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The UK is far closer to Europe than it is to the USA (culturally, as well as geographically) although the UK is closer than any other European country.
I've lived in both the UK and USA. Not lived in continental Europe but I have had extended vacations there including in non-tourist areas. I didn't realise how big an impact the British culture had on Europe until I went there. The entertainment industry is about 80% the same as the UK in western Europe, including the same proportions of American tv and music, although looking at the charts alone I would probably have put it closer to 60% (I have no idea why there was such a disparity, maybe older people in Europe buy a lot more music and cinema tickets). Even the third-rate X Factor contestants got airtime on French radio. The bleedback of British culture into the US is far smaller, although it completely dwarfs that of the rest of Europe combined.
Far more significant is the politics. Even the most far right elected European politician is still left of the average Democrat when it comes to healthcare, human rights, work ethic, government responsibility, company responsibility, personal responsibility. The UK may be closer to the US than the rest of Europe in this regard for the most part, but it is still an order of magnitude closer to mainland Europe. It's something that is not so easy to notice from television or movies
Have to disagree here.
Small towns in Europe still have fairly good communities with a local bar or 2, butchers, bakers, greengrocers and usually a market at least once a week.
The Europeans have a culture where lunch is often the main meal of the day, schools start early and finish at 2pm and it's still common for stores to close between 1 and 4pm ish for siesta in hotter countries.
Dinner is a family affair eaten much later than in the US or UK, and weekends in the evenings the whole extended family will often get dressed and go out for dinner-which in the Summer is usually eaten outside.
The only 2 places in the North which are hard to understand are Newcastle(Geordie) and Liverpool (Scouse) The rest are fairly easy and just like the rest of the country.
The south however is no different, you have places which are frankly ridiculous to understand (Essex)!
It might be your anti Northern thing, but if you cant understand the majority of places in the North you need your head banging and some help.
Northern England is real England, country side, middle-class true Brits. Unlike the south which is centered around London. With a population and more languages than a full country should have. A horrific city. The Bankers and politicians say it all for the 'posh, clearly snobby southerners'.
Maybe you need your head banging if you can't understand an Essex accent!
Have to disagree here.
Small towns in Europe still have fairly good communities with a local bar or 2, butchers, bakers, greengrocers and usually a market at least once a week.
How is that different to the UK?
Quote:
The Europeans have a culture where lunch is often the main meal of the day, schools start early and finish at 2pm and it's still common for stores to close between 1 and 4pm ish for siesta in hotter countries.
I'm not sure where you are going with this. Sunday dinner in the UK is at lunch time. It's called "dinner" in the UK depending on what you eat, rather than the time you eat it, so it will often be the biggest meal of the day
I am Swedish and went to Uni in the US. While at Radford University I took part in an exchange program to the UK. (Middlesex University). In my experience, Scandinavia/Northern Europe has so much more in common with the UK then the US dos. Sure the language is a HUGE part, but if it wasn't for that...I think Britons would find Scandinavia quite familiar.
Just take a few things. When my English and my Swedish friends talk about "Europe", they do not really include tehir own nation. The UK, Sweden and Denmark all have their own currency (So does non-EU nation Norway). Unlike the US, religion isn't such a HUGE deal as it can be in many US states. Swedes and Britons have very similar dark and sarcastic humor. Etc, etc...
I could make a looong list.
I think this connection is move apparent to Scandinavians, growing up watching UK television and obsessing about the Premier League(...and speaking english from an early age.) I think that when most british people I know think about Europe, they mainly think of France, Spain, Italy and Germany and Scandinavia becomes kind of an "fringe European area".
..and then I say I too eat blackpudding, drink squash and complains about the weather, they see the similarities :-)
I'm a Brit. I've lived in lots of European countries and also travelled most of the USA. It's a hard question to answer as our familiarity with both areas works on such different levels.
I don't think many Americans realise just how much of their media output comes to Britain. And British consumption of European media in terms of TV, film, music, literature et al is a tiny fraction of what we get from America.
As a result of this us Brits often arrive in the USA with everything seeming superficially very familiar until you look a little deeper and realise how truly foreign it is, and vice versa for visiting mainland Europe.
Of course there's the language barrier but the scale of everyday things such as roads, buildings and countryside is familiar wherever you go in Europe. And attitudes to things such as a social safety net and religion are fairly uniform too from the Med to the Arctic Circle. Europe is a far more socialist place than would ever be acceptable to US leaders and probably always will be.
Overall, even if I can't understand a word that's being said around me, Europe doesn't seem like an alien place to me when I'm there whereas the USA definitely has sometimes.
I would venture to say the 2010 Census will show that the Mexican group is probably in third place now. Just a guess, though.
also this is incorrect because most of the irish imigrants to america were mostly scottish and nothern english imigrants to ireland, thus they are really descendants from scotland and northern england
wikipedia= ''The origins of the Scotch-Irish lie primarily in the Lowlands of Scotland and in northern England, particularly in the Border Country on either side of the Anglo-Scottish border, a region that had seen centuries of conflict. In the near constant state of war between England and Scotland during the Middle Ages, the livelihood of the people on the borders was devastated by the contending armies. Even when the countries were not at war, tension remained high, and royal authority in one or the other kingdom was often weak. The uncertainty of existence led the people of the borders to seek security through a system of family ties, similar to the clan system in the Scottish Highlands. Known as the Border Reivers, these families relied on their own strength and cunning to survive, and a culture of cattle raiding and thievery developed''
and because these people could not settle in ulster (northern ireland) they set off for america, there is a good documentary on this subject called ''Born Fighting – how Scots and Irish shaped the New World'' should be easily found online, if you would like to watch it pretty much explains it all, its presented by the american senator jim webb, who is of scots-irish heritage
also this is incorrect because most of the irish imigrants to america were mostly scottish imigrants to ireland, thus they are really descendants from scotland
Right -- by that logic the largest (100%) ethnic group is African.
One big difference between the US and UK: people in the US are really obsessed by race and ethnicity.
yeah i am not disputing that, i'm just pointing out a lot of the irish immigrants, were actually descendants of britain
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