Guide to Britain for the Americans

Site Issues 2005 Archive Room
#1

This was supposedly given to US troops stationed in the UK:

http://www.hardscrabblefarm.com/ww2/britian.htm

It contains lots of trueisms about the British:

The British dislike bragging and showing off. American wages and American soldier’s pay are the highest in the world. When pay day comes it would be sound practice to learn to spend your money according to British standards. They consider you highly paid. They won’t think any better of you for throwing money around; they are more likely to feel that you haven’t learned the common-sense virtues of thrift.

The British Are Tough. Don’t be misled by the British tendency to be soft-spoken and polite. If they need to be, they can be plenty tough. The English language didn’t spread across the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps of the world because these people were panty-waists.

And some tips on the language barrier:

Some Hints on British Words. British slang is something you will have to pick up for yourself. But even apart from slang, there are many words which have different meanings from the way we use them and many common objects have different names. For instance, instead of railroads, automobiles, and radios, the British will talk about railways, motor-cars, and wireless sets. A railroad tie is a sleeper. A freight car is a goods wagon. A man who works on the roadbed is a navvy. A streetcar is a tram. Automobile lingo is just as different. A light truck is a lorry. The top of a car is the hood. What we call the hood (of the engine) is a bonnet. The fenders are wings. A wrench is a spanner. Gas is petrol—if there is any.

Also includes a list of dos and don’ts

#2

As a non-speaker of English this site is very useful to me. :smiley:
(I am more familiar with American English due the fact that all foreign movies have subtitles in Romanian :smiley: - and 99% of foreign movies are made in Hollywood)

#3

I was quite surprised how much of it was still true actually - society hasn’t changed as much as I thought it had.

#4

Thats a fine topic-Bravo!
I would be very intrested in similar “guidelines” to the US troops for other countries-if any.

#5

I have reprints of the guides issued to British troops for France and Germany. While the French guide is very friendly, the German one is definitely not. It warns British servicemen especially from having intimate contact with German women, as they were all considered to be harbouring some form of VD. :shock:

Jan

#6

Any chances of scanning these? :oops:

#7

The English guide was handed out in great numbers to the Yanks taking part in practices for D-Day around Slapton.

This was Op Tiger, basically a whole swaithe of Britian was emptied, and then used to practice the landings.

Appartently the area of Slapton sands and the inlying areas were practically identical to the beaches of Normandy.

Quite a good book onlit.

I suppose the VD thing about the German frauleins was to prevent intermixing. Which could have led to a bit of friction.

The last thing some German bloke needs to see when he gets back from some POW cache is to see his birds necking on with the triumphant Tommy.

#8

I have a modern day guide (well late 80’s) for US Air Force personnel stationed in the UK tucked away somewhere.

It is exceedingly similar to that one.

The warm beer reference has surely died now? Ive never had a warm beer from a pub in my life! Or was it just a myth?

#9

This sort of thing was a rather backhanded way to prevent rape. It was feared that there might be quite a few vengeful Tommies so it was suggested that the women were “unclean”.

#10

I think that what yanks mean by “warm” we would consider cellar temperature. According to my local landlord chilling beer is an easy way of disguising lack of flavour in mass produced lager.

#11

Id definately go along with the above, slightly chilled Brit Beer would seem strange to the neer frozen pishy lagers sold in N America. Has anyone tried that awesome Lager - Canadian?

#12

It’s all about Guinness. 8)

#13

Yep, the coolness of the cellar is all that is needed for properly made beer.

Although Carling is jumping on the freeze the “rocks off it” bandwagon.

Guiness however should only be drunk in dublin and the republic, from the pump.

Everywhere else from the bottle.

Otherwise it is not Guiness. They boil it down to treacle and add water the water from wherever they remake it in your country. Thus it is not proper Guiness.

Even in NI you have to be wary of what you are getting.

The bottles though always come from the republic.

#14

Have you had Bruneiian ir Nigerian Guinness inflicted on you ? They’re both bottled. :shock:

In the words of Dr ‘Bones’ McCoy, “It’s Guinness Jim, but not as we know it.”

#15

I only drank the local stuff in Brunei, it was cold!!! :smiley:

Thought the bottled guiness always came from Eire.

#16

All Guiness in Britain is now brewed and packaged in Ireland since they closed the London brewery (something-or-other Park IIRC).

#17

All the kegs we’ve gotten came from Ireland. Including the current.

#18

I’ve tasted beers from many countries, and I find the better US and Canadian beers to be the best flavoured.

Americans just like all drinks to be cold, beer included. Here, we like food to be heavy-handed on flavor, but not beer. To Americans, it makes no sence to drink wine, Coke, or lemonaid cool but beer warm. By that thinking, you could say some Europeans like to “disguise” the taste of their lemonaid or soft drinks. :?

#19

Have you ever had a Beer in the UK?

#20

Even just for the lagers (I’m not much of a bitter man, although I do like a real ale), European beer is far superior to US beer. You cannot compare Budweiser, Rolling Rock or Coors to Stella Artois, or the German and Czech lagers.