Myths about the English

[velvetgoldmine]

The following is a quote from a Canadian posting on another thread here...

"If you walk around the house barefoot (like the English do)...!

I am English, I don't habitually walk around the house barefoot and, so far as I know, neither do other English people. It got me thinking about where this idea could possibly have started, and what other myths might be floating around about the English?

[Jatte]

An englishman the lives next door to a Pie shop is less likely to move than a frenchman that lives next to a brothel
my buddy from england used to say that all the time

No offense intended

[ClubmanRob]

Mainly I've heard really bad myths regarding British hygeine (I've been across the pond, and I know them to not be true.) Things like you blokes only bathe two or three times a week. Or that all Brits have bad teeth. Or that you don't use deodorant. Or that the women don't shave their legs. Disgusting stuff like that.

[MoreSaltThanPepper]

The following is a quote from a Canadian posting on another thread here...

"If you walk around the house barefoot (like the English do)...!
I am English, I don't habitually walk around the house barefoot

Well, I'm not English/British, I'm Canadian and *I* walk the house barefoot (or more realistically, shoeless). It drives me mental when people walk in my vacuumed house in their street shoes. Sorry, getting the rant out of the way early.

It got me thinking about where this idea could possibly have started, and what other myths might be floating around about the English?

Ummm, my favourite is probably the consistent one about the English mating habits (once in a blue moon and three minutes at a time). Perhaps you could comment (or rant wildly) on that one?

Second favourite is not actually a rumour. Anytime we were on exercise with the Brits, we would lend them our spare uniforms so they could mess with us. How they hated their own food

There. Aren't you sorry you asked?

Best Regards,

- John

[adonnellyr]

I'm Canadian and I always walk around in bare feet or socks...usually bare feet though. So does my family and pretty much every friend I've ever had. I believe it's commonly considered rude to walk into someone's house with your shoes on, so it comes down to socks or bare feet, depending on if it's shoe or sandal season. What's the alternative? Do people wear shoes in their houses? I always thought that was only on TV...

EDIT: I agree with John above. I find it rude when people get stuff from the streets onto my nicely cleaned floor.

[galopede]

Well I'm Welsh (so I suppose that doesn't count, or did you mean British?) and the first thing i do when I get in the house is to get the shoes and socks off! Sometimes I wear a pair of Crocs but I'm generally barefoot around the house.

Years ago I used to brew my own beer and kept the barrels in the attached garage. The house was built on the route the local toads took to the lake behind the house in mating season and I remember nipping out to get a pint wearing socks and stepping on a small toad. Took some washing out of the sock so it's been barefoot since. Easier to wash toads off the bare foot.

I'll get my coat...

Gareth

[RichGem]

Ummm... the food is horrible. Oh wait, you said myth.

(yeah, I know it's much better since the last time I was there in the early '80s)

[Jatte]

i love when people alter their lives for the most uncommon things,
"I dont wear socks because if i step on another toad its hard to wash my socks out"

i knew a guy once that wouldnt wear steel toes to work even though he should have because at some point in time the steel toes had a current go through them, and he didnt want that to happen again, its like, what happens when you get a compressor dropped on your foot, lol

my grandmother stands under an umbrella everywhere outside her house, no matter how nice or bad it is, because a bird once did its buisiness on her shoulder, and she wants her shoulder protected, so now she had an umbrella rain or shine,

rumors about the english ... i dunno im biast because i watch alot of blackadder and two pints of lager(and a packet of crisps)

from what ive seen of that show trading spouses, (girlfrined watches all the time) every english woman on that show is round, mean and has a tattoo on her bicep lol, and is always yelling about something

[Anton von Tripp]

Mainly I've heard really bad myths regarding British hygeine (I've been across the pond, and I know them to not be true.) Things like you blokes only bathe two or three times a week. Or that all Brits have bad teeth. Or that you don't use deodorant. Or that the women don't shave their legs. Disgusting stuff like that.

Funny how these things get around - we believe this of the French.

Cordially, AvT.

[NightLad]

Well, I'm not English/British, I'm Canadian and *I* walk the house barefoot (or more realistically, shoeless). It drives me mental when people walk in my vacuumed house in their street shoes. Sorry, getting the rant out of the way early.

Ditto.

I was positively shocked to learn that many people in the US wear shoes indoors. I'd make it a point to ask people to remove their shoes before coming into the house if they didn't already do it. IE: the actual living-area of the house, not just the entry room or front hallway.

I even keep a few slippers on hand for people, although in my experience very few people use them; it's just assumed the floor will be clean. Everyone who comes over just 'knows' to take off their shoes before entering the living-areas. Personally I'd never dream of walking around somebody's home wearing my dirty street-shoes.

