Via Justin Webb, there's a mildly interesting survey on Britons' attitudes toward Americans. The survey was commissioned by what appears to be a nutjob pro-USA website. The question I have is why it matters what Britons think.I mean, sure, on a person-to-person level it matters. I don't really enjoy it when someone looks me in the face and tells me that they hate Americans, but is it really necessary to commission a survey to prove them wrong? And it's not like the average American's perceptions of the rest of the world are any more informed. The other night, the child bride spent several minutes on the phone trying to explain to her father that we in Britain are not watching NBC's coverage of the Olympics.But there you are. The thing I found mildly interesting was the perception that...
My latest column is out and as has become the custom I've decided to read it to you. In listening back to it, though, I sound a bit odd. I sound angry. I am trying to annunciate, but it's not working. The traces of my Texas accent cause me to mumble and slur words (listen to me slaughter the word "generally" at the end of the recording), so I was trying to make everything clear. In so doing, I've made everything slightly bitter, as well.Obviously, my career as a professional voice artist won't be getting under way any time soon.One benefit to the audio version, though, is that I chose to read it as I wrote it. The published version is missing a sentence because my editor was concerned it would offend. That sentence is: "(I am) enjoying the fact that they show naked breasts on primetime...
It smelled like Britain Thursday. Britain has two distinctive smells in Chris Brain -- aromas that automatically rush forward every memory I have of this place. As if my olfactory memory were a DMV waiting room that uses binary. The first smell is bus exhaust. A child of the suburbs, I somehow managed not to take in a great deal of it until living in Portsmouth. So, now that sweet choking smell of burnt diesel floods memories like perfume of the girl who broke my heart in high school.That's a rhetorical simile more than one that actually reflects my experience. The only perfume that cues girl-specific memories is that which was worn by Kirsten Can't-Remember-Spelling-Of-Her-Surname. And those aren't particularly brilliant memories. She was an odd duck, that gal. She tasted of menthol....
OK, lovers of stereotypes, what do we know about Britain?- People here have funny accents.- Everyone has bad teeth.- They all drink warm beer.- It rains a lot.Well, the first two aren't all that true, unless by "Britain" what you really mean is "Barry." Interestingly, those two stereotypes could also be used to describe the American South.The third one is only partially true, and less likely to be true in areas where the first two are true. Go round to Ricky Hatton's local and odds are they're all drinking cold pints of Carling.But the thing about the rain -- that's true. Granted, there are long stretches of lovely weather, but it does rain with a certain frequency not seen in, say, San Diego, California. Yet, bafflingly, the person-to-rain-jacket ratio there appears to be about the same...
I am now fully registered, and on Monday I return to classes for my second year of university. It feels a bit momentous because despite years and years of previous university experience I've never been this directly focused, this likely to actually end up getting a degree. That, the experiences of last year, and the fact that I need to do better than last year* has me feeling a certain amount of sickness at the moment. And I am brought back to the old feeling that at any minute someone is going to pull me aside and say: "Look, we're sorry for messing you about, but there's been a terrible mistake. We got you confused with JC Cope. Obviously, as even you must have figured out by now, you don't belong here at all."And I feel even more pressure knowing that I am attending the British...
As of today, the child bride and I have lived in Britain for one full year. I'm expecting Prime Minister Gordon Brown to drop by the house to offer congratulatory tea and shortbread.To be honest, our first year is still very much a blur. I'm hoping that some greater sense of perspective will come as time carries forward. At the moment, I remember the year like this: - It was hot (summer 2006 was the hottest on record)- John Barrowman was on "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"- It got rainy and cold and windy.- John Barrowman was on "Never Mind The Buzzcocks."- I consumed a lot of alcohol (around Christmas time, practically every drink and foodstuff in this country has booze in it). - John Barrowman was on "Torchwood."- The weather was really nice for a while. - John Barrowman was on...
It's kind of a mixed blessing that this most recent batch of terrorists has been so inept. Yes, it's good that despite three incidents, a grand total of one person has been injured -- that one person being the bloke who set himself on fire. But there's also the pride issue. I mean, what's the deal, al-Qaeda? Why are you sending us the guys who clearly flunked out of terrorist school?Also, what's the deal with ignoring Wales? London and Glasgow, but not Cardiff? What's up with that? Where's the love? Or, hate, as it were?You don't have to load an expensive vehicle full of stuff that won't blow up -- a Ford Fiesta with a few oily rags in the boot would be fine. Just something to acknowledge that as a capital city of Western Europe we are as deserving of your scorn as other places. Did you...
