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Old 08-13-2015, 05:03 PM
 
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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I just have come back from SW France because of holiday, so I would say 80% of SW French people could pass for Spaniards and the other way around.
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Old 08-13-2015, 10:31 PM
 
4,680 posts, read 13,421,332 times
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Originally Posted by cattledog69 View Post
Oh, please, have I offended you now? I'm not gonna EXACTLY tell you what those features are, because I CAN'T. Of course not all English have that look but many do. Like very pale skin, often dark brown hair etc, but those are features that many French, Dutch, Italians also often have, but there's just something that's not easy to explain.
I've had an English stepdad so also English family, friends and collegues for some time, so I think I can say a little bit about it... Not meant to be offensive in any way by all means
The facts are that the overall features of British (English included) is a very pale skin complexion, mousy hair, light eyes mostly blue and a sharp facial profile. The Dutch are similar, but show slightly less of a pale complexion, slightly more ashen hair and less reddish hair, blue or light eyes, slightly less sharp facial profiles.
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Old 08-13-2015, 10:33 PM
 
4,680 posts, read 13,421,332 times
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Originally Posted by overdrive1979 View Post
I just have come back from SW France because of holiday, so I would say 80% of SW French people could pass for Spaniards and the other way around.
Most likely as northern Spaniards and Basques people, but not as the average Spaniard.
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Old 08-13-2015, 10:36 PM
 
4,680 posts, read 13,421,332 times
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Originally Posted by easthome View Post
Please tell me now! I want to know if me and all my fellow countrymen have this 'familiar look'? I have looked at the people I work with today and I dunno but they ALL looked pretty individual to me! Both the British ones and the foreign ones!
By me having the ability to differentiate is not being "better" than you. I already explained why,
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Old 08-14-2015, 02:19 AM
 
Location: Polderland
1,071 posts, read 1,258,967 times
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Originally Posted by saxonwold View Post
The facts are that the overall features of British (English included) is a very pale skin complexion, mousy hair, light eyes mostly blue and a sharp facial profile. The Dutch are similar, but show slightly less of a pale complexion, slightly more ashen hair and less reddish hair, blue or light eyes, slightly less sharp facial profiles.

It's hard to say for my own people but what we consider to be the average Dutch look would be blond/light brown hair, light blue or green eyes and kind of a "round" face with reddish/blushing- like cheeks and very tall. That would be the look of what we would say "een gezonde Hollandse jongen" (healthy looking Dutch boy) but that's just a huge stereo type as lots of us, especially in the southern half have very dark features (like i do myself).
I've been sometimes mistaken for French and i have had a girlfriend that was always mistaken for Italian.
And since we are such a small country, there has been so much mingling with other nations, that what we would call a typical Dutch look, is actually hard to find in most parts of the country.
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Old 08-14-2015, 06:22 AM
 
Location: SE UK
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Originally Posted by saxonwold View Post
The facts are that the overall features of British (English included) is a very pale skin complexion, mousy hair, light eyes mostly blue and a sharp facial profile. The Dutch are similar, but show slightly less of a pale complexion, slightly more ashen hair and less reddish hair, blue or light eyes, slightly less sharp facial profiles.
Of the British people I work with I would say there is nobody with 'very pale skin complexion' of my friends I have a girlfriend who is red headed and 'very pale skinned' so perhaps 1%-5% at best are 'very pale skinned', blue eyes approximately 1/3rd at best, the rest brown or green (like mine) with quite a few people having eyes a bit indifferent in colour, about 60% have dark brown hair 30% brown hair / mousey hair and 10% blonde (and a fraction like my friend who is red headed).......so I would say that at best 10% of the people I work with and know will even come close to fitting your 'overall features of British people' some MAY have some 'sharp features' ie nose but then they have dark hair, some may have blue eyes but then not 'very pale skin' in other words you are wrong, you have always been wrong, you only base what you 'think' of as typical British on stereotypes, you do the same with 'other' Euro nations too. In reality you are clueless about the real European population andbecause you are somebody that lives the other side of the world I suggest you actually come to Crawley or Milan or Copenhagen or Berlin and see for yourself. Personally I am not Spanish (as you have accused me of being in the past), I am dark haired (almost black & unfortunately thinning :-(), 6f 2in tall, hairy chested, mid term skinned, green eyed, I have a fairly standard nose, I don't burn in the sun (unless of course I sit on a beach all day in July), when I do catch the sun I tan, I don't go red, I don't seem to have a 'sharp facial profile' either (fairly round headed!), now tell me one more thing - if nearly all of the people I know DO NOT fit your standard 'British look' then tell me in your opinion why this is?
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Old 08-14-2015, 08:26 AM
 
