British sense of time vs. American

Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:05 pm GMT
I don't know why this should be, but there you have it--the Brits complain more than all the other nationalities put together. Is complaining part of the national zeitgeist, or is there really that much of a cultural divide between us? Do you know?

That is because the British expect US to be a cultural extension of UK and they aren't. US shares a common language with UK and nothing more. US citizens are more Germans alike.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:06 pm GMT
Camila must have Mad camel disease
Casanova   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:11 pm GMT
From my experience in the states, americans got the german influence in social meetings / customs. Unfortunately they picked the wrong culture, as germans are very hostile, cold and not very friendly people, I have also noted that americans are very superficial in their social life, and 2 faced.

The latin lover stereotype (has nothing to do with the american term <latino> for the south americans) the 'latin lover' comes from italian romantic culture, the french culture - language of love, speakers of Romance languages, that is why they are called Romance, they are Romantic sounding .

Many american women I know that visited europe were fantasising to have romantic sex in Paris or Rome with a french or italian lover (it is a global stereotype and you can even see that in american movies)

I have never heard any foreign women in the world fantasising to have sex with germans, americans, duch, brits, sweedes, or any anglo-saxon people, or being regarded as romantic. The Anglo-saxon culture, it's not very appealing, their languages are scratching your ears, and the society is very rigid.

The French or Italian lovers are regarded the best lovers by the global media, and french is regarded as THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE.

you can disagree with that, but that wont change the world's opinion.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:22 pm GMT
"The French or Italian lovers are regarded the best lovers by the global media, and french is regarded as THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE"

Some of my friends pretended to be italian to get more attention and seduce women in America, and you know what? it works and it works in many countries. The British women love the italiano, its well known in Britain, and the trick is being exploited, even by the Brits.
Travis   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:23 pm GMT
>>That is because the British expect US to be a cultural extension of UK and they aren't. US shares a common language with UK and nothing more. US citizens are more Germans alike.<<

That is definitely true - for the most part here at least, the only thing the general populace really has more in common with England than the rest of northern Europe is language. We may have changed to speaking English, but we have not become English at all culturally.

>>From my experience in the states, americans got the german influence in social meetings / customs. Unfortunately they picked the wrong culture, as germans are very hostile, cold and not very friendly people, I have also noted that americans are very superficial in their social life, and 2 faced.<<

Mind you that in much of the northern US, especially away from the East Coast, Germans were the largest and most influential immigrant group, and much of the rest of the US was settled by people from this area, so this shouldn't be surprising. Often in cases like this, even if people completely change languages, their overall ways of doing things don't necessarily change much.

I disagree with the "very hostile, cold and not very friendly" part, though; they might be rather exacting about things, but just because they generally have a rather introverted rather than extroverted culture does not truly mean such in and of itself.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:30 pm GMT
the germans are very reserved and have no sense of humour, maybe a very weird one indeed, its a shame that americans are socialy like the germans
Travis   Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:37 pm GMT
Heh - all the Germans I've known of have seemed quite at home here, and really the only thing particularly foreign-seeming about them were their accents (aside from one old guy who had stuff with German on it around his house and who spoke to his baby granddaughter in German despite having lived in the US for decades)...
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:16 pm GMT
Cultural joke.

heaven is where the:

Policeman are British.
Chefs are Italians
Maintenance is German
Lovers are French
Army is American
Everything is organised by the Swiss

Hell is where:

Policeman are Germans.
Chefs are British
Maintenance is French
Lovers are Americans
Army is Swiss
Everything is organised by the Italians
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:19 pm GMT
Where do British expats feel like at home? Since USA is excluded because they are West Germans, we have Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Which country do the Englander prefend?
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:23 pm GMT
Brits prefer Spain, Spain is the country with the highest number of British expats, followed by France.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:33 pm GMT
British prefer everything so they can leave their small and cloudy island.
Travis   Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:41 pm GMT
>>Brits prefer Spain, Spain is the country with the highest number of British expats, followed by France.<<

Yeah, but it seems that they primarily want to associate with other Britons there, and that they are not actually all that at-home amongst actual Spanish people.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:18 pm GMT
"Yeah, but it seems that they primarily want to associate with other Britons there, and that they are not actually all that at-home amongst actual Spanish people."

There are certainly not like French or Portugueses, but not like Germans either. Germans are quite strange people.
Guest   Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:32 am GMT
British are outliers aren't they. I wonder if they feel at home in their own country (Scotland, etc). What about Ireland?
Guest   Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:14 am GMT
Do you think the Brits in Spain have a secret plan to exterminate the natives like they did in North America and Australia.