[rdeakle]

Mainly I've heard really bad myths regarding British hygiene (I've been across the pond, and I know them to not be true.) Things like you blokes only bathe two or three times a week. Or that all Brits have bad teeth. Or that you don't use deodorant. Or that the women don't shave their legs. Disgusting stuff like that.

Funny how these things get around - we believe this of the French.

Cordially, AvT.

+1 to the French on this. I've heard the same about Brit dental hygiene. However, around my way we even have a saying called a 'French bath' or 'French shower' which means you just douse yourself in cologne instead of actually bathing.

[Chicken Enchilada]

Ditto.

I was positively shocked to learn that many people in the US wear shoes indoors. I'd make it a point to ask people to remove their shoes before coming into the house if they didn't already do it. IE: the actual living-area of the house, not just the entry room or front hallway.

I even keep a few slippers on hand for people, although in my experience very few people use them; it's just assumed the floor will be clean. Everyone who comes over just 'knows' to take off their shoes before entering the living-areas. Personally I'd never dream of walking around somebody's home wearing my dirty street-shoes.

Wearing shoes in the house is definitely an American thing. It's stupid, everyone wears their shoes in the house and they insist on having carpet instead of tile or hardwood. Pisses me off cause I have to vacuum twice a day to keep up with it.

Are there dentists in England? Cause every English I see have darn crooked teeth.

[Nils]

Taking your shoes off in the house is a very German thing as well. When I spent a year in blighty, I found 90% of the stereotypes to be untrue, I even loved the beer.

[Doc4]

The following is a quote from a Canadian posting on another thread here...

"If you walk around the house barefoot (like the English do)...!

I am English, I don't habitually walk around the house barefoot and, so far as I know, neither do other English people. It got me thinking about where this idea could possibly have started, and what other myths might be floating around about the English?

I never heard that myth about the English. The one about bad teeth is pretty widespread

[thunderball]

I had always heard that the British were famously stoic as well and never complained about anything... I'm now pretty sure that complaining is a universal phenomenon. On a more positive note, the British have amazing senses of humour (or at least produce many TV programs/movies containing said sense of humour).

[82R100]

Mainly I've heard really bad myths regarding British hygeine (I've been across the pond, and I know them to not be true.) Things like you blokes only bathe two or three times a week. Or that all Brits have bad teeth. Or that you don't use deodorant. Or that the women don't shave their legs. Disgusting stuff like that.

To be sure, I believe the 'shower every day' imperative is relatively recent even to American hygene. You go back a few decades and it was more the exception than the rule. Even with smilies applied, I wouldn't consider bathing 3 times a week to be disgusting.

- Chris

[ClubmanRob]

Funny how these things get around - we believe this of the French.

Cordially, AvT.

I have heard it about the French and the Germans as well (as far as the women not shaving their legs or armpits.)

+1 to the French on this. I've heard the same about Brit dental hygiene. However, around my way we even have a saying called a 'French bath' or 'French shower' which means you just douse yourself in cologne instead of actually bathing.

My mother, a cultured French Lady, called that mode of bathing a whore bath. A French bath, to her, involved washing only the feet, privates, and armpits.

To be sure, I believe the 'shower every day' imperative is relatively recent even to American hygene. You go back a few decades and it was more the exception than the rule. Even with smilies applied, I wouldn't consider bathing 3 times a week to be disgusting.

- Chris

I wasn't around fifty years ago, but according to my dad and my grandfather, everybody shaved and showered every day even in the forties and fifties unless they were really poor or really rural. In this day and age, only showering two or three times a week is disgusting, to me at least. I think you'd have to go back about a hundred years to find when a weekly bath was the norm.

[blantyre]

Wearing shoes in the house is definitely an American thing. It's stupid, everyone wears their shoes in the house and they insist on having carpet instead of tile or hardwood. Pisses me off cause I have to vacuum twice a day to keep up with it.

Are there dentists in England? Cause every English I see have darn crooked teeth.

It's normal - American kids are odd because they all wear braces. The classic "knuckle duster smile" of the adolescent American tourist is a dead giveaway. The English typically don't bleach their teeth or get their noses fixed either.

[Millay]

Well where i come from, no you dont where shoes in the house, but that is just common sense, why where something that you have trapesed around outdoors in the house..

Yes I agree we have bad teeth myself included. I like to think we spend our teeth money on more fun persuits!

but please do bring on more of our sterotpypes, it will be fun to hear them.

[Doc4]

The "English" are in fact a mythical people invented by the French to explain why they keep losing wars. This was started in 1067 to explain the dissapearance of William of Normandy and his fleet (which was actually sunk by several Scottish fishermen, while attempting to invade Glasgow.) The myth became well-entrenched about the time of the so-called "Battle of Agincourt" (invented to explain the sudden death of most of the French army when "we didn't think the river was that deep" didn't seem a good enough explanation.) The myth reached its zenith in the early 19th century, with "Nelson", "Trafalgar", "Wellington" and "Waterloo".