Tell me of stereotypes.

[burntcopper]

British in general or English only, either is welcome.

Non-UK citizens/dwellers only, please.

And remind me, are we supposed to be stereotyped as more or less polite than Canadians?

Comments

[nataliadarimini.livejournal.com]

Polite, but not as polite as the Canadians. Nobody is as polite as the Canadians are. Mystifyingly, I have been mistaken for a Canadian.

Fonder of tea than of life, unable to properly talk about feelings, and, um, well, one hears about "ladettes" but I'm sure that's a myth. ;)

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

Fonder of tea than of life

Ridiculous! We're not fonder of tea than life, it's just that tea is a necessary prerequisite for life. Oh sure, you can go through a day without it, but that's not really a life worth living.

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

I think the Canadians are meant to be genuinely polite, whereas we use politeness as an offensive weapon.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

I suspect that it might (to a certain degree) be a class thing - I was always taught that You Were Polite No Matter What; noblesse oblige et cetera.

You might have to have them killed tomorrow, but it simply wasn't the done thing to be rude to them.

[fahrenheit-f430.livejournal.com]

whereas we use politeness as an offensive weapon.

I agree with that. My mum used politeness like a thumbscrew, and she taught me that when the bastards have to say 'Thank You' through gritted teeth - you've won.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, here, the phrase is 'Arrogant poms', and you're all famously difficult tourists. Prone to being rude, complaining a lot, and doing stupid things (eg, swimming when beaches are closed, getting too close to nice poisonous wildlife, getting lost in the bush).

So, er, I guess here you're considered less polite than Canadians, but for the most part Canadians don't HAVE a stereotype here (although my brother's trying to create one, having decided all Canadians are unco and socially awkward, on the basis of my knack for collecting unco and awkward Canadian friends).

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Here being Australia, incidentally.

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Er... For some reason, I have the impression that all British people eat curry take-out, talk really fast, and um... havebadteeth. ///^^///

Can you tell why? For a story perhaps? ;)

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I didn't there there actually were any nationalities more polite than Canadians.... O_O

ETA: come to think of it, I seem to remember the Japanese being very polite. But their game shows are MUCH ODDER.

Also, I don't think "still upper lip" gets mistaken for politeness in America. Just admired for being stoic and stolid and steadfast and other words beginning with "s".

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

The rudest Englishman around was Oliver Cromwell. Despite the fact that he was in fact a rather polite gentleman and his anti-Catholic and anti-Irish feeling had good grounds, even though those grounds never came through

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

The "whinging Pom" stereotype is alive and well in Australia, e.g. this article in The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/beaches-too-sandy-fish-scare-the-kids-its-a-fawlty-towers-world-for-some-tourists-20090411-a3hb.html).

e.g. Other British tourists found their holidays were spoiled because "the beach was too sandy" and "no one told us there would be fish in the sea; the children were startled".

[olympia-m.livejournal.com]

no one is more polite than Canadians! :)

British stereotypes? good at queueing, curry is their national dish, polite... I can't think of something else... sorry!

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Football fans with St George's cross painted on their face. Working class smoking rollies without filters. Semi-nationalist isolationist euro-separatists shouting abuse at foreigners while getting far too drunk on imported lager and eating curries and kebab.

Unflappability and politeness.

BDSM politicians with more lovers (any gender) than registered homes.

Standards of building 50 years behind the rest of the western world.

[cidercupcakes.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE is less polite than Canadians. I'd say kind of...polite in a different way? Like, more of a repressed polite than Canadians, who are just sort of too nice for their own good.

English are repressed, stiff, polite, there are kind of some class images that go along with it frequently, I'd say, but I'm not exactly sure how to characterize those. Scots are a different kettle of fish, and Wales pretty much doesn't exist at all, except for the Futurama where there's Welshy, who is characterized by having an incomprehensible accent.