so says the Gallup poll.  The UK is our second favorite nation, Canada is first, Germany 4th. 

Who's last?

The English (Brits only come first because most Yanks go to Scotland or Ireland) closely followed by the French.

old mcdonald:

Brits only come first because most Yanks go to Scotland or Ireland

 

Please don't tell me they haven't heard of Wales.....or even worse they think it's part of England ? Urghhh !

I thought  all Americans hated the Canadians? (Much like we traditionally dislike the French I suppose!)

And they beat us in popularity?!!

 I have never heard of any widespread dislike for the Canadians.  But my assumption was you Brits would be first, and the Canadians second. 

We are actually a pretty friendly lot here in the US, especially in small towns and the middle of the nation.  For the most part, we are easy to get along with no matter who you are.

kansasfarmer:

 I have never heard of any widespread dislike for the Canadians.  But my assumption was you Brits would be first, and the Canadians second. 

We are actually a pretty friendly lot here in the US, especially in small towns and the middle of the nation.  For the most part, we are easy to get along with no matter who you are.

Based on a very limited experience of rural American life,I would certainly agree with that.Why do they like Canadians best?I think its maybe because Canadians have been pretty good neighbours to them for generations.Also,the Canadians have a way of life,and a language,that is similair to America.The Americans like the people most who are most like them.Naturally,perhaps.

You quote a poll on who the Americans like .That in itself is quite interesting."Brits"seem to be much more concerned with who they should dislike.And its a long list with,I think,the French at the top.We Scots have a much,much shorter list.

I was a child during the nineteen forties and my father, two brothers and three brothers in law all served in the British Army, one only lost his life. Despite their war time activities however they managed to portray an atmosphere of respect for all peoples including their 'enemies' (strained, in the case of the one who had been fighting the Japanese in Burma) This atmosphere rubbed off on me and during my own time doing National Service I too, respected the peoples in whose countries I served as a British Airman.

I was proud to be British and saw the Welsh, Scots and Northern Irish as natural friends and partners. Indeed during my subsequent career, during which I worked extensively in Wales and Scotland, I had no reason to doubt that my feelings of warmth and friendship were not mutually agreeable.

In recent years however, I perceive a nasty edge on the lips of some people towards others who they generalise as being antipathetic towards themselves, and I wonder if this has to do with their own need to feel themselves collective victims. After all, for those lacking in a sense of personal and collective purpose, to if they can see themselves as victims, this is, itself, justification for an absence of a more satisfactory and socially cohesive purpose.

I was fortunate to have been brought up in the family I was and so claim no credit for 'liking people.' (the odd spat is natural). However, it is hard to like someone who sets out to dislike and traduce you on the basis of your place of birth before they have even met you. Its a sort of racism without the colour angle.

As to my time in the USA Midwest. Wonderful. I never met anyone I didn't like. Because we lived in the sticks, one family even gave us a car for my wife to drive. A great people and I was as much at home there as I have been wherever I have lived.

I've seen lots of episodes of the cartoon South Park, so I know exactly what the attitude of Americans to Canadians is!!!! What better way to form opinions on a nation than to watch their subversive comedies!!

Peter, I think the "nasty edge" you refer to in recent years has at least partially, if not mainly, come about through the change in attitude towards sporting competitions and the "must win" tactics of participants passing through to spectators. I played a little football, but mainly rugby after I left school and whilst we all tried (at every level) to win the game any emotions tend to be left on the field when there is no money at stake and both sides share the same bath or showers. As Max Boyce put it "......and if we lose it matters not, for there the sadness ends, defeat's not counted as a loss if we but gain a friend".

Is the American/Canadian view reciprocated in Canada?

I have in the past mistaken Canadians for Americans on first meeting because of their accents only to be told "We are NOT American!"

Can any of  the Canadian forum members enlighten us?

paddington bear:

I have in the past mistaken Canadians for Americans on first meeting because of their accents only to be told "We are NOT American!"

 

We Welsh are often mistaken for being English. Although we don't have anything against the English, apart from some friendly rivalry, it's very,very annoying to be called English. What's worse is that they think Wales is part of England. It certainly isn't !

i,m with you on that one welshnwilling. scotland has a slightly higher profile than wales, but we are still  frequently mistaken for english. I think a lot of the world got a shock to discover that scotland was actually a country with a government when macaskill set megrahi free.

I was once told by a yank that i spoke really good english for a scotsman.  I said that we got to practice our english when the poms came up for the annual haggis shooting season.

If im not sure if folks are aussie or kiwi, always go for the kiwi. same goes for canadians/yanks.

welshnwilling:

paddington bear:

I have in the past mistaken Canadians for Americans on first meeting because of their accents only to be told "We are NOT American!"

 

We Welsh are often mistaken for being English. Although we don't have anything against the English, apart from some friendly rivalry, it's very,very annoying to be called English. What's worse is that they think Wales is part of England. It certainly isn't !

Wales was annexed by England hundreds of years ago.Thats why it isnt on the UK flag,and why it is governed from London,England.Its a principality of England to be given over by the English monarch.Scotland little better.At the moment.

Anyone from around here always gets mistaken for Australian, especially in the West Midlands for some obscure reason!

I can't remember hearing Americans using the term English to describe us as a nationality, I've only heard them call us British.

