More funny if rather unkind observations on English culture by Jon Tillman....
As a follow-up to his previous note, "Thirteen Things I Have Learned About America from the British," Jon Tillman has now posted "Thirteen Things I Thought I Knew About England." Brits and Anglophiles should check it out. Two of the things he has noted particularly matched my own experience, so I have quoted them here. (Just because I love the English in general doesn't mean I don't notice things about them I don't like). But most of the experiences he has had are not the same as the ones I have had.
[quote begins from Jon Tillman, "Thirteen Things I Thought I Knew About England"]
- 2. Multiculturalism: As an American there is a special type of shame we carry for our recent openly racist past and the lingering inequalities in our society. I expected the UK to be something of a model for racial/cultural integration and harmony, especially given how much the British press seems to go on about being the first to abolish the slave trade and how many languages are spoken in London. What I wasn’t prepared for was that in all of those 300 or so languages, the most oft-uttered phrase in London is “Fuck off back home, then!”...
- 4. Anti-Americanism: ...I expected quite a bit of overt anti-American sentiment, and all I have encountered is bemusement and disbelief at the idea that someone would voluntarily move out of the States and into the UK, and London at that! Of course, there could be tons of anti-Americanism thrown my way by cultured Brits that I, as an American, am too daft to notice, British disapproval consisting mostly of thinking nasty thoughts about someone while not looking at them or changing one’s facial expression.
[quote ends]
I myself have been particularly distressed in my dealings with Brits by instances of number 2, especially when the sentiments were issuing from the lips of a young English relative. In fact, I couldn't believe what I was hearing the first time. On the other hand, the expressed hostility had absolutely no bearing on this young person's willingness to mix with people of all races and cultures. I saw much more openness in this respect than I see here. I don't know what to make of that. The complaint about the particular non-assimilated other culture was very specifically about their taking more than their share (according to this young person) of counsel-funded housing. Nothing in anything that was said implied that the speaker viewed the group in question as ethnically or culturally inferior; the complaint had to do with their refusal to become assimilated and with their (perceived) access to government benefits at the expense of others.
As for 4, it's quite true that Brits seems to have fewer facial expressions than Americans are used to and that they are not in my experience inclined to share their anti-American sentiments with Americans. I must say that the ones I know tended to be forthcoming once I got to know them about their dislike of the Bush Administration, their bafflement at the way religious faith mixes itself up with everything, their disapproval of American spelling, their amazement that guns can be purchased at a certain well known discount store, and their disapproval of the death penalty. At the same time, they were polite enough to let me feel that they were excepting me from their clear belief that Americans are collectively not very civilized. In some cases, this may have been sincere; in others, it was clearly pretense.
Anyway, have a look yourself at this very amusing note.
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