American-British Q&A

[thelonewolf266]

Do you brits actually like Spotted Dick and Blood Pudding?

Yep. "Blood Pudding" is actually called black pudding and the blood isn't liquid, it's congealed and solidified and tastes similar to haggis. Its also not a pudding, it's usually eaten for breakfast as a substitute for sausage. Spotted Dick is just dough or suet cooked with currents in it.

awe here i was willing to try Haggis until that >.< I've had the 'pudding' and no sir, i do not like!

Spotted Dick sounds really bland

Don't listen to his slanderous lies Haggis is amazing much better than spotted dick also I really only eat spotted dick with custard or ice cream or something like that makes it a lot better.

I never said Haggis was like Spotted Dick I said it was like Black Pudding. I also said in a later post that Spotted Dick is usually eaten with custard.

Yeah sorry I did mean to say Black pudding it was a mistype on my part.

 

[Jonabob87]

To Americans:

Why do American football players wear arseloads of armour, whereas Rugby players run around in shorts and a shirt?

American Football's rules for tackling are different. Usually rugby players just tackle the legs or waist, but in American Football you can pretty much tackle anywhere or how as long you dont kick, punch, or spear them as far as I'm aware. This can lead to some pretty brutal hits, often more so than Rugby.

Having said that, Rugby is obviously the better sport, and Rugby players are obviously hard as nails

Thanks that actually makes a lot of sense, I always did wonder.

 

[megajon]

Well, I am not a girl, but my wife is so I know the answer. Many American women find the British sexy. I would guess that easily 3/4 of the girls who ask you to do something British are asking this because they find it incredibly sexy. The same goes for American men and British women. Very few things are as sexy as a woman with a British accent. I know a woman who has lived in the U.S.A. for 16 years, but she still maintains a heavy British accent because men find it attractive.

The remaining 1/4 most likely have never met someone from outside the U.S.A. and are just interested in your "exotic" culture (in their own ignorant way.)

I have a couple questions for the British:

1. What do the British think of the Australians?

2. Do you have any foreign accents that are considered sexy?

3. Is it alright to call the British brits? or is that offensive?

4. What do you call people from the U.S.A.? I feel like a pompous ass every time I call myself an American. After all, we are only a small part of the Americas.

5. Do people in your corner of the world have a good racial slur for white people? We got cracker over here, but it doesn't really come off as offensive, at least where I live. You don't need to actually tell me what it is, I am just wondering if it exists.

1. most my friends and me freaking love Australians yes we did send our criminals over there but we do like it.

2. i would say france's accent and spainish accent girls go wild for the spanish one it explains why we english was always at war with both of them because they took our women.

3. We really don't care about being called brits but its better to address us as we are either scottish, english , or welsh because there the ones in britain and its better sounds like you actually know the difference between each.

4. we call you americans its that simple or we call you pompus assholes or stupid.

5. We don't have racial slurs for white people me being black i should know more so but not really since we are more integrated then in america like you will find black and whites quite mixed in most places and alot inter mixing.

 

[BlackStar42]

I'm an English-born American-living poster and I have a question for every American girl ever.

Why do you always have to ask me to "Do something British"? What do you expect me to do, oppress the poor? Or when they ask me to say [insert word here]. Tis annoying.

Well, I am not a girl, but my wife is so I know the answer. Many American women find the British sexy. I would guess that easily 3/4 of the girls who ask you to do something British are asking this because they find it incredibly sexy. The same goes for American men and British women. Very few things are as sexy as a woman with a British accent. I know a woman who has lived in the U.S.A. for 16 years, but she still maintains a heavy British accent because men find it attractive.

The remaining 1/4 most likely have never met someone from outside the U.S.A. and are just interested in your "exotic" culture (in their own ignorant way.)

I have a couple questions for the British:

1. What do the British think of the Australians?

2. Do you have any foreign accents that are considered sexy?

3. Is it alright to call the British brits? or is that offensive?

4. What do you call people from the U.S.A.? I feel like a pompous ass every time I call myself an American. After all, we are only a small part of the Americas.

5. Do people in your corner of the world have a good racial slur for white people? We got cracker over here, but it doesn't really come off as offensive, at least where I live. You don't need to actually tell me what it is, I am just wondering if it exists.

