US was a colony of Britain
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Not totally.
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Not totally.
Anglosphere
<<I think that the fact that the US was a colony of Britain is much more significant than immigration patterns, as immigrants try to fit into the new country. >>
I only speak for myself, my ancestors were polish and italian and came in USA between 1895 and 1912, I consider myself american, I don't speak polish or italian, I have never gone in those countries.
But in same time, I don't feel anything for UK, for me it's just a european country with whom we share a common language. I feel Canada is the closest country to USA than any other country.
We have an american culture who differ greatly with european culture.
So, just stop this stupid debate about "which is the country who looks like USA", that leads nowhere.
I only speak for myself, my ancestors were polish and italian and came in USA between 1895 and 1912, I consider myself american, I don't speak polish or italian, I have never gone in those countries.
But in same time, I don't feel anything for UK, for me it's just a european country with whom we share a common language. I feel Canada is the closest country to USA than any other country.
We have an american culture who differ greatly with european culture.
So, just stop this stupid debate about "which is the country who looks like USA", that leads nowhere.
Nearly totally. Enough to establish English as the national language, and Common law all throught the country, except in Louisiana.
I strongly disagree that American culture is all that vastly different than European culture. Neither existed in a vacuum for all these years since the colonies were founded.
American, I don't think people in USA care really about this, in fact they generally only care about USA and America. Europe and UK are the least of theirs worries.
You have seen British movies, right? Based on that, can you honestly say that the culture there is much different than here?
>> American, I don't think people in USA care really about this, in fact they generally only care about USA and America. Europe and UK are the least of theirs worries <<
That is very true. I just feel the need to defend the (obvious) fact that the most similar European country to the US is the UK, which some people seem to be implying (maybe), or at least marginalizing its importance. Anyway, I don't know how we got onto this discussion in the first place.
That is very true. I just feel the need to defend the (obvious) fact that the most similar European country to the US is the UK, which some people seem to be implying (maybe), or at least marginalizing its importance. Anyway, I don't know how we got onto this discussion in the first place.
You have seen British movies, right? Based on that, can you honestly say that the culture there is much different than here?
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yes and I have seen German, French movies and recently a good sweden movie, they all look similar to "american culture"in a way, the only difference it's the language and the fact that they are europeans, UK have the same language but I don't think it's the most similar European country to the US, you just confuse because they speak english like us.
It's my last post here, this discussion is so silly.
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yes and I have seen German, French movies and recently a good sweden movie, they all look similar to "american culture"in a way, the only difference it's the language and the fact that they are europeans, UK have the same language but I don't think it's the most similar European country to the US, you just confuse because they speak english like us.
It's my last post here, this discussion is so silly.
>> e fact that they are europeans, UK have the same language but I don't think it's the most similar European country to the US, you just confuse because they speak english like us <<
If it's not the most similar country to the US, then that means another country is. Which one is it? Poland? Belgium? France? And if it is true that the only thing that the US and the UK share that no other European countrie shares with the US is the language, and if except for the language all of the Western European countries were equally similar to the US, then the UK would win, because of the language. The language is the deciding straw.
If it's not the most similar country to the US, then that means another country is. Which one is it? Poland? Belgium? France? And if it is true that the only thing that the US and the UK share that no other European countrie shares with the US is the language, and if except for the language all of the Western European countries were equally similar to the US, then the UK would win, because of the language. The language is the deciding straw.
Brit Sun Jun 21, 2009 3:49 pm GMT
What does the US (as a whole, not any specific region) share with Germany, that it doesn't share with Britain? That is not just coincidental evolution.
You should consider the religious situation in the US. e.g. Lutheranian church and protestantism stem in great parts from Germany and are not present in Britain. Anglican church of England is only a minority in the US.
What does the US (as a whole, not any specific region) share with Germany, that it doesn't share with Britain? That is not just coincidental evolution.
You should consider the religious situation in the US. e.g. Lutheranian church and protestantism stem in great parts from Germany and are not present in Britain. Anglican church of England is only a minority in the US.
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So why have I heard of many being a wee bit upset in Australia and New Zealand when the UK, the "mother country", changed their policies not all that long ago such that people from both places were treated like just any other foreigners while people from elsewhere in the European Union were treated as if they all but lived in the UK? Obviously they had the implicit view that, yes, the UK really was the "mother country", and that they, living in what had been a dominion of the British Empire, deserved special treatment by the UK due to such. >>
Nah, while it's true people get upset about such policy changes, it's not because we see the UK as a 'mother country'. We just don't want to lose our special privileges. Who on earth does like losing special privileges?
The only people in NZ who see another country as home are actual immigrants. I'm sure Mexican or Russian immigrants in the USA still consider their home to be Mexico or Russia? Well, here it's just that there are a lot more British immigrants rather than Mexicans and they see the UK as home. Their children are usually divided, seeing NZ as their first home, and the UK as a second, backup home.
So why have I heard of many being a wee bit upset in Australia and New Zealand when the UK, the "mother country", changed their policies not all that long ago such that people from both places were treated like just any other foreigners while people from elsewhere in the European Union were treated as if they all but lived in the UK? Obviously they had the implicit view that, yes, the UK really was the "mother country", and that they, living in what had been a dominion of the British Empire, deserved special treatment by the UK due to such. >>
Nah, while it's true people get upset about such policy changes, it's not because we see the UK as a 'mother country'. We just don't want to lose our special privileges. Who on earth does like losing special privileges?
