Brits vs. Yanks (US versus UK) - Page 2

[jbennet]

the royal family suck, but the queen is ok

[twomers]

>> the royal family suck, but the queen is ok
The royal family is probably (and I don't mean this offensively, just stating facts), the most inbred family in the UK.

I think football (UK soccer), is stupid and boring. You watch it for an hour and a half and unless you're fortunate no more than about two goals are scored. I was glued to the TV when I was watching the SuperBowl. Though you know what they say about new things, I suppose.

[sneekula]

>> the royal family suck, but the queen is ok
The royal family is probably (and I don't mean this offensively, just stating facts), the most inbred family in the UK.
...

If you would know the secret sex life of the royal family, you would drop this claim!

[Ancient Dragon]

Per capita the Brits have 0.21 universities per million and the Yanks only have 0.12 universities per million inhabitants in the top 100.

Also, the Brits have a Queen and we have nothing!

Hallelujah!!

[twomers]

>> If you would know the secret sex life of the royal family, you would drop this claim!
Heh. I can't make any promises.

[Ancient Dragon]

>> the royal family suck, but the queen is ok
The royal family is probably (and I don't mean this offensively, just stating facts), the most inbred family in the UK.

I think football (UK soccer), is stupid and boring. You watch it for an hour and a half and unless you're fortunate no more than about two goals are scored. I was glued to the TV when I was watching the SuperBowl. Though you know what they say about new things, I suppose.

Baseball is the same -- they can go the entire nine innings without scoring one point.

[jbennet]

The royal family is probably (and I don't mean this offensively, just stating facts), the most inbred family in the UK.

all the european royal families are

queen victoria was a german and her (cousin? brother?) was the tsar of russia (the one who the commies killed)

[zandiago]

UK fish and chips all the way!!! I like the Beatles.

[scru]

A comparison of educational institutions (universities) around the works shows USA far ahead of any other nation including UK.

I refute University rankings as a value to education. Schools in different parts of the world are most likely tailored to meet their area's needs.

I think football (UK soccer), is stupid and boring. You watch it for an hour and a half and unless you're fortunate no more than about two goals are scored. I was glued to the TV when I was watching the SuperBowl. Though you know what they say about new things, I suppose.

I think you are a sellout!

you don't need big numbers in a sport for it to be enjoyable. That's shallow. What you need is adrenaline, you know, like what you get when either team is *attempting* a goal. Those attacks are always exciting, and happen a lot.

[jbennet]

the premier league has got a bit crappy lately - too much diving

[twomers]

I think you are a sellout!

you don't need big numbers in a sport for it to be enjoyable. That's shallow. What you need is adrenaline, you know, like what you get when either team is *attempting* a goal. Those attacks are always exciting, and happen a lot.

Maybe I am.
The question is "What stimulates adrenaline?" Excitement.
Then the question becomes "What stimulates excitement?" the answer being a good sport.

How am I a sellout? One of my favorite sports is Hurling (not throwing up). It's an Irish amateur sport which from start to finish is quick, exciting, edge of your seat play and the players don't even get paid. There is no diving, not much dirty play. The players play because of their love for the game. Compare that, now, to soccer. The top players make millions yet they can't stay on their feet. Someone nudges them they fall down crying. If someone smacks a hurling player with their hurley (solid ashen stick), they bear it. Even if hurt. What I said about goals before was only one reason why I don't like the sport.

I have no respect for players who play without passion. Who play their sport to cheat in every situation in order to gain an advantage. I'm not the sellout, scru. Don't the American's (generalisation, don't hurt me), say they watch the superbowl for the adds?

[ScudRunner50]

Don't the American's (generalisation, don't hurt me), say they watch the superbowl for the adds?

actually, yea, we pretty much do just watch it for the ads... save for maybe a couple I know

[bumsfeld]

The Brits have a stiff upper lip, the Yanks have ED.

[ZZucker]

Thank heavens, there are the Italians.

[vegaseat]

The Brits talk kind of funny, but that is all the difference I notice.

