Moving to london and scared to death....???

Question

my mom desided to pick up and move to the Uk. i'v never been outside of the united states NYC and now moving across the ocean, i need too whats it like. my friend tells me that getting dual citizenship is very hard and londoners are very uptight and have zero tolerence for much of everything. i herd it rains alot and is very foggy with most of the streets made of cobbele stone. im sure london is a wonderful place but can you please clear up some of my fears. and also i know you guys speak english but i cant understand a single word yall say... and lord knows when y'all are mad. thank you

Answer 1

BOO!!! Oh dear, are we really that scary ? First , I think your friends have been watching way too many "olde Englande " movies from the 1930s... so just ignore them because they SERIOUSLY know nothing about London. Anyway, a few facts to put you right...

1. Dual citizenship is completely unnecessary... why would you want it? There's no reason at all why you cant be a US citizen living in the UK. Trust us, we wont hold it against you..

2. London is more cosmopolitan and mixed than any other city on Earth, and that includes NYC. That comes with 100% tolerance of everyone and everything (within reason..). People who look, behave, dress, sound or act weird in London get ignored the same as everyone else. Only non Londoners and tourists stare at them.

3. We Londoners aren't "uptight" at all. We like to mind our own business and dont go out of our way to talk to strangers, so many non Londoners think we are rude and stand-offish. But Americans say the same thing about New Yorkers, dont they? If I want to talk to you , we'll talk and if I don't , we wont. It comes from living in a big, busy city...you're a New Yorker so you'll probably know what I mean.

4. Rain? Yeah, sometimes. We're on a fairly small island in the North Atlantic, so what do you expect ? But we dont have a monsoon season and its not as if its raining "all the time". The last few years we've even had water shortage warnings during the summer.

5. Fog? What is it with Americans thinking London is permanently under a shroud of thick fog? If you see a little mist once or twice a year, you'll be lucky.

6. Cobble stoned streets ? well, yeah...back in the 18th century. Which was over 200 years ago. These days, we've even got electricty and flush toilets and everything!

7. The accent ? Well, its our language in the first place...so whose got the accent now? You'll pick it up quickly enough and we'll have you speaking like a proper cockney in no time, in'it ! But dont worry, we'll try to speak....really...really ...slowly ;)

8. When we're mad? We aren't certifiably "mad"...but we do get angry sometimes. You'll know when...typically, Londoners will internalise their anger for ages and try to keep cool ...until it boils over suddenly and they go absolutely nuts at the person they are angry with. Its actually pretty funny if you aren't involved.

9. You'll love the place, so just enjoy!

Answer 2

Oh my, I think your friends tried to scare you.
You don't need dual citizenship to live in London, only a resident permit and that is not that hard to get for an American.
Cobble stones went at the same time as Queen Victoria a century ago. The streets of London are made for cars, not horse carriages. London is a great city, with plenty of foreigners so you won't be the only ones, plenty of places to have fun, very lively and very different from what you described. Of course it is a different country so don't expect everything to be like at home, the fun is to discover those differences. The houses may be old but the city is quite modern. Smog (industrial fog) disappeared a long time ago, the weather is usually mild in summer, coldish in winter but nothing like the NYC winters, there's rain of course, this is an island, but you do have plenty of sunny days.
As for the accent, you get used to it. If you want to train your ear rent some British comedies and get used to it. As for the British themselves you'll find them much more friendly than what your friends described. You'll have a great time, you'll see.

Answer 3

Dual citizenship is v hard for you, a normal visa will be all you're allowed (check and get it first in the US!) It does rain a fair bit, but quite similar to NY so you'll be used to it. We have no fog or smog anymore and I haven't seen a cobble stones road in all my years living here. If you say 'yall' we shan't be able to understand you either, so expect to hear different words, especially 'queue' (pronounced like the letter 'q') instead of 'line' this has confused all the Americans I know. We can be uptight at first but we're very nice people and if you're in school, expect to be very popular as we have no Americans in our schools. Have a great time and embrace everything!

Answer 4

Turn that frown upside down! London is a fabulous place. I'm an Americn who lived over there for school and I loved it. People are friendly if you approach them with a friendly attitude. Just inform yourself about things ahead of time so you don't look so ignorant. Then be nice and charming and they will be nice and charming in return. I now have many great English friends that I talk to on a regular basis and they even offer to put me up when I come visit!

Cheers! : )

Answer 5

First of all London is a great city.. Not all people in the U.K are uptight ....and don´t worry it may take you a little while to get use to the way of British life but its gonna be a new start for you... You´re mom may just want you to expierence another culture... See it as something new and exciting...

Look at me, I´m an American From Chicago, and last December i decided to pick up and move to Barcelona, Spain... I had to also get use to a new way of living, but in the end its all worth it. I am alot happier here then what i was in Chicago... Don´t get me wrong, Chicago to me is my home town but sometimes life takes you to places that will make your life much more worth it..

So take a deep breath and Enjoy whats to come.. ( you´ll get use to the british accent, in time, so take it easy!)

Have fun!

Bcn_Mimosa from Barcelona, Spain

Answer 6

well I live in the US and Ive been everywhere, the other day I was in the airport from puerto rico to US and their was a few mexican tourist people and I was next to them and I wasnt scared. I go do my things and Im not paniced about it because I know its very scary but sometimes the media exagerates to get the scary goose pumps and have people freak out and have fun out of it, its more like a joke than a seriously taken issue. The only thing I feel disgusted with that swine flu its that it comes from pigs mucus respiratory bacteria and thats nasty.

Answer 7

London and New York. My 2 favorite cities.

You will love
theater, museums, subways, Pakistani cab drivers, hummmmm
sounding like NY?

Why would you worry about citizenship? Not anything you have to worry about.

You are the one sounding uptight.

T

Answer 8

I think you had better sort yourself out first. 2 days ago you were 18 and then 15 hours ago you were 16 and 7 months pregnant.
I you must post fake questions at least get you lies consistent.

Answer 9

Well, lets see, first of all, is your mother a British Citizen and does she have an immigrant visa? If you get to the airport and the even SUSPECT you are coming to England to live permanently, you WON'T GET OUT OF PASSPORT CONTROL... they will turn you around and ship you back to the U.S.

You will NOT be able to get dual citizenship... unless your mother is a British Citizen or you get married to one... then it takes about 3 years of being married and living together to prove you aren't just getting married to get around the immigration laws.

What is your mother going to do for money? How do you plan to go to school? Do you know just how raciest the Brits are?... If you think some of the cities in America are bad... you ain't seen nothing until you are trying to live in one of the poorer areas of London... The Brits in general are not real happy about all the minority races that have moved into England and the Londoners in particular are even LESS accepting.

I'm more concerned about how you are going to live and how you are going to earn money. London is one of the most expensive cities in the WORLD to live in and the U.S. Dollar is worth about half what it is in the U.S.... just think about every dollar you have being worth only $0.50 cents... THAT is London... and the RENTS are TWICE what you would pay in most American Cities.

You said you are scared... I say you should be.... in fact... you should be VERY, VERY scared.

Answer 10

dk