Lion in Winter

My whitish in skin tone in the winter and very brown in the summer half British, half Mexican, brought up in the US and American-sounding son seems to be capitalizing nicely on his American accent - it seems to come in useful both for chatting with girls and for giving presentations in class. No prejudice issues there. The only issues he has had have been town/gown issues (Portsmouth FFS, not Oxbridge) but not too much of that, and some British white nastiness towards some British black people. That last one blew him away, since he had never encountered it in the UK before although he was very familiar with it here.

UkWinds5353

Your poor wife. Did anyone come to her rescue?
That is so unexplainable on most every level. Was the neighborhood a challenging place? Is this a reflection of the crime rate in that London area? Did the authorities send that perpetrator for mental health examination?
A preexisting mental condition is the only thing that would make sense. So sorry your wife went through such a horrifying experience.

lansbury

She was badly bruised and had concussion, but fortunately nothing broken.

morpeth

At least in the north-east UK I can say generally Americans and Canadians are not only treated politely but people seem o have a lot of goodwill towards Americans, and always wanting to ask questions about America .

UkWinds5353

Our situation in visiting the UK for nearly two months is different from living in that place because you don't have sufficient time to see the good bad and indifferent. But honestly we did not experience any negative feedback at all. No bad attitudes directed at us because we're American, or anger at us which sometimes can happen due to people attaching a bias at a person because of the actions of that person's government. Which is kind of weird since a great many people in America don't even vote.

We found brits to be friendly in most every area of the country. But our most memorable encounters took place in Manchester, Liverpool, Brighton Beach, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.
We had several very friendly encounters in London despite the fact that most huge cities in the world are usually not friendly places. New York city being one of them and yet I have found some extremely kind people there as well. I was thinking the family dynamic(seeing a family with kids) might be partly responsible for Brits being more open to us. But truth is I encountered the same kind treatment even when out on my own.

There are always going to be a few people that will dislike you for a great many unreasonable explanations. Because you're attractive, or in their opinion not their cup of tea. Because you are viewed as using the system, or because you have a few nickels to rub together. Or because you have a natural tan, or because you're a quiet conservative person and not always open and talkative. There will be a few people that will not like you for being an American or Canadian. But that will not matter.

lansbury

Uxbridge was never a challenging place. It was one of the nicer parts of Hillingdon. It was in the run up to Christmas and busy with Christmas shoppers, the guy was just your average thug who thought lashing out was the acceptable way.

Jerseygirl

How old are your children?

Most kids I know of pick up the new accent pretty quickly. Someone once told me that they move before the age 11 they naturally adopt the new accent quickly. After 11...it’s up to them, but I think many do and find it easy to do so.

My daughter was 11 when we moved to NJ. She was 18 when she moved to Toronto. Depending who she is speaking to, she speaks with one of the 3 accents. During the first parent/teacher meeting at high school, her class teacher was amazed to find out we were British.

Dorothy

My son was 10 when we moved to Australia abd within 6 months sounded like he'd been hereall his life. My daughter was 12 and still sounds Canadian. Albeit with a bit of Australian in there. She's mistaken for Irish (so am I though) a lot.