American-British Q&A

[Stephanos132]

To americans: Why are you letting your government throw in the towel for manned space missions, instead now relying on the russians for transport?

to be honest, I'm not sure why we even need to keep exploring space when our problems on earth are pretty big

With that logic in hand, it seems like we'll never get off this piece of rock. And I was so looking forward to my moonbase too. Way to ruin my dreams...

 

[aashell13]

What is British food? if you decide to go out to eat, where do you go and what do they sell?

 

[JDKJ]

"Your food" is burgers. Other than that pretty much all of your food is taken from another country

Sort of. Yes, we've borrowed extensively, but it's more a conglomerate of derivatives than anything else. Tex-Mex for example is based off of mexican food, and uses a lot of the same names, but any Mexican will tell you that it's a lot different. Same goes for Italian and Chinese food.

Also, I'm told that Italian pizza is nothing like a proper American pizza.

Go to the heart of Mexico and order nachos and they'll have no idea what you're talking about. Nachos were invented by a gringo along the Tex-Mex border.

 

[xchurchx]

Dear England:

Why is your accent so damn sexy?

i belive its coz of bond, james bond
in all honesty tho i dont know
why is your accent so annoying?
ah the wonders of the world

 

[Stephanos132]

Dear England:

Why is your accent so damn sexy?

Which one? There's loads of them?

And your women so damn ugly?

Because they don't all hide beneath layers of silicone like yours do.

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

Here is a question as a British Scottish person how would an average American (if such a thing exists which I doubt) differentiate me from an English person?

I understand the whole English accent = snarky comic relief/villain thing but that is used so commonly in conjunction with "British" it leaves me curious.

Especially since I think Scotland has quite a strong and recognisable national identity for our size.

That's kinda weird because the Scots who migrated here tended to end up in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of Kentucky where they became stereotypical mountain men, distilling moonshine (if there's one thing a Scotsman knows how to do, it's making whiskey) and feuding between their clans (e.g., the "McCoys" in Hatfields versus McCoys). I don't think the Scottish ended up in large metropolitan areas in any significant numbers -- unlike the Irish in Boston and New York. Your typical American probably's never encountered anyone of Scottish descent. But he can differentiate between an Englishman and an Irishman. The Irishman's always the drunker of the two.

Englishman Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a pub... none of them leave for fear of looking weak in front of the others.

Thanks for that info, it does strike me as quite curious though especially given the number that moved across to the Ammericas during the clearances...

I would bet the majority of Ammericans/Canadians know about the Irish Potato famine but don't know about the Highland clearances.

 

[drisky]

why do you Yanks call it football?
i mean common? u kick the ball like a few times in a game?

I just looked it up.

The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Both games have their origins in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, in which a ball is kicked at a goal and/or run over a line. Many games known as "football" were being played at colleges and universities in the United States in the first half of the 19th century.

So Its a variation of rugby you called rugby football, which changed further in america and we eventually dropped the rugby instead of the football. So your country is partially your countries fault. Thats kind of awesome that bring that up every time a Brit calls me stupid for calling it that now.

 

[JDKJ]

What is British food? if you decide to go out to eat, where do you go and what do they sell?

Meat and potatoes, basically. Shepherd's pie. Bangers and mash. Beef stew. If it don't contain meat and potatoes, the Brits can't make heads or tails of it.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

It just sounds odd to me that he did a half-assed job of it - why not just remove the redundant letters from *every* word with weird spelling, eh?

I didn't mean that the alternative spellings are "superior". I meant that I assumed you were making something up so that it looked like there was a *reason* for the alternative spellings rather than "just cause..." - this would make North Americans look better (and I assumed you were one). That explanation wasn't great, but do you see where I'm coming from?

I've read a sci-fi short story about a 1960's 'tomorrow's world' style community where the leader does remove all redundant spellings and even redundant letters from the language. In the end he gets killed by one of the scientists below him for how ironically complex he made the language.

I get your meaning though. Noah himself was pretty short sighted about it, changing centre to center is all well and good until you remember the word centric and centrifugal.

 

[xchurchx]

Fish n Chips, the full english breakfast and the good ol fasiond sunday roast.
if we want to go out and eat.... our restaraunts are not very different to yours

 

[tirone231]

i have a question: are american schools similar to how they're portrayed in movies and TV?
i mean, do they have such separated 'cliques' and do cheerleaders real spend their whole lives in their uniform?

Kind of, though it's much more fluid than depicted in movies. Movies use the idea of cliques to quickly separate characters so as to make the story easier to understand. Divisions along racial lines is more likely to be seen in the average high school, especially in a big city.

i have a question for America,
Why do you do your dates backwards? as in MM/DD/YY opposed to the way the rest of the world with the DD/MM/YY, smallest unit FIRST so today is 21/05/11 in most of the world but Americans have it as 05/21/11.
i just had a minor rant on another thread about this and felt i should probably get some enlightenment.

If i had to guess, it's our way of making dates easier to find in a calendar. It's the same with how we full write it out: 04/21/11= April 21, 2011. Listing the month first gives a general idea of when something happened, then the day narrows it down. I could be completely off target here, though.

My question for British people (or anyone else who knows the answer): how do you feel about the idea that part of the reason America won the Revolutionary War was because England wasn't really that concerned about losing the thirteen colonies, and so didn't send most of its military might?

 

[Daveman]

It seems to me that Americans don't drink that much (compared to us) from what I've heard. How much are you likely to drink on a night out?

Personally I drink at least a bottle of wine myself before we head out then a few beers and mixers whilst out to keep me going. If it's just a trip to the pub it'll be 4-6 pints of ale. I think this is fairly normal consumption for a student in the UK.