[vmanes]

My preference, frankly, is for 'Southern', not because of the accent, but because, with the (mostly)death of Middle English, this dialect is the only version of English which remains (to my knowledge, at least) to bear the distinction between the singular and plural forms of the second person. (Although admittedly, it does this indirectly.)

"Y'all" versus "All y'all"?

American accents can vary quite widely. You can't even nail down Texan as a dialect or accent - it's quite different in the eastern and western sides of the state (I prefer to hear girls speaking the eastern version!) But then, Texas is about three times as big as the UK.

I find it odd that BBC America often has notices before a program advising that it might be difficult to understand the coming program and viewers should turn on closed captioning. I never do, and I understand the programs perfectly. Some friends say they're lost in the first five minutes.

[jbennet]

compare someone from Fife with someone from Cardiff and someone from Essex and you will see the range of accents

[UrbanKhoja]

The Brits talk kind of funny, but that is all the difference I notice.

Haha!

Don't think you can say one is better than the other, the states has warm weather & beaches - the UK has history and landmarks and scenic veiws. The states have their film
industry - UK has music industry. Both pretty much failing in car production.

Both seem to be amazed by each others accents. But I do think the media often portray
the Americans as being over-weight simpletons (generally) - which is proberbly why people in foriegn countrys often have negative veiws of the states.

But have to give kudos to Bush for they way he handled 9/11, apart from Churchill I don't think any of our leaders could have got a country through that. Majority of the most watched TV shows are American as well; The OC, Friends, Scrubs, 24 etc.

And there will always be people on both sides who think they're better than the other; but you just have to live with them. People often critisise the states for having high gun crime rates; but they forget that the US is much bigger than most EU countrys and just about every country in the world has dark corners.

The only thing that really let's the States down is their healthcare system; although you could always get health insurance so not a major thing. And overal; it's proberbly no worse than the NHS.

Dazza :cool:

[lawli56]

A comparison of educational institutions (universities) around the works shows USA far ahead of any other nation including UK. The top 100 universities in the world contains Harvard (USA) in the #1 spot and Cambridge (UK) in #2 spot. USA has 37 universities in the top 100, while UK has 13 (if I counted correctly).

Not bad when you consider that you could drop the entire landmass of the UK into texas and lose it.

For such a small country we have a lot of clout.

[jbennet]

yeah but the entire UK has under 200 universities and about 50 "redbrick" ones - e.g not old polytechincal colleges from the 60s/70s

[Roving Russian]

However when it comes to wars, the Yanks have beat the Brits by a mile.

Wow! Do you really think that?

With all due respect, I would recommend you look into your USA and British military.

I'm not even British or American but I can tell you now that American military history cannot compare to the Brits. England/Britain is the most succesful military of all time! This is coming from a proud Russian too.

Where exactly do you think the USA is better or more succesful? You aren't one of those people who believe the USA won WWII and "saved your asses!" are you? As important as the USA were in WWII, you cannot say they were more important than Britain, who had been fighting alone for many years before the USA entered and certainly not more important than the Russians.

WWI, USA entered right at the very end and barely saw any action, where again the UK had been fighting from the beginning.

Britain has pretty much fought every country on the planet and generally won. If they lost, they still beat them at a later time.

Maybe you are considering the American War of Independence, when it is common knowledge outside of the USA that firstly King George III didn't consider America to be an important colony, so only had small numbers in support there because Britain were busy fighting the big three European countries at the time, France, Netherlands and Spain. It was in actual fact those three countries, especially the French who won the Revolutionary War for America.

If we consider the wars America have fought alone, the result hasn't been a very happy outcome for them. Vietnam is the obvious one that stands out.

Anyway, the only reason I reply is because your post was pretty much the complete opposite to being the truth.

Today American is one of the best militaries in the World, due to wealth, numbers and technology but they are still looked down on by other nations soldiers for their lack of professionalism and skill in the field, where as Britains forces are still respected as being one of the very best!

Once more, I saw this with complete objectivity. Being neither American nor British (in fact being from a country that has been seen as an enemy for many years) I have no bias. I do though know what I'm talking about thanks to studying history for many years and specialising in military history.
That said, I have never heard anyone, whatever their education, ever suggest that America has better army or navy than the Brits, historically or contemporarily. No one outside of America, anyway.

