Yeah, you're fitting in well, I can tell.

'They' are such morons after all.
bah, why do I bother.

It probably is a stereotype, but unfortunately it is true with my american female relatives. They all talk at a ridiculously high volume to each other, even when sat just across the dinner table from each other. Not shouting, just regular conversations but talking really loudly. It hurts my poor delicate english ears.

I say I say I say ! - take my wife !

--- you haven't met my Irish Cherokee

She can shatter 10mm safety glass at 100 metres and was used by blackwater security to destroy IED's in Iraq - or was it IUD's in Omaha.....

She worked in Chorley in Lancashire and said all the Brits were 'really quiet'
- they are still quivering I reckon

I recommend watching fawlty towers episode 'waldorf salad' - you will get the idea

I semi -jest but certainly the squeakiness of the american tones (female/child especially) makes it carry further - it is logarithmically proportional to the the squeak quotient in the carrier wave... Hank Marvin being an exception and jerry lewis being more typical

That's me, I like to 'fit in'. I just feel more accepted as an individual in the UK as opposed to saying and doing the right thing to fit in, in the US. My English friends don't interupt me to correct me when I say walkway, freeway, elevator...

Sorry for the generalisation, lets say lots of people I have met in LA.

it sounds pretty boring if i cant take the piss outta them. ive always been attracted to people who dont take themselves seriously. i hope i don t struggle to make close friendships

Of course you can take the piss out of "them", but don't expect to have that many close friendships.

A lot of Americas (again in my own experience), have no problem making themselves the butt of the joke, but if they're made to feel like the unwanted/unwarranted butt of someone elses joke or piss take, you'd better believe they'll let you know about it.

Really? Wow, I honestly haven't come across that.
It makes me laugh though, they're probably 1/8 Irish and 7/8's English ancestry.

well i dont want to be disliked and i hate confrontation so i guess ill have to tone m humour down

Why do you care, you're only coming over for a little bit.

Or do you mean 'close' winkwinknudgenudge etc


How can you explain human relations to someone who only wants to make fun of other people, right to their faces? If you do that to a stranger, it's not 'funny' or 'taking the piss', it's just insulting someone. Maybe wait until you know *the individual* before you go shredding them for a little laff of your own.

It's a different culture. You're a visitor. Why not see what you can learn that might improve you instead of moaning about what we are not when you are not even here yet, for your short stay?

Again, it'as just my experience, but he did ask the question...

I've had two specific experiences in the US where I have conme across extreme anti-English attitudes and it was both from Irish-Americans.

Firstly, I had some Texan decided that she wouldn't talk to me solely because her grandmother had told her how much she hated the English. She actually communicated with me, mainly telling me how much she hated ME personally for what my ancestors had done to her ancestors, but through a friend who was sitting next to her.

Secondly, I was in a reenacting group where one of the ladies was an Irish-American... She literally would not sit around the same fire as myself and would get up and walk off if I started to walk over to her... I got around that issue by following her around until she gave up.

Edit: Having said that, and countering the argument I'm making, some of my best friends over here are Irish-American and the English v Irish subject is more to rib one another than anything else.


All good fun and more based through ignorance than any real understanding of issues which need to be left dead and in the past (and in a different thread).

What!! Women talking loudly you get more than two women sat around a table, or in the same room and they WILL talk loudly, they are all trying to get 'a word in'

Time and a place... I have friends here who are more tolerant of sarcasm and can give as good as they get, but you REALLY need to know that you're not going to offend the person before you start. This goes double if that person is a neighbor or work colleague.

I just want to clarify, personally when I say 'take the piss' I'm not mean or rude to anyone. But often my sarcasm leads me into trouble. An instance recently was a colleague said she liked the painting on my wall, I said 'thanks I did it in my spare time' (my 6 year old did it). But she believed me, so then I had to say, 'no, my daughter did it really', which some people consider taking the piss. My warped sense of humor never meant any such thing.

And when you have been 'improved' and turned into an american - a 'have a nice day ' brainwashed walmart associate clone, you can send a telegram to the white house thanking them for your cultural re-alignment and how much more of a nicer person you feel now

I bought some Walmart shares today in order to benefit from their exploitation so I shouldn't complain

Dale Carnegie said, 'We can not afford to offend even one member of our audience' (I ignore him when it pleases me).

What I'm saying is, you're the fish out of water when you get here, the guest, the newcomer. It's good social order for you to be the one who watches for social cues.
Ex: you think Americans are loud, enthusiastic and in-your-face. If an American goes out of his culture and amplifies that behavior abroad without respect to what others are doing, he is going to stand out and perhaps be perceived negatively. He thinks he's just 'being himself'.
I find it a lot more interesting to watch people and keep the 'When in Rome' adage in mind.

What went wrong in your example is, (let's pretend I was your colleague).. I don't know you have a child, I don't know that you are not a painter, even a sucky painter. I just gave you a compliment (I like your painting) and you negate my comment, my taste and my friendly overture by your 'joke'.
The appropriate reply (especially in a work situation) is to thank the person and brag up your kid.
IN MY OPINION.

I don't think it's a warped sense of humor, it's a method of making fun of the other person. But that's for the psychologists. Hopefully Leslie will be back soon to explain it better.