For me, as an American of the West, and influenced by what you might call the NY/Boston scene of Broadway, theatre, opera, and baseball...

-I LOVE England, have to see that place someday, as an English major, I want to see where all the great English Empiricists I bang on about here, Locke and Hume and Mill and the like, where they were born... and if I ever go, it'll be with my friends, all in theatre, because we ALL, being theatre people, want to see the new Globe Theatre! Politically... hey, anyone who'll be friends with us THIS FAR... gotta stick with them ;)

-France... I don't know much except they don't like us, and, frankly... well, Bush was a jerk, but he doesn't speak for ALL of us...

-Israel I support, being a Jew, but I DO wish they'd tone it down with the brutality some... I know why they do it, and I sympathize to a greater extent than maybe most... but we need PEACE there, not putting down riots all the time, they, we, the Jewish People have the land they wanted for 2,000 years that meant so much to them... they CAN share some of it, the Palestinians, yeah, there ARE so many other Arab states it is sometimes a question I wonder "Why not just go to one of THEM?" but even still... let them have some of the cake, Israel, we have Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, we have the dream- don't condemn another group to 2,000 years.

That's all I have for now, as the Mets are on- see you all soon! ;)

And nice gopher27 lol... :)

Obi, id be glad to show you the Globe and the sights of London should you ever make it over here...

I met an American girl in Bangkok (no, this is not fictional tale) once who before she even told me her name apologised for being American, and for me that typified all the 'yanks;' that ive met since. Sincere yet loud! :)

Yep, sincere and loud... that works for me! ;)

(And for many of us... apologetic somewhat for being Yanks- we love our country, but we have a bad name since Bush...)

Yeah, I'm so apologetic for being American that, when abroad, I never tip and make sure not to be social or conversational with people. And wear a Speedo a few sizes too small....gotta remember that.

The main division in England is north/south; north is more industrial, poorer, more working-class, like football, southern people are soft and weak, like tea&crumpets&cricket, have banking/office jobs (like all regional differences it's not really as much of a difference as people sometimes pretend, but that's the stereotype)
Then you can split into this county that county, this side that side of a town, this suburb that suburb, we like to divide ourselves up as much as anywhere :-)

I'd tell you the Aussie sub-stereotypes but you don't get too exposed to them here in Perth, which is a long way from the heartland of Australia. North is poor & crime infested (which in Australia usually means there's lots of aboriginals; there is a lot of racism here but most of the aboriginals are just something else), South/South East is lush and (relatively) cultured, West is .. just dull I guess, no real culture of its own, not sure how they see us elsewhere (someone from Aus help me out with that?)
People I know don't mind the crocodile dundee thing of how we're often viewed overseas, but it's like characterizing America by a guy with a huge cowboy hat and a lasso, it's not really offensive but people who live there know how uncommon it is

Ive never met anyone who had any strong feelings against the US in England or Australia (actually there's this one guy in England but he's a conspiracy nut), but we're so exposed to US TV that we can't avoid knowing how you guys see things, including all your regional stereotypes from state to state.
If you want to know about other countries you've got to have threads like this or go out of your way to quiz people you meet, but with the US we always know what's going on and what your take on things are

Personally I've always been impressed with American tourists/international students/business visitors/navy guys, they've always seemed upbeat and friendly, and the accent is more pronounced in person than on TV, where it gets somehow phased out (probably because there's no frame of reference, whatever everyone's speaking sounds like the normal accent)

I am American. I wish i had a British best friend. Thats how cool they are. France isn't my favorite just because. I'm president of my schools German Club so i enjoy the German culture and what not. The people are swell too. Japan i'm not interested in. too much anime. Canadians are cool people. My best friend is Canadian. Italy has some of the hottest women in my opinion. that is until they hit a point where they get big. i'm pro Israel. They actually really impress me. Iran is not any americans favorite probably. But in the overall scheme of things i love other lands. I wish i could travel to them. Sadly the only other country i'v been to is Canada.

"there is a lot of racism here" thinking about that I should clarify that it (usually) only applies to aboriginals. We have so many immigrants from asia/south africa/europe, and there's little to no cultural friction (a lot less than there is between middle-eastern people in England, for example), but when it comes to aboriginals it's less racist stereotypes than a recognition of the reality that your average encounter with an aboriginal you don't know is likely to be a bad experience. Coming from england I can see how that sounds terrible, but it's just the reality of it right now

"Iran is not any americans favorite probably."
It's weird every Iranian I've met outside of Iran calls him/herself Persian, and tries to distance themselves from the "Iranian" country/regime. It's almost like an Italian calling themselves "Roman" because they don't like the Italian government

