| sethnintendo said: I did my American duty yesterday and got drunk while barbecuing. So drunk that I passed out in bed while I still had friends over. Pretty good at entertaining guests... Anyways, there is a ton of information that I need to learn. I need history channel series on England! One question though.. I believe I have asked it before on the forums but what do you guys prefer to be called? The UK or just England? Do people from England prefer to state that they are from the UK or just England? The few British I've met just state England not the UK. Also, should I refer to you as British or English? Or does it even matter? |
Drunken barbecue? You'd fit in great over here!
I don't think most people really care whether you call us English or British. I think for me the terms are pretty interchangeable for nationality. It's sport really where the difference applies.
As for whether the US or UK is better. All those stating as fact if they haven't experienced both cultures are just plain ignorant and might as well be ignored.
There are a lot of similaries and there are also a lot of differences, which works out better overall depend on what you want from society. I need to learn a fair bit more about the US as my fiance is from St Louis and while she's living here at the moment, we're ultimately looking at settling in the US.
One thing in favour of the UK is the most dangerous thing we have is like an Adder (snake) which can hurt when it bites, but that's it. Our weather is also a lot less severe for the most part.
Politics-wise I'd say we're a lot more left wing. I don't think our more right wing parties (barring the idiots that are the BNP etc) are much further to the right than the democrats in the US and we do have the NHS. The freedom thing? Well... those saying America is free-er are plain ignorant. I can't remember the last time the Queen told me what to do and our equality legislation is more mature than the US (i.e. gays have equal rights etc. okay marriage isn't there yet, but thats by 2015 and a Civil Partnership is identical in all but name.)
However the US is far less taxed (we pay approx 60% tax rate when you factor in National Insurance is now just an additional income tax (this comes to 40%) and then 20% sales tax on pretty much everything in the form of VAT and I think the US has a more dynamic economy. Dollar being worth less than the pound is meaningless as the cost of living here is higher and so in real terms a dollar buys not much less in the US than a pound does here and having a lower dollar means your export market is far more competitive than ours is (high pound crippled our exports a few years back). You also have much much nicer fast food places.
At the end of the day, I think you have a case of "grass is greener" going on. Loads of people over here think this country is a craphole and want to emmigrate, and not much less end up returning to the UK when the dream is shattered for whatever reason. I'd definitely suggest trying to spend some time over here if you get the chance to really experience what it's like in the UK, but I don't think you can say either country is better than the other overall, they're just different.
As for language. English English no question :p
RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.