My latest column is out. It walks a little close to patriotism, but I think it works OK. Yes, I did learn about the story from "Coast." Neil Oliver is my hero.I'm trying to guess which angry e-mail I'll get first: someone upset at my jab at Texas public education, or someone from the Navy upset at my believing the...
One of the little thorns in my side of living in Britain is the fact that Britons tend to have a homogeneous view of the United States. A bit like people from New York City, they tend to believe that the great expanse of the country is the same from top to bottom, shore to shore. Meanwhile, they are desperate to tell you how completely different they are frm the people living 10 miles down the road.Yesterday's post about the Watson's girl, and Ordovicius' response got me thinking about regionalism in the United States. If you live in the United States, what's something unique about where you live? Obscure is good -- if you can think of things that people from other parts of your state wouldn't know about, that's even...
Uhm, what exactly is this BBC weather graphic supposed to mean? "Tomorrow's weather: Partly sunny with occasional angry retribution from The Lord Our God. High of 22, with a Smite Index of 5. So a good day for a picnic, unless you've sinned recently, in which case you'll want to cover...
A few days ago, I was contacted by a writer from Gair Rhydd, Cardiff University's student newspaper, who was doing a story about anti-Americanism in the United Kingdom. She asked me to comment about my experiences and I responded with a rambling e-mail that I later put into a blog post.The story came out today and I am happy to say that I got a mention. Unfortunately, the story claims I am from Florida and has me saying something I didn't say: "Chris Cope, a student from Florida, adds: “We are loosely confederated individuals. We share very little commonality aside from our participation in the State. Our social experiences are vast, our heritages unique, and our sense of ‘us’ is predicated on none of ‘us’ being anything particular at all.”"The quote attributed to me is...
Cardiff University's student newspaper wrote to me the other day because they are doing a story on whether US citizens encounter any prejudice over here. I was amused by my response and since they almost certainly wouldn't use all of it, I'll put it here: "I personally have not ever experienced anything that I would describe as prejudice. Britons hear the American accent and it's an instant conversation starter. It sets me out as different but not too different. They tell me that they've been to Florida (seemingly all of you have, or are planning to go), and suddenly I've got a new friend who's buying me beer. No complaints.Part of the reason for this is that the connection between the United Kingdom and the United States is much stronger and closer than most Britons care to admit. Have...
Remember when I used to write columns? Yeah, it's been a while. But here's my latest. I can't say I'm particularly happy with this new thing of highlighting target words for advertising purposes. It smacks of that attitude that restaurants have when they charge for water. But I don't actually work for the fine company that hosts my columns, so I don't really have ground to stand on. They give me an audience that would normally be completely impossible for a writer of my standing. So, if they want to put target-word advertising in my columns, they've got every right to do so, I suppose.And aren't I the pot calling the kettle black, with my Google advertising over there on the right? Just as the Google advertising covers the cost of my self-important domain name (It's netted a whopping...
My latest column is out. My editor occasionally drops stuff to make the column comprehendible to people not reading my blog (I have a bad habit of narrowcasting), so a reference to My Chemical Romance and text-speak were dropped, as was use of the phrase "de rigueur," as in: "(Members Only jackets) have become the de rigueur jacket of German exchange students."There are few things funnier to me than making fun of Germans.* *Even though I have a German lecturer who is actually pretty...
My latest column is out. With references to 1800s British government policy, vinyl records and the Polyphonic Spree, it goes without saying that I've completely missed the teenager demographic with this one. And I am just waiting for someone to send me a nasty e-mail for having insulted the Texas public education...
Throughout the Super Bowl the NFL hyped the fact that a regular season game will be played in London (the game is supposed to be played at Wembley, so it may end up being played in Cardiff). Despite this apparent desire to expand to the European market, the Super Bowl didn't kick off until 23:25 UK time. So I am very, very tired. Go...
My latest column is out and it contains some of my all-time favourite lines, including: "Crikey, immigrants are a bit frightening, aren't they?" and "Imagine a TV show that takes Flo from 1970s sitcom 'Alice,' NFL referee Ed Hochuli, some bloke who dated Carrie Underwood in high school and a handful of other people you've never heard of and pits them against one another in competitive bass...
According to my stats page, I've been recieving a considerable amount of visits to this blog from people Googling for 'arguments against scottish independence' (it's probably just Gordon Brown). Unfortunately, all they get is this page.Feeling a bit bad and not being able to help, I thought I'd better provide some arguments here in case someone is looking for arguments aginst Welsh independence. These arguments aren't mine by the way, but they're such important and vaild one's, I thought they are worth re-publishing.Argument 1: If Wales wasn't part of the Union, Dr Who would never have been filmed in Cardiff- Peter Hain (Secretary of State for Northen Ireland and Wales + Patron Saint of Sunbeds)Obviously this man doesn't have a vested interest in the continuation of the Union!Argument...
