How the United States is Perceived in Britain

Funniest thing as an American visiting the UK was seeing a fancy commercial with an American accent voiceover. I lost it laughing and the BandB hostess explained that the American accent was used to indicate wealth and upper class access instead of any Brit accent. I said, in America, it's the other way around!

Just to add a little American context, on the discussion of high schools, my wife was SHOCKED at my high school, because it's all indoors. She's from southern California, and their "hallways" are all outside, like you see in a lot of movies, with lockers and everything under overhangs but open-air. Here in the Midwest, that would just be a terrible idea. So even within the country, if you don't know anything outside of your own experience, it's a drastic change from region to region.

About the accents.... Back in 1978, a fellow Californian and I were bumming around London, riding the tube. One day we happened to sit next to a group of students from Georgia. We chatted a bit--and then an Englishwoman nearby piped up and said she just loved listening to our accent. One accent. She could not tell the difference between California and a full-on southern accent.

I am an American and my neighbors were a couple from Ireland and France. We had one of those typical severe summer thunderstorm that pop up suddenly in the summer here in North Carolina. The next day the wife said, " Back home we would see the hard rain squalls in American films but thought they were fake. It could never rain that hard. Now I know they are real!" I responded, "Yeah, wait till you see a hurricane blow through and you will see rain going sideways."

My cousin from Thailand came to visit when I was in high school, so I asked my teachers if I could bring her along for a day. She was just walking around bug-eyed. When I asked her how it was, she said, ‘It’s just like ‘Grease’!’

I really love how positive and educational your content is about America! Especially since I lived in Europe for years and I feel like the attitudes are so negative and rooted in silly stereotypes these days. Most online content capitalizes on that to get easy views and likes by piling on the America-hate, so this is very refreshing and I hope it opens some people’s eyes.

It was really nice to hear that people from other countries have some positive things to say about America and Americans. Thank you !

As an American, I'm so used to seeing other countries from Europe and Asia being exoticized. I forget that people in other countries do the same for us 🙂

To clarify about Friends - Monica was only able to afford her apartment because it was rent controlled due to her illegally subletting the apartment from her grandmother. There is no way she would have been able to afford the apartment if it was at market value. They had an episode explaining that she was living there illegally. Chandler and Joey’s apartment is a smaller, more standard NYC apartment and Chandler would have been able to afford it relatively easily because he was a manager at his corporate job, which pays very well in NYC.

My youngest son, in his late 20s now, (We're American) just two weeks ago took a notion into his head that he was Going To the U.K. for a week! He had booked it, flight to London---and then a side trip to Cromer, where among other things that he did, watched the England vs. France World Cup tournament in a pub there. He struck up a conversation with another young man, native to Cromer----and then got invited for Sunday dinner at the guy's home! I believe my son got the "Hollywood" treatment there---as well as made some new friends...and the Brit guy's family made a fabulous and traditional English supper with roast beef and a 'pudding', so what a wonderful thing it is, travel. He got to tell them all about what he's been up to in the various places he's lived here, as well as quiz them about their area and interests.

Interesting that Tara is treated so well in the UK. I lived in Barnes for one month when I was 18 and was treated horribly by people my age. It was very specifically America itself that they disliked. They ruthlessly mocked the US, even down to terribly ridiculing the name Washington DC (my hometown). When I visited anywhere outside of the London area I was treated normally, so perhaps it's just a London thing.

I lived in England for 3 years. Funny story, the little kids playing pretend, they use an American accent to give the toys a voice😂 it was so startling

I have British friends...and they have no idea how BIG America really is. One of my Youtuber friends (in his youth and with his buddies) attempted to hitchhike across the desert from California to Arizona. Keyword: "attempted". It did not go well and they were rescued midway by a follower of their channel and never made it to Arizona. Yeah, that's a big, hot and miserable stretch of highway, mate!

It is sweet to learn that Brits in Britain can have a thing for an American accent. I just always assumed you made fun of us.

One of the things, I think is interesting as someone from Portland, Oregon, is how much foreigners seem to identify "America" as being New York City, and Los Angeles. When in reality there's a lot of places like the Pacific Northwest that are very forested, and full of mountains, and rivers and things like that. And the culture in the places with a lot of nature, is often very different than in the kind of urban sprawl places like Los Angeles or New York City. One of the best things about living in America, in my opinion, is our National Parks, which have some just stunning world treasures of nature. And I don't always understand why people who visit here want to visit the biggest cities all the time. I mean from my perspective there are big cities all over the world, but how often are you going to see some place like Crater Lake, or the Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone? And to me, it's places like those that are really what makes America special. And I feel that way about other countries, too. Cities and shopping and culture are all fun and all, but it's the beauty of the nature in those places that are really magical to me.

I was homeless in Hawaii for about six months. It was a horrible experience but at least I didn't need to worry about freezing to death.

I adore y'all's accents and could listen to it all day. I am from NC USA and I have a strong southern accent. A family followed my husband and myself at a zoo we were at and they stopped us and apologized for following us but they said they just loved our accent. We found it so funny and pleasant at the same time. Love both of your channels!🇬🇧🇺🇸👍😅😂

My goodness, I'm an American living in the UK and I wish that people "glorified" my accent. Lol Most of the time I feel that people just take the piss and make fun of it. I noticed a marked difference between the way people reacted to it in the UK vs. Ireland. Brits always remark while Irish either smile or couldn't care less. Bliss 😂🇺🇸

I had a reverse of Millie's experience, having an English exchange teacher when I was in high school in the 1980s. He was from Newcastle and he taught American History. It was really great hearing his perspective on historic events that involved the UK and the US. We became very well-acquainted and shared a hobby, amateur photography. In fact, he influenced me to give Ilford film and print papers a try to obtain a different effect than with Kodak and Fuji products. I interviewed him for our school newspaper even met his family once. His little boy was totally fascinated with American football and he called it "spaceball" because he thought they were wearing astronaut helmets.

My cultural shock from being in Germany was how much they walk even tho they have a good transportation system and how small the houses were (from the Southern states).