1) Well, having never been to Australia, the stereotype is that we're friendly rivals, minus the friendly when it comes to the Ashes.

2) Depends on the person. For me, French, Irish and Karen Gillan's off Dr. Who.

3) As long as we can call you lot Yanks, we'll let it slide

4)Americans. Or Yanks if you want to use the slang term.

5) Hmmm... not that I can think of off the top of my head.

Quick question: why is the drinking age 21 in the US, but 18 pretty much everywhere else? I've never understood that.

 

[orangeban]

I'm an English-born American-living poster and I have a question for every American girl ever.

Why do you always have to ask me to "Do something British"? What do you expect me to do, oppress the poor? Or when they ask me to say [insert word here]. Tis annoying.

Well, I am not a girl, but my wife is so I know the answer. Many American women find the British sexy. I would guess that easily 3/4 of the girls who ask you to do something British are asking this because they find it incredibly sexy. The same goes for American men and British women. Very few things are as sexy as a woman with a British accent. I know a woman who has lived in the U.S.A. for 16 years, but she still maintains a heavy British accent because men find it attractive.

The remaining 1/4 most likely have never met someone from outside the U.S.A. and are just interested in your "exotic" culture (in their own ignorant way.)

I have a couple questions for the British:

1. What do the British think of the Australians?

2. Do you have any foreign accents that are considered sexy?

3. Is it alright to call the British brits? or is that offensive?

4. What do you call people from the U.S.A.? I feel like a pompous ass every time I call myself an American. After all, we are only a small part of the Americas.

5. Do people in your corner of the world have a good racial slur for white people? We got cracker over here, but it doesn't really come off as offensive, at least where I live. You don't need to actually tell me what it is, I am just wondering if it exists.

1) Well, Australians have awesome accents and are generally well liked in a kind of slightly weird drunken friend sorta way.
2) Now, this might just be me but Russian/Eastern European accents seem to be considered sexy or just damn cool and as I've said Austrilian accents are considered kickass.
3) You may meet someone who demands to be called, say, Scots or Scottish rather than British but Brits isn't offensive.
4) Well, we say American because there isn't much else to call you.
5) No, not that I've heard. Also, and I may be wrong/not know about other areas of Britian but it seems that general racial hatred here is less black and white and more British and Foreigners. We have plenty of slurs for people from different countries.

 

[JDKJ]

Because your average white-bread American don't know too much of shit beyond their own culture. They aren't exactly "worldly." If they do travel, they stay at Club Med or Breezes or some similarly sanitized generic vacation spot for overweight, pasty-skinned Mid-Westerners, sit by the pool all day drinking piss-water American beer (e.g., Budweiser), while slowly turning lobster red.

That was unusually petty for a Brit, you're super sour about us Americans, huh?

For four long years, I had to work at a Club Med every summer to help pay for my college tuition, schlepping Budweisers across the pool deck to guests. It's an experience from which I've never fully recovered and am still bitter. Mea culpa, mea culpa.

 

[James Kane]

This pretty much. Having lived in both, it's a night and day difference imho. The people act different, they talk different, they value different things. For instance, the gun control thing, that's a southern thing. Most people in the north would rather them gone. Especially between north and south, and even east and west. Californians are much different than Virginians culturally.
Also, you consider Virginia the "deep" south? Where the hell is the regular southern middle then lol? I take it you're from New England/Great Lakes region since your profile just says you're American.

Hell, yeah, Virginia's the Deep South. Maybe not geographically, but certainly culturally and politically. Are you forgetting that it was the seat of the Confederacy? The home of General Lee? And one of the last states in the country to stop resisting the desegregation of its public schools? It's as "South" as the South can get.

Actually many of us Snowbirds (Northerners who move to the South) have changed the cultural and political landscape of VA quite a bit, especially in the Hampton Roads area (Norfolk/VA Beach). It's gotten a lot less "redneck-y" here.

With all of this Tea Talk I'm wondering why I have yet to see anyone mention that Americans do actually drink a lot of tea but mostly drink it cold. In the Northeast we called it Iced Tea but in the South it's usually just referred to as Tea and Sweet Tea. If you ask for some "tea" in a restaurant in Tennessee you will get it cold and without sugar/sweetener.

 

[JDKJ]

"Pool" is what the Brits call "billiards."