 

[XandNobody]

why do you Yanks call it football?
i mean common? u kick the ball like a few times in a game?

As an American I can confidently say, I haven't the slightest damn clue. I've honestly wondered if we did it just to cause confusion to everyone else sometimes.

The only thing I know, and this is something I read on a wiki once so no idea if its true/insane babel, is that it was born from someone fiddling with the rules of rugby. Was rugby ever called football or something?

 

[xchurchx]

thats a preety reasonable answer
i take my hat off too you

 

[Jazoni89]

Alright so my question is this? What is a Chav? I've been called this on occasion and I don't think it's anything good, would someone care to explain?

A chav is a stereotype of certain people in the United Kingdom. Also known as a charver in Yorkshire and North East England "chavs" are said to be aggressive teenagers, of working class background, who repeatedly engage in anti-social behaviour such as street drinking, drug abuse and rowdiness, or other forms of juvenile delinquency.

Sacha Baron Cohen's character of Ali G is a perfect example of a chav. Booyakaa! Respect!

Not really.

If chavs were like Ali-G no one would mind. Sure people would complain that the country is going down the shitter with herds of gormless idiots. But that would be it.

Chavs are generally highly aggressive and renowned for extreme anti social behaviour. Not to mention being synonymous with British gang culture.

Or you could just watch this vid.


terrible stuff indeed, we as brits have to put up with that crap.

 

[JDKJ]

Here is a question as a British Scottish person how would an average American (if such a thing exists which I doubt) differentiate me from an English person?

I understand the whole English accent = snarky comic relief/villain thing but that is used so commonly in conjunction with "British" it leaves me curious.

Especially since I think Scotland has quite a strong and recognisable national identity for our size.

That's kinda weird because the Scots who migrated here tended to end up in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of Kentucky where they became stereotypical mountain men, distilling moonshine (if there's one thing a Scotsman knows how to do, it's making whiskey) and feuding between their clans (e.g., the "McCoys" in Hatfields versus McCoys). I don't think the Scottish ended up in large metropolitan areas in any significant numbers -- unlike the Irish in Boston and New York. Your typical American probably's never encountered anyone of Scottish descent. But he can differentiate between an Englishman and an Irishman. The Irishman's always the drunker of the two.

Englishman Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a pub... none of them leave for fear of looking weak in front of the others.

Thanks for that info, it does strike me as quite curious though especially given the number that moved across to the Ammericas during the clearances...

I would bet the majority of Ammericans/Canadians know about the Irish Potato famine but don't know about the Highland clearances.

Scottish kid comes home all out of breath and gushes, "Pa, you'll be proud of me. I ran all the way home behind the bus and saved you a dollar."

Scottish father slaps him in the head and says, "You stupid child! You could have run behind a taxi and saved me ten dollars."

*rimshot*

 

[Daystar Clarion]

My question for British people (or anyone else who knows the answer): how do you feel about the idea that part of the reason America won the Revolutionary War was because England wasn't really that concerned about losing the thirteen colonies, and so didn't send most of its military might?

That is actually the argument I use against most Americans when it comes to the revolution.

Britian was busy dealing with France at the time so they really didn't want to send troops to America.

It is my belief, that if Britian were not at war, the Americans wouldn't have stood a chance.

 

[Shirokurou]

Maybe I should start an American-Russian Q&A then...

 

[XandNobody]

It seems to me that Americans don't drink that much (compared to us) from what I've heard. How much are you likely to drink on a night out?

Personally I drink at least a bottle of wine myself before we head out then a few beers and mixers whilst out to keep me going. If it's just a trip to the pub it'll be 4-6 pints of ale. I think this is fairly normal consumption for a student in the UK.

Sounds about right to me, well, at least in my case. Granted, if I really get going sometimes it'll be more like 5-7 pints, but even then it's no big deal. Then again, this could be somewhat off of a measure, as most of the people around me don't tend to make it past like, 4 pints, rarely.

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

Spoiler: snip

Here is a question as a British Scottish person how would an average American (if such a thing exists which I doubt) differentiate me from an English person?

I understand the whole English accent = snarky comic relief/villain thing but that is used so commonly in conjunction with "British" it leaves me curious.

Especially since I think Scotland has quite a strong and recognisable national identity for our size.

That's kinda weird because the Scots who migrated here tended to end up in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of Kentucky where they became stereotypical mountain men, distilling moonshine (if there's one thing a Scotsman knows how to do, it's making whiskey) and feuding between their clans (e.g., the "McCoys" in Hatfields versus McCoys). I don't think the Scottish ended up in large metropolitan areas in any significant numbers -- unlike the Irish in Boston and New York. Your typical American probably's never encountered anyone of Scottish descent. But he can differentiate between an Englishman and an Irishman. The Irishman's always the drunker of the two.

Englishman Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a pub... none of them leave for fear of looking weak in front of the others.

Thanks for that info, it does strike me as quite curious though especially given the number that moved across to the Ammericas during the clearances...

I would bet the majority of Ammericans/Canadians know about the Irish Potato famine but don't know about the Highland clearances.

Scottish kid comes home all out of breath and gushes, "Pa, you'll be proud of me. I ran all the way home behind the bus and saved you a dollar."

Scottish father slaps him in the head and says, "You stupid child! You could of run behind a taxi and saved me ten dollars."

*rimshot*

See that's a stereotype I don't really get either, we have always been fairly canny (woo scots word) with money but the whole thing about being extremely mean with money just seems off given there are stories about Scottish generosity too.

Guess it is just a stereotype that exists to feed a joke that perpetuates the stereotype.