Full video

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hello welcome to easy english so today

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i'm on the beach and i want to know the

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people of brighton think of their

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cousins across the pond

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this is what brits think of americans

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here we go

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[Music]

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what is what are your general thoughts

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on americans

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my general thoughts on americans are i

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think they're quite brash they're quite

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loud people

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[Music]

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i was actually

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kicked off facebook

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for 24 hours for making a remark about

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the

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americans there's a big contrast between

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everybody it's not just england but

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everybody's awareness of american

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culture through

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films and tv series and stuff and then

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how it is in real life and they have a

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reciprocal lack of understanding of

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other people's cultures partly maybe

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because

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their media system is just

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so big and it pumps out so much stuff

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like they'll remake everything right the

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ring

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uh the office the this to that they

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remake it in their own light so

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they

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they don't get as much cultural

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education as maybe other countries do

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first of all what are your general

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thoughts on

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americans u.s citizens

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okay i suppose um

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[Music]

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mainly we meet americans when we travel

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abroad anyway

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and so we see them as tourists

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and don't always have the best opinion

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of them as as tourists

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they're quite loud and brash and

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um

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yeah and i guess weight is an

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interesting issue as well because we

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always see very overweight americans

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so that sort of perception

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right my thoughts um a bit mixed in a

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way

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because um as we were growing up in

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poverty stricken england when americans

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came over here they always seem to have

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lots of money

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and

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perhaps a little bit louder than we are

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however

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after holidaying in america i found them

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incredibly kind

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quite sort of gentle and interested

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interested in people in england

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and

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the royal family

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which i didn't know that much about

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and also incredibly polite on the roads

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because they don't drive as fast as we

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do and how about you what are your

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thoughts on the americans

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i think they're they can be rude and

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abrupt yeah

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i don't like donald trump

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not many people do no

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my experience of

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being with americans

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in america

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is that they are

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they were always very friendly

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very welcoming okay

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and particularly in new york for example

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i met quite a few people in new york

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and they were

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like firm but fair yeah which and i

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think they're very honest

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uh

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only through the sort of i suppose

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there's stereotypes that you know and

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create through yourself everything

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they've seen as a as a nation very

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patriotic patriotic yeah uh compared to

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compared to what perhaps we're more

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divided about they hear um i think seems

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to be from whatever political background

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they are in america i'd say that they

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all appear very to believe in the flag

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and

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freedom of speech and

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all the all the uh

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what's the meant the various amendments

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that they have oh yeah yeah um so i

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think they're probably more

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together in some ways than perhaps we

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are on certain things but they're also

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very different from different different

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polarizing views as well i suppose

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a general overview of u.s citizens is

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it's a vast mixture this country is a

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small mixture

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but yeah lots of people think americans

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are

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the big country

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lazy fat as a lot of people say but i've

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met and worked with americans who are

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just not like that

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and people from different states

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states next door behave and act totally

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differently

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uh

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i've not traveled too much in the us

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however i've been to the east coast uh

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new york and boston my perception has

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been very good

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new yorkers

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slightly more brash than the bostonians

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i guess but i think the perception is

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very much that they are

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slightly

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naive ignorant perhaps

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they when you get this perception that

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they're all obese and and love huge

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portions i can agree on the huge

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portions but i don't know if it's fair

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that they're all naive and ignorant um

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and i guess on the on the reverse that

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they think that we are

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very posh and all speak well and drink

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tea and eat scones and again that's not

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who we all are nice um but yeah i think

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that's just there are a lot of

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stereotypes

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well i'm a bit biased because i've got

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relatives in america so

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yeah i've got relatives in california

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and i i think they're great they're

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really friendly and open and

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do they have any

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uh

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character traits that kind of connect

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them all together that you say like

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outstanding character traits

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i think they're they're very warm and

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friendly and hospitable

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but i do love english people too but

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don't get me wrong

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to start your first lesson and get ten

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dollars in lesson credits uh have you

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been to uh the us yes i have whereabouts

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in the usa i um i did the florida thing

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and went to universal studios etc

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and it was fantastic had a fantastic

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time the americans were lovely it was

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very clean

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um so yeah i had a really good time

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there okay and they seem to like the

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english

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yeah yeah

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we are their cousins they have to be

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slightly nice to us

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my aunt used to live there as well in

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new york so i remember new york in the

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um

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in the early 70s

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and

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traveling down on my own on a greyhound

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bus

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from um

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from the airport out to where she lived

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and i was 15 years old i don't think you

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probably let that happen now where

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abouts in america did you go to been to

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california twice

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and we've also been to florida

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new york

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yes

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uh i've worked with quite a few people

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from the us i suppose through work

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primarily from the east coast and then

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some from the west coast but i think

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there's such a different range of people

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across the state such as such a vast

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country

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um

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vastly different cultures and the

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demographics really so

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i suppose it depends on where where you

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go what different kind of people you

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experience if you could take a character

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trait or a cultural thing from the us

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and bring it to uk that to improve you

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like uk life or uk culture yeah is there

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something that you like that you take uh

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yeah i think i'm a huge sports fan i

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think the the college sport is amazing

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and yeah so i went to university and

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played first team tennis but i was

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playing in front of maybe three people

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whereas over there it's as big as you

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know some

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big tournaments and i think it's the

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same for all sport so i think that

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culture of sports in college and

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university being of huge importance to

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getting into a professional sport would

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be really really cool right because you

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get kind of sponsored yeah yeah

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sponsored and you get drafted into the

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into the professional leagues as well

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right nice well i said i guess their uh

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lack of reserve i suppose how does that

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that contrast with with how you see

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people in our country americans are more

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um

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they give their opinion more freely i

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think

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and that's not necessarily a bad

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a bad thing i think we probably could

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learn a bit more from that we're

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sometimes too reticent too shy

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to say what we think

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um too close whereas americans are much

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more open you can sort of tell what

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they're thinking and feeling right

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is there anything that you would take

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from their culture or from their sort of

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personality traits that would improve

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britain yes they seem to be very

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quite happy to what we call blow your

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own trumpets

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whereas we always downplay anything

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about ourselves and i think that's good

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i think it must be good for children to

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have confidence in themselves yeah yeah

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you can toot your own horn

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definitely yeah yeah i know you mean

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we're quite it it's you have to be

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self-deprecating

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yes exactly yes

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that positivity i think generally i

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think would would go down pretty well i

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think is it

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we're a bit gone

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self-deprecating or something

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self-deprecation is fine yeah and i

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think that's quite a nice trait but i

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think sometimes it can go a bit far and

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i think a lot of people consider put

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themselves down or it can be a bit

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oppressive right

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the british can be a bit oppressed yeah

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whereas i feel like the americans are

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much more

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open to

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what life can bring yeah yeah

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um

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the one thing i think americans have got

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a lot of people don't agree with is they

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believe in their country

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majority i know perhaps not everyone but

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i think the americans say and you know

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yeah and uh you know and i'm proud of it

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and i think britain's

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should be the same

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and there's lots of reasons why they're

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probably not

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yeah but we should be proud of what

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we've got there's a bit of a faux pas

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here to be kind of proud of your nation

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yes yeah people are embarrassed i think

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too

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thanks for watching this week's episode

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let us know in the comments below your

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thoughts on the us citizens and we'll

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see you next week bye

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there were clips on facebook showing

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americans trying to

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aggravate and annoy the guards of honor

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at

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the castle so i put the comments and

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i was kicked off of

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facebook so remember fans don't like you

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either well obviously not