The US is the same as Us?
I know and understand that America is a different country but sometimes it feels like I must be going to another planet. I frequently get asked things like "Do they have this in America?" and "What do Americans think about such and such?" Thanks to Hollywood we know more than we could ever want to about the USA. They were founded by Anglo-Saxons predominantly from Europe even though some things are different it seems that some people can not believe what they see in films or read in books. Whether we like it or not the UK and to a lesser extent Europe have been deeply influenced by America, and your average European will know more about the USA and its history, politics and geography, than the average American will about Europe.
That said I get the same questions from Americans about whether the British like Tony Blair, what the British think about the war, and I also get the same level of amazement when I tell Americans that we have the same products as them. A recent example of this was when I went to the dentist. The dentist asked what type of toothpaste I used in the UK and when I told her Colgate she was shocked. She asked if it was called the same as it is here i.e. Colgate and couldn't get her head around that we would have the same toothpaste in the UK that she uses here.
Another issues is the bigotry that many in the UK have towards Americans. I want to give you 2 examples that happened to me. The first involves someone who knew I was getting married to an American and the second was a conversation I over heard.
I went to the pub with two friends who are a couple. Whilst there I was updating them on my case and what was happening. As the evening wore on the girl (who I am not going to name so lets call her X) got slightly the worse for wear and she asked me in all seriousness why I wanted to marry an American. I responded by saying that I didn't choose to fall in love with an American, but you can't help who you fall in love with, but I loved Jen because she made me laugh, she was beautiful and she was clever. X looked at me and said "Americans aren't clever; I bet she can't even read". And this was said in all seriousness. I was shocked and could not believe she had said such a thing, when I challenged her she continued, "All Americans are stupid, does she even have a passport? I bet she's big and fat. Does she wear white socks the whole time? You better not turn into one of them and speak with that stupid accent". All this from someone who knew I was getting married to Jen and had earned a degree from a top British University . Maybe this is all stuff that X has heard over the years as she is Welsh and I am sure she has had similar experiences of people mocking her nationality, but I have never done this to her, and you would think that if someone has been subjected to that kind of treatment they would never inflict it on anyone else. Or maybe people don't realise that they are doing it. I think as a nation we are far more interested in what Americans do than we care to admit and we are annoyed that they don't have the same interest in us or our country. This is why I think the oft quoted stat about only 27% of Americans have passports. I completely agree that this is shocking, but having visited California I can see why; that state alone is larger than the UK, it has beach and coast, mountains and desserts, ancient woodlands and large cities. In the summer you can spend your whole time wearing shorts and in the winter you can go to the mountains to ski. The only thing they are missing is a rain forest but they have every other type of climate and terrain on this earth.
I know that some of you will be thinking that you are not interested in America at all and I know that there are people who don't give a flying rat's arse about the USA, and I do sometimes feel hypocritical about this as before I ever met an American I felt the same way. Yet having met some I can hand on heart say they are no better and no worse than us. I have met stupid Americans, but I have also met stupid British people. You get morons everywhere.
The second story to illustrate my point is as follows. Jen came over to see me in London a while back. We were walking along Charing Cross Road when we passed two women dressed in business suits. As we walked passed one of them was saying to the other, "The problem with Americans is...", and then they were gone. Now this was before Jen & I were engaged so I was desperate to find out what the problem was with Americans, and Jen wanted to find out exactly what her problem was. We walked on, but the incident got me thinking just how confident you have to be to be able to sum up a whole nations problems. I have done some research (not enough I hear you cry!) and there are 300 million Americans. Are these two women trying to tell me that they have cracked what the problem is with all of them? Let's not forget that this is a massive country and people who live in New York have very different characteristics from people from Washington DC, who are different from those in Idaho, who are different from those in Little Rock who are different from those in San Francisco. And I haven't even got onto Alaskans or Hawaiians or God forbid Utah.
That said I get the same questions from Americans about whether the British like Tony Blair, what the British think about the war, and I also get the same level of amazement when I tell Americans that we have the same products as them. A recent example of this was when I went to the dentist. The dentist asked what type of toothpaste I used in the UK and when I told her Colgate she was shocked. She asked if it was called the same as it is here i.e. Colgate and couldn't get her head around that we would have the same toothpaste in the UK that she uses here.
Another issues is the bigotry that many in the UK have towards Americans. I want to give you 2 examples that happened to me. The first involves someone who knew I was getting married to an American and the second was a conversation I over heard.
I went to the pub with two friends who are a couple. Whilst there I was updating them on my case and what was happening. As the evening wore on the girl (who I am not going to name so lets call her X) got slightly the worse for wear and she asked me in all seriousness why I wanted to marry an American. I responded by saying that I didn't choose to fall in love with an American, but you can't help who you fall in love with, but I loved Jen because she made me laugh, she was beautiful and she was clever. X looked at me and said "Americans aren't clever; I bet she can't even read". And this was said in all seriousness. I was shocked and could not believe she had said such a thing, when I challenged her she continued, "All Americans are stupid, does she even have a passport? I bet she's big and fat. Does she wear white socks the whole time? You better not turn into one of them and speak with that stupid accent". All this from someone who knew I was getting married to Jen and had earned a degree from a top British University . Maybe this is all stuff that X has heard over the years as she is Welsh and I am sure she has had similar experiences of people mocking her nationality, but I have never done this to her, and you would think that if someone has been subjected to that kind of treatment they would never inflict it on anyone else. Or maybe people don't realise that they are doing it. I think as a nation we are far more interested in what Americans do than we care to admit and we are annoyed that they don't have the same interest in us or our country. This is why I think the oft quoted stat about only 27% of Americans have passports. I completely agree that this is shocking, but having visited California I can see why; that state alone is larger than the UK, it has beach and coast, mountains and desserts, ancient woodlands and large cities. In the summer you can spend your whole time wearing shorts and in the winter you can go to the mountains to ski. The only thing they are missing is a rain forest but they have every other type of climate and terrain on this earth.
I know that some of you will be thinking that you are not interested in America at all and I know that there are people who don't give a flying rat's arse about the USA, and I do sometimes feel hypocritical about this as before I ever met an American I felt the same way. Yet having met some I can hand on heart say they are no better and no worse than us. I have met stupid Americans, but I have also met stupid British people. You get morons everywhere.
The second story to illustrate my point is as follows. Jen came over to see me in London a while back. We were walking along Charing Cross Road when we passed two women dressed in business suits. As we walked passed one of them was saying to the other, "The problem with Americans is...", and then they were gone. Now this was before Jen & I were engaged so I was desperate to find out what the problem was with Americans, and Jen wanted to find out exactly what her problem was. We walked on, but the incident got me thinking just how confident you have to be to be able to sum up a whole nations problems. I have done some research (not enough I hear you cry!) and there are 300 million Americans. Are these two women trying to tell me that they have cracked what the problem is with all of them? Let's not forget that this is a massive country and people who live in New York have very different characteristics from people from Washington DC, who are different from those in Idaho, who are different from those in Little Rock who are different from those in San Francisco. And I haven't even got onto Alaskans or Hawaiians or God forbid Utah.
posted by Nick at 2:58 PM
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