The term "yank" - how do you feel about it?

Mmm. Pie.

I don't hear it very often, but when I do it seems to be more in a jokey way than anything insulting. It doesn't bother me.

Yeah, I feel the same. I make jokes about being a Yank, and I refer to my American friends here as "the yankees" - hehe... as in "I'm going to Leeds this weekend to visit the yankees." It's no big deal to me. But once I guy did call me a yank in such a way that I knew he meant it as an insult, and I thought that was kind of crappy. But this guy was no prize himself, so uh, I just let that go. 

Usually it's always said in good fun and I certainly expect to hear it a lot on Saturday night at the pub during the match! 

It doesn't bother me.

The word "Yank" doesn't bother me.

Legs, I liked your definitions! 

Pie for breakfast is fine, especially if it's American pie, and most of all if it's Michigan cherry pie.

It doesn't bother me.

ditto

I don't care.  I learned to ignore it when I lived in South Carolina.  I don't think many people here call me a yank though.  Mostly, I'm 'the American'.

I've quoted this before here:

Quote
To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

I was agreeing with you up until "To New Englanders..."

To New Englanders (at least most of my family) a Yankee is a member of our sworn enemy rival baseball team 

Thus the tshirts myself and hubby have that say "I support two teams - the Red Sox and whoever beats the Yankees" and "Yankees Suck!" 

To quote Legs, I'd hazard a guess that many Canadians consider a 'Yankee a Northerner' (of the US), but I reckon that's because of learning some American history. And we'd be one of the few groups of foreigners not to refer to you in that manner, I think!

But I'd eat pie for breakfast. For sure.   

It doesn't bother me either.  I also don't recall anyone in the UK ever calling me a yankee.  Usually I was called Kristi. 

But I'd eat pie for breakfast. For sure.   

But do you mind being called a Canuck while you eat it? 

As others have said, it depends on the context/tone in which it was used.

I've been called a Yank/Yankee in a friendly banter kind of way and my primary reaction was to tell my English friends I'm actually from California, thus not a "Yankee" in the American sense of the word....but I didn't really want to get into all of that.

Recently, with the WC game, some English friends talked about "kicking Yankee asses"/"teaches those Yanks about real football". I found that a little offensive.

So yeah, it depends. Either way, I've heard many other insults slung at or about Americans from my UK contemporaries that are much worse than "Yankee" so I don't get up in arms over it.

To be fair, it strikes me that this is one of those terms which exists in the grey area. It all depends really on how it's said and how the person looks when they say it. It's a bit silly and, frankly, a bit rude to get offended if it's said with a smile and a chuckle but if it's said with a smirk or even a grimace then perhaps it's worth being a little hurt. Just contextualise it, I suppose.

That said, I don't really experience it - been here so long I've got the accent...

That said, I don't really experience it - been here so long I've got the accent...

Really?  How long have you lived in the UK? I have a friend whose English mom has lived in the US for 40 ish years and no one would mistake her accent for American.

Recently, with the WC game, some English friends talked about "kicking Yankee asses"/"teaches those Yanks about real football". I found that a little offensive.

I just laughed and said "You limeys are going down!" and they thought it was hilarious. There were also a lot of jokes about DH sleeping with the enemy, etc., so it was a fun night with lots of laughs for us. DH kept saying I was the most popular person in the room because everyone was joking with me when usually they kind of ignore me or whatever, so at least there's that!

But there was one point where one of DH's friends starting singing "If you hate the F***ing Yanks, clap your hands" while another friend clapped in my face. I pushed his hands away from my face and gave him a dirty look and they could tell they had gone too far because even the rest of DH's friends were silent and staring those two like they were being jerks, so they immediately apologized and said they were just winding me up. But you know, I didn't mind the ribbing at all until that moment. Thankfully it isn't the sort of thing I have to deal with all the time, and they were wasted, so it really wasn't that big of a deal, though I was pretty mad for a minute or two there. At least they apologized and seemed to mean it, so all is forgiven and I just laughed it off in the end and enjoyed the rest of the night. Those two guys are usually really nice to me and have bought me drinks in the past, so I know they don't actually dislike me or anything so I didn't really take it to be as malicious as it sounded.

But do you mind being called a Canuck while you eat it? 

That depends who says it.  And more importantly, who has control of the pie!