Englishmen and Americans (2141)

You can often hear of the Englishman's "reserve", how he likes to "keep himself to himself, and how on a long railway journey, with four Englishmen in the carriage, often there won't be a word spoken during the whole journey. That isn't the case in America. The Englishman thinks it is a bad manner to ask personal questions. The American doesn't feel that at all. During a short drive in New York the taxi driver will tell you all about himself, his wife and his family. He will inquire where you have come from, what your job is, how you like America and how long you are staying in New York.

The Englishman prizes privacy, the American prefers sociability. The Englishman's suburban house has its little garden with a hedge or a fence all round it to shut him off from his neighbours. The American houses have no hedges or fences separating them from the pavement or from each other. The American in his home doesn't object to being seen by everyone – he actually likes it. And in case someone asks him if he doesn't sometimes like privacy, the American will answer, that if he wants privacy, he goes to bed.

The well-mannered Englishman at table holds and keeps his knife in his right hand, his fork in his left, cuts his meat and presses his vegetables on to his fork. The well-mannered American first cuts up all his meat, then places his knife down on the right of his plate, takes his fork in his right hand and with his fork lifts the food to his mouth. He will have his coffee (generally with cream) half-way through his dinner before the pudding. The Englishman drinks his coffee (usually black) after the dinner. And, of course, Americans are coffee-drinkers rather than tea-drinkers.

In Europe there are people who have lived in the same house and have been in the same job for twenty, thirty, forty years and who would hate to pull up their roots and change to something new. That's not the American way of life. They love change; they call it "the spirit of adventure". They like to move away, to change homes and jobs. They throw away old things, having none of the Englishman's sentimental love for things because they are old.

Many Americans are greatly impressed with mere size; to them "bigger" and "better" seem to mean the same thing. The Cathedral in New York is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world; the finger of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour is eight feet long and forty people can stand inside its head; the Rockefeller Centre has hanging gardens which are four times the size of the famous hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.