Actually, Pool and Billiards are two distinct (but similar) games. Also, I'm fully American and I call it Pool way more often than Billiards. Such as a "Pool Hall." In fact I don't think I've heard anyone I know refer to it as billiards.

That was a poorly constructed sentence. Forgive the ambiguity. It was meant to read as the Brits call it "billiards" and the Yanks call it "pool."

 

[DrOswald]

Quick question: why is the drinking age 21 in the US, but 18 pretty much everywhere else? I've never understood that.

Here is a link to an article by the American Medical Association on the issue.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/public-health/promoting-healthy-lifestyles/alcohol-other-drug-abuse/facts-about-youth-alcohol/minimum-legal-drinking-age.page

And a quote from said article:

Drinking and driving among youth may not be as great a problem in Europe as in the U.S. Compared to their American counterparts, European youth must be older to obtain their drivers' licenses, are less likely to have a car, and are more inclined to use public transportation (Wagenaar, 1993).

I don't know how accurate the information is, but the article is our stated reason for the 21 year old limit.

I personally believe it is because we look down on alcohol a lot more. I think it is because our culture has a history of idiotic and abusive drinkers, dating back to our expansion and pre prohibition era.

 

[JDKJ]

This pretty much. Having lived in both, it's a night and day difference imho. The people act different, they talk different, they value different things. For instance, the gun control thing, that's a southern thing. Most people in the north would rather them gone. Especially between north and south, and even east and west. Californians are much different than Virginians culturally.
Also, you consider Virginia the "deep" south? Where the hell is the regular southern middle then lol? I take it you're from New England/Great Lakes region since your profile just says you're American.

Hell, yeah, Virginia's the Deep South. Maybe not geographically, but certainly culturally and politically. Are you forgetting that it was the seat of the Confederacy? The home of General Lee? And one of the last states in the country to stop resisting the desegregation of its public schools? It's as "South" as the South can get.

Actually many of us Snowbirds (Northerners who move to the South) have changed the cultural and political landscape of VA quite a bit, especially in the Hampton Roads area (Norfolk/VA Beach). It's gotten a lot less "redneck-y" here.

With all of this Tea Talk I'm wondering why I have yet to see anyone mention that Americans do actually drink a lot of tea but mostly drink it cold. In the Northeast we called it Iced Tea but in the South it's usually just referred to as Tea and Sweet Tea. If you ask for some "tea" in a restaurant in Tennessee you will get it cold and without sugar/sweetener.

I remember when Virginia Beach was a popular spring break destination for Black college students from the many nearby black colleges until, one year, the Virginia Beach Police got tried of seeing all those black faces and got to whuppin' some black college ass indiscriminately and without mercy. Needless to say, Virginia Beach hasn't since been the popular destination it once was.

 

[JDKJ]

double-post

 

[thylasos]

"Pool" is what the Brits call "billiards."

Actually, Pool and Billiards are two distinct (but similar) games. Also, I'm fully American and I call it Pool way more often than Billiards. Such as a "Pool Hall." In fact I don't think I've heard anyone I know refer to it as billiards.

That was a poorly constructed sentence. Forgive the ambiguity. It was meant to read as the Brits call it "billiards" and the Yanks call it "pool."

To be fair, I've never heard of anyone actually playing billiards outside of one comedy sketch in the late 80s. We just play (English) Pool, but American Pool's available in some places, and snooker's a fairly big thing, but played far less often than pool, simply for the reason of it being more complex, requiring more skill and keeping track of the score.

 

[BlackStar42]

Oh, one more question: Is it true that American girls find British accents sexy? If so, I may have to plan a trip one year

 

[JDKJ]

"Pool" is what the Brits call "billiards."

Actually, Pool and Billiards are two distinct (but similar) games. Also, I'm fully American and I call it Pool way more often than Billiards. Such as a "Pool Hall." In fact I don't think I've heard anyone I know refer to it as billiards.

That was a poorly constructed sentence. Forgive the ambiguity. It was meant to read as the Brits call it "billiards" and the Yanks call it "pool."

To be fair, I've never heard of anyone actually playing billiards outside of one comedy sketch in the late 80s. We just play (English) Pool, but American Pool's available in some places, and snooker's a fairly big thing, but played far less often than pool, simply for the reason of it being more complex, requiring more skill and keeping track of the score.

