h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just that, really. What is English food to you? How highly do you rate our football holigans? Who our internationally famous Enlish people? Anything else I haven't thought of....

"Who our internationally famous Enlish people?"

Maggie Thatcher, Clement Attlee and Lord Beaverbrook.

You forgot Churchill

Church who? Must've been Lord Beaverbrook's butler.

My italian friend said that the English cannot cook pasta but do roast very well, they make confusing conversationalists because they never say what they mean, and he is sure that they learned all the know about just about everything except pasta, from the Romans, maybe he was joking or maybe he was trying to seduce me, its hard to tell.

Shall I really give my opinion? England is the home of my favourite language, music, literature and comedy. Can't be all bad, then.

I think that there are probably two stereotypes of the English. One one hand you have the (antiquated cliché?) somewhat upper-classy man (preferably a bachelor), a bit unworldly, commenting with a "dry wit", not good at dealing with emotions or talking about them, and of course having some hobby , or at least he goes bird-watching in the countryside (he has of course a house in the country) on weekends.

On the other hand is the working class guy, talking in a cockney accent, resenting people who earn more or are better educated, loves football and has nothing against a little bit of violence to demonstrate his love, always at the pub with his mates for a few pints (my god, I think these are the three most english words ever: pub, mate, pint ). And his girlfriend, a bit vulgar, dressing in pink training suits with lots of fake jewelery and always manicuring her nails.

Just clichés, no offense to anyone . Pubs are cool, and bird-watching is nice, too, I have nothing against football or the english countryside, I promise

The English are egotistic imperialists. Stuck-up hedonists and drunken hoolagins. well... most of the people I hang around with are.... well cept for the drunk, lazy, loose, drug-addict, meglamaniacs who I know from down the pub

From my personal experience, here is the gist of what the Germans I have encountered think of "the English":

1. English food: Fish and Chips
2. English behavior: Get drunk fast and annoy everyone.
3. English girls: far from pretty.
4. English boys: too much beer, too much football
5. English culture: America makes better movies, right?

Sorry if this sounds bad.

Y.

PS: English music: even the "the" bands from England manage to be VERY good. And The Sisters of Mercy still are better than anything anyone else could come up with.
There, not everything English is bad. The Beatles were, though.

Y.

The French love our pop music (Beatles & Stones, Clash & Pistols, but maybe not so much the Spice Girls!) but hate our food.

There was a funny ad campaign in France a few years ago for Eurostar showing the kind of food one could expect 'outre-manche'; one ad showed a place setting with knife, fork, spoon, and tooth-paste! (they have an 'idee-recu' that we eat mint 'jelly' with pretty much all roast meat).

On a cliched level, the French have also stayed with the idea of the English 'Gen-tel-man'. But that really is roughly on a par with our concept of most Frenchmen wearing stripey shirts and cycling around with a string of onions round their necks!

>>How highly do you rate our football holigans?<<

10/10. World cup winners everytime. Champion hooligans. Lets face it we've bred them for centuries to fight all the bloody wars we've won.

As for the rest of us footie fans. Jolly nice chaps and chapesses

Thinking of England, eh?
Well I'll just put a bag over my head, lay back and think of England. Then, if all goes well, I can get back to you later.

~jwf~

Since the question's been asked...

English tea and beer are drunk at about the same temperature, English children are sunburnt, English dogs are called Bonzo, and English grannies are nice. English Food is generally not to be trusted... And the English suck at football but they know it. Internationally famous? Like, the Queen? John, Paul, George and Ringo?

>>English tea and beer are drunk at about the same temperature<<

Apart from on 'Midsummer Murders', I can't remember the last time I saw anyone drinking beer or tea. We're all lager louts and capuciano drinkers round here.....

Midsomer, I thought.

OK I'm not from the other nations, but I can't stand here while people ignore the great Benny Hill.

Na Na Nanna Na Nanna Na Na........SLAP SLAP

Beaverbrook was Canadian:


'He was born in Maple, Ontario, Canada and at an early age his family moved to Newcastle, New Brunswick, the place he would always call home and where, at the age of 13, he published his first newspaper. Although he wrote the entrance examinations for Dalhousie University and registered at the Saint John Law School, he did not attend either institution. His only formal higher education came when he briefly attended the University of New Brunswick. Aitken worked briefly as an office boy in the law office of Richard Bedford Bennett, in the Town of Chatham, New Brunswick. Bennett later became Prime Minister of Canada and a business associate. . .

After the war, Lord Beaverbrook served as chancellor of the University of New Brunswick and became the university's, the city of Fredericton's and the Province's greatest benefactor. He would provide additions to the University, scholarship funds, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Beaverbrook Skating Rink, the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel (profits donated to charity), The Playhouse, and numerous other projects.

In 1957, a bronze statue of Lord Beaverbrook was erected at the centre of Officers' Square in Fredericton, New Brunswick, paid for by money raised by children throughout the province. A bust of him by Oscar Nemon stands in the park in the town square of Newcastle, New Brunswick not far from where he sold newspapers as a young boy. His ashes are in a plinth of the bust.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Aitken,_1st_Baron_Beaverbrook

Couldn't you have kept him?

Most of the other nations live here anyhow, so they all think that we must be wonderful people

Having lived in France for a good many years, I can say that to me it's pretty obvious that on the whole the French appreciate the English a lot more than the English like the French! They like our humour (even if they don't completely understand it) and they respect our business sense(even if they find we drive a hard bargain). Of course, English food is always a subject for jokes (let's face it, French food is so good, but they could be a little less snobbish about it!)Living in a rural area where there are large numbers of English ex.pats,I can imagine there might now be a little jealousy building up, due to all the property being bought, and consequently, prices going up for French buyers.