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So, in a thread that's supposed to debunk misconceptions and stereotypes we have Drago Wench and Fable trotting out the old stereotypes about England.

Whilst there is bad food here, there's also a lot of very good food, most of us don't believe in either boiling everything until it has the consistency of slush, or burning meat until it's mostly charred. Although it has to be said that a lot of peoples idea of what a curry is is pretty awful. There's also an amazing variety of different food available pretty well everywhere.

As for 'always raining', if that's the case why was it necessary to issue drought warnings and hose pipe bans as early as March last year?

Other misconceptions:

England is NOT the whole darned island, that's called Great Britain (originally called great to differentiate it from Lesse Britain, nowadays called Brittany). The country is called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or UK in short, which includes Orkney (which isn't part of Scotland!) and obviously, Northern Ireland.

As has been pointed out we don't all drink tea (I hate the stuff), in fact according to one source, we actually drink more coffee than tea these days (and unlike 30 years ago it's actually drinkable).

We don't drink warm beer, we drink it at room temperature as it's supposed to be, like red wine. Lager (which is what Americans call beer) is served ice cold, again as it should be.

WE don't all love cricket, some of us actually prefer baseball, me in particular. I can't wait for spring training to start, and if there is a god, I pray he'll keep Rich Harden and Bobby Crosby healthy all year. I'm not alone either, (well I maybe about the King Richard and BC), there's a lot of baseball nutters here, and more converting all the time.

Soccer hooliganism is a European problem these days, not a British one, and hasn't been for nigh on 20 years.

We don't all hate Australians, in fact most of us are quite fond of the blighters, never met an Ausie who had a personality problem, every one I've met have been fun to have around, they can hold their beer and have a great sense of humour. Well, apart from Germaine Greer anyway.

We are definitely not sexually repressed and walking around with 'stiff upper lips', supressing our emotions, yet another movie stereotype.

As with Norway, we aren't ruled by a Monarch, the current one, Thin Lizzy, has about as much say in what happens in the country as I do.

The guys who didn't go around wearing horns on their heads weren't called Vikings by the way, Norse, Danes, Swedes, Orkney Islanders even, but not Vikings. A viking was something you did, namely board your longship sail off to some foreign shore and pillage, loot, get drunk and have as much sex as possible; bit like a club 18-30 holiday really. That petered out by the 12th century, and was replaced by a similar activity, called 'crusading, which itself was eventually superseded by 'empire building'.

galraen wrote:So, in a thread that's supposed to debunk misconceptions and stereotypes we have Drago Wench and Fable trotting out the old stereotypes about England.

Well... I'm half English, and I still have lots of family and ties there. Everything I continue to hear seems to suggest that some food stereotypes are still alive and well

dragon wench wrote:Well... I'm half English, and I still have lots of family and ties there. Everything I continue to hear seems to suggest that some food stereotypes are still alive and well

My wife's one-quarter English, and her aunts have some friends still living in England. They very much fit the stereotype of roast beef and blood pudding.

And they always complain about the drizzle when they visit in St. Louis. So maybe it's just some regions of England? Or maybe, as everybody's saying, the climate is changing?

Having just returned from a holiday throughout Europe, and meeting someone from nearly every place in the goddamn world, I never encountered one stereotype. (The French had to be the friendliest bunch I met)

galraen wrote:We don't all hate Australians, in fact most of us are quite fond of the blighters, never met an Ausie who had a personality problem, every one I've met have been fun to have around, they can hold their beer and have a great sense of humour. Well, apart from Germaine Greer anyway.

All the customs officials do though. :'( They would interrogate, scrutinise and berate me to crap whenever I tried entering the country.

Kipi wrote: 3) Nokia is actually Finnish company, not from Japan (as many foreigners suprisingly seems to think... )

If I remember correctly, from the one Finnish dude I met, the name comes from a city and means 'Smoky Town'?

Fenix wrote:All the customs officials do though. :'( They would interrogate, scrutinise and berate me to crap whenever I tried entering the country.

I think the customs officials hate everyone, notice I didn't take issue with the comments about civil servants, uncivil egomaniacs would be more appropriate for most of the ones I've met.

fable wrote:My wife's one-quarter English, and her aunts have some friends still living in England. They very much fit the stereotype of roast beef and blood pudding.

And they always complain about the drizzle when they visit in St. Louis. So maybe it's just some regions of England? Or maybe, as everybody's saying, the climate is changing?

South west Wales, and Cornwall are the regions that suffer the most when it comes to rainfall, bit of course they aren't in England!

Can;t abide blood pudding, fortunately I don't know anyone who does, so it's not something I've ever benn offered. Tried it once and almost threw up.

