brits only answer please?

Question

ok here is the question.. how do you all feel about the americanization of the uk today? u know what i am talking about. fast food, pick up trucks, the music, the fashion ( ok ok i know that one) the tv programmes, the shopping malls ( wot happenned to our lovely high streets? with the little shops?)
and the language ( the nxt person that says "hi" instead of "hello" i am gonna throw in the duck pond), the building of houses so far out of town that u need a car to get to shops, the fact that builders no longer build footpaths on housing estates?
so come on lets hear it, wot r your thoughts.

dear all
many thanks for your answers.
i am glad that i am not alone in feeling this way.

Answer 1

i strongly put my middle finger up to the amercan dream
(hi)

Answer 2

I take a very British stance to this situation. The masses can do what they want, I don't use fast food joints, I like to walk. I don't buy labels and refuse to pay for goods which advertise other peoples products. I like being individual. It is my right as a Brit. I have never been to Brent Cross, Blue Water or Lakeside.
I haven't seen Sex in the city, Friends nor Seinfeld.
If there wasn't a pavement where I lived I'd exercise my rights by walking in the road.
In the past we have tried to implement our ideas and ways upon other societies as the Americans do now. This is of course wrong, monopolies are unconstructive, even destructive.
What we should still implement though is our attitude. Rejoice in our individuality and our eccentricities. It is these qualities that have made us resilient and resourceful.
History tells us after the Americans have died back there will be some other. Many powers have tried to unify and corporate the British psyche, in this I mean the English, Welsh, etc.
The British are Pagan at heart, we don't want perfection or uniform, to us it is not natural or beautiful.
If anyone carved Churchill's, Bevans or Lloyd Georges face into the side of Snowdon we would be horified and mortified, because no one person is more important than the mountain itself.

Answer 3

I don't think all of what you highlight could be classed as Americanisation , some is down to so called progress , although I would rather have done without some of this "progress"
I almost totally ignore fast food outlets , I am too old to be into fashion and anyway there are some good British houses still around .
I think you are off the mark on music , as an example Manchester and Glasgow among many others produce good bands even for me at my age !!
Yes our local high street seem mainly to be full of charity shops and pound stores , but all these large malls are just supply and demand , the faster they are built the more folks visit
Britain still makes some decent TV , if you ignore all the reality rubbish . There is some good stuff there is you are patient , but yes lets have more please .
I do agree on the language issue too many people communicate in mobile phone speak and I sometimes find it impossible to fathom out what they are saying .
On the whole I probably agree with your sentiment , but all the Young folks on ASK would probably think I am on "old fart" anyway.

Answer 4

The TV programmes are rubbish. McDonald's should be demolished to make more parking. Those bloody 4 wheel drives should be banned. Unfortunately, some things we don't even design in Britain let alone make any more. We just handed everything over to the Americans or anyone who wanted to cash in. MG cars are now made in China instead of Birmingham with workers paid £5 a day. But China has $1,000,000,000,000 in their currency reserves - wait until they start buying up the USA like the Japanese did! The Americans will be eating with chop sticks.

Answer 5

I'm not sure always what the problem is. The English language is a very flexible easily understood one ( although difficult to use correctly). The questioner has forgotten that it is the language of the market place with many words from several languages which have been Anglicized with no two words meaning exactly the same due to shades of meaning. . The language was not made by Ox-bridge academics but by ordinary people going about their daily lives open to influences from all over the world to add to the language.

The lovely high streets sold goods more expensively than the shopping malls. I think that answers that part of your question..
Inventions and designs may not suit your taste but they succeed because they are useful and so they are bought and used. The planning is awful in some housing estates but can we actually blame the Americans for that. I think perhaps we should blame the planners who are supposed to have original thoughts. Land outside cities is cheaper than land in them and does not need demolition which adds to the expense of building. So the influences you complain of are economic rather than anything else.

Answer 6

Well, I am American first of all but I totally agree with you! I hate going out of the country and seeing American influences. It also makes me sad to read articles about how kids in a lot of other countries are emulating the American kids here. There are a lot of great reasons why I love being an American but it is not a perfect place. Unfortunately, foreigners tend to pick up on the shallow aspects of our culture. I am pretty much an individual and live as I see fit but most Americans don't have that attitude. And they pay a price for that - mainly being more stressed out and unhappy if you ask me!

