10 Things Americans don't realize are offensive to Brits

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I'm curious. What do they call black people in Britain and Australia?

I'm curious. What do they call black people in Britain and Australia? Here we call them African-Americans.

Hm... what a lovely collection of broken glass bottles you have.

Probably time to flee.

Earlier, a poster here on WP referred to black people from the Caribbean as African-American. That's incorrect. The term's really reserved for those born in America or naturalized here. Someone from Africa would simply be called African if they're not a citizen of the US.

You'll run into problems no matter what you do, especially thinking like that.

Each culture has a different way of doing things.

Over-politeness
We Brits find put-on congeniality, especially in stores, deeply irritating. It’s not that I want shop assistants to be actively rude. But neither do I want to expend energy responding to someone who’s been paid to ask, “How are you today?” in the style of an over-zealous children’s TV presenter when I’m busy trying to work out which knickers in Gap are the least likely to ride up my tush.

Sticking two fingers up at someone
Handily, pointing an about-turned, erect middle digit up at an adversary means the same in both lands. But what Americans often don’t realize is that standing their index finger up next to it (a reverse peace sign) is just as insulting in the U.K. Which is to say, not very, by we still might punch you if we’re drunk.

Having seen this in British comedy, Americans do it with palm facing forward. Brits do it with the back of the hand facing forward. They should know not to assume they are the same thing.

palm facing forward in America with 2 fingers up is the same insult as the back of the hand facing forward with 2 fingers up in the UK??

I agree with this one. Over-politeness gets on my nerves. I'm not expecting everyone to be rude, but over-politeness can sometimes make me feel patronized.

but what is a chipper?

"Brit" is generally fine.

If you want to impress a native while in Albion, brush up on your geography and general knowledge of Britain. I think we're easily impressed by U.S. Americans especially who make the effort. But of course, one notable error like thinking Cornwall's a city will mean you're back to square one. Perhaps learn a dozen or more cities in the British Isles if you don't know that many already, and similarly with our counties.

Another source of respect would be correct pronunciation and stressing of place names and I'll throw down some examples because it's 2am and this is what I do:

Birmingham = Burr-ming-UM (not Burr-ming-HAM/-HAYUM)
This same rule applies for most "-ham" towns. Durham = DUH-rum.

Scarborough = SCAR-bur-UH (not Scar-BRO)
This same rule applies for most "-borough" towns, including cases like Middlesbrough and Edinburgh.

Cheshire = CHESH-uh (not Che-SHY-uh)
This same rule applies for most "-shires" despite "Shire" being pronounced "SHY-uh", although examples like CHESH-eer, SHROP-sheer and WUSS-ter-sheer are also used.

Leicester = LESS-ter
This same rule applies for examples like Worcester (WUSS-ter) and Gloucester (GLOSS-ter).

Plymouth = PLIH-muth
This same rule applies for examples like Portsmouth (PORTS-muth) and Cockermouth (Cock-UH-muth).

Then there are other strange variables, eg. Southwark = SUTH-uk, Keswick = KEZ-ick, Norwich = NOH-rich, Salisbury = SOLS-bury.


I've forgotten what I was attempting to achieve with this or why, but that should make anyone well-prepared and leave us natives appreciative.

Having seen this in British comedy, Americans do it with palm facing forward. Brits do it with the back of the hand facing forward. They should know not to assume they are the same thing.