Please excuse my English.

P.s. I have also heard Americans laugh about the French military. Again, France has historically such a mightier military than America it is unreal!

EDIT: I have just realised that you might have been being sarcastic by saying that the USA has the Brits beat when it comes to wars. I apologise if you were joking and it went over my head, sorry:-p

[Roving Russian]

Define 'American Accent', please.

We're large enough we've got numerous accents, not a single one that's specifically the American accent. For a small sampling of the stereotypicals:

The Bostonian native will pahk his cah before going into a building.
-These 'r's apparently migrate, as...
The Texans, supposedly, all invest in erl wells,
And, of course, a good speaker of 'Southern' will inform you that you need to light the far once it gets dock outside.

These are the particular stereotypical accents I know of, though I've been informed that the Appalachian mountains have their own as well, a relative to the pre-brogue Scots accent.

My preference, frankly, is for 'Southern', not because of the accent, but because, with the (mostly)death of Middle English, this dialect is the only version of English which remains (to my knowledge, at least) to bear the distinction between the singular and plural forms of the second person. (Although admittedly, it does this indirectly.)

Hehe. It's funny that you should bring that up but do so with an American perspective, when in actual fact, it would be better to ask "what is a British accent", as the UK has more accents than any other country in the World, which is quite extraordinary, considering it's size.

For example, when I lived in Manchester, North West England, if you were to travel 12 miles East from the city center, you would hear as many different accents as miles.

Sure, there are many different American accents but nowhere near as many different accents as in the UK. My Brit friends get angry with American films, when all the English characters have that snobby accent, which you actually never hear in the UK (unless maybe you are part of the aristocracy).

[jbennet]

That's not an accent, any more than "I'll knock you up". In USA that means you are going to get someone pregnant while in UK it just means you are going to knock on someone's door.

Um, no? Ive never heard that one. Knocked up means to me the same as the smilar british saying "Up the duff" which also means pregnant.

Generally knocking on someones door is called calling on or sometimes rarely knocking down (as in the prank game knockdown-ginger)

American military history cannot compare to the Brits. England/Britain is the most succesful military of all time! As important as the USA were in WWII, britain had been fighting alone for many years before the USA entered right at the very end and barely saw any action, where again the UK had been fighting from the beginning. (like in WW1)

Yeah, but we would have been overrun eventually. We were hanging on by a limb.

Britain has pretty much fought every country on the planet and generally won. If they lost, they still beat them at a later time. Maybe you are considering the American War of Independence, when it is common knowledge outside of the USA that firstly King George III didn't consider America to be an important colony and was busy fighting the big three European countries at the time, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

Got a good point there

If we consider the wars America have fought alone, the result hasn't been a very happy outcome for them. Vietnam is the obvious one that stands out.

Um, they werent alone. Australia was in vietnam too.

It's funny that you should bring that up but do so with an American perspective, when in actual fact, it would be better to ask "what is a British accent", as the UK has more accents than any other country in the World, which is quite extraordinary, considering it's size.

For example, when I lived in Manchester, North West England, if you were to travel 12 miles East from the city center, you would hear as many different accents as miles.

Sure, there are many different American accents but nowhere near as many different accents as in the UK. My Brit friends get angry with American films, when all the English characters have that snobby accent, which you actually never hear in the UK (unless maybe you are part of the aristocracy).

got to agree 100%. And why are we always the villain in american films?

[GrimJack]

I have heard that accents vary by church bells in London (probably pre-tube),

[jephthah]

americans have better teeth and nicer tans.

we're also generally fatter.

[jbennet]

americans have better teeth

Ive never understood that one, seeing as we have public dental care (then again, NHS dentists solutions to every problem is usually to pull it out)

[Roving Russian]

Thankyou for the reply JBennet. I'm glad my English didn't confuse you too much. I'm still working hard at it. Whenever I return to Russia, my old English teacher tells me that my English has became worse during my time in England. He thinks this is because English people don't speak English correctly and use too much slangs:-)

Um, no? Ive never heard that one. Knocked up means to me the same as the smilar british saying "Up the duff" which also means pregnant.