Is it spelled "poole?" Like "Ye Olde English Pub?"

 

[JDKJ]

Oh, one more question: Is it true that American girls find British accents sexy? If so, I may have to plan a trip one year

They may be more interested in learning about spotted dick. I'd use that tack as my strategy, if I were you.

 

[thylasos]

"Pool" is what the Brits call "billiards."

Actually, Pool and Billiards are two distinct (but similar) games. Also, I'm fully American and I call it Pool way more often than Billiards. Such as a "Pool Hall." In fact I don't think I've heard anyone I know refer to it as billiards.

That was a poorly constructed sentence. Forgive the ambiguity. It was meant to read as the Brits call it "billiards" and the Yanks call it "pool."

To be fair, I've never heard of anyone actually playing billiards outside of one comedy sketch in the late 80s. We just play (English) Pool, but American Pool's available in some places, and snooker's a fairly big thing, but played far less often than pool, simply for the reason of it being more complex, requiring more skill and keeping track of the score.

Is it spelled "poole?" Like "Ye Olde English Pub?"

Nah, that's the town in Dorset.

 

[JDKJ]

"Pool" is what the Brits call "billiards."

Actually, Pool and Billiards are two distinct (but similar) games. Also, I'm fully American and I call it Pool way more often than Billiards. Such as a "Pool Hall." In fact I don't think I've heard anyone I know refer to it as billiards.

That was a poorly constructed sentence. Forgive the ambiguity. It was meant to read as the Brits call it "billiards" and the Yanks call it "pool."

To be fair, I've never heard of anyone actually playing billiards outside of one comedy sketch in the late 80s. We just play (English) Pool, but American Pool's available in some places, and snooker's a fairly big thing, but played far less often than pool, simply for the reason of it being more complex, requiring more skill and keeping track of the score.

Is it spelled "poole?" Like "Ye Olde English Pub?"

Nah, that's the town in Dorset.

There's a town in Dorset that's an old English pub?! That's so cool words cannot describe. My kinda town.

"Fill 'er up, again, barkeep."

 

[Jakub324]

The chav is a curious creature: they are typically a-moral, and as a great man once said (ME!!), when the chav's hand strikes, it strikes with the strength of a legion. What that means is they will harass you, regardless of your age, but only if there are 60,000 of them and you are on your own. If you are on your own and they are not, they will half-heartedly mock you, but when you approach them, they will run away to their 25 year old brother who inevitable carries a flick-knife. They are shockingly stupid as they probably dropped out of school before year 6, and it is possible to put them under temporarily by saying something clever, or astounding them with a simple piece of maths.

 

[BlackStar42]

Oh, one more question: Is it true that American girls find British accents sexy? If so, I may have to plan a trip one year

They may be more interested in learning about spotted dick. I'd use that tack as my strategy, if I were you.

Haha, well played

 

[JDKJ]

To Americans: when you see a mixed-race person of Afro-Caribbean/White European descent, do you class them as mixed race, or black?

I ask this because as a mixed race person myself, I've noticed that a lot of Americans don't seem to recognise it as an identity in it's own right; they are more likely to class that person according to what they physically resemble the most, i.e. tanned skin and coarse dark hair = black. This is really putting me off moving to America as I'm worried that I'm going to be given a new identity that I can't relate to.

I get what your saying, but at the same time are you not doing the same thing most of the time? When you see a white person do you think "Caucasian" or do you think (in my case) "mostly polish descent with a bit of German in there"?

That isn't a race issue, though. Polish, French, German.. you're still white.

I'm not talking about heritage, I'm talking about race; actual biological differences that are apparent from first glance. I appreciate that heritage might still make people view you in a different way for various reasons, but it's still not quite the same thing.

by that logic then, if i am just white than you are just black, to the average eye. that's how it always will be to just about everyone. Why do all asians look the same? while from another perspective why do all white people look the same?

apples and oranges... But honestly, I know PLENTY of "black" people that are whiter than me and i know plenty of white people that are darker than half the "black" people i know, so really if you come over here you might be in for a shocker or two yourself, because if you are basing it off of apparent first glance looks, then you are going to be second guessing yourself with alot of people over here too then.

You're confusing me a little with the quotations. You say you know white and black people with varying skin tones - but what are you and American society classing them as? To go back to my original question, do you recognise these people as mixed race?

