Do u consider British people are foreigners? Or neighbors?

31 comments

1. I mean, they’re from from a foreign country adjacent to another continent on the other side of the world so…yea, foreigners.

   The only people who I think would really count as neighbors are Mexican and Canadian citizens

2. Foreign allies? Friends from another land? Kind of neighbors, but super long distance ones that you have to take a boat to get to.

3. Foreigners.

4. foreigners cause they’re not from america

5. Foreigners. Only canada and Mexico are neighbors

6. Foreigners.

7. Foreigners. If it weren’t for that damn Atlantic…

8. Foreigners.

9. Foreigners. You’re another country, bro.

10. Not as foreign as Continental Europeans, but not neighbors like Canada or Mexico.

    I will concede that Britain is our ‘parent culture.’ Even our Revolution was a direct product of the British Enlightenment and Britain’s own democratic and legal traditions.

11. Kind of like overseas family. Foreigners, but there’s an immediate familiarity there. Canada and Mexico are more our neighbors.

12. foreigners. they’re not neighbors at all.

13. Foreigners

14. Least foreign foreigners

    ..And I really don’t think of British accents as ‘foreign accents’

    Still, when I think of neighbors, I’m thinking of Canadians and Mexicans and a few other North Americans

15. Canadians are neighbors

    Brits, Aussies, Kiwis are foreigners but closer than other foreigners.

    Let me turn it around, Do you consider Americans to be neighbors or foreigners in the UK?

16. Not neighbors. That would be Canada and Mexico.

    Friends? Cousins?

17. How would they be neighbors?

    Friendly foreigners are still foreigners, “foreigner” isn’t an insult.

18. The founding point of our country was to stop being under English (and by historical extension, UK) rule, so definitively foreigners

19. By definition, if you are not a citizen, you are a foreigner.

20. You’re not even in the same neighborhood

21. Canada and Mexico are our neighbors. Arguably the Caribbean nations too. Russia technically are as well but we don’t like each other so we just act like we aren’t.

    Those are our neighbors. You are solidly foreigners.

22. Unless we are changing the definitions of words, foreigners.

    And Canada and Mexico the only neighbors we really have, and they are still foreigners…

23. They are literally foreigners and they are also literally not neighbors. So.

24. Less foreigners and more distance relative than tried to steal our lawnmower.

25. Yes British people are very much foreigners.

26. They are foreigners because they are from a different country. They are not neighbors because their country is not physically next to ours.

    Canada, Mexico, and Technically Russia (up by Alaska) would be our neighboring nations. But once again people that live there are in different countries from the USA so they are also foreigners.

    Do the words “Neighbor” and “Foreigner” have different meanings in UK English? Here “Neighbor” is defined by geography, and “Foreigner” is defined by citizenship.

27. Anyone not from the USA is foreign, even Canadians. Anywhere that is a different country.

28. They’re foreigners, which they go to great lengths to remind us.

29. I definitely consider them foreigners. But, it’s not a bad thing to be a foreigner. Frankly, I love seeing foreigners in the U.S., because I feel like they let me see my country and culture through new eyes, and it gives me an appreciation for what we’ve got going on, that I consider commonplace. And, of foreigners, Brits are probably my favorite to meet, because we’re close enough linguistically and culturally to communicate well, but far enough apart to still be novel and interesting.

    I’ve been following two young British guys on TikTok who recently spent three weeks traveling across America, trying things and just being amazed and entertained by everything they saw. Now, they did go from Florida to Texas, which I would not have recommended for first-timers. (After all, Florida is basically living American on Hard Mode.) But watching them be so excited to eat at Cracker Barrel, or go to a rodeo, or do things that I consider mundane really shows me the beauty of the world around me.

    Probably my favorite example of this was when (possibly my favorite Brit) Stephen Fry did his series “Stephen Fry’s America” and [went to a big college rivalry football game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPeGPwGKe8). He is so amazed by the scope and pageantry of what is, effectively, a local amateur sports match; it honestly reminds me to stop and appreciate things once in awhile. And the way he describes it is really poetic:

    > I really don’t know if anything else could better sum up the United States. Simultaneously preposterous, incredibly overdone, comical, impressive, charming, ridiculous, expensive, overcrowded, wonderful… American.

30. Foreigners

31. What kind of question is this?