Words: Violet
When beginning this article, we realised that there are several routes this article could take; why American’s love Britain as a country, with our rolling hills, historic buildings and quaint little villages. Why American women love British accents (10 points on this might have been a struggle), or quite simply, what it says on the tin – an amalgamation of the previous into one clear list of 10, and the latter it was chosen…
THE ROYAL FAMILY
The Queen. Prince William. Prince Harry. Buckingham Palace. Those men in red with funny bear-skin hats, the ravens, the London Dungeons, the castles etc etc – it’s all so overwhelming, foreign and well…royal. Without blue bloods of their own to treasure, they’ve adopted ours and relish every birth, marriage, death and indiscretion. Their fascination with the royal family saw them about as excited, if not more than even we were, at the birth of Prince George. The very thought that we might have seen one of these elusive family members in the flesh is beyond exciting to an American.
THE HISTORY
The oldest still functioning building in America dates back to around 16-something. In England? Well before we get into an argument about what does and doesn’t count, will stick with the oldest – functioning – church in England (precise huh?), which comes in at 597 AD. Iconic Irish pubs, unpronounceable Welsh place-names and Scottish castles. Then you’ve got the historic authors William Shakespeare and Jane Austin, and of course, more royals.
THE QUAINT-NESS
England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales – from village shops and thatched roofs to tea-rooms and pot-holed country lanes, as much as they love London, Americans can’t get enough of our ‘cute’ little villages, but if we came from the wall-mart super-store ridden, inter-state roads of the USA then we’d probably be the same.
THE ACCENT
Not a lot of explaining needed here, we’ve all watched that scene in Love Actually, the only thing more entertaining than an American hearing an English accent is getting an Englishman to repeat certain words in their accent, ie: tomato, potato, ketchup etc.
THE FOOD
We will never know if Americans enjoy mimicking the way we say such foods more than they enjoy the actual food themselves – or perhaps it’s a combination of both. A good ol’ English breakfast with Earl Grey tea, complete with black pudding, or fish ‘n’ chips with mushy peas, the ritual of ‘elevensies’ and afternoon tea or sunday roast…who needs brunch when you have such fine British fare?
THE WORDS
From tea and scones to bangers & mash, or the ever amusing comparisons such as ‘chips v fries’, ‘bonnet (of a car) v hood’, ‘pants v trousers’, ‘petrol v gas’…the list goes on, you get the drift.
THE MANNERS
Pleases and thank yous, words pronounced in perfect RP, maybe they are blinded by thoughts that we all live like the inhabitants of Downton Abbey, but who cares when they think our charm and manners are so to die for?
THE MUSIC
They loved The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Def Leppard as much as we did and now they go mad for Adel and (err) 1Direction, clearly they can’t get enough of a little bit of British charm on stage.
THE HUMOUR
Whilst Americans may still be struggling with our use of irony, or was that sarcasm this time? They certainly love some of our most iconic TV comedies, think The Vicar of Dibley and Monty Python. According to many an online ‘ode to the British’, they also find our use of swearing endearingly funny, with the likes of “bloody ‘ell” and “wanker” being their top favourites.
THE MEN
Talk to any American girl and she will swoon at the idea of falling in love with a nice British boy who probably resembles James Bond. Have you seen the way they react to the Ed Westwicks Henry Cavills and 1 Directions of this world? Well, gentlemen, time to book yourself a one-way ticket across the pond, because with all of the above in your favour, you will never be too far from a beautiful American falling in love with you. Who cares if your sarcasm got lost in translation because your English accent and funny pronunciation was engulfed in good manners and thoughts of thatched roofs and scones, and now she really does believe you’re Prince Harry and she quite naturally, the next K-Middy?
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