Slang terms for English speakers

Ross   Thursday, December 04, 2003, 20:26 GMT
I'm researching slang terms for people right across the world and wondered if any non-native speakers of English could tell me whether they have any slang terms in their native language for English speakers (British, American, Canadian, Australian, etc.) For example, in Britain we call Chinese people 'slants', Irish people 'paddies', Italian people 'aye-ties', etc.
Lou   Friday, December 05, 2003, 09:09 GMT
I hope not all British people use those terms!
Simon   Friday, December 05, 2003, 09:22 GMT
Well done Ross. :-(

Do Americans still call us Limies?
Alice   Friday, December 05, 2003, 13:41 GMT
I've heard people say Limie, (limy?), but just to be silly or kitschy. It's not something anyone would say seriously. Are the other racial slurs so common in the UK? Or is that just one person's linguistic (ab)use?
Simon   Friday, December 05, 2003, 15:07 GMT
England (indeed the whole of the UK) is a funny place. At times it can seem like the most enlightened and easy going place in the world. At other times it seems filled with degenerate foulmouthed psychopaths.
Ross   Friday, December 05, 2003, 16:38 GMT
I hope you're not referring to me as a psychopath there, Simon, I'm just researching the subject! Yes, Lou and Alice, these terms are in common everyday use. In fact, you name a nationality, and the British probably have a derogatory term for a person of that nationality:
Pakistani = Paki
German = Kraut
French = Frog
American = Yank
Welsh = Sheepshagger
Italin = Wap/Daygo
Indian (Sikh) = Raghead
African = Coon/Wog
etc., etc.,
to Ross   Friday, December 05, 2003, 16:59 GMT
"Italin = Wap/Daygo"

WOP/Dago
Ryan   Friday, December 05, 2003, 17:59 GMT
Being called a Yank is actually less derogatory than being called a Septic by the Aussies, unless you're from the Southern US, maybe.
Alice   Friday, December 05, 2003, 18:51 GMT
Good lord! Sheepshagger?!? I'd heard all the others, (though they are not in accepted use in the US), but that one was a bit of a shock, lol. Is yank meant to be derogatory? I had no idea...
Lou   Friday, December 05, 2003, 19:09 GMT
I don't think people who use these terms think very far. They're horrible, terrible, awful! They show no respect for people whatever.
buh duh dah   Friday, December 05, 2003, 19:53 GMT
If you are a Southerner and someone calls you a "Yank" watch out!

And another bad word for black people is "kaffir."
Adam   Sunday, December 07, 2003, 10:13 GMT
If Americans call us Limies then I don't see why Alics should complain when we call Americans "Yanks", Germans "Krauts", Scots "Jocks", Welsh "Taffs", etc etc etc. Why should they be allowed to call us Limies would we are not allowed to use sland on them or any other nation? Sounds like double standards to me.
mjd   Sunday, December 07, 2003, 10:35 GMT
Adam,

If you want to call me a "Yank"...feel free. I don't take offense to it. I mean, I am, afterall. I'm an American from the Northeast. What Alice was saying is that the term "Yank" can be offensive to Southerners (although in this day and age, I doubt it). The term was used to describe Northerners during the American Civil War.

As for "Limies".....That's not exactly a term that is widely used (I can't remember one instance in which someone used the term seriously...In fact I can't even remember the last time I heard the term). You do hear Britons referred to as "Brits" here in the U.S., which apparently gets under the skin of many, but, then again, you guys call us Yanks. So what is the big deal? Who cares?

As for the term "jock." In American slang, a "jock" is a term for a meathead machismo-driven male athlete. You'll never hear a Scottish person referred to by that name unless he fits the description above.
Elaine   Sunday, December 07, 2003, 18:48 GMT
I think it's spelled "Limey" and I've only heard it used in jest, never ever seriously.
Hythloday   Sunday, December 07, 2003, 19:19 GMT
There was recent Hollywood film starring Terence Stamp and directed (I think) by Steven Soderbergh called 'The Limey'.