realities about UK

[gulgon]

Friends, while I wait for my HSMP, I just wanted to share my experiences with you, especially about the "cold" and closed british society.

Britos are the most distant and coldest nation I have ever seen. Here, people have tough walls around them, especially if you are a foreigner, u might hardly integrate to society, hardly get british friends including girl friends... There are too deep cultural differences; u need many years to learn how to behave and reach.

So just keep in mind that dont expect to have a normal social life in britain, they wont accept you. That is why if I have hsmp i will just go to London which is multicultural.

[John]

Hm ..... parts of London are indeed multi-cultural ..... but living here in the second-largest city, Birmingham, I can tell you that is also very multi-cultural.

[try-one]

My experience with British people is that they are open and friendly people, I don't have a single complain in the last 2 years. This goes for social and work issues.

[MWazir]

I have been coming to the UK since 2000 and been living here the last 2.5 years, never had any problem with "british society" as a whole. Most of them are quite friendly and warm.

[EdgeHillMole]

Think it all depends on where you are from.

To me, the British are a lot friendlier than people on west coast of US. And I found the Brits up north (Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Harrogate) to be some of the warmest, caring people I've ever met outside of Canada & Texas.

Of course, I myself am distant, cold, closed, with tough walls around me, so anything looks warmer than here!

[Papafaith]

The british people are wonderful.

[ND]

Yes they are wonderful people . I never had any probs with them they are very friendly and caring.

[Benadie]

Here in South Africa I work with allot of British people: England, Ireland, Scotland, and I have found them to be extremely polite and good natured. I enjoy working with them.

[lightpace]

my past two years involvement with the british has really attracted me to them and made hsmp quite worth the try! i find the british to be straight-forward and easy-going

[proudliberal99]

I think whereever you go, London, Melbourne, NYC, LA, etc....getting a social life and friends is hard work. From my experience, it's a lot harder to meet people anywhere after university/college life because you're no longer in a group environment with people you see regularly.

there are cold people in Britain as there are everywhere. But many brits are also some of the nicest people anywhere. I have made quite a few friends there traveling/backpacking (which does actually happen to be a good way to meet people especially if you go on one of those organized backpacking tours).

Ironically, except for a few really close friends from university, I hardly have a social life here in NYC. It so freaking hard to meet people after university life. so if you are in university, take my advice and make as many friends as you can now.

[alicipherd]

Well, it depand.

what some one has said :Person behaves how you perceive them: To me this is the case.

I am working with Brits since last eaight years and havent ever come across the things you mentioned. I am not sure what you might have come across.

First of all you have to check isnt un-knowingly constructed wall you mentioned arround you, that may be the barrier for others to reach or find you.

Just a thoughts

Cheers

[gulgon]

Why I wrote these things is because I had the chance to compare them with other nations. I lived in Belgium for example and also met hundreds of other nationalities :

Just imagine you meet with a British person (and she/he is around your age, not an old or granny; i know they never stop talking! .

Yeah they are kind and try to keep always smiling to you but; The number of question marks in their sentences are quite low or almost zero, while in other european countries, even you meet casually, you can expect much higher and they are much warmer to a newcomer. In the UK, people are very careful in talking to a new person.

I had made at least 7-8 sometimes-meet-and-drink friends and dozens of hi-to-hi-and-smile friends in Belgium in a few months, around my street or just standing alone in the irish pub in brussels (not the touristic one but the one near to the schuman/maalbek; go there if u r in brussels). And I did half of them with my poor French! In the UK, in pubs I made no friend, as they are usually sooo drunk or prefer to speak in a very strange accent or try to ask a cigarette (if a man) or a drink/cigarette (if a girl) from you!

I have also noticed well that most of the mediterranian people, turkish, arabic, italian, grec, and other asian people hardly have british friends! Yea here some write yes they have, yes they might have but just sit in a busy street in an english city and watch couples, people, especially the foreigner ones, you hardly see them with a british... I had only italian, turkish, arabic and malaysian mates hear, who were also complaining about it...

I am not trying to demotivate people here, but I want them to be aware that they wont find warm people here, who are always reserved and quite careful to be open to you... Look, they always try to look warm and kind by keeping their smile or always trying to be helpful BUT if you keep conversation and try to be friends and keep contact they are always very careful and their smile turns artificial!

British people and nordic people are famous of being cold people, that is a fact. you will never find your people and environment here, and just be ready to feel socially alone sometimes; dont feed high socialisation expectations from the UK... (And If you are a single man just DONT and DONT DREAM of falling in love with/by a british person and marrying one day! that is hardly possible and it is possible that you will not want them, after you know them well)