ChrisBan

Just out of interest I'd like to try one of those "pay it forward" at a coffee shop somewhere in the UK that you've heard work successfully a couple of times in the US and Canada. Bet it would only go 2 or 3 people before someone would be like.... ..... thanks for the free coffee sucka

Shard

Not exactly Pay It Forward...but good intentions still exist in Blighty...

Alan Barnes: Disabled mugging victim fund reaches £160k in three days - BBC News

bats

Well said. I work in a hospital and ave met the usual types of people here as in the UK.

Buying a round? Happens all the time.

There are differences of course but they are cultural and don't signify anything better or worse in character. One thing that I've noticed here that is far, far better than ever happened in Britain is that people are much more helpful and supportive of disability. I find it much easier to be deaf in this country where people consistently make an effort to include me, to help.

Some of the nastiest, meanest people I've come across here are English.

ChrisBan

Ohh that was awesome! Don't get me wrong, I know the grass isn't always greener and people will have different experiences for sure

Shard

Yeah it is awesome.

I agree that PIF wouldn't last many customers in the UK. Far too much cynicism prevails for that American guff.

dbd33

Oh! I was baffled by your earlier post because I don't meet enough Canadians for it to matter what they're like. The workforce here is from the four corners of the earth. "What's s/he on about?" I wondered, in politically correct fashion, "the Canadians are all cops or lawyers or in government".

Now I see. My daughter is a Canadian lawyer married to a Canadian lawyer who's father is a Canadian lawyer, their friends are, well you know. That's a clique far removed from ordinary society, a bit like the Hutterites.

caretaker

"You wanna buy some CORN? Or maybe SUE somebody? We got chickens and litigation cheap today!"

BristolUK

I've never pushed anyone in a wheelchair in the UK but the thoughtfulness shown when I'm out with my wife in hers do make me wonder if it would be the same in the UK.

xxdb

Conversely my son has special needs and we have had a terrible time in the school system until I read the riot act to them from the statute of education and threatened to sue. Even then, not everyone holds their tongue. In the UK he was handled very carefully and with a lot of compassion and he did great there.

Now obviously that doesn't diminish your experience but I have definitely not found the Canadians to be awesome people at all. On average I like them slightly less than my own people and my wife and sons like them a lot less.

And on the other hand, my friends from the same part of town as us have been treated great in Vancouver. We've only ever lived in Toronto or Calgary so maybe those two cities in particular are soulless but who knows, I've read others complaining about Van.

Bottom line: If you come here, there's some risk you might not meet awesome people. You might meet horrible people or even just simply be ignored.

dbd33

I have extensive experience of traveling with a disabled person. The day-to-day kindness and accommodation shown throughout the US and Canada (except at the Seventh Wave restaurant on Queen St. E.) has been outstanding. However, the disabled person aged out of the support system in Canada and so it was no longer prudent for her to live here.

In short then, people in North America generally very supportive, institutional support systems not much good.

discouraged

So, so true. I am in an office of about 75 government lawyers, all of whom are Canadian with one exception - me.

All things considered I think I'd have been better off taking my chances with the Hutterites.

Former Lancastrian

What do the following countries have in common

The UK, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and the Bahamas?
They are de facto countries where English is the official language.
Don't you think that all of these countries have differences between each other?
So I suggest that anyone living in the UK who is thinking of moving to one of these countries accept the fact that there will be differences some good and some bad. If you expect them all to be like the UK and have no differences
THEN DONT MOVE.
Me thinks the Brits protest too much when things aren't the same or what they are used to when living/working or visiting other countries.

Tirytory

It beats me how people can generalise so much? The group I have met are like this so therefore all people are like this.

Tbh I think when people complain like that it makes me question what about them makes people respond to them in such a manner....

Shard

This.

discouraged

No issue that there are cultural differences, that much is obvious. I don't think most people who emigrate to other countries are stupid enough to think otherwise.

It's the depth of the negative differences that has shocked me, and that's something you can only truly appreciate through experience, in my case 5 years in Canada. Other people will clearly either have genuinely different, more positive experiences than I (in which case good luck to them) or are wilfully closing their eyes to the obvious in order to justify their decision to move.