Perception vs. Reality

The United States and the United Kingdom are two places that are vastly different, in more ways than one. Whether it is the culture, food, or language, coming to the United Kingdom is sure to be an adventure full of new things to experience and to get out of the comfortable bubble that the United States often creates for its citizens. Interaction between these two cultures, has been slightly difficult for some. Madeline Colker, Niamh Hutchings, and Michele Doheny are three college students, who come from different backgrounds both in and out the United States. Although Madeline and Michele come different backgrounds back in the states, they share a similar interest in learning more about England’s fascinating culture. While Niamh is a England native, she finds interacting with American culture always exciting. Here is what they had to say about their experiences and perceptions of American/English culture and lifestyle.

Madeline Colker is a junior media studies and production major from Pittsburgh, PA. Last summer, she got the chance to conduct academic research in Oxford, where she fell in love with everything that the United Kingdom has to offer and knew she had to come back to study and see more of beautiful Europe. While, Michele Doheny is a senior media studies and production major and a first generation college student. Michele always knew she wanted to travel around the world to see how others live, but didn’t think it would be possible. But through hard work and determination she was able to make her dreams a reality. Both Madeline and Michele did not have any strong stereotypes about British culture before coming here, but they have realized that British people are very stylish and reserved people. Michele also realized that the cost of living is much more expensive than in America, but they are very relaxed when it comes to working their jobs and schooling. Michele and Madeline realized that Americans are naturally loud speakers, so they often find themselves speaking very loudly and asking natives to repeat themselves. In terms of communication barriers, Michele sometimes has trouble understanding their accents and Madeline still gets a little confused on different words used for “elevator” which is “lift” and “line” which is “queue”. Although they are still adjusting to British culture as an American, they are enjoying every second of it.

Niamh Hutchings, on the other hand, is a University of Westminster student, a native of Reading, England, and has never visited the U.S. before. When interacting with American visitors she always finds that they are very fascinated with the United Kingdom’s way of living and their accents. She finds American students to be quite surprised about the different areas of London, and how they can all differ from each other. Niamh finds communicating with American students to be challenging when using different words for objects. For example, the British call erasers “rubbers” which means a completely different thing to Americans. Niamh finds American culture to be more “celeb-centric” than in the UK. For example, the Kardashian popularity in the United Kingdom than in the U.S. She also points out that American TV show culture focuses a lot more on talk shows, while TV shows in United Kingdom focuses on panel discussions and quiz shows.

Although American and British culture and lifestyle may differ in many instances, each culture finds learning about each other exciting and learns something new everyday.