Things you like about the Yanks

[PILTDOWN MAN]

The fact most of them haven't a passport. I like that.

 

[Easy 10]

How when you're at a Baseball game at Wrigley Field, they sell you beer and food at your seat. Rather than having to queue up for it for bloody ages.

This.

Or standing in the bar at a ballpark, beer in hand, just watching the game. No petty outdated rules, no tedious restrictions. Wonderful.

 

[The Spanish]

The fact most of them haven't a passport. I like that.

They issue the second largest number of passports per year of any country

 

[rocker959]

Route 66

 

[Albion my Albion]

It was almost certainly posh boy, public school slang though to differentiate between rugby and football and that's why it has always sounded wrong and why we and the rest of the world say 'football'. It's FIFA, EUFA, CONCACAF, FA, OFC, CAF. All those letter Fs and not a single letter S in sight.

MLS

 

[Albion my Albion]

This one often crops up and I always wonder why. It seems to have acquired mythic status as the reality is very, very different. I would say the US is by some distance the worst country for customer service that I've been to.

You go into a shop and within seconds you have some gurning eejit wishing you a nice day and asking what you want. If you ask for something and they haven't got it, they don't tell you a shop that may have it (as would happen in the UK) but try to sell you something else. If you're having a meal, you get interrupted every three minutes as to whether you want something else.

I've worked for several US companies and have to make many trips over the pond for business meetings but no matter what city I go to, I always get wound up by the poor customer experience.

I can only assume that the people who say 'good customer experience' are people who have never been to the States.

You get what you pay for. If the service people are paid well they provide better customer service. In the US the business has an option to be cheap. My guess is that you must frequent businesses that go cheap on paying the customer service people.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Yankees hate Red Sox

 

[OzMike]

Can't put my finger on anything really.

 

[Daffy Duck]

"Small town" America is fantastic.
Once you get away from the big cities the people are some of the most welcoming and hospitable people you are ever likely to meet.
There seems to be a wonderful sense of community and belonging that's been lost in most of the UK.

And, yes, the scenery is amazing as well!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Chicago.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My Detroit White Trash wife.

Ha ha. Lovely city in my opinion. Probably the place where I've been made to feel most welcome, immigration aside.

 

[Simster]

They issue the second largest number of passports per year of any country

That's quite an interesting fact, not that it contradicts the post you replied to of course.

As an example, only 5% of Americans travelled abroad for either business or pleasure in 2009:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1920287

 

[Lower West Stander]

I totally agree with this. It's FAKE customer service which doesn't feel genuine in any way. They might as well employ robots to repeat the same phrases over and over again.


I like that they lost the war of 1812, so Canada exists.

Yep - agree too.

When I was moving back to the UK from New York, I was forced to take my cable box in a carrier bag back to the Time Warner shop on the Upper East Side. When I got there I was shunted into the far corner and made to wait 15 minutes for someone to close my contract even though there were shop staff everywhere seemingly doing nothing.

Yes - I was a leaving customer. But better customer service in the US is definitely a myth.


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[Herr Tubthumper]

Food. My favourite restaurant is in NYC and wherever I've been I have found excellent grub from street food, diners right up to higher end.

 

[Insel affe]

Ha ha. Lovely city in my opinion. Probably the place where I've been made to feel most welcome, immigration aside.

Yes it is actually and I like the edge to the City, when you went over did you go too Harpos Heavy Metal/Thrash club or Smalls another good club is the Shelter inside St Andrews Hall saw Mustard Plug play there with the Koffin Kats last year it was acfantastic night.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

That's quite an interesting fact, not that it contradicts the post you replied to of course.

As an example, only 5% of Americans travelled abroad for either business or pleasure in 2009:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1920287

Whilst I'm not disputing this it is actually quite time consuming and also limited to travel outside of the country. I work with many Americans and a guy who lives in North Carolina told me it would take him at least 4 hours to just cross the border and leave the US. If memory serves me correctly this is either a flight to Canada or the Carribean via Florida. If you want to go elsewhere you're looking at long haul. And when there's so much wonderful country and cities in the states I can understand why few leave the US for vacation.

 

[Simster]

Whilst I'm not disputing this it is actually quite time consuming and also limited to travel outside of the country. I work with many Americans and a guy who lives in North Carolina told me it would take him at least 4 hours to just cross the border and leave the US. If memory serves me correctly this is either a flight to Canada or the Carribean via Florida. If you want to go elsewhere you're looking at long haul. And when there's so much wonderful country and cities in the states I can understand why few leave the US for vacation.

Oh absolutely. If our country was a similar size with similar weather and terrain diversity, we'd be exactly the same.

 

[Gwylan]

I like the fact that, on the whole, they have genuine appreciation of people who succeed in life and do well for themselves. In Britain it feels like we begrudge people their success, and no soon as someone does well for themselves we find reasons to put them down and belittle their achievements. In the US people look up to those who are successful and take inspiration from them. In the UK we just take the piss.

This is something else that I've seen before and something else that I think is a total myth. If you think that American people like and respect success, I suggest you do a search for Donald Trump on Google - you'll find large numbers of people have little respect ... and there are more than a few taking the piss.

While over here in the UK, the people who frequently top polls for the most respected people are the Queen and Richard Branson (no, I don't get that either). And you only have to look at viewing figures for celeb programmes or sales of celeb mags to see that people avidly follow people who have made a few bob.

Of course, there are people here who take the piss too and there people in the US who fawn over Trump, that's the point. I don't think our attitude to celebrities in the UK is very different from the US.

I should make it clear that I'm no hater of the US: most of the music I listen to is American. I like and admire American writers. I'm a huge fan of baseball and like the idea of eating and drinking watching a game (if only they could offer some decent beer, it would be heaven). And, most of all, I like the American people - open and friendly almost to a fault.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Theme parks

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[Herr Tubthumper]

Architecture. From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry.

As an aside does anyone remember that thread some time ago when a poster claimed the US had no culture? Who was that?