Answer 7

My dad fought in WWII and this was his big bugbear - the Americanisation of UK culture, He hated it all even pop music. He thought it was so sad that the UK he fought for was disappearing thanks to the efforts of the American Corporations selling their "products" (junk food, music, fashion, films etc) over here.

As the British film industry no longer exists we don't have much of a choice really. If you want to see a major film its going to be American or at least American financed (like Harry Potter - all British cast, British author yet American money, or King Arthur - again British leading cast, British legend, American money and director). You can choose not to eat at MaccyD's (probably a good thing if you want to avoid food poisoning) watch only British made TV programmes, buy music only by British acts, however.

I never watched Sex in the City or Seinfled or Friends as they are utter SHITE!! Really boring stupid programmes full of vapid characters who I cannot identify with. I much prefer Doctor Who or a good BBC dramatisation (Jane Eyre last year was superb).

I think we should celebrate our culture. I'm Welsh and how many young people in Wales learn to speak Welsh these days or even if they do learn it at school, how many use it everyday life? Very few apart from the remote West and North rural areas, but they will dress up like American "gangstas" and use American slang. They do this rather than learn about and celebrate Welsh culture. It shocks me to hear kids talking about "malls" and even some who call their mum their "Mom" - WTF?!?!?!?!

I love British slang, we need to use it or it will be lost and we'll all be using Americanisms.

How many young people in the UK know anything about British history - the Battle of Britain etc? If there hasn't been a big budget American film about it (telling it from the Americans' point of view and making out that they won it single handedly) they aren't interested. Sad.

We should use our own power of choice to support our own culture and stop buying into the corporate Americanisation of the UK.

ESIT: JadeAlisha - shut up you fool, it has nothing to do with British history or Empire building and everything to do with American globalisation, Capitalism and greed,

The "American Dream" gets a firm TWO digit salute (thats the British way, not the American one finger) from me too!

Answer 8

Good morning.I agree with your observations.I have seen so often American ideas becoming the norm here in the UK.Whatever trends they have in America seem to find their way over here.Not all of it is bad, but it is slowly killing off the sweet old traditional British towns.
Yet, the Americans that I see when I am visiting places like Stratford Upon Avon with my family on holiday love our old history.They seem smitten with The Royal Family and quaint tea rooms.
It's funny, they love our old traditions, and the younger British generation love the burger bars and American sit coms and everything else derived from the US of A.I fear that before long, the only way we will see the traditional British way of life will be at museums and the few historical places of interest dotted around the country.

Answer 9

Yes it does bother me, I'm forever arguing about this with people who are blind to what's happening. i can't go and get a cup of tea when I'm shopping unless it's in a plastic cup! I don't like fast food, I want something simple like an omelette but I have to wait until I get home and cook it myself... no cafes left! At the end of the main shopping area there are 4 fast food places right next to each other! Glasgow has some truly lovely buildings, many historical films and dramas are filmed here because we have amazing architecture.... yet it's going! I was apalled to see a new cine world building about 8 stories high sticking out like a sore thumb against all our beautiful buildings. I hate their silly "comedy" that has to practically scream LAUGH at you, no subtlety, no class. when an American wishes to defend their comedy, they will almost certainly mention Friends.....why??? I've never seen such sickly sweet tripe in all my life...where's the humour?? Yet I'm seeing more and more lemmings blindly following. Plastic teeth, skin like leather, using *** instead of **** and aspiring to look like an ironing board!
My local shopping centre was demolished and is now going to be one of the largest shopping complex's in the UK. For people like my gran, that little shopping centre was her whole social life. she knew all the staff, would meet up with her other friends in the little seating area, share local gossip etc. A huge mall will intimidate her, no intimacy, no memories.... no character! What's wrong with being British?!!!!!!!

Answer 10

After returning to the Uk from Germany after 7 years it stinks..

Sorry but it does.. Where have the high streets gone.. where are the little shops. Let alone the proper Cafe's not these stupid new style coffee outlets.

Answer 11

It is notable that the person asking the question about the 'Americanisation' of UK culture is failing to use the English language fluently himself/herself. It is regretable that our language should have become so corrupted that a serious question could be posed in 'text-speak'. That says much about the state of our culture. I do not deny the right of the questioner to use whatever language he/she chooses though I do wonder whether he/she can see the irony. That assumes that question was serious ....