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Have visited UK several times and have found courteous treatment in general. like begets like, I guess.
Customs, phrases, and ways are different but that is the nice thing about travel so I try to go with the flow of whatever.
The only slightest dig I ever heard was about climbing stairs and there are many stairs, hills, steps, etc.
An Englishwoman made some remark about the stairs weren't a problem 'because we are fit'. While the stereotype of the overweight American doesn't apply to me personally, I think it was more of a general perception that Americans eat too much bad food and do not stay active.
Have visited UK several times and have found courteous treatment in general. like begets like, I guess.
Customs, phrases, and ways are different but that is the nice thing about travel so I try to go with the flow of whatever.
The only slightest dig I ever heard was about climbing stairs and there are many stairs, hills, steps, etc.
An Englishwoman made some remark about the stairs weren't a problem 'because we are fit'. While the stereotype of the overweight American doesn't apply to me personally, I think it was more of a general perception that Americans eat too much bad food and do not stay active.
And they do take the stairs...a lot.
Personally, I don't know a Brit who ever took the stairs if there was an elevator.
When settling abroad, I believe in presenting yourself as an individual, not as the rep of your nation.
Do you plan on going there as an ambassador?
If you are not the type of American you believe the majority of Brits despise, then why worry? They will figure out YOU (as opposed to a generic Yankee) sooner than you think.
If you ARE the type of American the majority of Brits seem to despise (per your observations), then why bother going there? It wouldn't be a great place for you anyway.
Generally speaking, it is nice to NOT feel compelled to go live in someone else's country. Immigration is overrated, but for many of us, necessary. The idea that a native population should automatically receive migrants with a multicultural and 100% non-judgmental smile on their face is adorable - but don't count on it.
From what I've observed, Americans seem to dislike the English far more than vice versa. They just like to use the "well the english don't like us"(like you are doing) to defend their anglophobia.
Infact this could be said of how Americans generally dislike most Europeans. According to Americans, we(europeans) hate the US and are anti-imperialist leftist communist euro-thrash The ultra left people in Europe who even use words like "imperialist" make up a tiny minority... Infact I have never even heard a person use that word or be hostile to the US in general... And I am from Sweden, which is supposedly the most "communist" country in the world apart from Cuba according to Americans
Location: Northern Ireland and temporarily England
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blindstealer
From what I've observed, Americans seem to dislike the English far more than vice versa. They just like to use the "well the english don't like us"(like you are doing) to defend their anglophobia.
Infact this could be said of how Americans generally dislike most Europeans. According to Americans, we(europeans) hate the US and are anti-imperialist leftist communist euro-thrash The ultra left people in Europe who even use words like "imperialist" make up a tiny minority... Infact I have never even heard a person use that word or be hostile to the US in general... And I am from Sweden, which is supposedly the most "communist" country in the world apart from Cuba according to Americans
Honestly, I don't think Americans even care to have an opinion about the English.
From what I've observed, Americans seem to dislike the English far more than vice versa. They just like to use the "well the english don't like us"(like you are doing) to defend their anglophobia.
In fact this could be said of how Americans generally dislike most Europeans. According to Americans, we(europeans) hate the US and are anti-imperialist leftist communist euro-thrash The ultra left people in Europe who even use words like "imperialist" make up a tiny minority... Infact I have never even heard a person use that word or be hostile to the US in general... And I am from Sweden, which is supposedly the most "communist" country in the world apart from Cuba according to Americans
As an European who has been living in the US for soon-to-be 2 decades, I respectfully kind of disagree.
Americans in general are too much into themselves to spend any significant amount of time truly hating anybody. Too busy being sure their way is the best thing since sliced bread.
In my experience, they WILL, however, show major upset when anyone around the world points to their defects as a nation.
As a culture, they are extremely sensitive to criticism and have generally low self-esteem. And yes, I generalize because this is what you have to do when trying to understand the character of a community, culture, nation, etc. Getting stuck in describing every tree when you must get an idea about the forest is nothing but sheer mental incapacity.
I do think that Europeans tend to show more overall scorn towards Americans than the other way around. At the same time, the European masses/crowds also drool over the perceived better material life Americans have compared to them. Which they do, at least in some ways - particularly when it comes to space and amount of trinkets bought.
But then again, this is what crowds everywhere, and at any time in history, do: drool over stuff and trinkets and now - space to deposit them.
Americans, who know deep down there IS more to life than trinkets and running 1000 miles an hour to get them (which is what they are best at) continue to be secretly fascinated by all those intangibles that make life worth living and that are clearly in more abundance in Europe than in the US - where they are virtually absent.
But they deny their validity and continue to profess the superiority of their way of life to the rest of the world. What's really important though is not what average Americans think about their culture (they are consistently and ruthlessly indoctrinated to think it is the best that can be) but the economic wars that the monsters of commercial interests impose onto the rest of the world.
having been a member of this forum for some time now, I think the topic has been arranged wrongly, in my experience its more a case of the other way around!
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The ultra left people in Europe who even use words like "imperialist" make up a tiny minority... Infact I have never even heard a person use that word or be hostile to the US in general... And I am from Sweden, which is supposedly the most "communist" country in the world apart from Cuba according to Americans 