Properly cooked roast beef, Yorkshire pud and all the trimmings, can't beat it, one of the best meals ever invented. Badly cooked of course it's awful, but in my experience bad cooks can be found anywhere, and so can good ones, the best solution of course is to cook it yourself, that's what I do.

dragon wench wrote:Well... I'm half English, and I still have lots of family and ties there. Everything I continue to hear seems to suggest that some food stereotypes are still alive and well

Well I confess to never having visited the Newcastle area, so maybe they are bad up there, but aint nothing wrong with a 'fish supper'.

galraen wrote:Well I confess to never having visited the Newcastle area, so maybe they are bad up there, but aint nothing wrong with a 'fish supper'.

You have a good memory, I know I've said my family is from near Newcastle, but I haven't mentioned it that much
You are right though, it may be regional. The last time I was in the UK, I recall the food was *much* better in the London area

You know, I have to admit... I like blood pudding, or boudin, as the French tend to call it
And yes, Yorshire puddings and roast beef well made are pretty good.

galraen wrote:South west Wales, and Cornwall are the regions that suffer the most when it comes to rainfall, bit of course they aren't in England!

Well, I know they weren't from Cornwall, and I don't think they were from Wales, since they didn't have Death's accent. (Old Harry joke. ) But in your experience, has the climate become dryer in the UK over the years? Or is Spike Milligan's wonderful line, "The weather is beautiful today, Min. The rain is nice and warm" a bit of horrid persiflage?

fable wrote:Well, I know they weren't from Cornwall, and I don't think they were from Wales, since they didn't have Death's accent. (Old Harry joke. ) But in your experience, has the climate become dryer in the UK over the years? Or is Spike Milligan's wonderful line, "The weather is beautiful today, Min. The rain is nice and warm" a bit of horrid persiflage?

The climate is definitely changing, setting all time record high temperatures seems to be coming an annual event. The rainfall paterns have always been regional, it might be a small country (I'm talking UK, not England) but there's a heck of a lot of variety. The predominant wind direction is from the south west, which means of course that most of the wet stuff gets dumped on as soona s it reaches high ground, the Cornish and Devon moors and Welsh mountains. The highest rainfall in England is nearly always in Devon or Cornwall, and for some reason, Manchester also gets a lot of rain. One of my dad's favourite weather sayings is 'Devon is God's piss pot, and Manchester's where he empties it'. But even those regions aren't getting anything like as much rain these days, when it comes, it comes hard, but it's coming less frequently. Still get a lot of sea fret (mist) around the coast down there, and Cornwall is nearly all coast of course.

dragon wench wrote:You have a good memory, I know I've said my family is from near Newcastle, but I haven't mentioned it that much
You are right though, it may be regional. The last time I was in the UK, I recall the food was *much* better in the London area

You know, I have to admit... I like blood pudding, or boudin, as the French tend to call it
And yes, Yorshire puddings and roast beef well made are pretty good.

You mentioned earlier in this thread that your dad was a Geordie, hence also my reference to 'fish supper'.

Cuisine in London can be very hit and miss, there are an awful lot of very good cafés and restaurants, but there are some diabolical ones as well. Unfortunately the only 'Chippie' (Fish and chip shop) round here (Streatham) is of the latter variety. It's run by a greek guy who simply doesn't understand that you should cook fish and chips in very hot oil quickly, not fairly hot oil slowly!

BUENOS AIRES IS IN ARGENTINA!!! The other day I had the longest discussion with this guy because he was so sure Buenos Aires was in Brazil. Damn! It's the capital of Argentina, I LIVE THERE!!! I know where it is!.

BTW, Not all argentinian people are lazy bastards who do nothing. (OK ok 85% are, but NOT EVERYBODY). And we do not speak "español" we speak "castellano". Which is not the spanish that people learn in school back in USA. That's "Neutral Spanish". Castellano is DERIVATED from español.

Lasiurus wrote:BTW, Not all argentinian people are lazy bastards who do nothing. (OK ok 85% are, but NOT EVERYBODY). And we do not speak "español" we speak "castellano". Which is not the spanish that people learn in school back in USA. That's "Neutral Spanish". Castellano is DERIVATED from español.

Castillian, isn't it? Those were, after all, the invaders. Not the Spanish as a whole. As I recall (and it's been a while since I read up on it), Ferdinand of Aragon even forbade all of his subjects except Castillians the "right" to travel to New Spain, unless first granted royal permission.

fable wrote:Castillian, isn't it? Those were, after all, the invaders. Not the Spanish as a whole. As I recall (and it's been a while since I read up on it), Ferdinand of Aragon even forbade all of his subjects except Castillians the "right" to travel to New Spain, unless first granted royal permission.

