British Culture & Misconceptions

“I thought that you just lived in a place with funny accents and quirky shops”, my sister said after visiting me in Liverpool for a week. She was in the middle of explaining to me that her perception of the United Kingdom was very different before she had arrived, because she didn’t properly anticipate the amount of cultural differences and alternatives this country would have in comparison to the United States. As an American student in England, I went through this same process of underestimating how every little detail would change once I went overseas. From the things they eat, to the head-spinning amount of British slang, even to the layout of their houses, everything seems designed for one massive culture shock. Three years removed from the first time I stepped foot in Britain, I’m still learning a new difference almost every single day.

There are several different angles of misconceptions that Americans have before visiting or moving to the United Kingdom. Deprived of much British representation in the media (although that’s changing, thank you Black Mirror), Americans are left to assume the few stereotypes of a British person that we’re force fed through movies, television, and especially history books. As some like myself assumed that the internet had completely homogenised the planet, I’ve noticed that certain friends and family of mine still buy into the Hollywood concept of every British person having this posh accent and fancy lifestyle, therefore radiating intelligence. I would love to personally present each and every one of those Americans with a Scouse hen party stumbling in their heels on the cobblestones after a night on the town. While that posh caricature does exist in some forms, the variety of what it means to be British is wildly extensive and unfortunately lost in translation.

My other sister told me that she found it hilarious to hear dirty words in a southern English accent, and it made me really wonder why that would be particularly humorous to her. I believe seeing someone who fits this polite British stereotype break that rule incites a bit of shock value. I’ve even seen tweets that assume British people would continue this same level of impossible politeness during sex, and other situations in which it would be entirely irrational. It’s almost impressive how we can buy into this concept and assume that same standard is met in all possible scenarios.

Aside from the juvenile assumption that all Brits have terrible teeth, the most common misconception I confront is that it’s always raining in the UK. Although some Britons or American Expats would hyperbolically agree with that statement, it would do every blazing hot day in London a disservice to automatically confirm that. The weather is even more unpredictable than in New England, but with that region comes a different type of a rainy day. Whereas in the US we might have a day in which it’s torrential from dawn to dusk, there are at least several cities here in which it’ll rain for about fifteen minutes to an hour at a time. So in a week, it could rain every day and still be less wet than a rainy day in the States.

Deprived of much British representation in the media (although that’s changing, thank you Black Mirror), Americans are left to assume the few stereotypes of a British person that we’re force fed through movies, television, and especially history books

A real wake up call for me moving here was the overwhelming amount of accents I eventually learned to decode. It’s common (and given the media portrayal, understandable) to assume that all British people would have the same accent. I still find it baffling that after all these years, they haven’t amalgamated into one singular British accent. I can think of several different dialects (Geordie, for example) which Americans probably wouldn’t even guess is British, and I can point out more differences in the accents of bordering English towns than I can between the American and Canadian accent. Even just the vast amount of distinct cultures compacted within the United Kingdom is astounding and often misunderstood by first-time foreigners. As an example of this, more often than not my friends will check up on how I’m doing in Liverpool by asking “How’s London”? To them, it’s all the same, but I’ve experienced many Americans expressing their surprise when learning how vastly different Wales, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland are. The United Kingdom is not equivalent to England, and England is not equivalent to London.

There is still a rigid perception of how many Americans think a British person acts, talks and sounds. Maybe one day the general perception will adapt to be more representative of modern British folk and not outdated stereotypes, but I believe that due to the vast collection of local cultures, it’s impossible to expect a foreigner to acknowledge so many identities and associate them all with one country. That is, until they go there and find out for themselves.

AJ Marks is a Boston-born songwriter, pop/rock artist and podcast host who started studying in Liverpool, England in 2016. His podcast about being American in the UK, titled American Idiots Abroad, is currently in its first season and features an episode based around American Misconceptions of Britain with guests Lydia Parker and former American in Britain cover model Meaghan Martin. AJ’s new song “The Switch” is available on iTunes and all streaming platforms.