Re: France I'm not a big fan either, they're relatively prickly/rude/snobby whenever I've run into one (and I have French relatives). Based on a single foreign exchange student and stories of Germany they seem much nicer, but that's based on a smaller sample size

Oh by the way the way America sometimes portrays England as being snobby/superior is really weird. It's funny as a running gag, but in reality we're/they're more likely to live in tiny houses and be pretty poor and "unrefined" shall we say. For some reason the "chav" is unknown in American culture, but it's a much more accurate stereotype of british youth than someone posh

I'v met one French person at Epcot in Disney World. I got glared at. Might of been my Germany Michael Ballack football jersey but i don't know. I also met a German there and had a delightful conversation with him in the bathroom. But the other German i met was a foreign exchange student who was basically a jerk who thought he was big stuff. Also at Epcot i talked with a guy from Liverpool. He had season tickets. he was nive enough. Even though i explained i root for Chelsea when it comes to the English Premier League.

Last summer i went to Paris, was expecting snobby French but instead found people on the street/hotel to be really friendly. Waiters were short with you but they were really busy so its ok. the Motto for Paris is act well bred and polite and people will be polite to you, act bossy and loud( sorry, a few American tourist acted this way) and they will treat you like shit.
australia- sydney(centre) gay and narcissistic, fun to place to visit but i could never live there!
melbourne- obsessed with catching up to sydney
adelaide- old and obsessed with catching up to melbourne
countryside- goodhearted people but narrowminded, strong accents

I find english people and german people the easiest to get along with(being an american). I have only known one french person and so cannot speak for them. The one i know is from south france and he is friendly but i hear the french who are north in the cities are the snobby ones.

You know who sucks? Illinoisans.

I spent a couple of weeks in South Korea a few years ago. They were incredibly friendly, once they found out I was a Brit and not an American. They hate the Japanese too, for the dozens of times they've been brutally invaded during the last 1,000 years. The Scots hate the English for (what they claim are) similar reasons.

So except for the north being industrial in both places, it sounds like the North for England is like, roughly, the American South (or at least Midwest) and the South is more like the American North, West End and all...

Even the games seem right; our cricket, baseball, is bigger in the North than in the South to a great degree, and our football, American football, is big in the North but almost like a religion in the South...



Sounds like when I visit someday, I want to go to the South of England. Both sound nice, but the South sounds more like the London/Boston/NYC sort of place... tall buildings and stadiums and museums and theatres and a great night life...

And besides that- I love tea... and have NO IDEA how your football works (and to be honest, outside of the Monty Python Germany/Greece "Philosophy Football" sketch, I don't think it looks interesting... I don't get it, 1-0 games on such a huge field/pitch? What makes it so rough? American football you can tell is rough, metal helmets and pads everywhere and STILL they break bones and can even paralyze people with hits, long passes, scoring... World football seems so tame. So why is it, then, that the fans go even crazier and more violent and brawling sometimes than the Oakland Raiders' fans? Besides that, no great desire to see cricket or rounders, either- I'm sure both are great, and I am definitely biased here, but to me I can't see any game topping the Grand Old Game of baseball for an American in the bat-and-ball category. It's been with us so long, and defined us down through our history... why, one of the first Civil Rights movements was on a ballfield, Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. Baseball is just so... PERFECT for America.

That being said- I will se VERY SINGLE THEATRE SHOW when I get there, and be sure to get some tea, and see if it really is better than what they have here...)

Hey, wait-

SpeakerToAliens, what do the south Koreans hate US for?

We're not the ones invading over and over... and without us, they might well be under the North Koreans...

I am a Brit, from south-east England, and have spent over 20+ years working for a big multinational company, the last 17 of them living overseas (China, Malaysia, SIngapore and The Netherlands), working with people from many other countries. It is hard to overstate what fun and how educational that has been.

There are some truths in the various national stereotypes but they are only a small part of the reality. When looking at other nationalities we tend to focus on the ways that they are different to ourselves and not the similarities. I probably have more in common with my colleagues and the other people that I encounter professionally than with most Brits. I recall an English friend who moved to the US after a long time living in Hong Kong and Japan, who had enjoyed the company of many Americans in both places, remarking "why have all the nicest Americans left the country?".

Sadly, events from history still scar today's relationships: China & Japan, Malaysia & Singapore, Israel & Palestine, Poland & Russia, etc., etc., etc. If you talk to people on either side of those arguments you will usually hear their national view and yet, if you know the individuals, you see little real difference between them.

Too often politicians use real or perceived threats from outside to strengthen their own position. Robert Mugabe, most Israeli and Hamas leaders, Kim Jong Il, are some of the worst, but similar stupidity can be seen, with less serious consequences, far too frequently.

