Who says British men aren't sexy?
I was so impressed with one particular British guy that I moved here to be with him and I've been here ever since. I couldn't disagree more with MaryCatherine Lader. I've met hundreds of British men and they are extremely wellmannered,refined and culturedmuch more so than American men.
They're a lot easier to converse with. They seem to have much more knowledge about theatre, arts, cultural issues and politicsand they do have a fantastic sense of humour. Americans have a sense of humour too, but it's much more puerile. British men have much better wit.
They're also much more gentlemanly. I couldn't believe it when I met my first British boyfriend. He would open doors for me and do all the things you read about in books but didn't think ever actually happened. On our first date, he seemed to do everything right. It was Valentine's day and he presented me with flowers, took me to dinner and just chastely kissed me goodbye. There was no untoward behaviourin fact, I've often had to make the first move in that department.
By contrast, American men have a real lack of awareness about how to treat a lady. I dated this one American guy who was so miserly that at the end of the evening he would tot up on the back of his napkin what I owed him down to the last cent.
They are very competitive and are faster movers in all aspects of their lives. It's what I call the Jerry Maguire mentalitygo for what you want regardless of the methodand that applies as much to women as anything.
British men aren't brought up that way and so they're much more measured. They also have a more mature approach to alcohol; they've grown up with it so they don’t get quite as boorish as American men when they are drunk.
I think British men are rather shy,which is why I suspect that MaryCatherine is misinterpreting the behaviour of the boys she meets. When she says British ones are difficult and sulky, I think they're probably just reserved. If she made more of an effort to get to know the boys around her, she'd soon reap the rewards.
[參考譯文]一位英國(guó)男士給我印象很好，所以我遷到英國(guó)和他一起生活至今。我最不贊成瑪麗凱瑟琳·雷德說(shuō)的話。我遇見過(guò)成百上千的英國(guó)男人，他們舉止得體，態(tài)度文雅，很有涵養(yǎng)——比美國(guó)男人強(qiáng)多了。
與他們交談要容易得多。比起美國(guó)男人，他們?cè)趹騽 ⑺囆g(shù)、文化和政治等方面的知識(shí)要多得多。他們還有很強(qiáng)的幽默感。美國(guó)人也有幽默感，但過(guò)于幼稚，英國(guó)人更富于機(jī)智。
他們還更具紳士風(fēng)度。當(dāng)我遇到我的第一個(gè)英國(guó)男朋友時(shí)，我簡(jiǎn)直無(wú)法相信。他為我開門，所有你在書中讀過(guò)但認(rèn)為不可能會(huì)真正發(fā)生的事，他都為我做了。我們第一次約會(huì)時(shí)，他做的每一件事情似乎都很合適。那天是情人節(jié)，他獻(xiàn)給我鮮花，帶我去吃晚餐。告別時(shí)還有禮貌地吻了我一下。沒(méi)有任何不宜之舉——事實(shí)上，在這方面倒常常是我采取主動(dòng)。
相比之下，美國(guó)男人倒真是不懂得如何對(duì)待女士。我約會(huì)的那個(gè)美國(guó)人竟如此吝嗇，晚上約會(huì)結(jié)束時(shí)他都會(huì)在紙巾背面計(jì)算我用了他多少錢，細(xì)到一個(gè)美分都不放過(guò)。
美國(guó)人富于競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性，在生活的各個(gè)方面都行動(dòng)迅速。這就是我所說(shuō)的杰里·麥古爾式的思維——為了獲得不擇手段——這種態(tài)度也不折不扣地被他們用到了女人身上。
英國(guó)男人成長(zhǎng)的環(huán)境不一樣，因此他們很有分寸。在喝酒問(wèn)題上，他們的態(tài)度比美國(guó)男人成熟得多；他們可謂喝酒長(zhǎng)大，因此他們喝醉時(shí)就不會(huì)像美國(guó)人喝醉時(shí)那樣表現(xiàn)得粗魯。
我覺(jué)得英國(guó)男人表現(xiàn)得羞怯，所以我推測(cè)瑪麗凱瑟琳也許誤解了她接觸到的男青年的行為。她說(shuō)英國(guó)男孩老繃著臉，很難相處，我想很可能他們是拘謹(jǐn)緘默。如果她多作些努力去認(rèn)識(shí)周圍的男孩，她一定很快會(huì)有收獲。