Why do British people...?

Question

Why do a lot of Brits make us Americans out to be stupid in their questions? They always ask why our accents sound so dumb, or why we can't spell? True, we aren't the smartest population, but I don't think it's really fair to generalize the whole nation. Any Americans feel the same way as me? Can any Brits tell me why they think we are stupid?

I'm just saying that I don't think it's really fair to judge us just on the way that we sound when we talk.

And, hey, you guys may be smarter than us, but at least our teeth are nice!

To anna: maybe you should stop answering questions and go get that needle of heroin away from your drugee husband!

To AndyB: I was just joking about the teeth thing after I had gotten some insulting answers. Thank you for your nice answer.

Answer 1

That is just their nature to ACT superior. So do the French. It is just "airs".
We were in London a couple years ago and went to a restaurant. The waitress spoke in a cockney accent and we couldn't understand her to save our lives. They have their under class too. More of ours is showcased in rap and on TV.

Answer 2

Now personally, I don't like your country, and I am trying hard to keep my personal opinions down and keep to the facts, but I do know about the general perceptions of your country.

Y'know, this is odd. We call the Irish stupid all the time, but we don't mean it, it's just a light-hearted joke. On the other hand, that Americans are stupid is a very widely held stereotype, and most people do mean it when they say it, more so than when blonds are called stupid for instance.

I think it's because there is a general distaste for America as a whole; of course no one would ever go straight up to an American and blame them for being American unless they didn't like the bugger, but on the internet this seems to be different. People don't seem to be afraid to voice their opinions as it isn't to the peoples faces, and it doesn't seem like you're being offensive. Because of this I think we are more likely to laugh at you for our perceived stereotypes.

Of course there are some very intelligent people in the USA, but then we here statistics like the number of people each year killed by having coke machines fall on top of them. Also they generally don't always get the subtleties of our sense of humour, which is different to yours, and for a Brit to not get those subtleties would be perceived as stupid.

Also, to many peoples ears, some American accents sound really slow and patronising for no reason; others like Redneck, just sound stupid. I also think we're more prepare to laugh at you for this because of the fact that every single British person on American TV speaks with a very posh accent that no one, bar maybe the royals, ever uses in real life. That is irritating to the max.

It's just a stereotype, maybe there are more stupid Americans, I don't have the figures, but I wouldn't worry about it. I found out you have a stereotype that we have bad teeth; now this isn't true, we have dental care covered partially on the NHS, but it's the other way round then.

Answer 3

I don't think the Brits think you're stupid, just different. For an English speaking nation a lot of words are spelled differently here & hundreds of expressions mean something completely different. (I know:I've been made fun of here!)
Something to note though, the Brits start school earlier & at 16 are @ the same level as an 18 year old American. School hours are longer & vacations shorter.
American kids are falling behind a lot of other countries in education, not just England.

Answer 4

Well, I'm an American, and I don't, or haven't, seen any Brit make fun of us. We are run by a bad president, and they may believe the people who support him are stupid. I don't think the Brits mean it. It's just how you take the words. And don't worry, you are your own person who happens to be an American. You live on the same soil that the Brits have lost on numerous times. They should be lucky to have learned their lesson early. Many people don't like that people say ttyl or forget to put an apostrophe or something. Don't generalize all Brits, because not all Brits do hate us. I hoped this helped.

Answer 5

We Brits dont think you're stupid,far from it,it's just that we've got a different sense of humour and as far as we are concerned everyone is fair game so if one of your country people do something stupid that we get to see then the jokes flow.
Dont take it personally every nation has its stupid people,and as for the Americans you are friendly,kind and imaginative people and have done a lot for the world,even though you do have a few idiots.

Answer 6

I am an American, trust me, we aren't as smart as the Brits. Whenever a teacher can't make ends meet in our country but a good athlete makes $2 million a year or more, how can you expect our educational system to compete? You don't even need a degree to teach in some counties, others take anyone with any kind of degree regardless on how they feel about kids.

Answer 7

It's not just the British who stereotype us as that, its much of Europe as well. True, I could understand why, as there are a lot of supremely unintelligent people here, but there's also a lot of brilliant people.

Many of these people are smarter in one regard, and bad at other things. Perhaps its because we're such a large population that there are very large amounts of unintelligent folks as well as smart people, but unfortunately there's a lot of users who can't (or won't) spell who ask stupid questions, perhaps because they have nothing better to do.

With so many millions of people living here, it makes sense more of them flood this service with stupid questions and answers.

Although I'd like to point out that I don't think IQ has anything to do with it; one user said that our adults have the same IQ as British schoolchildren, but IQ doesn't change with age. you have the same IQ when your ten as when you're sixty. Also IQ is only one measure of intelligence, and it neglects a lot of things. My brother's IQ is in the 130's, but since he's very dyslexic, his scores on tests are often abysmal. It's completely unfair, but he has to deal with it.

OK, sorry about the ranting, but its what I think!

Answer 8

well because america don't have it's own language, you're using "english" from England (Brits), although you call it american english, you cannot deny the fact that US does not have it's own language unlike the Japanese using Nippongo or the Middle East Countries using Arabic... Common!! the language came from them, let's give them that, but if american's are not stupid, then why do you react to this? Your reactions only confirm your guilt, RIGHT??

Answer 9

Funny-some have origins of the U.K and some have married an English. I don't see why trash a nation as a whole-that's just categorizing, and the bad thing with categorizing is that it's ignorant and arrogant to do-not all are like this/that.

Answer 10

British people are smarter on average than Americans. An average British school child has the same IQ as your average adult American.