Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
Sep 5th 2008, 6:21 pm
#91
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2008
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 53
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
I haven't seen or spoken to another Brit the 8 months I've been here, so it's early days. When I've been here visiting in the past, though, I've always tried to say hello to the few other Brits I encounter, but they've never been very friendly. I'm sure I was just unlucky.
I sort of recall a quote by J B Morton (Beachcomber) that the definition of a tourist is an Englishman you meet abroad who is in a different party from yours.
I sort of recall a quote by J B Morton (Beachcomber) that the definition of a tourist is an Englishman you meet abroad who is in a different party from yours.
Sep 5th 2008, 6:26 pm
#92
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2007
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 535
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
Me too. I watch every British show on TV just to hear it.
There are VERY few Brits were I live. There was a Scottish woman whose daughter went to the same school as mine but she moved. I've only met or even heard one other though & that was an older guy in a restaurant at the table next to us a few weeks ago. I heard his life story in 5 minutes, he'd been here 20+ years and desperate to go home. We stayed and talked for about an hour (with him saying bollocks every chance he got LOL).
At the end he said just hearing the accent & talking to another Brit, using and hearing words & phrases he hadn't thought of for years, made him feel so much less homesick that he thought he'd feel better for a while.
There are VERY few Brits were I live. There was a Scottish woman whose daughter went to the same school as mine but she moved. I've only met or even heard one other though & that was an older guy in a restaurant at the table next to us a few weeks ago. I heard his life story in 5 minutes, he'd been here 20+ years and desperate to go home. We stayed and talked for about an hour (with him saying bollocks every chance he got LOL).
At the end he said just hearing the accent & talking to another Brit, using and hearing words & phrases he hadn't thought of for years, made him feel so much less homesick that he thought he'd feel better for a while.
Sep 5th 2008, 10:02 pm
#93
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Reno Nevada
Posts: 15,917
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
I haven't seen or spoken to another Brit the 8 months I've been here, so it's early days. When I've been here visiting in the past, though, I've always tried to say hello to the few other Brits I encounter, but they've never been very friendly. I'm sure I was just unlucky.
I sort of recall a quote by J B Morton (Beachcomber) that the definition of a tourist is an Englishman you meet abroad who is in a different party from yours.
I sort of recall a quote by J B Morton (Beachcomber) that the definition of a tourist is an Englishman you meet abroad who is in a different party from yours.
It was probably me you tried to say hello to in the past and I was not very friendly lol
Sep 9th 2008, 9:52 pm
#94
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: Maryland
Posts: 485
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
I won't stop them in the street, though I spot them, all the time. Especially tourists, you can tell by the matching tracksuits.
I find it really hard to smalltalk with Brits over here anyway. I rarely get past where I'm from, and 90% of the time, they all know where I'm from (Camden in London, almost everyone has a Camden Lock Market story), but I've never been to where they're from, especially if it's South London. So the conversation usually fizzles out really quick.
I've got nothing against Brits here, and do have a few British friends, but it's really difficult to find anyone I have anything in common with other than both of us having Coronation Street once.
Something else, too. Mrs Ski got a contract gig with a British publishing company here in NYC, and got to know a few of the Brits working there. We went out as a group a couple of times and that was fun, then we started hanging out with her boyfriends' gang, which was a large group of twentysomething Brits who worked for banks and some of them worked at the British Consulate. I tried my hardest to break into the clique they had set up, but it was nigh-on impossible, and I realized that they never invited us to anything they were doing, but we always invited them. So eventually I ended up giving up, not bothering to email them if we were going out, and we've drifted away from that group and now hang out with almost exclusively Americans, and I'm much happier.
I find it really hard to smalltalk with Brits over here anyway. I rarely get past where I'm from, and 90% of the time, they all know where I'm from (Camden in London, almost everyone has a Camden Lock Market story), but I've never been to where they're from, especially if it's South London. So the conversation usually fizzles out really quick.
I've got nothing against Brits here, and do have a few British friends, but it's really difficult to find anyone I have anything in common with other than both of us having Coronation Street once.
Something else, too. Mrs Ski got a contract gig with a British publishing company here in NYC, and got to know a few of the Brits working there. We went out as a group a couple of times and that was fun, then we started hanging out with her boyfriends' gang, which was a large group of twentysomething Brits who worked for banks and some of them worked at the British Consulate. I tried my hardest to break into the clique they had set up, but it was nigh-on impossible, and I realized that they never invited us to anything they were doing, but we always invited them. So eventually I ended up giving up, not bothering to email them if we were going out, and we've drifted away from that group and now hang out with almost exclusively Americans, and I'm much happier.
Lived off Albany Street....
Sep 9th 2008, 10:08 pm
#95
Diamond Geezer
Joined: Mar 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 2,488
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
Wa-hey! Knew I'd find one sooner or later. Right by the park, eh? I lived off Primrose Hill for most of the 70s until I moved up the canal to an estate near Camden Road, then over to Kentish Town. Spent 20 years there. Mum and two of my sisters still live there. Good to see ya!
Sep 9th 2008, 10:24 pm
#96
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: Maryland
Posts: 485
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
Wa-hey! Knew I'd find one sooner or later. Right by the park, eh? I lived off Primrose Hill for most of the 70s until I moved up the canal to an estate near Camden Road, then over to Kentish Town. Spent 20 years there. Mum and two of my sisters still live there. Good to see ya!
Made for such a lofty statement saying 'Regent's Park is my local park'.....No such duck feeding delights in this neck of the woods....And how I miss the 15 minute walk to Oxford Street and the shopping delights contained within!!!
Sep 9th 2008, 10:53 pm
#97
Diamond Geezer
Joined: Mar 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 2,488
Re: Do you ever approach fellow British people in the US?
Anyhoo... As the old crowd keep saying to me on Facebook, congrats on making it outta there! Though I also miss the place.
You just made me remember dancing round the Maypole on Primrose Hill when I was 6.
Good times. Good times.
