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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm British and I live here (and I love it and don't complain about it!) and from my perspective, one of the main behavioural differences between English people (I'm not going to speak for the others in Britain as I'm a Londoner born and bred) and Americans is that Americans are generally very friendly and polite, at least on a superficial level, whereas English people are not. I think it's not that English people are rude people once you talk to them and get to know them, but they are not immediately open and friendly to strangers. So here, people in shops and restaurants say "have a great day", etc; people say hi or smile when walking in the street (this does happen in more rural places in England but very rarely in London or other cities); people will approach strangers in a friendly way, etc. English people don't generally do those things - I see that it comes across as rude if you're not used to it but it stems from feeling that you should mind your own business. Some English people also find the "have a nice day" thing fake - I think it's quite nice but I do think that the surface level friendliness means that I'm often surprised by how hard it is to penetrate beneath and actually get to a genuine friendship with someone. I think with English people the difference would be that you don't start on that high with a potential friendship!

As for the "obnoxious" patriotism, I generally really like this about Americans - it's good to be proud of your country. It's a bit sad that in England that kind of patriotism would be ridiculed or it would be assumed that you are fascist/xenophobic. The only time I find American patriotism annoying is when it is combined with a total lack of interest in anywhere else in the world on the basis that America does everything best and there's no other country that matters. I have encountered that attitude a few times and it's annoying. [/quote]

I agree fully. Other Brit on the thread. The friendliest place I have lived is LA [/quote]

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