Some years ago there was a radio programme on the BBC in which an American demonstrated the various dialects of spoken English in the US and showed where their roots were. It was a wonderful programme for he could replicate the UKs dialects and then their US counterpart. He also showed how some US dialects were influenced by the native tongues of say, Bavarian German or West Coast Ireland.

What the programme proved beyond any doubt to my mind, was that the 'sounds' of a 'tongue' have antecedents way back beyond the details of recorded history.

I have a theory on the Australian accent.They sound very similar to the dialect around here and in east Kent (what's remaining, 'Estuary English' has become dominant more recently), which is where the Victorian prison ships were moored for convicts before deportation. I guess that the majority were local, alternative punishment could be found in the west of the country, or some were here for years before being shipped, so picking up the local twang.

Therefore anyone with an Australian accent is really a good old Essex boy at heart!!! 

At least you Scots and Welsh are allowed to call yourselves such. Remember that at the last census English was abolished as a nationality, and you could only call yourself British, Scottish or Welsh (or of course Irish). Roll on the end of New Labour.

 It wasn't until a few years ago I could differentiate between English, Scots, etc, many Americans do still refer to all Brits as English.  The Amish refer to anyone not Amish as "the English" too. 

kansasfarmer:

It wasn't until a few years ago I could differentiate between English, Scots, etc, many Americans do still refer to all Brits as English.  The Amish refer to anyone not Amish as "the English" too. 

That's understandable KF, and few of us English can distinguish even New Yorkers from Mid Westerners by their speech. By the way, I have yet to meet a Mid Westerner who I didn't like, but I think I'm developing an allergy to New Yorkers. Mind you, I classify the latter as much the same as Londoners, so I'm not being racist about it. A government that doesn't allow English people to call or describe themselves as English has something seriously wrong with it though. I won't suggest you listen to Gordon Brown, because that could be classified as torture under the United Nations rulings on such things. However, if you were to do so, you would find that Gordon Brown almost NEVER uses the word "English", and in the rare cases where he is forced to, it clearly pains him. I think he is frightened of being classified as a nasty foreigner by English people, which of course he is, though most Scots of my acquaintance are rather nice people.

Let's go off on a tangent...

In Wales when their's an International football/rugby match on we always support Wales or whoever is playing against England. No offence, but it's the law. Is this unique to Wales ? I suppose the English aren't keen on the French ?

2658336:

kansasfarmer:

It wasn't until a few years ago I could differentiate between English, Scots, etc, many Americans do still refer to all Brits as English.  The Amish refer to anyone not Amish as "the English" too. 

That's understandable KF, and few of us English can distinguish even New Yorkers from Mid Westerners by their speech. By the way, I have yet to meet a Mid Westerner who I didn't like, but I think I'm developing an allergy to New Yorkers. Mind you, I classify the latter as much the same as Londoners, so I'm not being racist about it. A government that doesn't allow English people to call or describe themselves as English has something seriously wrong with it though. I won't suggest you listen to Gordon Brown, because that could be classified as torture under the United Nations rulings on such things. However, if you were to do so, you would find that Gordon Brown almost NEVER uses the word "English", and in the rare cases where he is forced to, it clearly pains him. I think he is frightened of being classified as a nasty foreigner by English people, which of course he is, though most Scots of my acquaintance are rather nice people.

A lot of Scots consider Toom Tabbard Brown to be a nasty foreigner also.

Back in the mid 80's when transatlantic calls were expensive and the connections were often poor I imported a pup from a breeder in Wales. During our first phone conversation his accent was so thick and I was having so much trouble understanding him that he finally put his English wife on the phone. After that,on subsequent calls when he answered I'd immediatly say, "put Beryl on".

When I was in the army in the early 70's we were billeted in 4 man rooms. There was a saying that if you put one southerner in a room with four yankees they'd all have a southern drawl in 6 months. Perhaps some truth to that as when I returned home and started attending college locally I was asked several times what part of the south I was from. I think the military has its own dialect and accent. Having spent a fair amount of time in western Canada in the past I find some of their speech mannerisms are also infectious. I'm afraid the "eh?" thing is still with me to the degree that I've been asked if I'm Canadian. For those who werent aware, Canada is spelled, C eh? N eh? D eh?.

I also enjoyed the program Peter mentioned. My wife has family in upper Minnisota and the thing I liked best about the movie "Fargo" was the way the main charactor nailed that peculiar dialect. Think it has scandinavian roots.

As for New York City, one of my favorite David Letterman quotes was when he described New York city as a big, international, major metropolitan city just like Paris except the people were mean instead of snotty. Jives with my personal experience of both places.Think its just a metro thing.

Jon

 welshnwilling

 "In Wales when their's an International football/rugby match on we always support Wales or whoever is playing against England. No offence, but it's the law. Is this unique to Wales ? I suppose the English aren't keen on the French ?"

 

This is not unique to Wales, the Scots generally support any team playing  against England (or English teams).

I have always supported a home nations team against all others. However, in recent years it has become clear to me that my loyalty towards the home nations is not reciprocated particularly in Scotland. As a result, I now find it difficult to be anything other than indifferent to the result.

Wales does however have my unswerving support and did so tonight and was disapointed that 'we' could not catch the French team before the final whistle. The Shane Williams try however was 'magic.' Incidentally such is the respect I have for Wales and its people, that if they beat England I am not disapointed nor do I rejoice in the event that England beat Wales.