I?ve visited our friends (mates) across the pond. Three times now, once as a child, once as an adult, once a teenager. I lived with a host family as a Catholic exchange program thing.
FYI: I was snogging frequently with their oldest daughter who was a few years older than me. Win!
You kind of lump us all together: It seems that most in the UK think the USA has two cultures
?The South?: Which is anyone raised in a small town or rural community regardless of geography.
Or
?Yanks? which is pretty much everyone else.
I am from the Midwest. I speak ?Newscaster American.? I spent a great deal of my youth growing up on Ranch (not a farm they?re different!) and when I was hanging out with some London youths when I was 15. They were completely baffled by the fact that I didn?t speak with a ?southern American accent? even though I grew up on a ranch. when they began describing what they meant by that they actually described people/imitated a Texas accent? which isn?t the same anyway.
I was actually, pretty offended by them than presuming I was a hayseed bumpkin who was ignorant, conservative, bible-thumper who rode a horse to school and grew up near a swamp. They also assumed that I was ignorant with the ways of the world as a whole. Ironic: considering I was the one in a foreign country. When correcting them in this matter some admitted a limited knowledge of American culture and grew from the experience. Others just hand waved it and said ?it?s all the same?
If you don?t get how this was upsetting about the fact I?m using an example from Londoners to lump all people in England together?
No? How about the fact that I insinuated that the UK and England are the same thing?
See how that feels?
Obviously, my knowledge of UK accents is very poor compared to the average UK citizen but at least I'll admit that ignorance. I was hand waved as being 'wrong' about my own country.
2nd point: While I mention accents.
I am sick and tired of being told that UK English (specifically British English) is ?correct?. Here?s the thing. English colonies in America were founded several hundred years ago. How close to the English that was spoken than do you think we Americans speak now? Not very. True enough.
Well what about you Brits? How close of English do you speak to that which was spoken 300+ years ago?
Yeah same story. Oh sure your accent may be closer but you have just as many spelling, colloquialisms, and sentence structure changes as we do.
They are two different dialects of the same language one is not more ?correct? than the other. If you guys start speaking like you did in the 1700?s or 1600?s you may start claiming ?correct? or ?proper? status. Until that day, yours is just as mangled as ours.
Certainly everyone here has felt the sting of people making presumptions about them. In various ways. It?s especially bad here on the net. I extend my surly olive branch now. Let's try not to color each other based on natonalistic opinions.
EDIT: I in no way am claiming Americans don't do this. They do the Hell out of it. I'm also aware of all the irony in this entire post. Don't bother pointing it out
edit: [a href=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmericanAccents]TV Tropes[/a] Actually has the best list of American accents I have ever found. Go figure.
FYI: I was snogging frequently with their oldest daughter who was a few years older than me. Win!
You kind of lump us all together: It seems that most in the UK think the USA has two cultures
?The South?: Which is anyone raised in a small town or rural community regardless of geography.
Or
?Yanks? which is pretty much everyone else.
I am from the Midwest. I speak ?Newscaster American.? I spent a great deal of my youth growing up on Ranch (not a farm they?re different!) and when I was hanging out with some London youths when I was 15. They were completely baffled by the fact that I didn?t speak with a ?southern American accent? even though I grew up on a ranch. when they began describing what they meant by that they actually described people/imitated a Texas accent? which isn?t the same anyway.
I was actually, pretty offended by them than presuming I was a hayseed bumpkin who was ignorant, conservative, bible-thumper who rode a horse to school and grew up near a swamp. They also assumed that I was ignorant with the ways of the world as a whole. Ironic: considering I was the one in a foreign country. When correcting them in this matter some admitted a limited knowledge of American culture and grew from the experience. Others just hand waved it and said ?it?s all the same?
If you don?t get how this was upsetting about the fact I?m using an example from Londoners to lump all people in England together?
No? How about the fact that I insinuated that the UK and England are the same thing?
See how that feels?
Obviously, my knowledge of UK accents is very poor compared to the average UK citizen but at least I'll admit that ignorance. I was hand waved as being 'wrong' about my own country.
2nd point: While I mention accents.
I am sick and tired of being told that UK English (specifically British English) is ?correct?. Here?s the thing. English colonies in America were founded several hundred years ago. How close to the English that was spoken than do you think we Americans speak now? Not very. True enough.
Well what about you Brits? How close of English do you speak to that which was spoken 300+ years ago?
Yeah same story. Oh sure your accent may be closer but you have just as many spelling, colloquialisms, and sentence structure changes as we do.
They are two different dialects of the same language one is not more ?correct? than the other. If you guys start speaking like you did in the 1700?s or 1600?s you may start claiming ?correct? or ?proper? status. Until that day, yours is just as mangled as ours.
Certainly everyone here has felt the sting of people making presumptions about them. In various ways. It?s especially bad here on the net. I extend my surly olive branch now. Let's try not to color each other based on natonalistic opinions.
EDIT: I in no way am claiming Americans don't do this. They do the Hell out of it. I'm also aware of all the irony in this entire post. Don't bother pointing it out
edit: [a href=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmericanAccents]TV Tropes[/a] Actually has the best list of American accents I have ever found. Go figure.