You got it right there. Castillians were a sub-mini empire within spain. They invaded the south of America.

Funny thing, here in Argentina there's a sort of secret sorrow within people's heart. People arround the world can say they ar Arabs, English, Egipcian, etc. Here in Argentina people is not "Argentinian" per sei. We are Italian, Spanish, Russian, German, Armenian or Original American Aborigies; and all the posible combinations of those. So you see, Argentinian is just a reference of multiple cultural crossings. Which creates a sort of "lack of identity trauma". Myself, I'm Italian+Spanish+a little bit of aborigen. Although in fact if you look at me I look like south Italian. Weird things about life.

Lasiurus wrote:You got it right there. Castillians were a sub-mini empire within spain. They invaded the south of America.

Funny thing, here in Argentina there's a sort of secret sorrow within people's heart. People arround the world can say they ar Arabs, English, Egipcian, etc. Here in Argentina people is not "Argentinian" per sei. We are Italian, Spanish, Russian, German, Armenian or Original American Aborigies; and all the posible combinations of those. So you see, Argentinian is just a reference of multiple cultural crossings. Which creates a sort of "lack of identity trauma". Myself, I'm Italian+Spanish+a little bit of aborigen. Although in fact if you look at me I look like south Italian. Weird things about life.

What about the Welsh in Patagonia?:laugh:

Argentina isn't unique in being a mutli-cultural polyglot, the same is tru of most countries these fdays I think. Even in Europe most nations are fragmented culturally and ethnicly. The UK is supposed to be a united country, heck it's even part of the name, but most people consider themselves to be something else first, ranging from Afghani to Yemeni.

galraen wrote:What about the Welsh in Patagonia?:laugh:

Argentina isn't unique in being a mutli-cultural polyglot, the same is tru of most countries these fdays I think. Even in Europe most nations are fragmented culturally and ethnicly. The UK is supposed to be a united country, heck it's even part of the name, but most people consider themselves to be something else first, ranging from Afghani to Yemeni.

Of course. I didn't meant to say that we "UNIQUE" what I meant is that Argentinians are in a sort existensialist conflict with themselves.

But it's true, there are indeed many countries which are multicultural.

galraen wrote:You mentioned earlier in this thread that your dad was a Geordie, hence also my reference to 'fish supper'.

*sigh* Now I feel stupid My memory is a sieve normally, but recently it is even worse than usual
Sorry about that!

Galraen wrote:

As for 'always raining', if that's the case why was it necessary to issue drought warnings and hose pipe bans as early as March last year?

Okay Okay! But it's all a matter of what one is used to. Certain parts of the UK gets 330 centimeters of rain a year! Last summer most of my friends over there kept moaning about the weather being too warm and sunny!:laugh: "Ooooh, I wish it would rain a little bit. It's too hot to go outside. I'm meeeelting!":laugh:

Soccer hooliganism is a European problem these days, not a British one, and hasn't been for nigh on 20 years.

Though Soccer Hooliganism has become a European problem during the last 20 years, it is still a major issue in the UK. During the World Cup of 2006, over 5000 British hooligans were barred from entering Germany, yet FIFA and German police reported that 6 out of 10 violent episodes involved British supporters. Go figure.

The guys who didn't go around wearing horns on their heads weren't called Vikings by the way, Norse, Danes, Swedes, Orkney Islanders even, but not Vikings. A viking was something you did, namely board your longship sail off to some foreign shore and pillage, loot, get drunk and have as much sex as possible; bit like a club 18-30 holiday really. That petered out by the 12th century, and was replaced by a similar activity, called 'crusading, which itself was eventually superseded by 'empire building'.

You're a bit right, but mostly wrong. The word Viking comes from the word vikingr from the ancient Norrøn language spoken in Norway and Iceland at the time. It describes a seafaring marauder, and also later the deed of "Going Viking." The oldest known non-Norse use of the word is found in the Anglo-Saxon poem "Widsith" from around 800AD, where it is used as "being attacked by Vikings," which include both heathens and people from Scandinavia. In the Middle Ages the word was also used to describe pirates and piracy. Strangely enough, the word disappeared from the Scandinavian languages for centuries, before being re-introduced by playwrights and poets after 1700.

We don't drink warm beer, we drink it at room temperature as it's supposed to be, like red wine.

In other words, you drink warm beer.:laugh:

Hmm, before this thread I believed that most of the Minnesotans were of Norwegian descent; it would explain why they wear shorts in winter and have a football team named Minnesota Vikings. The team emblem features a blonde "Norseman" wearing a horned helmet.

So, no horns?..

Lady Dragonfly wrote:Hmm, before this thread I believed that most of the Minnesotans were of Norwegian descent

I still do