The UK culturally approriating USA culture

also as an aside, i find it hilarious that people get so chewed up about different but entirely correct words like elevator/lift, but are happy to blather ***head idiocy all over the net like "rocking", "thicc" "dank" and every other myriad example of desperately trying to appear cool by using a totally inappropriate word to describe something.
 
kwerk said:
OK I was triggered by the thread about power supplies being designed by "jerks". This is getting worse every year. Seems to be a mostly working class thing though, I imagine from watching so much TV.

  • Watching TV shows instead of programmes. - TV series I say, or show
  • Black Friday?? The day after Thanksgiving, which the UK doesn't celebrate (yet). - Marketing advertising drivel
  • Trick or treating instead of guising. And the commercial over-hyping of holidays in general. - always used trick or treating 40+ years
  • Going for a vacation. It's a holiday. - It's a holiday yes
  • Chemists becoming pharmacies. - nope, chemist for me
  • Mom instead of mum?? - No and if I hear my kids using that stupid term they will get a clip
  • "Dating" and "dates". I'm not even sure what it used to be called. Going out with someone? Having dinner? - a date is a date no matter where you are
  • I see you have Taco Bell there now. And Five Guys. And Chipotle. And Best Buy. And who knows what else. - wouldn't eat at any of them
  • The wearing of those stupid flat-brimmed baseball caps. - chavs and idiots do this anyway
  • Stores instead of shops. - It's a shop
  • Convenience stores. It's a newsagent or corner shop. - never heard them being called convenience store anywhere in the UK, always america
  • Watching a movie. Nope you're watching a film. At the cinema. - go to the cinema to se a film, movie is american
  • School proms. - It's a formal, a prom is a garish American import that needs to be stopped
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At a coffee shop... "Can I get a coffee to go" rather than "Please can I have a take away coffee"
 
kwerk said:
[*]Chemists becoming pharmacies.
Mom instead of mum??
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Yanks commonly say 'druggist' or 'drugstore', though they also use 'pharmacy.' But 'pharmacy' isn't really an Americanism. We use it in Australia too.

'Pharmacy' is borrowed from the Old French farmacie, and pre-dates American culture.

'Mom' is common in Staffs, the Midlands, and the Black Country. Its usage in these regions is deeply historical, and nothing to do with American culture.
 
sityeuropa said:
I feel sudden anger when someone says the word fresher.
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I get similar rage when I hear

"Going to the mall" <- You're going to the bloody shopping centre, not the mall
"fraternal twins" <- Identical twins FFS, stop referring to yoru kids as something akin to a first year American university society
...speaking of American university - "Sophmore" WTF is that? It's first year, first year at university

Nothing against our American friends on here but some of the language your countrymen come out with really grinds my gears.
 
The odd thing is the Yanks generally love upper class English accents, the aristocracy and the Royal Family. Yet British kids seem to want to mimic some common New York drawl, use Americanisms ad lib, or put on Patois.

And what's with so many black people (league footballers especially) suddenly adopting double barrelled surnames? Is it a secret desire to sound potentially associated Jacob Rees-Mogg's and other English aristocratic families?
 
ScoTTyBEEE said:
My friend was discussing 'brown bagging' with me once. I thought it was some pervy sex thing, but apparently, it's the bag you take your lunch to work in.
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lol that's so stupid. Can you even buy those sort of bags over here? :confused: Why don't you tell him about tea bagging; that'll stop him using the expression rather quickly.

Hades said:
At a coffee shop... "Can I get a coffee to go" rather than "Please can I have a take away coffee"
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Yeah the "Can I get" thing is terrible, but I'm probably guilty of using it occasionally. It makes my girlfriend rage. The server should turn around and say "Yes of course you can get your coffee, I'll just stand here then" :p

I'm actually getting quite bored with the whole food culture from the US coming over. I love good BBQ (ribs, slow cooked meats etc.) but flippin' heck in London it's like every other new restaurant wants to be a cool underground NY bar. And with all that food is the obesity. We joke about Americans being fat whilst gorging ourselves on brunch, waffles, fried chicken, burgers etc. We'll be that way soon enough.

One for the corporate speak aswell, a "hard out". Anyone? I've spent a lot of time in the US and go there regularly for work; the answer is they just love to hear themselves talk. Like, all the time. Hence all these annoying phrases.
 
arknor said:
school proms seem really stupid to me, why did someone decided to adopt that rubbish.

We always had an end of year school dance! but it was never really considered something important or big like they turned it in to these days.
people pretty much used to just turn up how they would normally dress and not care how they got their.

now parents are renting limos, buying over priced dresses, coating their daughters in layers of makeup etc.
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Yes, why would a capitalist society push a prom as being important I wonder? :D
 
Hades said:
At a coffee shop... "Can I get a coffee to go" rather than "Please can I have a take away coffee"
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coffee to go sounds more British though.

I'm going to take a shower vs I'm going to have a shower.

you know americans are always taking not Going
 
arknor said:
school proms seem really stupid to me, why did someone decided to adopt that rubbish.

We always had an end of year school dance! but it was never really considered something important or big like they turned it in to these days.
people pretty much used to just turn up how they would normally dress and not care how they got their.

now parents are renting limos, buying over priced dresses, coating their daughters in layers of makeup etc.

Switzerland has a lot of American influence as well which I find it really cringe (especially foods in supermarkets they act like America is known for quality food lol....)

, recently stores over their have tried to impose some German rubbish on kids as well. I can't remember what it's called but basically in Germany when a child goes back to school after the holidays they are given some huge cardboard tube thing that looks a lot like a witch hat filled with sweets.
My partner finds that really annoying that they are trying to bring other peoples cultural things over just to try and make money, she said this german thing was just in the last few years that shops started trying to sell them and that no one does it in Switzerland.
It seems they don't actually manage to sell them so hopefully they stop trying soon.
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The cone of candy, ooops, sweets, sounds like Schuletüte, it’s a tradition of giving kids a little bribe on their first day at school, as they’re facing some 13 years in the education system.
I still have the photos of meine beiden Enkel, Lars und Mark, on their first days at school, in Bielefeld NRW.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the U.S., and I quickly learned that it was easier to say words that they were familiar with, rather than their U.K. equivalent, and then spend time explaining what you want, e.g., I only asked for cling film once, after that it was Saran wrap, got a mark on your pants?, (trousers), you want a dry cleaner, not a cleaners, want to offer an American friend’s kid a Coca Cola? offer him a soda, want courgettes?, try zucchini, etc. etc., but I never, ever, tried to affect a U.S. accent.
I could switch back easily whenever I had to unfortunately return to U.K., but sometimes the brain accidentally forgets, and my wife would go ape ****, if I said, “Seen my cell?”
My shins are bruised enough now that I never forget.
 
Screw all the appropriations, what irritates me is the way yanks ruin our language.

Herbs = "erbs"
Aluminium = "Aluminum"
Jam = "Jelly" (seriously, what the ****?)

I could go on, but I should probably do some work.
 
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