Tài liệu Part 5- Britain pptx

Received pronunciation RP, again depending SU G G ESTI ON S on how you define it, is used in everyday speech by only3%to 12%of thepopulation.So why is standard Englishwithan RP accentthe

Questions and suggestions 5 1) magazine which gives details of all the week's radio and televis ion

programmes In April 19 94 it subtitled itsintro duc tion to a pro

-gramme which previewed that year's entries for the Eu rovisio n Song

Cont est as 'tips for Ie top' Noticethe 'le' It isan indicatio nofthe

apparently w idespread assum ption that E uro pe is a place where

every bodyspeaksFren ch

TheBritish continueto bevery bad about learnin g othe rpeoples '

languages.Fluencyin any Europeanlan guage other tha nEnglish is

generallyregardedasexo tic Butthere is nothing defensive or

deliber-ate aboutthis att itu de The British do not refuseto speak other

languages.Theyare justlazy

QUESTIO N S

I In the early yearsofthe twentiethcen tu ry.the

playwright and soc ial commentator George

BernardShaw rem arked that an English manonly

had to open hi s mouth to make some other

Englishmandespise him.What washe talking

about' Wouldhe saythe sam e thing today'

2 In the 1930Speople in middle-classne

ighbour-hoo dsoften reacted angrily tothe buildingof

ho using e tates for the wor king class nearby In

one area they even built a w all to separate the

twoneighbourhood sIThiscouldneverhappen

today.Whynot' What ha changed?

3 StandardEnglishis used 'naturally' ineveryday

speech by between 1,%and3 %of rhe

popula-lion in Britain (it dependshow you define it)

Received pronunciation (RP), again depending

SU G G ESTI ON S

on how you define it, is used in everyday speech

by only3%to 12%of thepopulation.So why

is standard Englishwithan RP accenttheusu al

modelfor peoplelearning British English as a foreign language?What justificati on canyou find for thispractice '

4 Dothe so cialclasses in yourcou nt ry differ enti

-ate them selves in the same ways as they do in

B ritain? Do language, acce nt, clothes, money,

habi ts nd attitudes play the s me rolesin your

country?

, This chapterconsidersseveralfactor sthatcan go

towards creating a person 's sense of identity.

Some of these are more important in Bri tain and

so me ar e less important Ar e the same factors theimportam ones in yo ur country?

• Mauy BBCtelevision com edy programmesdependfor muchof their

humour on habits and values de termi nedbysocial class.Recent

examples(whichyou may beableto gelo video) includeO nlyFools

andH sesand Birdsofa Feather, bothof which portray Co ckneyvalues,

and Keeping Up Appearances,which makesfun of the pretentiousnessof

so m e middle-cla sspeople

• If you are interestedin accentsand dialects, EnglishAccents and Dialects

by Hug hesand Trudgill (EdwardArnold) is anacademicbookwith

lo ngtextsexemplifying themaintype s of Englishspoken in Bri tain

There is anaccompan ying cassette.

• TheQueen and Iby Sue Townsend (Mand arin) is fun to readand portrays

working class characters humorou sly con trasted w ith memb ers o f

the upperclasses(the royalfamily)

La nd o f trad ition

A reputation for tradition c an le ad to its art ificial preserv ation - o r eve n its re -introduction A notable example is the Asquith t axi Thi s wa s introduc ed onto t he s treets of London in 1994 It is an exact r eplica

of L o ndontaxis of the 19 305 (ex cept, of course, t hat it ha s modern f acilit ies - and a m o dern

mctcrl).It is d eliberately des ig ne d thatvay to appeal to t ourists ,w ho

equate Lo ndon with tra diti on.

Similarly , w hen L o ndo n's f am ou s red buseswere privatize d (sol d to private compan ies) in t he e arly 199°5, the dif feren t b us comp anie s wante d to paint t heir buses in th eir company co lours T he go vern me nt ruled that a ll buses h ad t o Sl ay r ed because t hat i s whatthe p eop le o f London wanted, an d that iswh atthe government b eli evedwouldhelp the tour ist t rade

AnAsquithtaxi

5

Attitudes

The British, like thepeop le of every country, tend to be attributed

w ith ce rtai n characteristics which are supposedly typical However,

it is bes t o be cautious about accept i ng such charac t e iz ation s too easily, and in the case of Bri tain there are three particular reason s to

be ca uti o us The first three sections of this c hapter deal w ith them in turn an com menton severa l stereotyped imag es o f he British.

