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I cry, but never around other people. I don't want to appear like I'm trying to get sympathy or attention from other people.
Exactly how I feel and I am an American woman born and raised during the 1950's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PA2UK
And how many British people do you actually know well enough to be privy to how they deal with their emotional issues? You say yourself it doesn't have to be done in public so unless you lived here in the UK for a long time and developed close relationships with a lot of British people, getting to know them well enough to know how they deal with private matters, I recommend you shut up before you make a bigger fool of yourself than you already have.
The thing is that we seem to get an idea in our heads about certain countries and their people... I have always seen Americans as braggy, confident. a bit naive and brash, but then I met some people on holiday, and online and was surprised at how alike we are..
We don't suppress our emotions, we just release them at appropriate times and to appropriate audiences.
Look it's simple, there's a very good reason the British Pub has been at the heart of British Culture since there was a Britain to have a culture. You get stressed, overwhelmed by your problems you go to the pub, get drunk tell all your mates about your problems (or if your name happens to be Billy the bar staff), get laughed at for being a ponce, wake up in a bed the next day that's 20 miles from home, with a dwarf in a gimp suit, a traffic cone and a 6 month old piglet covered in grease, and an entirely fresh set of problems to wash the old ones away (and a huge helping of humble pie from not knowing how you got there, or what you did from the last memory you had the night before).
It's worked that way for generations.
Hyperbola aside (on the dwarf and piglet) it's not actually that much of an inaccurate representation.
The thing is that we seem to get an idea in our heads about certain countries and their people... I have always seen Americans as braggy, confident. a bit naive and brash, but then I met some people on holiday, and online and was surprised at how alike we are..
The difference between what you see in movies and on tv compared to how we really are. Certain parts of the US do have reputations for being more brash or braggy and there are areas where education is low priority but the stereotypes don't apply to the country as a whole. (As you learned when you met the nice people on holiday.)
The difference between what you see in movies and on tv compared to how we really are. Certain parts of the US do have reputations for being more brash or braggy and there are areas where education is low priority but the stereotypes don't apply to the country as a whole. (As you learned when you met the nice people on holiday.)
I find American ubber optimism and confidence very endearing as you do it well , the british ( and irish ) are too cynical for that kind of bright outlook
I find American ubber optimism and confidence very endearing as you do it well , the british ( and irish ) are too cynical for that kind of bright outlook
My own thoughts on that: we are a land of newish settlers and pioneers who were up against all kinds of odds. If you didn't have a good outlook, you were doomed. Most of the US also has a difficult climate, not a relatively mild climate like the UK (sorry, but you can still moan about it) and people have to fight the weather. We fight serious drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tropical weather, arctic weather. Most places have a few months of decent weather while the rest of the year is horrible. Like Florida--sure, the winter is nice in winter, but for the summer (6 months) people are trapped indoors in a/c due to extremely high heat, humidity, and dangerous electrical storms.
Where I live we had three very serious storms last winter with several feet of snow at once and severe coastal erosion but there is no time to fret about it. It's up and at 'em and rebuild and get ready for the next one. The summers aren't very nice either because of the heat and humidity but we try to make the best of it.
The early English settlers called my climate "harsh." An understatement.
I think it's a survivalist spirit coupled with the idea of being a land of opportunity until recently.
Thank you for all the interesting responses and taking the time out to give an in-depth detail and reasoning behind your culture! Much appreciated. I absolutely got my answer and understand the Brit a little bit better. For all the nasty responses, I have nothing to say to you other than to get a life. This question wasn't that serious and I certainly didn't mean or aim to disrespect the English people.
"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way"
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