Britons vs Americans

In this blog, we will know how Americans see the British and vice versa. Obviously, there are exceptions, because these are stereotypes that have been created over time. Do they know each other as well as we think?

Stereotypes
Americans are friendly	BRITONS ARE VERY POLITE
AMERICAN ENGLISH IS NOT REFINED	BRITONS ARE LOYAL
AMERICANs DON’T HAVE MUCH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE UK	BRITONS ARE CLOSED WHEN THEY SPEAK

What Americans think about Britons

American people think British people are not, in general, very friendly. They´re only speaking in terms of being out in public with perfect strangers. In America, they're taught to make small talk, be reasonably open, and talk to people who talk to them. They're supposed to make eye contact and smile. They found adjusting to the cool separation between people who don't know each other really difficult.

But, British people can be really friendly and loyal once they decide you are friends. They will drop everything to help you, they make it a point to remember little things about you, they follow through on the promise of getting together. So, once you can break through their hard candy shell, British people are actually sweet.

Their personal impression is that the British are more educated than American people overall, more progressive, less obnoxiously religious, have a strange but entertaining sense of humour (all generally good things), but are also rather cynical, critical, and cold. They also recognize that you have plenty of idiots of your own. ''They are just idiotic in a different way than American idiots.''

They also think that British people are obsessed with Royals and they speak ‘’like the Queen.’’

What Britons think about Americans

People in the U.S. often don't really understand how Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland relate to England and the UK as a whole. British people would say that overall, they also have considerable more knowledge of England because that is what they are likely to be exposed to in movies, TV, etc. (sometimes this is a stereotyped portrayal, though). People might know a little bit about Scotland, they might have some vague knowledge of conflict in Northern Ireland, but they probably don't know anything at all about Wales.

A case of a girl is known that she went to a University in England and studied literature. This was in the early 1990s. Even though she was British, she found the American and Canadian professors much nicer and easier to approach than the British ones. Maybe this was because of the class system. Coming from an ordinary working-class background, there was always a barrier between her and the old British professors, many of whom were from wealthy, upper-class families and had been educated at expensive private schools. They were nice enough (polite), but she often felt uncomfortable around them. With the Americans and Canadians there was not that discomfort.

As we see, there are many stereotypes that judge two different countries without taking into account that many people from those countries do not represent those stereotypes. In my opinion, I think it's not fair for people who do not feel represented by those stereotypes. However, it is something they cannot avoid. Only people who travel to that country and know many people there will discover that not everyone is as they thought.

Bibliography

2015.BBC America. In Quotes: What do Brits think about Americans. Anglophenia. http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2015/08/in-quotes-what-do-brits-think-about-americans

01/03/2017. The Telegraph. Revealed: What Americans really dislike about the UK. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/articles/revealed-what-americans-dislike-about-britain/

Writer: Yeray Aguilar Domínguez

Reviewer: Rocío López Rodríguez