Stereo t yp es and c an ge

Societies change ov er ti me w hile their reputation s l ag behind Many

thin gs whichare oftenregarded as typicallyBritishderivefrom

b o oks , so ngs or plays w hich we re written a long time ago and w h i ch are no longer represent at ive o f modern life One exam ple of this is

the po pu lar beliefthat Britain is a'landoftradito n ' Thisiswhat

mosttouristbro ch ur es claim (I>Landof tradi tion).Theclaimisbased

on wha t can b e seen in pub lic life and on centuries of political c on

-tinui ty Andat hislevel- thelevel ofpubliclife - it isundoubtedly

tr u e The a nnual ceremony o f the state o pen i ng ofParliam ent,for ins ta nce , caref ully fo ll ow s customs which ar e c nturies o l d (see

chapter9) Sodoesthemilitary ceremo nyof 'troopingthecolour ' Likewise,the changingof the guard outside Bucking hamPalace

never c han ges.

How ever ,i n their private eve ryday lives, the British as individuals

are prob blyless inclinedtofollowtraditio nthan areth peopleof

mo s t othe r countries There are very few anc i ent customs t hat are

followedb th major ityof familieson spec ialoccasions.The

c o untry h as f ew e l ocal parades or p ro ces i o ns wit h genuine folk

r o ots t han m o st other co untries have The E ngli sh language has fewer sayings or pro ve rb s that are incommoneveryday use than many

o t he r l anguages d o The British are too i ndividualistic for thes

things.Inaddition , itshouldbenot ed thattheyarethe mostenthusi

-asticvide o-watchingpeople in theworld- th veryoppositeof a

tradit ion al p a sti m e !

Therearemany exam plesof supposedlytypicalBritishhabits

which are simply not typical any more.Fore am ple,the stereo typed

image of the Lo ndon 'citygent' inclu desthe wearingofabow lerhat

In fact,thistyp eof hat hasnot beencommonlyworn fora longtme Food and drinkprovideoth er exam ples The traditiona l'British' (or

'English') breakfast is alarge 'fry-up' (see ch apter20 ) precede dby

cerealwith milk and followed by toast, butter and marmalade ,all

washeddown withlo ts oftea.Infact,onlyabout 10% of the people

in Brit ain actually haveth is sortof breakfast Two- th irdshavecutout

th e fry-upand justhave thecereal,teaand to ast.Therest have even

less What th e vast majority of Britishpeoplehavein the mo rni n gsis

th erefore muchcloserto whattheycalla 'continent al' (i.e

European) brea kfast thanit is to a 'British' one The im age ofthe

Britishas a nationoftea-drinkersisano th er stereotypewh ichis

somewhat out of date It is truethatit is still prepared in a distin ctive

way (strong andwithmilk),butmo re coffee th an teaisnowbou ght

inthe country's shops.As for the tradition ofaftern oontea with

biscuits, scones, sandwichesorcake, this isaminority activity,

largely confined to retiredpeo ple an dthelei sured uppe r- m iddleclass

(although preser vedin tea shops in tourist reso rts)

