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I don't get what's so great about 24 hour opening times for shops or pubs. Since when was that any sort of measure of a decent society? Or the fact that shops must be open on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday. Frankly, if you need to buy toilet roll at three in the morning you have some serious problems!
Useful for people who work nights or socially awkward people like me who don't like crowds.
As a visitor to the UK I noticed well behaved, courteous people and a well run country. A beautiful countryside that is very well maintained in the parts I saw. Great pub culture and people enjoying each others company. Brits tend to make friends for the long haul and not just make friends in order to get something out of it for themselves, imo.
People compare the two, but it's a totally different kind of reservedness. New Englanders are not like English people at all, in general. People are more selectively reserved, yet brash in New England. The sense of humour there is totally different and people are much tougher nuts to crack than in most parts of England, where it really doesn't take much to break the ice. The reservedness in Britain is generally borne out of natural shyness, rather than an "I'm better than you and you have to earn your corn before you are worthy of speaking to me" type of deal.
It's worth noting to the OP that although England is small, there are wide regional variations anyway and a north / south divide that while less prevalent than in the past, still exists.
The English are no more/less socially awkward or reserved than other northern Europeans, in my experience.
I don't like the binge drinking culture though and chavs **** me off.
Wait. I'm a New Englander and I saw that.
New England is one of the most diverse melting pots of any place in the entire USA. You've got the first immigrants, who were British, in the 1600s and 1700s, then on top of that you add in millions of Irish in the 1800s and then a little bit later, throw in millions of Italians and you get Massachusetts, which is where I have lived my entire life.
There's also a good amount of every nationality you can imagine. So which one are you criticizing when you say we're selectively reserved and brash?
I'm all British by blood/background--Yorkshire on one side, most lines traced back to the 1600s and a few to much earlier. On the other side I've got the Puritans--more English through and through. I am reserved and shy and am definitely not brash. On the Puritan side the people became farmers, on the Yorkshire side who came over not that long ago, there can be snobs in the older generation. Maybe the more recent Yorkshire people fit your stereotype a little bit but the generations of simple hard working farmers definitely do not.
Maybe it's the Irish who rule the Boston are who are brash? Or is it our Italian friends?
I would agree with you that many of the people (of whatever background) who live in Boston and its suburbs are snobby and cold. They are kings and queens of the Put Down and they revel in one-up-man-ship. (however you spell it). Name droppers and place droppers. No fun to be around them. But that's not ALL of them, not even ALL Bostonians are cold and reserved. Brash?
It certainly is not ALL New Englanders either.
The further you get from Boston the nicer and more relaxed the people get. In general. Go up to New Hampshire, Maine or Vermont and you can see more of what the real New Englanders are like--salt of the earth. Maybe you are judging New England by its main city but cities anywhere will have loud, competitive people who are always in a hurry and don't have time to say hi to you.
I agree, I like England better than the US. Except for the binge drinking, most things seem to be better in England. My English friends and relatives are fun and I enjoy them. I just had to defend my native New England against unjust criticism.
New England is one of the most diverse melting pots of any place in the entire USA. You've got the first immigrants, who were British, in the 1600s and 1700s, then on top of that you add in millions of Irish in the 1800s and then a little bit later, throw in millions of Italians and you get Massachusetts, which is where I have lived my entire life.
There's also a good amount of every nationality you can imagine. So which one are you criticizing when you say we're selectively reserved and brash?
I'm all British by blood/background--Yorkshire on one side, most lines traced back to the 1600s and a few to much earlier. On the other side I've got the Puritans--more English through and through. I am reserved and shy and am definitely not brash. On the Puritan side the people became farmers, on the Yorkshire side who came over not that long ago, there can be snobs in the older generation. Maybe the more recent Yorkshire people fit your stereotype a little bit but the generations of simple hard working farmers definitely do not.
Maybe it's the Irish who rule the Boston are who are brash? Or is it our Italian friends?
I would agree with you that many of the people (of whatever background) who live in Boston and its suburbs are snobby and cold. They are kings and queens of the Put Down and they revel in one-up-man-ship. (however you spell it). Name droppers and place droppers. No fun to be around them. But that's not ALL of them, not even ALL Bostonians are cold and reserved. Brash?
It certainly is not ALL New Englanders either.
The further you get from Boston the nicer and more relaxed the people get. In general. Go up to New Hampshire, Maine or Vermont and you can see more of what the real New Englanders are like--salt of the earth. Maybe you are judging New England by its main city but cities anywhere will have loud, competitive people who are always in a hurry and don't have time to say hi to you.
I agree, I like England better than the US. Except for the binge drinking, most things seem to be better in England. My English friends and relatives are fun and I enjoy them. I just had to defend my native New England against unjust criticism.
I lived there (Salem) for a year and that was my experience, for the most part. Granted, the culture shock was that I moved up there from living in Miami for 8 years, where people are virtually the exact opposite in every sense, but I found MA a beautiful, but tough place to live in terms of being able to make friends and "connect" with people on a one-to-one basis.
I did find many Bostonians in particular to be quite brash, though not necessarily rude (it was just their mannerisms). It's a beautiful city, but I agree with you that people seemed very snobby, stuck up and rather full of themselves, along with being overly obsessed with education.
I went to NH a few times and loved the scenery, thought it did have more of a "conservative" vibe. I'd love to drive through White Mountains again though.
Don't get me wrong, I love New England in terms of its rich history, scenery, old buildings and quirky towns and cities, but it was a difficult place to make friends. I always felt like I had to prove myself or go the extra mile to earn respect, just because I was not Joe Bloggs from down the street, if that makes sense? I don't want you to take my post as criticism, because it wasn't intended to be a bashing-type post. I just found the "reservedness" to be very different to how the British people are considered reserved. It definitely felt more selective in MA, rather than borne out of shyness or awkwardness.
I moved up there thinking that it would ease my homesickness because I'd find it to be more like the UK than Florida, but in reality, it was just as foreign (appearance of the cities aside). I really don't think there is anywhere in the US that is much like the UK or northern Europe. That's something I have now accepted, at least.
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