Culture differnce between the US and the UK?

S

*~Sparkle~*

New member
I live in England and never been on holiday abroad only to Cornwall and North Wales and days trips to France. I would love to some day to visit America but of course have no idea how the two countries differ from each other. Has any one from the US visited the UK and what have you thought of it? and the other way around any fellow Brits out there who been to the US, what did you think of the country?
When i went to France i just went to Calais and it just felt very open, and not very crowded, here in the UK things are more closer to each other which i'm very use to, when i went to France i wanted to explore further than Calais but realised things like towns are a lot more spread out. To get to one end of England to the top of Scotland maybe take 2-3 days by car, (a lot less by plane of course) i bet it'll be a lot longer in the US lol maybe a month, just a guess.

My parents have lived and worked in the US for a year and about 3 years in Canada, i was born in Canada but of course i am almost 20 now (i left Canada when i was 3) so that was ages ago and things would of changed so all their stories of their life in the US are probably a bit dated. My entire famil is English.
 
We all know the stereotypes of each country. I am from the UK and visited the US a few years and found there were many things the same but many different. One thing that stuck in my mind is that at a Wendys I saw people saying Grace before eating hamburgers, to me that is something quaint and very unlikely to be seen in the UK.
Of course they cannot make tea!

My overall impression is that individually most Americans are very polite and will go out of their way to help you.
 
Hi there. I'm American have been to England a few times. The first thing, apart from the various regional accents, is how "trousers" is used in place of pants and a few spelling differences. Our humor is quite different. An example can be taken from The Office, which is a British product, but the two versions are very different humor-wise. Also, Europe is a lot smaller in general, when it comes to buildings, streets and such, which many Americans have a hard time getting adjusted to (my parents are European, so it didn't phase me much). Other than that, our countries are pretty similar.

Black tea is awesome though. :]
 
Americans and British are one people separated only by a common language.
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Actually a fairly small percentage of Americans are English. There are more Irish and people we call "Scotch-Irish" (but you call Ulster Scots) than English. But the people of German origin or latinos are actually a lot larger.
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Globalization has brought the cultures much closer together, but there are still profound differences. American culture is still much more brash and about excess than British culture. The good thing for you is that most Americans are very deferential to British accents. When you begin to speak many people will assume that you are smart or cultured.
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American television steals from British television a lot, but British movies remade in America tend to be failures. The Italian Job was one remake that was successful. Harry Potter is very successful in America (as it is all over the world), but the production is done by an American movie studio. Britain would have trouble producing and distributing a movie of that expense.
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Comedy is a little different. Americans as a whole do not widely embrace British comedy. However, British actors are featured widely in films and TV, but they are distinctly American made. The sheer size of America means that if a British actor or filmaker can attract a small portion of the audience, they will make more money than they can in Britain.
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Americans are more fascinated by royalty than the British.
 
I've heard this from many foreign-exchange students at my school: "Everything about America is big. The cities, the houses, the yards, and even some of the people." It's true - we are a country of extremes. And our regions are extremely varied because we are such a large country. But Americans love British people (I'd die to have an accent!), so you needn't worry about being accepted here.
Best of luck!
 
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