Generally knocking on someones door is called calling on or sometimes rarely knocking down (as in the prank game knockdown-ginger)

In Manchester at least, being "knocked up" is to become pregnant. I think there is possibly another 100 phrases for this event of nature, too. Such as having one (a bun) in the oven, up the duff (as you say), preggers and many many more that don't come to mind immediately. Some are really quite witty, while some are very obnoxious. Actually, this reminds me of another UK Vs USA thing. UK slangs and phrases seem so much more witty and humorous than USA slangs and phrases. In American they seem vulgar for the sake of being vulgar and very obnoxious with it, though in the UK, while it is still often vulgar, it is always very witty and often quite poetic in a way. During my travels in the USA, I noticed that Americans are always posturing, without any conclusion. For example, two young men will get into an argument and almost animalistically change their posture, start moving their arms and chests in a certain way and suddenly change their vocabulary to try and sound like their rap stars but nothing comes out of it. It is surely all posturing, where as in the UK and Russia, this doesn't happen. There will be some verbal (I hope this is the right word. I mean like speaking at each other aggressively) attacks, maybe push and shove and then they fight.
I see American slangs and phrases as posturing in a similar kind of way, sacrificing wit for trying to seem manly or macho.

Yeah, but we would have been overrun eventually. We were hanging on by a limb.

I don't think this is the case (if you are talking about Britain in WWII). You must remember that you had already won your war when you beat the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. That was a wonderful victory for you and it forced Hitler to leave your islands alone and concentrate on us, which was a foolish thing to do, especially as under equipt as they were!
No, Britain had won The Battle of Britain and The Battle of the Atlantic and every war game that has been played out since then (there is a fascination one that you can watch on YouTube which involves British, Russian, French and German commanders who actually held that job during the war) has shown that, even if the Nazis had invaded, they could not have holden on to the UK for long but of course, they didn't invade and they couldn't have done after the BoB. The worst that could have happened to the UK is that you would have sued for peace and let the Nazis take western Europe but thank god that you continued to fight through thick and thin!

If you are talking about WWI, then I cannot really understand. It wasn't exactly a stalemate. Germany were very weak by late 1918, there was mutiny in the ranks and moral was low. It was only a matter of time until victory. When the USA entered, the Germans saw thousands of new, healthy, tall (you must remember that thanks to American soldiers coming from richer backgrounds than their Russian, British, French, German counterparts, they were quite more taller than us and stronger physiques) and eager and the Germans confidence and moral was then completely shattered. That was Americas big victory in WWI, looking good:-)

My point though was in reply to the earlier poster who seems to think that Britain have not been as succesful in war as America, which is patently untruth as anyone with only a passing knowledge of military history knows that England and later Britain are the most succesful military country of all time and believe me, you wouldn't get a Rusky saying that if it wasn't true!;-)

Um, they werent alone. Australia was in vietnam too.

Of course my friend. And also if I remember correctly, I think 5 people won the Victoria Cross for Australia in Vietnam (Vic Cross being the highest British Commonwealth military honour. Like the American Medal of Honor but actually harder to earn and given out much, much less frequently!). I left our Aus because their numbers were relatively very small and they were almost fighting a different war there. I think though that you are right and I shouldn't have used that example to make my point, or I should have mentioned Aussie soldiers (of course New Zealand, France and South Korea too. Plus the tribal warriors who I forget their name now but they were amazing fighters. If you find out what they were called, I urge you to read up on about them. Their skill in guerilla warfare is unbelievable!).
My point though, was the result of America's fight there. It says something that although Australia had such a small number of troops fighting, relative to the USA, they were ultimately more successful!
Recently, some English friends were telling me about how Australia and Canada have always helped Britain in important wars and how they are wonderful fighters and soldiers. I know that Canadian and Australian soldiers are very highly respected in the UK but it seems that they are barely recognised outside and that people think of them as simply British victories. This is unfair to me and I know my English friends are to feel angry about this.

got to agree 100%. And why are we always the villain in american films?

