BRITISH SOCIETY - CUSTOMS & HABITS

National stereotypes are an exiting thing. They are learned from home, friends and the media. For example: Italians all eat pasta, the Scottish are mean, the French eat garlic and are light-minded, the Irish are stupid, Greeks are passionate. As for the English – first of all the are reserved, second, many people think that a man wearing a bowler hat with a smart pinstriped suit and carrying a rolled umbrella is a typical Englishman or a “City gent” (gentleman).

And how do we start to build pictures in out minds of other countries and other people?

The twentieth century is the age of information. Our newspapers and televisions bring us news and opinions from all over the world. Everyone seems to know a little bit about everything. From this large amount of information, we start to build up pictures in our minds of other countries and other peoples. Some nations we think are “artistic”, some are “good at business”, some are “lazy” or “hardworking”, “mean” or “generous”, “talkative” or “reserved”, “honest” or “dishonest”. These general ideas are usually much too simple, and often actually abusive and untrue.

Great Britain is as island on the outer edge of the European continent, and its geographical situation has produced a certain insular spirit among its inhabitants, who tend to regard their own community as the centre of the world. In general the British look on foreigners with contempt and think that nothing is as well done as in their own country. The British people have also been known as aloof, snobbish, cold, reserved and unsociable. They tend to be rather conservative and hostile, they love familiar things. The British are also the great eccentrics.

A tradition that is rooted not only in the Britton’s own soul, but in the minds of the rest of the world is the devotion to animals. Animals are protected by law. If any one leaves a cat to starve in an empty house while he goes for his holiday, he can be sent to prison. There are special dogs’ cemeteries.

Most people in Britain work a five-day-week, from Monday to Friday. Schools, colleges and universities are also closed on Saturdays and Sundays. As people leave work on Friday they say to each other, “Have a nice week-end.” Then on Monday morning they ask, “Did you have a nice week-end?”

On Sunday mid-morning most British people are engaged in some light activities such as gardening, washing the car or taking the dog for a walk. Another most popular pre-lunch activity consists of a visit to a “pub”– either a walk to the “local”. The national drink in England is beer (in Scotland – Scotch whisky, in Ireland whiskey, and the “pub”, where Englishmen go to drink to, is a special English institution.

Most people are fond of gardens, their own above all, and this is probably one reason why so many British prefer houses to flats.

The British people are the world’s greatest tea drinkers. They drink a quarter of all the tea grown in the world each year. Many of them drink tea on at least 8 different occasions during the day.

In the old days, it was easy to talk about British society. There was the working class, the middle class and the upper class. There were factory workers and farmers, northerners and southerners. But these days it is harder to describe the British. The old differences are still there, but people are divided in many ways as well.

One difference is the change of age groups. More people are living longer than 70 or 80 years, so the number of old people is growing. At the same time fewer babies are being born (the average British family has two children). This means that the population of Britain is getting older all the time. Also, fewer people live with or near their families. This means that many old people live alone, on their own, following the death of their partners, or in old people’s homes. And many young people live in bed-sitting rooms or in flats with other people of the same age.

Traditions of workare changing too. About three million people have no job. Poor people these days are not only people with badly paid jobs, but people without a job at all.

The four different regions of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland) have always had their own ways of life. But now many people from these regions (especially the Welsh and the Scots) have a new interest in their own special culture. Some Welsh people, for example, want to bring back their own Welsh language. Some of the Scots want a government of their own. The people of Northern Ireland often feel that the rest of Britain is not interested in them. They feel that no one understands the “troubles” between Catholic and Protestant that have been going on for so long.

There are now about four million “black” and “brown” Britons, who have come (or whose parents have come) to Britain since the 1950s. Most came from the West Indies, East Africa, India and Pakistan, and live in big cities like London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. Some found in Britain the life they were looking for. But many did not. Young people, especially from these “ethnic communities” find it hard to get jobs and to be accepted.

But somehow, the traditional British way of life still goes on. Old and young, rich and poor, black and white, Londoner and countryman all agree about some things even if they disagree about others. The things they agree about make them British. The things they disagree about make them interesting.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 2210