Even whena British habitconformsto thestereotype, the wrong

conclusions can sometimesbe drawn fromit.The supposedBritish

love of que uing is an example.Yes,Briti sh peopled fOrI11 queues

whe neverthey are waitingfo rso mething, bu t th isdoesnotmean that

th ey enjoyit.In 1992,a surveyfou n d that th e averagewait to pay in

a Britishsupermarke twas three min u tes and twen ty-th ree seconds,

and that the average waitto be serve d in a bank was two minutesand

th irt y-th reeseco nds You migh tthin k tha tthese times soundvery

reasonable.ButTheSundayTimes new spaper did not th in kso Itreferr ed

to these figures as a 'problem' Someban ks nowpromiseto serve

th eir customers'within tw o min utes' It would thereforeseem wrong

to concludethattheir habi t ofque ui ng showsth atth eBritish are a

patient people Appa ren tly, theBri tishhate havin g to wait and have

lesspatien ce than peop lein many othe rcou n tr ies

E n glish vers us Briti sh

Because Englishculture dom in atestheculturesof the other three

nations of the British Isles(see ch apter I),everyd ayhabi ts, attitudes

and values among the peopl es of the fo ur nationsarevery similar

However, they areno t identical,an d wha t is often regardeda typi

c-ally British may in fact be onlytyp ically Eng lish Thisis especially

true with regard to one no table cha racteristic- an ti-intellectualism

Among man y people inBritain ,th ere existsa suspicion of intelli

-gence, educatio nand 'hig hcu lture' Teach ers an d acad emic staff,

although respected, donot haveashigh astatusasthe y do inmost

othercountries Nobody normally pro clai ms th eir acad em ic qu

ali-ficatio nsor title to the worldat large No pro fessor would expect,or

want,to be addressedas 'Pro fesso r' o anybut the mostform alocca

-sio n There are large sectionsofboth the upp erand workingclassin

Britainwho, tradi tio n allyatleast ,havena t encoura gedtheirchil d ren

to go touniver sity (see chap ter 14).Th is lack afenthusiasm for

educa tio n is certainlydecreasing.Nevert he less , itis still unusua lfor

English versus British 57

S8 5Attitudes

Swots

The s lang w ord 's wot' was fir st u sed

i n p ubli c sc hools (see cha pter 14)"

It d escribes someo ne wh o w or ks hard and does well acade mically" It

is a term of abuse" Swots are not v err popular In the English mind schol-arship is something rather strange and exotic so much so that t he s ight

of the ma nager of a f ootb all t eam simp ly wr iung so met hing dow n

duri ng a match is co nsidered wort h y

of commen t Dur ing t he 1990 English football Cup Final when he saw this happening the BBC com-mentator said (Witham appa rent

iron}") 'And }"OU can see Steve Coppell's been 1O university - he's takin g notes !'

parentstoarrange extra privatetuition for thei r ch ild ren, even among

those who can easilyafford it

Anti-inte llectual attitu des are heldconsciouslyonly by asmall

pro po rtion of the population, butan indicationof how deepth y

runin society isthat theyarereflectedinthe Englishlanguage.To refertoa person as somebo dy who 'gets all theirideas from book s'

istospeak ofthem negatively The word 'clever'often has negative

connot atio ns.Itsuggestssome o ne who usestricker y, aperson who

cannot quit ebe trusted (asin the expression 'tooclever byhalf ') (t-Swots)

Evidenceof thisattit udecanbe found inall four nations ofthe

BritishIsles Howe er, it isprobablybett er seenasaspecifically English characteristic and nota British one The Scottish havealw ays

placeda highvalue o ed ucation forallclasses TheIrish ofall classes

placeahighvalueo being quick,read yandablewithwords.The

Welshare famou sforexporting teacher sto other pansof Britain andbeyo nd

M ulticultura lism

Thethird reason for cautionabout gen eralizatio ns relates tothe

large-scale immigration toBritain fromplaces outside the British Isles in the twentiethc ntur y(see chapter4).In itscitiesat east,Britain isa

multicult ural society Thereare areasof london ,forexam ple , in

which a distinctivelyIndian wayofhfepredominates,with Ind ian shops,Indian clothes,Indian langu ages.Becausein the local schools

up to 90%of thepupilsmayb Indian,adistinctivelyIndian styleof

learning tendsto take place

These'new British'peo plehavebro ugh t widely differing sets of

attitudeswith them For example,while som eseem to care nomore

abo ute ucato n for theirchildren than people intradi tionalEnglish

c lture, other s seem to careabo ut ita greatdeal more

How ever , the diver gencefromindi geno us Britishattitudesin new British co m m un itiesisconstantlynarro w ing These co m m unities

so me times havetheirown newspapersbut nonehavethe irown TV station sastheyd in the United States There, thenumber s in such

co m m un ities arelarger and thephysical space betwe en them and

othe rco mm un itesisgrea ter, sothat it ispossibleforpeopletolive

their who lelivesinsuch comm unitieswithoutever really learning

Eng lish.This hardlyever happens in Britain

Itistherefore still possibl etotalkaboutBritish characteristics in general (asth rest of this chapter does) In fact, the newBritish have made theirow ncont ribu tiontoBritish lifeand attitudes.They have

probably helpedto make peoplemoreinformal (seebelow ) ; they

havechan gedthenature of the 'cornersho p ' (seechapter 1 );the

mostpopular, well-attende dfestivalin the whole of Britain isthe

annualNOltng HillCarn ivalin Londonat the endof August,which

is of Caribbean inspirationand origin

Conservati sm

TheBritishhavefewliving folk traditionsand are too individ ualistic

to havethe sam eevery d ay habitsas eachother.Ho w ever,this does

not mean that theylike change.They do n' t.Theymay not beh avein

traditio nalways,but they like sym bo lsof traditionand stability.For

example.thereare some very untraditionalattitudes and habitswith

regardto thefamil yin modernBritain (seecha pter4) Nevertheless,

polit icians often citetheirent hus iasm for 'traditionalfam ilyvalues '

