oh, for heavens' sake

[winterbadger]

as seen on brits_americans

As a US citizen living in London, Christian Cox says she is shocked at the amount of abuse she receives because of her nationality.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4881474.stm

Comments

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately you can't just blame it on being a "loud yank"--I know people who have gotten this kind of crap and they don't yell on the Tube. One woman I know got it in her local village shop.

I used to get it a lot on an English BBS.

People just think Americans are still an OK target. Sad, but true.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Whilst I'm not doubting her account, it does make me wonder since I've never been treated in the manner she describes. Of course, I am almost twenty years her senior. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it might. I'm a fairly non-threatening middle-aged woman.

On the other hand, she didn't need to yell on the tube to be considered loud. See my comment above. Since I've resided here in the UK, I tend to find most Americans a lot louder than I used to when I lived in the US. I know that I have toned down my public voice, and whilst I don't have an English accent (despite a number of Americans thinking I did on this recent visit to the US -- trust me, I don't have an English accent at all), I don't sound distinctly American neither.

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty non-threatening looking myself--honestly the only "American" thing about my appearance is that I'm overweight and that's hardly uncommon in the UK either :-) I live in London, and I can usually spot americans on the tube by sight. I never get random abuse but I do hear plenty of things said about Americans that offend me. At least once a week there will be some stupid comment in a newspaper or magazine that sends me into a rage. Writers will actually say, point blank, "Americans are thick". And if you complain people just say "you need a thicker skin". (Forget complaining about anti-Semitism. The newspapers will focus on the latest Ken Livingstone flap, but you rarely read in the non-Jewish media about people getting beaten up--except when Panorama accuses the CST of inflating stats. One Jewish high school is having to change its start and end times because the kids get beaten up and harassed on their way home.)

voice wise, I try to remember to keep my voice down but for me being loud isn't American; it's because i'm a New York Jew. ;) (And I lived with my refused-to-believe-she-needs-a-hearing-aid grandmother.) My accent's softened slightly but it's still pretty distinctive, especially if I've just phoned home.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I was a Philadelphian part-Jew.

This year, I finally decide to shut up and accept that Christmas is considered secular here. *sigh* (I'm part Reformed Jew, part Wiccan. :)

I live out in the New Forest; I'm not in London that often. You want to talk about lack of Jews or anything kosher? Okay, there are a lot of Wiccans out here, at least. ;)

[winterbadger]

This year, I finally decide to shut up and accept that Christmas is considered secular here.

One of my favourite Harry Potter comments from an American: "How can you say there's no religion in those books!? They're always going on about Christmas!" :-)

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

*LOL* I live in Finchley. The only way I could get MORE Jewish would be to move a mile away to Hendon or Golders Green. ;)

But you want Christmas fun? The kosher butchers here sell turkeys at Christmas. Not celebrating Christmas here is like the mark of the really frum. Kosher Christmas dinner is not an oxymoron in Britain!

[silme.livejournal.com]

Before I moved here, when I visited England and London, I used to stay in a b&b in Golders Green. I remember doing laundry at a laundrette one Friday morning and smelling the challah baking at a nearby bakery. :)

We buy organic goose from a local organic farmer, but I don't think they're kosher. :) Kosher turkeys? Cool. Of course, one year I was looking for Chanukah cards in Southampton. It took me five shops. At two of them, the clerks didn't even know what Chanukah was. *sigh* I was tempted to say something about how they must not have paid much attention in RE. ;)

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

ooh, which one? we've got quite a selection round this way... my favourite is Daniels for bagels (I mostly don't like the Israeli-style bakeries but the bagels there are really good), Sharons for cakes. (mmm poppy seed cakes)

[winterbadger]

I live in London, and I can usually spot americans on the tube by sight.

My classic experience was trying to blend in in 1980s London and getting spotted by a VERY LOUD American tourist on a bus who decided to make a pal of me and dropped a string of (at least some of them inadvertant) slighting remarks about Britain, the British, their transportation system, their food, their politics, their economy, their music, their clothes, their teenagers' hair colour--and then asked me to explain how "this play money works".

Sadly, I gave in to devilish temptation and explained the pre-decimal currency sytem to him in great detail (there were still plenty of shilling and two-shilling pieces in circulation then, which helped). And then got off at the next stop. I swear I saw some grins on the way out.

[easy-living.livejournal.com]

I swear I saw some grins on the way out.

Given the way I just spluttered with laughter, I can practically guarantee that you did :)