Octang Frye

Wherever we go, I can usually spot British people, and point them out to the wife before we ever hear them speak.

I'm not talking about the shaved head, bull-necked, nylon football jersey-wearing folk you see at the Mouse - that's too obvious.

It's more a combination of comportment, wardrobe, how people hold themselves, UK haircuts (my mum is a good barometer of these), and just general body language.

It's just really distinctive. Anyone else notice the same thing?

DexterBerkeley

Yes, I was thinking this the other week. I'm not sure I could do this when I first arrived here in the US 5 years ago but now I see people, think their British and then I hear them speak to confirm it. I couldn't tell anyone how I do this, I just somehow they stand out to me.

tom169

Easy to spot. They're normally complaining about something.

Tarkak9

.... its easier to spot something when you know what you are looking for ....

Same goes when yanks are abroad.

robin1234

I worked for about twenty years at a small liberal arts college in northern New York State. There were / are several British faculty, and quite a few Anglophile types in addition. You could spot the American Anglophiles - tweed jackets with elbow patches, Viyella shirts etc. The women, they look as though they're attending a Victorian themed wedding every day. The actual British people are much harder to spot, most of them had spent years trying to fit in...

scrubbedexpat142

The sour & discontented facial expressions are a dead giveaway!

Pulaski

Badly built houses, automatic transmissions, and the shortage of good quality cake!
Occasionally, but mostly not. I think most of the British I meet are "by descent" (US born and raised), and during a conversation that often starts with a comment about my accent, it transpires that their mother is/ was British. ..... There seem to have been a lot of war brides in my neck of the woods.

Lion in Winter

Bacon. No proper bloody bacon.

scot47

A combination of body language and clothing. I became quite adept at spotting them when I lived in the Balkans. I always tried toi take evasive action as soon as my radar spotted them.

Pulaski

Well you're just blöödy antisocial! I expect you'll end your days exiled on some remote windswept island beyond the edge of what passes for civilization.

scrubbedexpat142

"Foreigners, funny money, garlic, heat".

petitefrancaise

Cognitive bias anyone?

You think you spot all the Brits but then you don't know how many you miss.

Pulaski

Definitely! I have seen many more cars with Union Jacks, St George's Crosses, and Rampant Lion front plates, .... and even one Welsh dragon! not to mention various semi-cryptic car registrations and GB or other car stickers, than I have ever met British people here.

SanDiegogirl

Usually the ones talking quietly between themselves unlike the natives who shout to one another even if standing close by !

MidAtlantic

Most of those I have met with Union Jacks on their cars and T shirts are wannabe Brits.

Thankfully I don't meet many real Brits day to day and those I do are the usual nauseating salesmen (yes they are men!).