Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The British really like to posture, to be honest. That's my biggest issue with them. They can really be some of the most chauvinistic, unhumble people you will ever meet, and will often have no apparent justification for being so insufferably proud.
Did your girlfriend (or could be boyfriend) run of with a Briton by any chance! I'm guessing yes!
I don't think "doing violent things while drunk" is what should be meant by "masculine culture". I don't find the UK and Australia to be as aggressive and violent as the US with or without alcohol involved. There's a strong riot culture on college campuses and in many US cities when it comes to winning at sports.
And this beats "glassing" by a long shot (though "gouging" is antiquated):
When it comes to sports it's my understanding that people in the US have barbeques in the car park at US sporting events!!! In the UK fans are segregated to stop them half killing each other! I wouldn't suggest cooking hotdogs in the carpark at a Millwall match, not unless you want it shoved up your ****!! :-D Seriously though football hooliganism nearly killed the game in England, English clubs were banned from European competition after 39 Italians were killed at a Liverpool v Juventus match, dark times indeed :-(
When it comes to sports it's my understanding that people in the US have barbeques in the car park at US sporting events!!! In the UK fans are segregated to stop them half killing each other! I wouldn't suggest cooking hotdogs in the carpark at a Millwall match, not unless you want it shoved up your ****!! :-D Seriously though football hooliganism nearly killed the game in England, English clubs were banned from European competition after 39 Italians were killed at a Liverpool v Juventus match, dark times indeed :-(
That certainly takes some getting used to for an Australian in the UK, its absolutely nothing like that in oz, through you wont find any BBQ in the parking lots either, you would want to be in some obscure rarely used stadium to even find a parking lot.
That certainly takes some getting used to for an Australian in the UK, its absolutely nothing like that in oz, through you wont find any BBQ in the parking lots either, you would want to be in some obscure rarely used stadium to even find a parking lot.
It's a lot better now than it used to be. As a child I was a regular at Stamford Bridge in the 1980's (used to go with my old man), I've got a couple of books about the whole football hooliganism 'thing' The Naughty Nineties' and 'Hoolifan', very interesting insight into it.
It's a lot better now than it used to be. As a child I was a regular at Stamford Bridge in the 1980's (used to go with my old man), I've got a couple of books about the whole football hooliganism 'thing' The Naughty Nineties' and 'Hoolifan', very interesting insight into it.
Cool i actually lived about 200m from Fulham broadway station for a year in 2000-2001, and became a bit of a closest Chelsea fan while there.
Though i still found you need to be a lot more carefull around opposing fans than you would in Australia.
The US is pretty similar to the UK in a lot of ways too. A lot of row houses have that "UK" look, and the north eastern US has probably the most "British" looking towns and streetscapes you'll ever find outside the UK itself. Even in language, I've heard Brits, Canadians and Americans use words like "duvet", "cobbler", "peppers" - which are all comparatively foreign to Australian ears. And of course, old universities like Harvard, are moulded on the Oxford / Cambridge model far more than the the likes of ANU, UTS or even the "old and traditional" University of Melbourne.
I think the US is actually most comparable to the UK in multiple ways, as the UK matches the US a lot more when it comes to contemporary cultural relevance, military strength, and sense of heritage/purpose in the world than either Canada or Australia do (the US and the UK both have very strong media, music, literary, and fashion industries that often compliment each other), which is why I notice British people often seem very combative, prideful, insecure and insulting online whenever any remotely "UK vs. US" topic comes up...to the point that I see so many British people instigating those fights - "UK vs. US" literally trended on British Twitter a couple of months ago, not in the US though.
Some cultural and "quirky" reflections:
Uncle Sam = John Bull
Columbia = Britannia
"American Cool" = "Cool Britannia"
New York = London
San Francisco = Brighton
Woodstock festival = Isle of Wight festival
Coachella = Glastonbury
Grunge = Britpop
Haight-Ashbury/Greenwich Village = Camden
Preppy = "Sloan Ranger" (BCBG in France)
Bro culture = Lad culture
Harvard/Yale/Princeton = Oxford/Cambridge
Juilliard = LAMDA
Broadway = West End
and for the Potter fans:
Ilvermorny = Hogwarts
MACUSA = the Ministry of Magic
The US also has broad cultural features that could be likened to the UK more than any comparable element of Canada or Australia could - intense regional and local sporting culture that's a lot more present in the US and the UK than it is internally in Canada or Australia, as well as a much stronger "main street" culture in the US that mirrors British towns and their high streets. They both have very prominent and highly marketed flags. Both countries are a lot more visible on the world stage and take a lot more abuse than the other two. Both have tumultuous internal politics (Brexit/Boris = Trump, Jeremy Corbyn = Bernie Sanders). The US has the regional variation in accent and, to a certain extent, dialect to match the UK more than the other two do, as well as similar subcultures in the "ghetto/chav" realm of things ("redneck" culture is similar, but different), with similarities between the "multicultural British" and "African American English" accents. America's leaders and their families, socialites, and political dynasties (ie "Boston Brahmin" society) are also way more exalted, storied, and glamorized than any comparable Canadian or Australian leaders or upper class, which is a feature of the US that's more in line with British culture (JFK's funeral was the most attended funeral for a national leader after one of the British kings). There's a very similar reality TV and celebrity media culture that the US and the UK both share, lol, as well as institutions like National Geographic/Smithsonian - the BBC, both are known for exporting popular bites like hamburgers, fish and chips, etc...
Due to the US having developed more intensely at an earlier stage than Canada or Australia, there's also aspects of similar/shared history in terms of the Enlightenment, the Gilded Age, the industrial revolution, civil wars, ethnic and religious strife, etc, that is much more visible between the US and the UK than it is in Australia and Canada, both of whom only gained significant independent wealth and distinct national identities post 1950s, and in large part, not even until well into the 80s and 90s.
In anything more specific, though, the US is much less like the UK than either Canada or Australia, and I generally find that to be the case in most ways - simply because neither country had the intensity of development and history to distinguish themselves that the US had. Canada and Australia were, and are somewhat still, vestiges of the British monarchy, and both therefore belong to the Commonwealth. The US is its own superpower and cultural hegemon, and has been working it's way up to that since the late 1800s. I also find that more Canadians and especially Australians tend to look and act a lot more British than Americans do, where there's a stronger continental European/Latin American look and vibe to many Americans, the Canadian French influence notwithstanding.
Last edited by olgabolga; 07-28-2020 at 03:14 AM..
That's not the point. Just like many national dialects, Australian English has an 'educated' or refined dialect, which is far from grating, and is the standard dialect among Australians living in the city (maybe besides Brisbanians). On the other hand, we have the rural or broad Australian accent, which is the stereotypical one and most exposed in international media (Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin) - It's not so pleasant to the ear. You cannot ignorantly confuse the latter with the former, and think all Australians sound like that (as one user is doing here). That's just as absurd as thinking all Americans sounds like cowboys and Brits sound like the queen.
intense regional and local sporting culture that's a lot more present in the US and the UK than it is internally in Canada or Australia,
What do you actually mean by this?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
