Are British people really as mean as the stereotype suggests?

There is a stereotype in the UK, basically as regards football, that all the Latin countries - Spain, Italy, Portugal, South and Central America etc - are diving cheaters. It was basically spawned by Christiano Ronaldo and Diego Simeone.

You hear that plenty from all sorts - I hear it from people who only live outside of London, and who should know better.

After a while of dealing with it, you get used to it. Hell, it's not uncommon for Japanese anglophiles to ask me to say 'Baka!', or similar phrases that Asuka says or might say, be it anything from from a the show itself, a fanfic, or even their headcanon where she marries Rei.

And then you have the ones who go 'Cheerio, old chap!', who are worst. Those I rant at in Welsh.

What about the "Hand of god" thing?

That too.

I'm Scottish, though, so I found that hilarious. Maradona is still a fat, cheating coke fiend though.

He is known as that pretty much everywhere. Except Argentina of course.

My favorite nickname for him is "Methadona"

I'm Welsh, and as only vaguely aware of it, but mostly laughed to myself.

If it hurts the English, it pleases me.

Why would people ask you to say "Baka!"? That is confusing as fuck

Because I'm a tall redheaded woman who during that period had her hair like Asuka's. It made me look like her, and Baka is just one of those things she says.

Didn't Maradona say that the "Hand of God" was payback for The Falklands War?

But. Asuka is German. Would make more sense for you to call them dummkopfs.

Would make even more sense for you to beat them up with a lead pipe.

Given her accent as done in the anime, that doesn't matter. As far as many Japanese Anglophiles are concerned, I'm just as good even if I sound like an aristocratic Welsh sheep farmer.

That's an oddly specific accent.

Not too much - 'Welsh sheep farmer' just means 'not from cities', and the first part comes due to A) my family history, and B) that I'd been working with people who spend more on lunch than most earn in a day.

I propose you meet them at the middle, then. Callthem dummkopfs and then beat them with a lead pipe. Then scorch them with fire breath while shouting CYMRU AM BYTH!!!!

It wouldn't be worth it, just because plenty would ask me to say something like 'Baka, it's not like I'm hitting Shinji because I'm jealous of you or anything...', and then I'd be paid £10.

Yes, I'm cheap, and £10 still buys plenty.

edited 28th Nov '14 7:31:45 AM by RatherRandomRachel

They pay you for it? Welp sounds like a win-win, then!

The Mc Canns'. Oh boy, that's the shitstorm of the century.

The thing is, Portugal is not the worst case when it comes to child abduction/kidnapping. However, 'Missing White Girl Syndrome' had to kick in, so, it's easy to understand the shitstorm it generated.

edited 28th Nov '14 1:55:05 PM by Quag15

I think one of the issues with the whole thing was that they were let off for being middle-class. There was a similar case (although it turned out the mother did it for the sweet sweet quids) concerning a working-class girl from a council estate. Totally different media coverage, literally vilifying the mother and blaming the community. Now, of course, it turned out that the mother was a lying scumbag and the girl was 'safe', but up until that point the coverage was accusative. In this case, its more "Middle-class Missing White Girl Syndrome".

I think the thing that most irritates me about this case is how many other girls have gone missing, and yet they get no focus. I realise it's Missing White Woman Syndrome with a whole load of reactionary middle class worry, but it's so annoying, especially because there were likely Asian or African children who also went missing that week, but got nowhere as much traction.

And yes, I do realise this applies to boys as well - but there you go.

edited 28th Nov '14 2:08:39 PM by RatherRandomRachel

/ I concur.

And you two raised the elephant in the room, the one thing non-British people will never understand: class.

I'm still scratching my head at some of the manners/shticks of each class.

edited 28th Nov '14 2:16:53 PM by Quag15

The best way class can be summed up is from the words of the very upper-class Michael Jopling, former Tory minister of agriculture, about the ambitious - upper middle class - Tory deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine:

A British person would know exactly what he meant by that, whilst foreigners could be left scratching their heads.

It means that Heseltine, a middle-class businessman, had to make his money rather than inherit it, as Jopling did from his CEO father. Why this would be a bad thing is of course, another intricacy of the class system.

edited 28th Nov '14 2:33:35 PM by Achaemenid

Amusingly, I inhereted plenty of furniture when I got at it, but used what furniture I had to get myself more. Which leaves me in a very weird spot, really.

edited 28th Nov '14 2:35:26 PM by RatherRandomRachel

I have a sizeable stock of furniture I'm likely to inherit, being in the new "technical middle-class".

I hope your furniture doesn't come with the smell of solder, as mine does the smell of blood and iron chains.