Easiest way I can explain this: If you were describing one of these "black" people to another person, would you describe them as "he's a black guy with.." or "he's a mixed race guy with.."?

If you ask me, America still suffers from its "one drop" rule (i.e., any noticeable Black parentage is enough to get you classify as Black). Increasingly there is greater recognition of mixed-parentage persons identifying themselves as being of mixed-parentage but there are those who don't much buy into the concept. Perhaps surprisingly -- perhaps not -- the greatest pocket of resistance to the concept is found in the Black community. EDIT: This resistance among Blacks to the concept of "multi-racial" identification may go back to the days of American Jim Crow laws when Blacks who could manage to do so "passed as White" in order to avoid the Jim Crows laws (which treated Blacks as second-class citizens). The Black community tended not to look kindly at Blacks who passed as White. They saw them as "selling out" and traitors to their race. Today, mixed-Blacks who identify as something other than Black are often met with scorn. When Tiger Woods tried to claim he was "Cablinasian" (a mixture of Caucasian, Black, Indian (Native American), and Asian) he was greeted with a collective GTFOH by the Black community.

EDIT: But, as a matter of law, you are free to identify yourself as whatever you choose (e.g., driver's license, census questionnaire, college application, etc., etc., which typically have "multi-racial" or "other" as an option you can choose). But just because you call yourself "X" isn't any kinda guarantee that everyone else won't call you "Y." Although I am tempted to ask why that matters to you. Are you gonna let what others think of you determine your self-identity? If so, you may be putting too much stock in what others think of you.

Thanks for the response

The US black community's resistance is one of my larger fears; although today in the UK I am widely accepted as mixed race, when I was a child a lot of black people would either act with hostility, or spend considerable time attempting to make me "blacker" and therefore more palatable to them. I don't wish to re-live that!

As for your closing question... it's taken most of my life for the UK to accept mixed race as an identity in its own right; and an equally long time for me to understand what that means to me personally. Of course moving to the US wont change my self-identity, but now that I've found it, I don't want to have it denied again by others. It would feel like a massive step backwards.

I'm very cheered to hear that recognition is on the increase in the US!

To Americans: when you see a mixed-race person of Afro-Caribbean/White European descent, do you class them as mixed race, or black?

I ask this because as a mixed race person myself, I've noticed that a lot of Americans don't seem to recognise it as an identity in it's own right; they are more likely to class that person according to what they physically resemble the most, i.e. tanned skin and coarse dark hair = black. This is really putting me off moving to America as I'm worried that I'm going to be given a new identity that I can't relate to.

Honestly I have absolutely no way to determine someone's race more specifically than White, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian or Hispanic. (I hate that last sentence but I'm quite tired and am too apathetic to edit it.) Everyone I know has this same problem, even if they or their parents were not born in the States. It really doesn't matter in any event b/c the race thing isn't as big a deal as many media outlets make it out to be. If you tell people what you are it'll be fine, especially if you have good food. (This is why America loves immigration, MOAR FOOD!) Really don't worry about it we're really easy to get along with despite rumors to the contrary. (Not applicable to terrorists/liberals/Rooskies)


P.S.: Where ya gonna move to? My experience may not be applicable in some places.


A good way to get a handle on average american's opinions, read P.J. O'Rourke's books.

Thanks for the response All the responses I've had seem to confirm that I will be considered black, but I'm glad to hear that at least that might not mean as much to the average American as I'm fearing. The skewed media image that gets sent to us is that US black people stick together and never socialise with anyone outside their own community, and US white people spend all their time feeling awkward and guilty whenever they come into contact with a minority. Or call them terrorists.

I'm likely to move to Chicago, New York state of San Fran as that seems to be where all the work is for my profession.

You may find that San Francisco best suits your purposes. It's got a long history of tolerance and still is a very tolerant place for those who might otherwise be marginalized elsewhere (it has the largest population of gays and lesbians in the United States). And it doesn't have a large enough population of Blacks to cause tension with other groups (all the Blacks are stuck across the Bridge in Oakland).

And the media image may not be all that skewed. America can be a very racially divided place. Racial groups do, by and large, tend to stick with their own kind. More often than not, there's a peaceful co-existence between those groups but ain't nobody holding hands around the campfire, singing "Kumbaya."