(bot h parents marr iedandliving together.parentsa themainso u rce

ofauth onty forch ild re netc) asa way of winningsu pport

In gen eral the Britishvalue con tin u ityover modernit yforisown

sake Theyd notco nside ritespeciallysm art to liveinanew house

and,in fact,ther eis prestigeinlivin g in anobviously oldone (see

ch ap ter 19) They have a generalsen timent alattach men t to older,

sup po sed lysafer,tim es.Th eir Christmascardsusuall ydepi ct scenes

fro m past cen turies (seechapter23); theylike theirpubs[ 0 lo o k old

(see ch ap ter 2 0) ;th ey were relu ctanttoch an ge theirsystem of cur

-rency (see ch ap ter 15)

Moreover,alo okat ch ild ren's reading habits su ggests that this

attitu de isnot goin gtoch an ge Publisherstryhard to maketheir

books for ch ild ren up-to -d ate.But perhapstheyneedn't try so hard

In 19 92 the two most popular ch ildren' 5writerswere noticeably

un-rnodern (theywere both, in fact, dead ) The mo st popula rof all

was RoaldDahl,whose fantasystoriesareset in a ratherold

-fashionedworld.Theseco nd mo st popular writerwas Eni dBlyton,

whosestories take placein aco m fo rt able whitemidd le-cla ssworld

beforeth e 19 605.They cont ain noreferencesto other races or classes

an d mentionnothingmore modernthan a radi o In otherwords,

they aremostlyirrele vanttomodernlife ( DoLordSnooty)

B ein g d ifferent

TheBritishcanbeparti cul arl yandstubbo rn lyco nser vativeabo u t

anything whichisperceivedas a to kenofBriti shness Inth ese

matters, theirco nservatism can combinewiththeirindividualism;

theyare ratherproudof beingdifferent.It is, forexample,very

difficult to imagine that theywill everagreetoch an ge from driving

onthe left -ha nd sid eoftheroad to drivingon the righ t It doesn 't

matterthat nobodycan think of any intrinsicadvantagein driving on

the left Why sh o uld they ch an ge justtobe like everyoneelse?Ind eed,

a faras they are concerned, not being like everyoneelseisa good

reaso n not to change

Developmentsat EuropeanUnion (EU) levelwhich migh tcause

a changeinsom eeveryd ay aspectofBriti shlifeareusually greeted

with suspici onand hostilit y.Thecase of double- decker buses (see

ch ap ter 17) isanexam ple Whenever anEU committeemakesa

recommend ati onaboutstanda rd izin g the size and shape of these ,it

C o n ser vatism 5"9

III- LordSno oty

Lord Snooty illustrates the enthusi -asm o f Br itish childr en for charac -ters f rom e arlier ti mes He first

appeared in t he Be ano, a chil dren's

co m ic, in 1 9 38 He i s y ou ng

Eng lish ar istocrat aged abo ut t en

w ho loves sneaking out of his castle

to p lay with loca l village children.

He h as always worn the same clothes typical of wealthy young

-s ters of an earlier age butby now out

o f da te Surely the children of the 1990S wo uld prefer a p resent -day

h ero wit h who m to i den tify? T hat is

wh at th e ed itors of t he B eanothought.

In 199 2 the y ecid ed to gi ve Lor d

S nooty a rest B ut loud p rotest fol

-l owed , an d he quic kly found a n ew job i n Th e funday Times (the children's comic which is issued with The Sunday Ti mesnewspaper) as well as making further appearances in the Beano.

Lord Snooty

:0 0 C ThOJmon & o lId 1 989

60 5Attitudes

H ow far? H ow bi g? How much?

