Americans are Not brash!

Damn, it's been years since I was in merry old England - those Brits sure have a good memory, don't they?

 

Near to me was a base called Burton wood airbase,they had open days that let the public in to meet the soldiers kind of a carnival atmosphere with ice cream demonstrations ect. this was after the second world war in the fifty's, my mum was just a kid in single digits.

It was the first time my mum saw or met and American,it was also the first time she tried coca cola. A 6 foot plus Black guy 'also the first time she met a black guy' bought her a coke,opened it and passed it to her "Here you are little lady."

She's told me that story loads of times so it definitely made an impression on her.

The base was there even when I was a kid due to the cold war 'they had nukes based there at least that was rumour' and even I went to an open day as kid and saw American troops walking around.

It's only now 70 years later the base has been closed down and we've finally got rid of you:-D

There's been steady stream of American culture in the UK but more and more recently I've noticed UK culture and references to the UK creeping into American TV shows. Practically every show now has a token English guy,I don't know if it's because the US likes English characters or because we're involved due to being one of the biggest consumers of American shows and they want to keep us sweet:-D

 

White bread too,most British bread was brown loafs around WW2 in influx of US rations brought sliced white bread,that's when we coined the phrase "Best thing since sliced bread" meaning something new.

I saw an episode of dinner for 5 once and in it was a some us actor I can't remember who. They were talking about how the British actors can do really good American accents but Americans struggle to do good British Accents which is due to the shear volume of American entertainment that's flooded our sets,I'd say practically 70% of shows we watch are US shows.

He also said of us speaking with US accents "Why don't you just talk like that all the time?" thinking it was hard work for us to talk like this:-D

 

While the below may not exactly be on topic, I still though to put it here to celebrate the American generosity.

After my mother became a widow in WWII (1944) with 5 kids surviving, an American organization (Foster Parents Plan?) would send us a packet full of goodies at least once yearly. We as kids used to accompany my mother to pick it up and were so elated to find goodies in there. I even remember my mom putting lard on bread instead of margarine. She used to sprinkle sugar on it to make it more potable. There were even blankets in that big box and canned ham.

I was born during the war (1942) and when the troops (who were called Tommies by the Dutch) stayed in our town after liberation of southern Holland) my 10 year older sister would take me to the soldiers for some goodies. The soldiers gave me a name *Blondie* and taught me English. So I would come home and started babbling in English which my mom didn't understand. Unfortunately I have no memory of this but it was my sister who told me all of this.

There was a huge American base in Germany close to the Dutch border and these soldiers would come to our city to unwind. That caused a bit of upheaval sometimes. That was in the fifties and sixties.

Thought just to share the above with you guys.

 

Things like that one never forgets even if it was a long time ago.
School would arrange daily trips for us during the school years and some I never forgot f.i. was to see several fields all covered with white crosses of fallen soldiers. Even today, kids look after these cemeteries. Holland will never forget!

 

Hmm, Piers Morgan is on CNN with his English accent. I find him talking so fast, swallowing half the words he speaks and often interrupts the interviewee. He's sometimes a bit feisty but I like that. I've heard worse English accents such as the old show: on the buses. :-D

 

How sad. Nowadays, the rest of the world is likely forming opinions of Americans from shows like Jersey Shore, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Real Housewives and Honey Boo-Boo. :-D

 

Not only about the above-mentioned shows but also about the candidates of the upcoming elections.

 

Piers Morgan is an annoying little self righteous rat,I can't stand him.

From what I can gather most people in the UK can't stand him either so he's moved to the US.

Suckers!:-D

 

Morgan replaced Larry King as the host of CNN's evening interview show a few years ago.

I agree about the comment on Americans' fetish with pushy Brits. No offense to those in the UK, but all the infomercials in the US seem to be full of them.

 

All those freakin nanny programs with the bossy English nannys started it me thinks.

I wonder if it's car crash TV:confused People watch because they like to hate annoying people and it's easier to hate someone from another country?

It's similar over here though if an American is on TV he usually plays up to a brash American stereotype or he's told to act like that by the producers.

There's no such thing as a TV reality show anymore though, everything is staged.

 

I seem to watch a lot of UK shows from different periods, mostly on PBS, including some from that era. The American accents have been getting pretty good, in recent years. The writing is better, too. I do still laugh at things like an angry guy with a gun in LA saying "Hands up, I say!" I keep laughing, because I'm sure Americans trying to play British characters sound even weirder in the UK. I've even seen American actors in British shows who sound strange, like they were trying to be extra American. haha It works well in comedies, though.

The different accents of both countries also increase laughter. I've heard British people saying they thought there was only one American accent, which often sounds very different from what I know. Americans around here seem to know 2 British accents: Cockney and 'Proper,' but sometimes they merge into a general 'British' accent. They also tend to know Irish and Scottish accents. Welsh and Yorkshire accents don't seem to be as well known, here.

 

John Ford showed what True American MEN looked like with The Duke.

 

We get a big kick out of these Outback Steakhouse commercials in which every single word is done with an Aussie accent...

So, so fake - I've never been much of an Outback fan (I'm a Texas Roadhouse kind of guy), but that imitation Crocodile Dundee crap just turns me off even more.

 

Haha I've never been able to understand Aussie accents or British ones for that matter

 

That's right. So saddle up, pilgrim! :major

 

I don't like him very much either but the guests are sometimes interesting. Funny, I heard not that long ago that he was fired from a job in Britain, not sure if that is true or not. It is true that he has 4 kids now, the 2 youngest ones are twins. Believe that Larry King isn't too happy about his successor either.