TIL That only the Chinese need to be reminded not to openly defecate at the Louvre in Paris

American living in the UK here.

English people are so easily offended, it's ridiculous. It's almost impossible not to be judged as rude in this country. If you are English, you're judged as rude because you are from the North, or from the South, or are middle class, or are Asian, or are working class (they'll call you a chav), or whatever is most prominent about you.

Since I am most prominently an American, I am judged as rude (as everyone is judged in the UK), and the explanation is that it is because I am American.

The two big differences:

English people are very judgmental and quite suspicious of anyone different from them. But they aren't that way to other people's faces. They just bitch about people behind their backs or in the loo or whatever. That's one reason why there are so many shy Tories.

English people will mutter complaints constantly about all the bureaucracy they have to deal with (health and safety!) but unsurprisingly if an American expresses this same disdain out loud in conversation then that person is considered rude.

Another thing is that English people reflexively apologize for everything. Americans do not. This makes Americans doubly rude.

tl;dr For Americans to follow local English customs, they need to learn to dislike most people but be disingenuous about it, and also apologize for everything without really meaning it (because it's really that wanker's fault).

p.s., The English are the worst drunks in Western Europe. By a massive margin. You should see the vomit all over the streets every Saturday and Sunday.

p.p.s., I once was at a bar in central London (on Exmouth Market) on a Friday evening (10 pm-ish) when two mid-to-late 20-something women ran in from outside, stopped in the middle of the room and barfed all over the floor. They could have barfed outside or just not drank themselves into that state. But, no.

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - vice.com