The state of Labours New Britain of which they are just so proud.Some Tags:BNP Racism Race BritainGavin HopleyRoss ParkerKalvinder...
A few things have crossed my mind this week, mostly regarding the future of our very country. There are so many problems that exist for us (as shown below), that it becomes hard to believe that our future will remain secure. For instance:We have no written constitution, therefore we have no structure which to base our laws upon and deem certain laws "unconstitutional" for the best interests of the public.The House of Lords is practically useless, which gives parliament the ability to pass any law it wishes without secondary consent.We have a multi-cultural society, which even our own Prime Minister has admitted not to be working, because of factors such as "ghetto-isation" and cultural isolation.We have accepted far too many immigrants and asylum seekers over the past 50 years, that a...
This is probably one of those posts that I formerly would have used bullet points on. But bullet points don't work with this template and putting several topics into a single post makes it difficult to label. As we all know, the fate of Western Europe* rests on my putting blog posts into categories.I spotted Saturday that I am no longer too old to join the British military. I haven't really looked into it, but I think joining up would put me on the fast track to UK citizenship. Take a bullet for the Queen and you get to be one of her subjects.If I remember correctly, the process of naturalisation in the UK is easier for people whose grandparents were British citizens, which means my dad could apply. We only found this out recently. My dad found the naturalisation papers of my...
Jenny is going to hate this post.Monica keeps a running list of strange things about the British, some of which are undeniably true (#46: Televised dart competitions) and some not as much (#5: There are no obese people here -- Obviously Monica has never visited South Wales). Some day in the future, I may attempt a list of strange things that are uniquely Welsh (They fear the Internet), but for the moment I thought I would just add to her list.Almost anytime I meet someone new over here, the conversation will work its way toward two things: 1) What do you think of British people?2) It's really different over here, isn't it?Both of these questions, of course, are not actually questions. People are not asking for my opinion; they want to hear an American accent telling them that they are...
I took the above photo before Wales' game against Slovakia in Cardiff. In the background you can see a banner with WelshNotBritish.com on it which is one of Cymuned's websites. The organisation uses occasions like internationals to highlight their campaigns. Here's Cymuned's Flickr group which has a lot of striking photo's!
Strangley enough, Eric posted a stori on his blog under the heading Welsh not British this week, which tells a story and gives his view of the way that the BBC Sport treat 'us all' (everyone in Britain that is) as English, and explains how this leads to a certain disliking (to put it mildly) by the Welsh (and Scottish, and Irish and .....) towards English national teams. It would do this 'Welsh' woman no harm to have a read.
(llongyfarchiadau Eric for being...
In
english,
BBC,
Cymru,
england,
pêl-droed,
Irish,
football,
cymuned,
Wales,
british,
scottish,
britain
Tynnais y llun uchod cyn gêm Cymru v Slofacia yng Nghaerdydd. Yn y cefndir fe welwch banner WelshNotBritish.com sef un o wefannau Cymuned. Mae'r mudiad yn defnyddio achlysuron fel gemau rhyngwladol i hyrwyddo eu hymgyrchoedd. Dyma gyfrif Flickr Cymuned sydd â llawer o luniau trawiadol arno!
Yn rhyfedd ddigon, dyma Eric yn postio stori er ei flog o dan y pennawd Welsh not British yr wythnos hon, yn adrodd ei hanes a'i deimladau o'r modd mae'r BBC yn trin 'ni i gyd' (hynny yw pawb ym Mhrydain) fel Saeson, ac yn esbonio sut mae hyn yn arwain at deimlad o gasineb gan Gymry (ac Albanwyr, a Gwyddelod a.....) tuag at dimau cenedlaethol Lloegr. Efallai byddai'n syniad i'r 'Gymraes' hon ei ddarllen.
(llongyfarchiadau Eric am dy enwi'n Flog y Mis ar gyfer mis Tachwedd gan gylchgrawn...
One of my life's dream is to be immortalised in some way, kind of like have something here that - when I'm gone - something of me remains. Sure, I've this ere blog, but should I pop my clogs tomorrow, it would be gone in March, when the hosting is due to expire. So, imagine my curiosity when this story popped up on Yahoo! News.
LONDON (AFP) - The details of a day in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Britons will reportedly be recorded and compiled into a digital time capsule that will be stored permanently at the British Library.
The "One Day in History" project, described as a "blog for the national record," will feature British celebrities such as actors Stephen Fry and Derek Jacobi, and the writer Bill Bryson contributing to the compilation, along with any Briton with access to...