Di stances on road s igns i n B ritain a re

sho wn i n mile s, n t k ilome tres, a nd peo ple tal k about yard s, n ot m etre s

I y ou d escri be d y ours elf a s be ing

J 63 t a ll a nd we ighi ng 67 k il o s a

B ti sh pe r s on w ould n ot b e able t o

i m agine what y ou looked li k e Y ou would ha ve [0 say you w ere ' five

f oo t f our' ( s f eet a nd+in ches ta ll)

a nd weigh ed ' ten sto ne sev en ' or

't en and a h alf stone' ( 10 s tone and

7 pou nds) Br itish p eopl e t h ink in

pou nds a nd ou nces wh en buying their che ese, i n pim s w he n bu ying

t h e i r m ilk an d in g allons when

b uying th eir pet rol A me r icans a lso

use t hi s n on - m etri c syste m of

w eig hts a nd m ea s ure s

Im perial

I inch

1 inches ([ foot )

3 fe et ([ y ar d )

1 760 y ards{tmile) [ o unce

[6 o unces ([ pound) [+poun ds ( I stone) [ pint

2 pints (I quar t)

8 pints ( gallon)

M etric

2.54 centim etres

JO 48 cent imetres

0 9 2 m etr e

1 6 kilomet res

2 8 35 gra ms

o +S- 6 kilogram s 6.38 kil ograms o.cstnres

r rel nres

+.6+lures

pro voke s warn ingsfro m Brit ishhusbuildersabout't e endof the

double-decker busasweknowit'.Th Britishpublicisalwaysread y

1Oliste tosuchpredictio s ofdoo m

Systems of measurem ent areanotherexam ple TheBriti sh govern

-ment h sbeentrying for years andyears1Opromot ethe metric systema d to getBritishpeople to usethesamesc lesthatareused

n arly everyw hereelse in theworld.Buti hashadonlylimited

success.Britishmanu factur er s are obliged to givethe weightoftheir

tnsand packetsin kilosand gram s.Buteverybo dyin Britai nstill

shops inpoundsandounces(seechapter 15) Theweathe r forecasters

o thetelevisionusetheCelsius scale of temper ature.But nearl y

everybo dystillthinksin Fahrenheit (seechapter 3).British people

c ntinueto measuredistanc s,amounts ofIiquid and themselves

usingsc les of measurem ent thatarenot used an wher eelsein

Eur o pe( 0-HoII' for? HOIl'big' HoII'much ' ).Even theuse ofthe 24-hou r

clock iscomparat ivelyrestricted

Britishgovernment ssometimes seem to promote this pride in

being different.In 199 3the managersof a pub in Slou gh (westof

Londo n)startedsellingglasses of beer whichtheycalled 'swi fts' (25el) and 'larges' (50el),sm alleramountsthanthe traditio nal

Britishequivalentsofhalf apint anda pint.Youmight thinkthat the

author itieswould ha ebeenpleased at thisvoluntary effo rt toado pt

Europeanhabits.But hey were not.Britishlawdem andsthat drau ght

beerbesold in pints an half-pin tsonly Thepu b wasfine £3,I00

bya court and was ordered to stopselling the'co ntinental' me sures

Britishgovernmentshaveso far resistedpressur efrom businesspeople

toadoptCentralEuropeanTime,remain ingstubbornlyo ehou r

b hind, and the contin uetostart theirfinancial year not , as othe r

countriesdo,attheb ginnin g ofthe calendar yearbutat th

beginning ofApril!