Haha! I don't believe you are always the villain as much as we are always the villain! Always Russian people are either crazy dictators, hell bent on ruling the World and if they cannot rule, they will destroy! Or they are impoverished gangsters who are in America fresh from taking part in some Eastern European genocide:-)
Hollywood seems to believe all English people speak in a strange accent I have never heard during all the years I have lived in England (except maybe the Queen and her butler Charles) and that they are always very "posh" and like the snobs.
Seeing as Americans rarely travel, all their education of the outside World (and history but this is another matter which I could rant all night on and you have already seen how long winded I can be!;-)) comes from Hollywood, so they have invented these weird stereotypes of us in Eurasia and they now are convinced this is how we are. If we tell them that it isn't true and just to look for yourselves, they put their hands over their ears and shake their heads, murmurish "nope! nope!! I saw Steven Seagall blow up a Russian household that was storing weapon grade plutonium in it's celler. I know exactly what you lots are like!!"
hehe:-)

I'm sorry that, like I have to said, been so long winded here. I hope that I haven't boring you to death!

May I say, it may be notable that I am something of an Anglophile but I hope I don't come across that I am in any way againt the USA. I also love that country and I always enjoy the company of Americans! Luckily, we don't have a Hollywood to give us a strange impression of you, so I never had any pre conclusions of you all.

All of the best to you all!
Thanks JBennet!

[Roving Russian]

Ive never understood that one, seeing as we have public dental care (then again, NHS dentists solutions to every problem is usually to pull it out)

This is also strange to me. British people have much better teeth than my own country men and better than many places throughout Europe, never mind the less developed places.

I wonder why Americans choose this to attack the British? Maybe because they were struggling to find anything worse to attack them with?

Americans have freakishly abnormal teeth!
It must be very easy in the USA when there is an electricity black out. All everyone needs to do is give a big smile and it will suddenly be lighter than mid-day:-D

I do not think that shade of fluorescent white is normal or natural. It is extremely vain and it repeats what I said in my last post about American posturing.

I have just thought. I wonder if American people say about British bad teeth because of those members of the Royal family. I'm sorry, I don't know the names of the British Royals apart from the very famous but some of them have very horsey teeth (hehe) but they are not a bad colour or look bad.

Thankyou

EDIT: Can I say an important point please?
The UK is better than America with popular music! No one beats British bands although America isn't far behind and America does have the most influential and creative city in NYC (though Manchester is not far behind that).

EDIT2: Also, of course, Britain has invented all the best sports! Football/soccer, boxing, cricket, baseball, rugby, golf and many, MANY more! I wonder why you British are so poor at them though:-p

[jbennet]

He thinks this is because English people don't speak English correctly and use too much slangs:-)

got to agree. no one speaks "proper" english, it all varies depending on where in the country you are, the time period and your social class.

If you are talking about WWI, then I cannot really understand. It wasn't exactly a stalemate. Germany were very weak by late 1918, there was mutiny in the ranks and moral was low

I meant world war 2. You are correct about WW1, we were starving germany with our naval blockade

I know that Canadian and Australian soldiers are very highly respected in the UK but it seems that they are barely recognised outside and that people think of them as simply British victories

The Americans had 73,000 (23,250 on Utah and 34,250 on Omaha Beach) and 15,500 paratroops

The british and the and Canadians had 83,115 in total (61,715 British) with 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7900 airborne troops.

Considering our relative size compared to america and the fact that the majority of us were already dead from the war, we made quite a contribution.

Patatroopers - American and British
Sword beach - British
Gold Beach - British
Juno Beach - Canadian (suffered 50% casualties, was much more heavialy fortified than omaha beach, many people dont realise the canadian forces contribution here)

Utah and Omaha beach and the clifftop assault on point du hoc were handled by the americans.

(Vic Cross being the highest British Commonwealth military honour. Like the American Medal of Honor but actually harder to earn and given out much, much less frequently!).

Yes. 10 or 15 times since the second world war i think, mainly for korea and the falklands (i thiink less than 3 have been awarded in the last 10 years)

The george cross is awarded more often (still only like 50+ though).