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Differences between Brits & Americans.

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by JR, Dec 11, 2006.

  1. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/weekinreview/10lyall.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    Britons seem to have the advantage of accent: their exotic pronunciation can make even dubious observation sound like unimpeachable truth. They are also experts at the art of speaking coherently and with authority on topics they know little or nothing about. “Every Englishman can talk for 15 minutes on any subject without a note,” Norman Mailer has been quoted as saying

    I don't know about any of the above, but this much is true:

    As for the dinner parties alluded to in Ms. Paltrow’s reputed quotes, they are indeed different here. For one thing, said Amelia Mendoza, a transplanted New Yorker, London dinner conversation is enhanced by the alcohol that Britons like to swig between remarks. At the end of dinner — which can be later than midnight, even during the week — it is considered a hospitality failure if there aren’t at least as many empty bottles of wine left on the table as there were guests.

    Pretty much goes for Canada as well.
     
  2. statrat

    statrat Member

    Crazy Brits drive on the wrong side of the road! I once made a deal with one that American's would learn the metric system, as long as the British learned to drive on the right side.
     
  3. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    [​IMG]

    I know it's only a message board and we all make typos here, but still.
     
  4. Freelance Hack

    Freelance Hack Active Member

    You know, I was going to start a thread about what Ms. Paltrow said last week. Then I realized that no one in the states cares about what she has to say anyway.

    When was the last time she was relevant? 1998?
     
  5. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

  6. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    I find my accent to be very beneficial, and Mr. Mailer is right, much to the chagrin of my fellow desk members.

    As for the teeth, I have a perfect set of chompers. I believe the set on the left is from West Virginia...
     
  7. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    My teeth are ok for an Irish guy. :-\

    By "Brits," I suppose we're really discussing the English, since that's what most people mean when they use that word, even though "Brits" refers also to my Celtic cousins unlucky enough to share an island with the English. ;)

    And when discussing the English, one must take into account the differences between northern and southern English. I found the former to be very warm and generous...with the latter, it was hit-or-miss.

    Had me a gal from Lancashire once...her accent was dre-e-e-amy. We're talking instant boner.
     
  8. statrat

    statrat Member

    Damn. Apostrophes in the wrong context have been my vice lately. Fixed.
     
  9. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    You're right about the difference between north and south. I'm from the south, and think a lot of us can be little stand-offish. Thankfully, I'm not that way, but northerners are a lot more welcoming. Unless you go to Yorkshire.....

    On the Brits idea, I think there's a benefit to having a Scottish or Welsh accent as well, but I don't think that's what they're getting at here.

    BTW, where in Lancashire?
     
  10. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    She was from near Wigan.

    I also dated a young woman from Newcastle. She was smokin' hot, but her accent wasn't as cute as the Lancs gal.

    I'm not anti-Southerner, but yeah, they can be some cold fish, sometimes. I went to Cambridge once and met nothing but tools. Still, two southerners have been very good friends to me over the years: a Londoner and a Cantabrian.

    I also remember one day in 1989 when I was wearing my Ireland jersey in London on the day the IRA hit a military base. Of course I had put it on and left my dormitory before I knew what had happened. Got some very, very unfriendly looks and a few comments. I went home after class and changed shirts. Didn't want to be seen as glorying in bloodhsed, since I wasn't. Fortunately, my classes were in Bloomsbury and my walk home was through Somers Town to Camden Town. Not bad neighborhoods. I might have had some trouble if I'd been in a different part of town.
     
  11. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    "Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire....and though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all, now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall....."
     
  12. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Don't forget "U" versus "Non U". Big differences there.
     
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