Th e l ove of natur e

Mostofthe British livein townsandcities.Buttheyh ve anidealized

visionofthe co nt ryside.TotheBritish, thecountryside hasalmost

non eofth negativeassociatio nswhich it hasinsom e cou ntries,

such aspoor facilities,lack of educa tiona lopportunities.unem ploy

-ment and po verty.Tothem , the countrysidemeanspeaceand quiet,

b auty, goodhealth and no crime Most of themwould liveina

count ryvillage ifth ytho ught thatthey couldfinda wayofe rn ing

alivin gthe re Ideally, thisvillage wouldc nsistofthatche dcottages

(seechapter I9) built around an areaofgrassk ownasa'village

green' Nearby,the rewouldbeapondwith duckson it.Nowadays

such a village isno t actuall y verycommon,but itisastereo typical

picturethatis well- kno wn to the British

So me historyconne ctedwith the buildingofthe Channeltunnel

(see chapter 17) providesa instructive exam pleof theBritish

attitude While the 'chunnel' was bein g built, th ere were alsoplans

to build new high-speedraillinkso eitherside of it Butwhat route

wouldthese newrailwaylinestake ?On the French sideof the

chann el,com mun ities battled witheach other toget the newline

built throu ghth eir tow ns.Itwouldbe good for localbusiness.But

o th eEnglishside, th e oppos ite occurred Nobody wan ted the rail

linknear th em ! Commun ities battled witheach otherto get the new

line builtso m ew h ere else Never mindabou t business, they wanted

1Opreservetheir peace and quiet

Perhapsthislove of the countryside isanother aspect of British

conservatism The countrysiderepresents stability.Those who live

in tow nsand citiestake an active interestincountry matters nd the

British regard itas botha rig h tan d a privilegetobe ableto go 'into

the coun try' whe never th ey want to Large area s ofthe cou n try are

official'nationa lparks' where almostno building is allowed There

is an organ ization to wh ich tho usands of en thusiastic co unt rywalkers

belong ,theRamblers' Association.Itisinconstant batt lewith land

-owners to keepopen the pub lic 'righ tsof way' across the ir lan d s

Maps can be boughtwhich mark,in great detail,the routesof all the

public footpathsin the country.Walkersoften stay at youth hostels

TheYo u th HostelsAssociation is a charitywhose aimis'tohelp all,

especiallyyoung peopleoflim ited means,toa gre ater kno wl ed ge,

love an dcare ofth e cou ntrys ide ' Thei rho stelsare cheap and rath er

self- co nsc ious ly bareandsim ple.There aremore than 30 0 of them

aroundthe cou ntry,most ofthem in themidd leof nowhere !

Even ifthey cannot get intotheco u ntrys ide, man yBriishpeople

stillspend a lotoftheir tim e with 'nat ure'.They grow plants Gar

-denin g isone of the most popu lar ho bbiesinthe country.Eventho se

unlucky people who do not haveagardencan participate.Eachlo cal

authorityow nsseveral areasofland whichit rentsverych eaplyto

thesepeopleinsm all parce ls.Onthese'allotments', peo ple grow

main lyvegetab les

Allotmentsin London

The love o f n ature 6

Ill- Th e N ati o nal T rust

A not able i nd icatio n of the B ritish

r everence f o r b ot h th e co un tryside and the pa st i s th e s tre ng th o f t he National Tru st Th is is a n officially recogn ized charily whos e aim i s to

pr eserve a s much o f Bri tain ' s co un

-t rys ide and as m an y of it s h isto ric building s as p s sible by acquiring

th em ' for the nat ion' Wi th m ore

t han one -a nd -a-half m illion

me mbers, it is t he l argest conserva -tio n org ani zati o n in t he wo rld It i s

a ctuall y th e t hird l argest la ndo wner

i n Britain ( after t he Crown a nd t he Forestry C omm i ssion ) It o wns more than /jOO mile s of th e c oast -line T he i m po rtan c o f i ts w ork ha s

be en s upported by se veral la ws,

a mong wh ich is o ne wh ich doe s n ot

a llow even t he government t o take over a ny of i s land without t he

ap proval of Pa rliament

PolesdenLacey,built in Ihe,8205and non:ownedbythe NationalTrust

62 5Altitud es

Th e railway c ats

It i s said that the Brit ish oft en t reat

t heir an imals as if they we re people.

Well this is true One of the most

co mmon th ings that people do i s to

be employed And so, o n Br itish railways, are cats.The names o f Olive.

Katie Pickles and around 200 others appear on the company payro ll, officially recognized as employees.

Their job is to catch rats and other vermin There is usually one cat per stanon Their pay (tax free) is food.

and they also get f ree medical t reat-ment (Without deductions from their salary) They are very po pu lar with the human BR staff, who a dmit that their 'product ivity r ate' is not

a lways very high (i n other w or ds, the)' don't catch many r ats) but cla im t hat they are good for mora le.

The d esire f or a nim al welfar e ha s

o fficial recogni tio n Cruelty to

a n ima ls o f any kind i s a criminal offe nce Su ch o ffences are in

vesti-ga ted a nd a cted upon by a we

ll-k no wn c har ity, the Roya l Society for the P revention o f C ru elty to

A nimals ( RSPCA).

RossendalcPet Cemeteryin Lancashireisjust one exam pleof an animalgraveyard in Britain It was starte d by alocal farmer who ran

overhisdog with a tractor.He was soupset that he putu aheadston e

in memory ofhisdog Now, Rossendale hasthou sand s of graves and plot s for casketsof ashes, with facilities for everykind of anim al, fromabudgie toa honess.Manypeopleare preparedto pay quite large sumsofmoneytogive their pets adecent bur ial (atrait they share with man y Ame ricans).Asthis exampleshows,the British tend tohave a sentime nt al attitudeto anim als Nearlyhalfofthe

hou seholdsin Britainkeepat least one dom estic pet Most of them

do not bother withsuch grand arrangem ent swhen their pets die , but

therearemillion s ofinformal gravesinpeople'sback gardens More-over,the statusofpetsistaken seriously Itis, for example,illegalto run over a dogin yourcar andthenkeep on driving Youhaveto

stopand inform the owner

Butth loveofanimalsgoesbeyond sent ime ntal attachmentto

domesticpets.Wildlifeprogrammesare byfarthe mostpop ular kind oftelevisio n documentary.Million sof amili eshave 'bird-tables'intheir gardens These are raisedplatformson whichbird s ca feed safefromlocalcats,duringthe wintermonths.Ther eis even a specialhosp ital(St Tiggywink les)whichtreatsinjuredwildanimals

