"Arfa Daily" ...

"Wickeddoll" ...

"Cathy F." ...

If you get to the U.K. - go everywhere you can! Really diverse areas,
for a smallish place. ;-)

P.S. And they really *do* say "Ta", & "Thanks, ducks", & Ta, love". ;-)

Cathy


And "Thanks me duck" and "cheers luvvy" - And that's in the areas where
you can understand the people ! You should try Tyneside, or Cornwall, or
parts of Liverpool and Norfolk, and the Scots !

Speaking of regional expressions, it's always disconcerting to see what
British TV shows do to portray Americans. It's quite painful (they
rarely have a convincing American "accent"), but even more excruciating
is the way the "Americans" act. I truly hope that's not what the rest of
the world really thinks we're like!


Well, that's a bit of an interesting one. I visit America several times a
year, so have a pretty reasonable idea of the way Americans behave when at
home, and I actually think that it *is* pretty much as (over)portrayed,
which is confident, loud, a little brash perhaps, but the thing is, it
doesn't come over that way when you are there, because of the sheer size
and scale of the place, and everything in it. Sort of 'being big, in a big
place', if you will.

You're not helping... :-)

However, if you think about it, American TV, and the American people, do
much the same to Brits, in reverse. I bet if you try to imagine a British
person, not having been here, and having only TV as a reference, you come
up with the very conservative stiff upper lip,
plum-in-the-mouth-newsreader-accent Basil Fawlty stereotype. And I'm sure
that many of us probably come across that way when we are in your country.
But if you asked those people about that, like you, they would probably be
horrified that you perceived them in such a way. I guess that also, you
are basing your view of our view of Americans, on TV programmes that are
often made to be, if not full-on comedies, then at least amusing, and that
is where another huge difference between us comes in. These TV programmes
often employ a 'lampooning' style of humour, which appeals to Brits, so
the 'archetypal' American that might appear is deliberately 'blown up'
into the brash, loud clown, for just that purpose. Think Fawlty Towers -
the Waldorf Salad episode.

Right, but even the dramas that have "American" characters seem to go nuts
with the stereotype at times. Such as "Dead Again" (terrible movie, but
Kenneth Branagh did an *excellent* American dialect - Emma Thompson
absolutely sucks at it - both there and in "Primary Colors") When Branagh
was the American character, he was much more aggressive, loutish; absolutely
no class. It was depressing. LOL

By the same token, British characters may also be overblown to the same
purpose. Again, think The Major or Basil himself, in Fawlty Towers. Whilst
such people do genuinely exist, they are actually a rarity, but many
Americans that I know, expect all British people to be like that, because
they have seen things like Fawlty Towers, and the similarly archetypal
'Brit' that the American TV people put into their comedy shows.

Does any of that make any sense at all ?

Arfa


Absolutely. As a black woman, I know all too well that the media in general
tends to overdo any archetype, but I haven't yet seen a subtle American in a
British production. Maybe I've missed some?

Natalie