t think they are dangerous exactly (there are teens in the US that will kill you if you look at them the wrong way, but you wouldn’t encounter them normally) it’s still unpleasant

Just came across this article today in the Financial Times which might be of interest

The number of Americans applying for UK citizenship rose to the highest on record last year, with Donald Trump’s return to power and UK tax changes contributing to a surge of applications by US citizens in Britain.
Over 6,100 US citizens applied last year, the most since records began two decades ago and 26 per cent more than in 2023. Overall applications for UK citizenships were up by 6 per cent to 251,000, another record.
Applications by US citizens surged in the last quarter of 2024 in particular, rising 40 per cent year-on-year to about 1,700, according to data published by the Home Office.

I think that this is due to the bigger disparity in wealth in the US. I'm sure there are places where teens "loiter" but these are not areas that a middle class person might frequent necessarily. I feel that the wealthy are more cut off from the people living in poverty in the US, eg higher prevalence of gated communities, that sort of thing. I think in the UK there is more mingling - for want of a better word.

Exactly, I don't know why people pretend it's a purely clinical decision when clearly it's a cost-benefit analysis. I was pregnant in the UK and was never told about GBS or other risks.

In the US it's standard for women to have an annual gyno exam where they examine your breasts and pelvic area, do a smear if required, and do a general health check too. There are so many posts on MN where people with serious gyno issues can't get a referral for months, it's enraging.

I'm not saying US health care is perfect, far from it. There's a reason why Luigi is a folk hero to many! But this approach to preventive care is I think a big difference between us.

But it’s also expensive -the nhs is stretched beyond its means already.
If a political party wants to be voted out of Government then charging for healthcare would most likely do that.

I wonder if this sort of thing is particular to the UK

I was in Athens recently and also noticed that you didn’t see this type of teen – they were all really wholesome (perhaps there’s a better word for it) and polite.

One night (late on a Friday) there was a group of teens congregating in the small park space outside my window and being a bit noisy. I went out and asked them politely (in English!!) to keep the noise down. They were very apologetic and immediately lowered the noise and moved away.

On the way back from the airport in the UK, the teens sat vaping on the train just seemed a bit feral (again, probably a better word that escapes me) by comparison.