Per hapsthisoverallconcernfor animalsispanofth Britishlove

ofnature,StudiesindicatingthatSOIl1ewildspeciesof bird ormam m al

isd creasin g innum bers become prominent articlesin thenational

press.Thousandsof peopleareenthusiastic bird-watcher s.This peculiarlyBritish pastimeofteninvolves spending hourslying in wet

andc ld undergrowth, rying to get a glimpse ofsome rarespecies

The touristview of Britain involve s lotsof fo rmal ceremonies.Some peopl eh vedrawntheconclus ion from thisthat theBritisharerather forma lin their gene ral behaviour Thisisnot true.Ther eis adiffer -ence betweenobservingformahtiesand being formal ineveryday life Attitu destowards clothes are a goodindication ofthisdifferen ce

It all depends onwhethera personisplaying apublic role or a private

role When peop leare 'on duty',theyhave to obey somequi terigid rules.A malebank em ployee,for example, is expected to weara suit with a tie , evenifh cannotaffordaverysm artone.So arepoliticians Therewasoncea mildscandal during the I980s because the Leade r

of theOpposition (see chapter8) wore clot hes on apublicoccasion

which were cons ide redtoo informal

On theotherhand, when people are not playin g apublic

role-when theyare justbeing themselves - the reseemtob n rulesat

all Th Britishare probablymore tolerantof 'strange'clothingthan peoplein most otherco untries You mayfind,fo r exam ple ,thesam e

bankemployee, on hislunch breakin hot weath er, walkin g through

th e s treets with his tie round hi s waist and hi s collar unbuttoned He

i s no long er ' at work ' and for hi s employ ers to cr iticize him fo r hi s

appearanc ewouldbe s een a s a gross breac h of p rivacy P e rhaps

because ofthe clothingformalitiesthatmany people haveto follow

du ring th e week, t he B riti sh , un like th e p eo p l e ofmanyo ther cou

n-t ries , lik e to 'd re ss down' on S undays Th ey c an 't w ait t o t ake off th eir

respectab leworking clothesand slipintosomething reallyscru ffy

Lot s of men wh o wear s uits during t he w eek can t hen b e se e n in old

s w eaters a nd j eans, so metimes with hol es inthem And ma le politi

-cians arekeen toget themselvesphotographed not wearing a tie

when 'officially' on holiday, to show thattheyarereallyordinary

people

Thisdifferencebetweenformalitiesand formalityisthe key to

w hat peopl e f rom othercountriesso me times ex perience a s a

coldnessamong the British Thekeyisthis:beingfriendlyinBritain

ofte n involv es s h o w ing that you a re n o t bo thering w ith the f ormalit

-ies.Thismeansnotaddressing som eone byhisor her title(Mr,Mrs,

Pr ofe sso r e tc) , n ot dr essing s martly when e ntertaining gue s t s, no t

shaking handswhen meetingand notsaying 'please'whenmaking a

request Whentheyavoiddoingthese things withyou,theBritish

are not being unfriendlyor disre spectful, theyare implyingthat you

are in the category 'friend',andso all the rulescanbe ignored.To

address s o meone b y hi s o r her t itle or to s ay ' please ' is to observe

for m alitiesa nd t herefore t o p ut a di stance b etw een t he p eop le

i nvol ved The s ame i s true of sha king hands A ltho u gh t hissometimes

hasthe reputationofbeing a veryBritishthing todo , it isactually

rather rare Mo st p eople would do i t on ly when being in trodu ced to

a s tranger o r when me eting an acquaintan ce ( but not a friend ) after

a long time Sim ilarly, mostBritishpeopl ed not feel welcomedif

on being invited tosome body 's house,theyfind the hostsinsmart

clothesand a grand table set for them.Theydo not feel flattered by

this,theyfeelintimidated Itmakes them feelthey can'trelax

Itis probably tru e that theBritish , especially the En glish, aremore

rese rved t han t he pe ople of m anyother countries They find i t compa r

For ex ample, it i s n o t t he convent ion to ki ss w hen m eeting a fri end.

