A UK-based expatriate American's view on the psychological differences between Britons and Americans. Somewhat interesting, in a slightly fluffy sort of way. (via bOING bOING)

Brits have a much more philosophical attitude in general. They think that they have a much more developed sense of irony than the Americans do. They mean that Americans are terribly earnest and terribly straightforward and gung-ho. It's like having a very big dog in the house that keeps panting, "Like me! Like me! Like me!"

I used to say to my husband, "How could they build an entire country with no closet space?" But they did. They forgot that we needed it. For most of the States that's not true. They have space. They have items.

A British guy I knew went out on a date with an American girl and she told him every terrible thing that ever happened to her and all of her issues and hang-ups. And he said to her, "Can't we just flirt? And talk about the weather? Why do I need to know all this?"

(Apparently, according to her, Oprah Winfrey is a fundamental aspect of how Americans think, and in particular their fixation with self-improvement and perfectibility.)

(Salon Premium; mind you, today's DayPass (from the WELL) has no Flash ad to load/click through.)

Want to say something? Do so here.

Note to spammers: This comment system applies the rel=nofollow attribute to the poster's URL and all links. Posting links to this page will not improve their search engine rankings.

Display name:
URL:(optional)
To prove that you are not a bot, please enter the text in the image on the right in the field below it.

Your Comment:

Remember my details.

Please keep comments on topic and to the point. Inappropriate comments may be deleted.

Note that markup is stripped from comments; URLs will be automatically converted into links.