4,680 posts, read 13,421,332 times
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Originally Posted by cattledog69 View Post
It's hard to say for my own people but what we consider to be the average Dutch look would be blond/light brown hair, light blue or green eyes and kind of a "round" face with reddish/blushing- like cheeks and very tall. That would be the look of what we would say "een gezonde Hollandse jongen" (healthy looking Dutch boy) but that's just a huge stereo type as lots of us, especially in the southern half have very dark features (like i do myself).
I've been sometimes mistaken for French and i have had a girlfriend that was always mistaken for Italian.
And since we are such a small country, there has been so much mingling with other nations, that what we would call a typical Dutch look, is actually hard to find in most parts of the country.
Oh well, my mother is of Dutch ancestry from the Gelderland province, precisely the town of Zevenaar. She's a dark blonde (now graying) but she was a "towhead"(light blonde) as a child, sort of "round-faced" too as you say, green-eyed and 175cm (above average female stature). Now studies on pigmentation of the Dutch, points to similar things you've mentioned, despite the fact the your country is a very small country, even today there seems to be a consistent pigmentation difference between the north and the south. Tallness, fair skin, blue eyes is more common in the northern provinces (particularly Groningen and Friesland) than in southern provinces ( such as Zeeland, North Brabant, Limburg), while the central parts are in between. On the overall, Dutch people are fair, the majority also according to studies made have light eyes. Yes there are Dutch people who are dark-haired in my own family, I have an uncle who has very dark hair, brown eyes but that doesn't stop the fact made by studies of the general Dutch population. The same way, you could have been mistaken for a Frenchman/Latin person. Also, you could have French ancestry, have you looked into that?
There are Italians who are blonde or light-haired, etc... I know some here personally. However that doesn't stop the fact that the majority of the Italians are on the dark side of the European scale, with brown eyes in the majority.
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Old 08-14-2015, 08:59 AM
 
Location: Virginia (From Sweden)
105 posts, read 98,039 times
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Originally Posted by easthome View Post
Please tell me now! I want to know if me and all my fellow countrymen have this 'familiar look'? I have looked at the people I work with today and I dunno but they ALL looked pretty individual to me! Both the British ones and the foreign ones!
There is a very certain look that the English have. I live in the US but am from Sweden so I don't have a bias. When you go to states like Kentucky, Missisissippi, Alabama and other areas that had very little immigration everyone looks typically English. Except with more teeth! Seriously though, there are doppelgangers everywhere.
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Old 08-14-2015, 09:24 AM
 
4,680 posts, read 13,421,332 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by easthome View Post
Of the British people I work with I would say there is nobody with 'very pale skin complexion' of my friends I have a girlfriend who is red headed and 'very pale skinned' so perhaps 1%-5% at best are 'very pale skinned', blue eyes approximately 1/3rd at best, the rest brown or green (like mine) with quite a few people having eyes a bit indifferent in colour, about 60% have dark brown hair 30% brown hair / mousey hair and 10% blonde (and a fraction like my friend who is red headed).......so I would say that at best 10% of the people I work with and know will even come close to fitting your 'overall features of British people' some MAY have some 'sharp features' ie nose but then they have dark hair, some may have blue eyes but then not 'very pale skin' in other words you are wrong, you have always been wrong, you only base what you 'think' of as typical British on stereotypes, you do the same with 'other' Euro nations too. In reality you are clueless about the real European population andbecause you are somebody that lives the other side of the world I suggest you actually come to Crawley or Milan or Copenhagen or Berlin and see for yourself. Personally I am not Spanish (as you have accused me of being in the past), I am dark haired (almost black & unfortunately thinning :-(), 6f 2in tall, hairy chested, mid term skinned, green eyed, I have a fairly standard nose, I don't burn in the sun (unless of course I sit on a beach all day in July), when I do catch the sun I tan, I don't go red, I don't seem to have a 'sharp facial profile' either (fairly round headed!), now tell me one more thing - if nearly all of the people I know DO NOT fit your standard 'British look' then tell me in your opinion why this is?
Firstly do you even know what is meant by pale complexion? Due to the fact that many times, you are confused in my statements. The things my personal observation of my own kin and the British and Irish, as other people who predominantly of British Isles ancestry have been proven right by proper medical/scientific studies. This is why I probably might underestimate you. The most common eye color in the British (White Britons to avoid confusion) is the blue eye color (48%), followed by Green (30%) then comes brown in the last position (22%). So overall, the vast majority of Britons (78%) have light eyes (blue/green) and that's a fact. The British and more so the Irish are overall fair-skinned even in comparison to other Europeans groups, this is backed-up by scientific facts and medical studies on skin cancers in the British population. British tourists are recognized on beaches in foreign countries, where people make fun of their "lobster"-colored skins, because they don't tan/tan miserably. This doesn't mean that there are no British people who could tan well like yourself. A BBC News article, released in 2011, says that in the U.K.(where you live) 41% of the women use self-tanning products! Do you honestly think that there would be a need for such a high percentage to do that, if they could tan well? A similar figure released by the Irish Examiner news article report in 2012 about Irish women and adds the following "most Irish have skin type 1 and 2, which means they don't really tan at all and should make sure that their skin is literally with sunscreen while in the sun." This is not me saying it, but the article, so please stop telling your foolish nonsense. Europeans are not all similar, they do differ. I have lived in Europe, that's where I learned to speak French and Dutch fluently. Crawley? Ha!ha!ha!ha! Dude, I have been to Liverpool, London, Lindsey (where my ancestral roots are), Manchester, I think Eastbourne as well, many years ago. You are 6ft 2 in , right? That's also tall and well above average height, I am only three inches taller than you are. My father from whom I get my English blood, is also 6 ft 2in, with brown hair (but now mostly gray), light blue eyes and some freckling. I get my reddish hair from my father's mother (she had the orange type).
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Old 08-14-2015, 09:26 AM
 
4,680 posts, read 13,421,332 times
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Originally Posted by Anders Karlsson View Post
There is a very certain look that the English have. I live in the US but am from Sweden so I don't have a bias. When you go to states like Kentucky, Missisissippi, Alabama and other areas that had very little immigration everyone looks typically English. Except with more teeth! Seriously though, there are doppelgangers everywhere.
Thank you. Easthome just doesn't want to admit that. In his mind, all Europeans are identical, I call that theory, nonsense!
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