The only people in NZ who see another country as home are actual immigrants. I'm sure Mexican or Russian immigrants in the USA still consider their home to be Mexico or Russia? Well, here it's just that there are a lot more British immigrants rather than Mexicans and they see the UK as home. Their children are usually divided, seeing NZ as their first home, and the UK as a second, backup home.
>>The only people in NZ who see another country as home are actual immigrants. I'm sure Mexican or Russian immigrants in the USA still consider their home to be Mexico or Russia? Well, here it's just that there are a lot more British immigrants rather than Mexicans and they see the UK as home. Their children are usually divided, seeing NZ as their first home, and the UK as a second, backup home.<<
You are missing the point here. Most of the non-Maori population and New Zealand and non-Aborigine population of Australia are still British in origin, and consciously so, even if they do not overly subscribe to the whole "mother country" thing. This is unlike the population of much of the US outside of the Northeast and the South, and particularly in places like the Upper Midwest, where they have been effectively cut off from whence they came, yet have not been truly assimilated into any preexisting foreign culture so as to identify with it. The only new non-national identity that we have gained is as English-speaking North Americans, but this is completely different from identifying with British culture, which in reality is no less alien to us than, say, German culture even if it we may be more familiar with it today due to continued media contacts.
You are missing the point here. Most of the non-Maori population and New Zealand and non-Aborigine population of Australia are still British in origin, and consciously so, even if they do not overly subscribe to the whole "mother country" thing. This is unlike the population of much of the US outside of the Northeast and the South, and particularly in places like the Upper Midwest, where they have been effectively cut off from whence they came, yet have not been truly assimilated into any preexisting foreign culture so as to identify with it. The only new non-national identity that we have gained is as English-speaking North Americans, but this is completely different from identifying with British culture, which in reality is no less alien to us than, say, German culture even if it we may be more familiar with it today due to continued media contacts.
It has been said many times that New Zealand is a sort of carbon copy of the British Isles but with everything reversed, so to speak, mostly with the seasons all the other way round......New Zealanders can't imagine a Christmas Day with roaring log fires (very few Brits have these any more, except in our pubs by tradition) and frost bitten lawns, any more than Brits can envisage a Christmas Day dinner of cold meats and salads or whatever consumed on a sandy beach under sunshades.
NZ is supposedly the most "British" looking of all the Commonwealth member states...apparently much of its scenery is reminiscent of Britain in many ways, especially in the South Island...where the climate is more temperate, as it is in Britain...There again the North/South thing is topsy turvey, too - head south on the South Island of NZ and it gets cooler, the opposite to the situation here in the UK, and right at the southernmost tip of the SI it actually looks quite Scottish!
Some of the place names are Scottish....Dunedin (the old name for my own home city of Edinburgh) and Invercargill, to name just two. I don't think there's much in the way of caber tossing down there though - maybe there is, how would I know. I've never been further south on this planet than Aswan, in Egypt, and at 48C let me tell you that was bloody hot, the hottest place I've ever been to and in September too, when it should be cooling down in the Nile Valley.
Much of the way the New Zealanders live is modelled on the British way of life, but most Brits, I would imagine, would never be able to distinguish between a NZ accent and an Australian one.
There are also differences in the fauna and flora of NZ and that of Britain, naturally. Like Ireland there are no snakes to be fond in NZ, unlike the UK apart from Northern Ireland, and NZ is much more seismically active than is Great Britain...here a tremor on the old Richter scale makes the news in Britain (the UK has an average of about 250 minor shakes every year) and believe it or not but the UK has more tornadoes than any other country in the world - it really does, but they are almost always very piffling little affairs - mere dust devils - but there again, Britain is not a very dusty country - our climate is too moist.
I've no idea if NZ has tornadoes.
NZ is supposedly the most "British" looking of all the Commonwealth member states...apparently much of its scenery is reminiscent of Britain in many ways, especially in the South Island...where the climate is more temperate, as it is in Britain...There again the North/South thing is topsy turvey, too - head south on the South Island of NZ and it gets cooler, the opposite to the situation here in the UK, and right at the southernmost tip of the SI it actually looks quite Scottish!
Some of the place names are Scottish....Dunedin (the old name for my own home city of Edinburgh) and Invercargill, to name just two. I don't think there's much in the way of caber tossing down there though - maybe there is, how would I know. I've never been further south on this planet than Aswan, in Egypt, and at 48C let me tell you that was bloody hot, the hottest place I've ever been to and in September too, when it should be cooling down in the Nile Valley.
Much of the way the New Zealanders live is modelled on the British way of life, but most Brits, I would imagine, would never be able to distinguish between a NZ accent and an Australian one.
There are also differences in the fauna and flora of NZ and that of Britain, naturally. Like Ireland there are no snakes to be fond in NZ, unlike the UK apart from Northern Ireland, and NZ is much more seismically active than is Great Britain...here a tremor on the old Richter scale makes the news in Britain (the UK has an average of about 250 minor shakes every year) and believe it or not but the UK has more tornadoes than any other country in the world - it really does, but they are almost always very piffling little affairs - mere dust devils - but there again, Britain is not a very dusty country - our climate is too moist.
I've no idea if NZ has tornadoes.
Does Ireland have a distinct culture to Britain? Is it more or less close to Britain than Anglo-Canada is to the USA?
I myself get the impression that the differences between Ireland on one hand and England and Lowland Scotland are far greater than the differences between English Canada and the US as a whole, with Ireland as a whole retaining a clearly independent culture from England and Lowland Scotland despite having largely lost its native language Irish and having its northern portion heavily colonized by Scots, while the overall cultures of English Canada and the US seem to have converged significantly over time (having seemingly been significantly more different at the start of the 20th century than today).