Your Brit in America...

My fiancee and I were talking (and laughing about this today): The way people in America (or in my case Boise Idaho) gush over British people...

When Dave came to visit me in Boise last April time, EVERYWHERE we went, men and woman alike would literally walk up to him and talk to him always starting with "Are you from England!??!" (Which I wanted to be like "No..he's from Texas!!" LOL!) Men thought he was instantly awesome, woman (regardless of me standing there or not!) would flirt with him...(One even smacked him on his butt while I was there with him!). Waitresses were the worse! We went to Buffalo Wild Wings with one of our male friends and even though I was sitting next to my fiancee at a tall table, all the waitresses thought I was with my friend and my fiancee was single and were in the back Rock-Paper-scissoring who would get to hit on him and give him their number! (My friend was a waitress there and had to set them straight...apparently they were all very disappointed!)

We went into this little bar where the girls instantly started cooing over him and one said "Say something to us! we want to hear your voice!" Dave responds back with "Ummm...I don't know what to say!" the girl chirps back "Hunny, you could tell me you have to go take a crap and it would be the most sexiest thing I have ever heard in my entire life!"   the other girl says "Oh yeah! Even THAT's enough to turn me on!" ((Rolls eye's)) EVERYWHERE we went was like this!

I think his accent is cute too (even after a year!) but that's not why I'm with him! He's just genuinely a fantastic guy! But I just thought it was funny to see people's reaction to him!

What's your story? 

Mine gets rather annoyed because people don’t seem to understand him.  He’s from North London and I just don’t get how when he asks for a bottle of water it takes several tries for the person to get it right.  He does tend to speak a bit quietly though, so maybe that's it. 

I live in NY and when we are here besides not being understood, no one gives him a second look.  However, I’m originally from the sticks of Maryland and when we go to visit my parents everyone swoons when he opens his mouth.  It’s rather funny.  We had a restaurant episode as well.  It was the first time we went out to eat with my parents and the waitress kept touching his arm.  E claims that my dad was shooting him dirty looks because of how flirty she was being!

I've not had it as bad as you but I have experienced something like it. One of our trips back we were walking through the mall and everywhere we went we got stared at. It didn't help that I was mistaken for English too (apparently I sound English now). We had one salesperson in a shop follow us around constantly asking us questions. It was sweet and totally innocent but I couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed for him. It was just so intense!

I've not had the questions, it's mostly just people watching and listening to us. I'm used to it though as I get it all the time here!

Yeah, there are not many Brits in Des Moines, Ia and people are interested when we visit my dad's family in the Twin Cities.  One older lady at JC Penneys was taking a long time bagging our purchases so my dh would keep talking.  LOL.  He always gets a fuss made over him in restaurants or public places, and often people ask him speak or say something.  

I was just telling two English friends tonight that I totally want to tell people that dh is the Duke of Worcestershire, partly because it's difficult to pronounce, but also because we'd get the best tables at restaurants.      

I've not had it as bad as you but I have experienced something like it. One of our trips back we were walking through the mall and everywhere we went we got stared at. It didn't help that I was mistaken for English too (apparently I sound English now). We had one salesperson in a shop follow us around constantly asking us questions. It was sweet and totally innocent but I couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed for him. It was just so intense!

I've not had the questions, it's mostly just people watching and listening to us. I'm used to it though as I get it all the time here!

He lives, in not a small village, but on the outskirts of London where you don't get a lot of tourists period.  We when go down Tesco's we get tons of people staring at us when they hear me speak.  We also seem to get into 'arugments' about how to pronounce things.  We find it funny and are joking (I'm sure everyone here has that) but have had people just pick things off the shelves and hand it to us and say "this is what your looking for!".  

Yeah, there are not many Brits in Des Moines, Ia and people are interested when we visit my dad's family in the Twin Cities.  One older lady at JC Penneys was taking a long time bagging our purchases so my dh would keep talking.  LOL.  He always gets a fuss made over him in restaurants or public places, and often people ask him speak or say something. 

I was just telling two English friends tonight that I totally want to tell people that dh is the Duke of Worcestershire, partly because it's difficult to pronounce, but also because we'd get the best tables at restaurants.      

E likes to tell people that he lives next door to the Queen.  When they believe him he always mutters something not very nice about 'septics' under his breath.

I was just telling two English friends tonight that I totally want to tell people that dh is the Duke of Worcestershire, partly because it's difficult to pronounce, but also because we'd get the best tables at restaurants.      

Hee hee.

Hiya

The 'oh my god your from england' thing - Check
The 'please say something' thing - check
The 'Do you know the Queen' thing - check
The 'are you australian?' thing - check
The 'Restaurant waitress' thing - check (and I Love it!!)
The 'Shop assistant girls' thing - check (and I Love it!!)
The 'Oh I so wanna get to England sometime, whats it like' thing - Check
The 'female' ex work colleagues thing - check (and I loved that!!)
The 'guys' ex work colleague thing  - Check (that was great as it broke the ice!)
The 'going out in bars & deliberatley using bad chatuplines'  thing - Check
The 'get ganged up against by my relatives/their friends/ex work colleagues thing - check
The 'give the myriad of police officers who've stopped me when driving some lip' thing - check
The 'Give the Bouncers at clubs and bar doors some lip' thing - check!
The 'Give the offices to pay speeding fines staff some lip' thing -check!


