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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP who claims that the US and UK are culturally indistinguishable is very wrong. I thought that too when I moved to the US from Britain about twenty years ago and it was a massive culture shock.

Some examples:

Despite not being a religious country (admitting you are religious, esp Christian, in the UK will lead to ridicule and is an electoral liability) Easter is a national holiday, with a four day weekend. There is no Easter bunny. The shops are full of chocolate eggs. Not like the ones sold here. Large hollow ones, filled with candy or chocolate. On Good Friday, you eat hot cross buns.

Christmas is all about drinking. Brits drink heavily and binge drinking is encouraged.

British people are culturally unable to brag. If you get a promotion you should down play it, if you mention it at all.

We play football. With a round ball. This is a predominantly male game and always has been. Girls play net ball. We don't play baseball or American football.

We are easily embarrassed and apologize if we bump into you or have to complain in any way.

We speak a different language that you may not understand.

British people wait to be introduced. It would be very unusual for a British person to walk up to you and introduce themselves.

We have a very different education system which involves specializing at 16. We think multiple choice tests are a joke. 60 percent in an exam is a very good mark. 70 percent is excellent or amazing/unheard of depending on the subject. Our degrees take three years and are more specialized than yours, but less broad. Many young people stop studying maths at 16, for example, yet are successful at university.

We have very broad food differences from tea to bangers and mash. Cottage pie, steak and kidney pie, Cornish pasties, fish pie, Sunday roast, Yorkshire pudding, treacle pudding, Marmite, beans on toast, jacket potatoes, shepherd's pie, fish and chips, mushy peas, scones and clotted cream.

We also have a different culture and national views re. guns, the government and its role, the welfare state, health care, police, etc.

Despite the allegedly common language, the differences are stark.[/quote]

All true, PP.  My husband is British.  I'll also add that the British are excellent at self organizing an orderly queue. Humor typically involves a combination of self deprecation, sarcasm, and great delight at "taking the piss" out of someone. I lived in England for 7 years and found "sorry" is used when I would say "excuse me."  "Sorry, do you have the time?" and food is described as nice, rather than tasty or delicious.  How's your dinner?  Oh, it's really nice.  The other one that always threw me is describing someone's house/flat as homely, a compliment meaning warm or cozy.  Homely is not a compliment to Americans.

My impression as well was that many people over rely on the NHS at the first sign of minor illnesses and ailments like canker sores or a cough rather than going to a pharmacist first. Americans generally go to the doctor as a last resort only after they've tried self treating it with Anbesol, NyQuil or whatever. [/quote]

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