Instead,friendshipis symbolizedby behav ing as casuallyas possible

Ifyou are inaBritishperson'shouse,andyou are told to'help

yours elf' to some thin g,your hostis not being rude or suggesting

thatyou are ofn importance- he or she is sho w ing thatyou are

com pletely acceptedand justlike 'oneof the family'

In the last decades of thetwent ieth century, the gen eral amo untof

dow n a t a t ab l e to eat , a re n ow a co mmon form ofhosp italit y

A t t he same time , th e t radition a l r eserve ha s a lso b een brea king

d own M ore group s i n s o ciety now k i ss when meet ing eac h other

( wom en and w omen, and m en an d wom en, but s till n ever men

and men!)

Th e scruffy Briti sh The Brit ish arecomparativelyunin

-terest ed in cl o thes T hey spend a

lo w er prop o n io nof t heiri nco me on

cloth ing than p eopl e i n m o st othe r Europeanco un mcsd o Man y p eople

b uy s econd-ha nd clot hes a nd arc not at a ll em barrassed to ad mit this.

If rou a re somewhere in a Mediter

-ranean holiday area it is usually possible to identify the British tourist - he or she is the one who

l ooks so bad ly dressed!

64 5Altitudes

~ S elf-h elp The National Trust i s one example o f

a charity which became very

I mportant without any governme nt involvement Another is the Family Planning Association By [938, this organization ran 935"clinics around Britain which gave advice and help regarding birth control to anybody who wanted it Not until ten years later, with the establishment of the National Health Service (sec chapter 18), did the British government involve itself in such ma uers.

A further example ofself -help ' is the Consumers' Association In 195"7,a small group of people working from an abandoned g arage started Which.', a magaz ine e xpos in g abuses in the marke tplace, i nvesti-gat ing t rickery by m anu factur ers and com paring d ifferent c om pan-ies' brands of the sa me pro d uct.

Th irty yea rs later, 900,000 pe opl e regularly bought t his m agazine and the Consu me r's Associa tion wa s

m aking a £ [0 m illion s ur plus (not a 'profit ' be cause it i s a registered

c har ity) By th en it had suc cessfu ll y camp aigne d for m an y n ew l aw s

p r o tectin g consu mers a nd Wh ich?

h ad become the Brit is h consu m er 's

bi ble.

Supp orting th e underdog

Some customs o f ro ad use ill u strate the British tende ncy to be on t he s ide

of ' the underdog ' {i.e the weaker side in any compe tition) On the roads the underdog is the pe destrian.

The law states that if a person has just one foot o n a zebra crossing then vehicles must stop And they usually

do Conversely, British pedes trians interpret the colour of the human figure at traffic lights as advice not

as an instruction If the figure is red but no cars are approach ing, they feel perfectly entitled to cross t he road immediately In B ritain , jay-walking (crossing the roa d by dodgi ng in between cars) has n ever been illegal.

InpubliclifeBritainhastraditionally follo we dwha t migh t be called thec ltofthe talented amateur' , inwhich bein gl O Opro fessionally

-that is,b lot s of people giving a little bitoftheir freetime to help

service(see chapte r8).in thecircumstan ces underwhichMembers

non- lawyers torun much of thelegal system (see chapter I I) ,in

someaspec tsofthe ed ucationsystem (see chapter 14 ) ,and in the

count rywereofficiallyam ateurevenatto p level (see chapter 2 I ).

This characteristic , how ever ,is onthedeclin e In all the areas

negative co nno tation to having a positive one.Nevertheless,some

thelastdecade,suchasneighbourhood watchsche mes (see chapter

I I).Moreover,te s ofthousandsof 'amateurs' arestill actively

involved incharity work (see chapter 18) Aswell as givin g direct

help tothose inneed, they raise money byorga nizingjumblesales ,

fetesand flag days (on whichthey standin thestreetcollecting

money).This volunt aryactivity is a basicpart ofBritishlife Ithas

that man y of the world'slargest and mostwell-kn o wncharities (for

example,Oxfam, AmnestyInternational and the Save theChildre

Fund) began inBritain Note alsothat, each year,the count ry 's blood

fro m unpaidvolunteers

V olunteersreadytocollectmoneyfor theRSPCA