Jaxbar

I heard this woman talking about her book on NPR this morning Sarah Lyall an American living in Britain married to a Brit.

She talks about some of the usual stuff our obsession with booze, spelling, cricket, teeth. some of it is funny, some stereotypical, some offensive if we didnt have that great British sense of humour!

"Brits," she explains, "are supposed to pretend that achievement comes without effort; boasting is the height of poor manners. It makes you seem aggressive, ambitious, self-regarding, puffed up -- verging on American."

"Even in the twenty-first century, for instance," she points out, "many British people still ride the subway during the evening rush hour without benefit of deodorant."

A Review here
http://www.latimes.com/features/book...,2204065.story

And an earlier interview she did.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=94921468

chartreuse

True enough. Another thing I've noticed is that where I was brought up to put opinions, or even facts somewhat diffidently, saying "perhaps" or "it seems that", Americans seem to put forward even the most wild-assed guess with all the authority of Moses reading from stone tablets.

That's also true. But whereas being a bit whiffy after a hard day's work is understandable, if not excusable, what I can't stand is people who pong on the way to work, first thing in the morning.

Marty J

What annoys me even more is when someone has decided to use half a can of deodorant. I walked past a guy in the street the other day, and he almost choked me.

As for the book, I'm sure the Scots and Welsh don't really take too kindly to people writing books about broadly English eccentricities, and then presenting them as "British" ones.

Since when did "British" start meaning "English"?

chartreuse

Since we surrendered our sovereignty to a bunch of unelected commissars in Brussels and it became nekulturny to put English down on a form as your nationality

meauxna

Probably around the same time as 'Holy Roller Redneck Idjit' equaled 'American'.

Lorna at Vicenza

but what has deodorant got to do with ambition - agression - boasting - achievement etc etc and whatever else she said ??????

katieuk

I know - it gets mildly annoying after a while. We Welsh have our own eccentricities, and some of them border on bizarre. Give us a voice!

Xebedee

Those are character traits that Americans view as strengths (inserts "or perhaps they view them as such" )

You can allways tell the English who have been here a long time and have assimilated more - they tend to exhibit these characteristics. It even comes out in the speech patterns: I want, give me, I think, I'm just saying.

fatbrit

Think I'd have gone for illegal rather than bizarre.

bevinva

bugger

fatbrit

We'll see how the election goes this time, shall we?

Xebedee

.............!

snowbunny

This is the interview I was referring to where the interviewer was Just Shocked at the culture of binge drinking, which she had No Idea went on in genteel Britain!