So, back to the topic, let me share some of my experiences:
- Germans are very organised, but not humourless as usually portrayed
- Italians wave their arms around a lot
- French do shrug their shoulders
- Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world
- Aussies are very casual
- Chinese: the Cantonese are interested in making money, Shanghainese more worried about their place in history
- Japanese: are very hierarchical

but I emphasise that these are simplistic, generalised descriptions. Perhaps useful when you first meet someone or when dealing with people en masse but no substitute for knowing the individual.

"southern [English] people are soft and weak, like tea&crumpets&cricket" - hello Ghost :)
Indeed the England seems to be split north south, although far east & far west are also stereotyped off as being incestuous and having incomprehensible accepts.
The sport that really splits the country is rugby: in the south its Union & the North is League.

@Kestas: "there is a lot of racism ... (usually) only applies to aboriginals."
I spent a lot of time in Sydney, in the period '96-'99, working on a project. It is certainly very multi-cultural (on my team there we had every nationality from South East Asia, the UK, Iran, Mauritius and so on). From reading the papers/watching the news I got the impression that much of the crime, especially the Western Suburbs, is race-based (Lebanese and Vietnamese drug dealers, Serbian football hooligans).

Have I got the wrong end of the stick, or is that the reason for your caveat "usually".

New Zealander's have funny accents!

I wonder why it is that South African & Australian accents are similar. Clearly both are former British colonies, but they're very different from the English accent. Something to do with the type of person who decided to emigrate, or to do with trade across the southern Indian Ocean?

Generally I find most people want to live their lives their way, they want to love and be loved, they want to participate in or view art and sport and cultural; they want to have enough to eat, somewhere to call home and someone to take care of them when they're sick. They want their children to have a better life than they have and for the most part they respect their parents and the elderly.
I must admit that I'm not the most travelled guy on the planet, but I live in the UK so I have had the benefit of meeting people from many, many backgrounds. Deep down what unites us all far outweighs our differences.

I'm Australian and really don't think we sound like South Africans - but i think different peoples hear accents differently. When I was in Bangkok, I met a guy from one of the northern states in the US [forgive any insult here] and he sounded almost Canadian to me. But my Thai friends who speak English couldn't hear any difference between us.

Obi, "what do the south Koreans hate US for? "
Im afraid all you know about the Korean war is coming from an very US centric viewpoint. Talk to south Koreans and a lot(not all) will have a very different viewpoint, it was meddling by the US and russia/china that split their country.

@sean:

Granted we meddled, we are meddlers, we Americans (contrary to what George Washington and the Founding Fathers wanted... then again, if they saw America today, heck, even if someone recent like FDR, they might not totally disapprove of us, but they'd be in for a rude shock) but still...

Would they have preferred we just have left them to the mercy of North Korea and China?

@diplomat61:

MOST Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world... some of us actually DO care to at least try to be more culturally aware of others and that there are other ways besides the American WAy (though I will admit, even though I do like to think I know a good deal more than a lot of my college-mates about the world beyond America... I likely don't know nearly as much as the English do about others in Europe. The Europeans strike me as sort of a "us only" club- England, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, etc.- and the USA is partially excluded, and partially doesn't WANT to be in that club, for some reason. Maybe sort of like folks that are really firneds but just sort of deny it and play favorites until they need to drop the acts and get to it?)

@Maniac: well said, I could not agree more.

@Figle: I don't agree that SA and Australian accents are similar, I think because of the different groups that settled there. For example, probably because of the Akrikaner connection I hear a lot of the SA accent in my Dutch colleagues when they are speaking English.

Why the Australian accent is different from the current UK one is more difficult. Penal transportation probably caused a mix of more rural/working class people than emigration to SA. There is a tendency for immigrants and descendants to hold on to their original accent more than their "home" country does so it may be that UK English has changed more/faster than 'Strine.

As for the difference between Australia and NZ, perhaps it is a Maori influence, the absence of penal transportation or more Scottish emigration to NZ than to Oz.

@obiwan2: "Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world", as I said, there is some truth in the stereotypes. European countries feel closer to each other than to the US in the same way that Americans probably feel closer to Canadians than Europeans. Some of that is simple geography, some is culture, some is familiarity and some of that is politics.

In Europe the invasions of Iraq, especially the second, and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan are hugely unpopular. Because of America's leading role under Bush (Senior & Junior) your reputation suffered, which is why Obama's election was greeted so warmly here. However, if forced to chose friendship between say, China, and the US most Europeans would opt for the latter.

Here in the UK the main issue with the invasion of Iraq was the way politicians (read Blair) weren't honest *why* we were going to war. The unpopularity with them now is partially due to that and partially because its a large financial outgoing.