There's just so many funny instances of all the above with my many USA visits over the years for me. Many can only be told with careful use of 'colourful and descriptive' language which I know I wouldn't be allowed to use here

Cue the 'Muttley' Laugh!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Just remember Dennis that the cops in the US don't have to give you a ticket and the key is be pleasant to them and you could save yourself some money.
'drivers license','registration','insurance','rental contract'. Give them some of those without saying anything and then they can relax and determine if they have to give you a ticket.
On the other hand if you argue with them or as you say, give them lip, well then they have to put it writing what you did or didn't do. They also have to make up the time they spent in the donut shop instead of writing tickets.
I notice they have a lot more Highway Patrol SUVs in Nevada now so your contributions have being put to work. lol

E likes to tell people that he lives next door to the Queen.  When they believe him he always mutters something not very nice about 'septics' under his breath.

LOL! Dave would tell my friends that he and the Queen have tea together all the time! (LOL!) For a while he also told people that every day at 3:00 it was a law that everyone had to stop what they were doing and have a tea and salute the Queen!! (And pinky finger MUST be sticking out!)

I have to admit there have been perks though, we were given free access to a VIP lounge at a really posh club once because the workers loved his accent so much! 

I find it happens on both sides of the pond.
When my husband comes with me to the states people make a fuss over him. The waitresses trying to flirt any girl that talks to him start to automatically flirt. They ask what it is like to live in London...hehe they think all of England is London..we live in the southwest..The girls can flirt with my man all they want..he doesn't realize they are hehe and he is mine...I am like Amberelle I have been married for over a year and known my husband for 7 years and I still adore his accent. But that isn't why I married him.

When I am here in Devon I have people ask me questions all the time about my accent, where I am from, why I am here..they say they love my accent and could listen to me all day. It is very embarrassing when they say "say something"..I work in Sainsbury's and had a guy come in the other day and I waited on him. He started going on about my accent and how he loved it. And then as he was flirting with me ..I told him I married a Brixham man..and he kept asking questions and finally winked before he left..it cracked me up...

Speaking of knowing the Queen..I get that question as well hehe..and the best thing I ever heard was from my 5 year old neice..My mom was trying to explain to them that I live in England now and England has a Queen not a president. And the Queen's name is Elizabeth. My neice Julianna says, "Grandmom my middle name is Elizabeth" and my mother replies "Aunt Josy's middle name is Elizabeth" (thats me) My little neice Lauren who is standing there looks in amazement at my mom and says "Aunt Josy is the Queen?"

These stories crack me up! I can't wait for Daniel to come here and visit, I'm sure that everyone will find him as charming as I did. I have to put in though, going there, his friends bombarded me with questions about living here, why the heck was I in Essex, and asking me to say anything even supercalifragalisticexpeladocious. I know I spelt that wrong but it was so cute when I was so shy about meeting everyone! But I've come to realize that the guys there are just so sweet and I love having friends on either side of the pond

My DH LOVES the attention!
He puts on this really fake posh accent that sounds nothing like is actual accent (n. london) so people can understand him. I am pretty sure he fancies himself Hugh Grant when we are in the States and plays up to it. I've even heard him quoting lines from Notting Hill.

My DH LOVES the attention!
He puts on this really fake posh accent that sounds nothing like is actual accent (n. london) so people can understand him. I am pretty sure he fancies himself Hugh Grant when we are in the States and plays up to it. I've even heard him quoting lines from Notting Hill.

I WISH mine would play it up.  He's always saying, 'This is ridiculous.  I'm a person not an accent.  Why are people so interested in it?'  And I keep telling him, 'This is the joy of being somewhere you did not grow up.  You are different.  People are interested.  Enjoy the attention.'  But he continues to sit there mumbling about how annoying it is or (sarcastically) 'How can they find it so charming?  Everyone knows in American cinema, the British are all evil.'    

Mine jokes that if he'd known how popular he'd be he would have spent a lot more time in the States a decade ago.

I wasn't so fond of the attention, and frankly at times I found it patronizing and it made me feel very self-conscious.  I've worked a lot of customer service, which makes me both slightly misanthropic and very good at hiding it, so I didn't let it show, but there have been points where I've wanted to say each of the following:

I don't care whether you love my accent or not.  I'm not going to say words to amuse you, I'm not a Chatty Kathy doll.
No, I don't know "John from London".  I don't live in London and never have.  There are over 60 million people in the UK, the chances of me knowing a randomly chosen one aren't much lower than the chances of you knowing a randomly chosen person from New York.
Quite frankly, I don't care that you want to visit the UK some day, or at least I don't care about that any more than I care if you want to visit Toronto some day.  I'm not an ambassador for England, I'm a reference librarian.
No, you liking Benny Hill does not make us soulmates and best friends.

I think it's really just that I want to be treated like a person, not a stereotype.  Most people I met while living in North Carolina were great, but I found the treating of my nationality as a novelty to be very irritating.