My view of Britain and British culture

It has been three months now since I arrived here, so I have enough content for this blog but I have a feeling that as time passes I will have more and more to write on this topic!

On this theme some of the first things that foreigners associate with Britain are red phone boxes, double deckers, Shakespeare, tea, politeness… On the way here I read that in Britain you get the feeling that you have come to a land of fairytales and now I understand what this writer was speaking about. You only need to look at the names of towns, roads, streets and pubs such as: Crown road, Strawberry Hill, The Crown pub, the Royal Mail, the Royal Academy, King’s Lynn, Queens Park Rangers… Here the Queen still awards knighthoods and you see people with titles like Sir or Lord.

During our first two days in London we were given an introduction to British culture by people from the Church Mission Society. Our accommodation in the Indian YMCA didn’t help this cause much! But anyway I admit, sadly, that some of the stereotypes which they talked about are true:

TEA
Wherever you go you will be provided with a cup of tea and a biscuit. This I can easily cope with because I have always enjoyed drinking tea… but the biscuits are starting to worry me since I notice that my hips are becoming wider! There is another thing; you never notice much difference between tea and coffee. Something often goes wrong, the tea is too strong or the coffee is too weak, or both!

POLITENESS
I still struggle with this. British people often think me rude because I am direct and often say things without wrapping them up carefully first. But the trouble is that even if I want to talk like this I just don’t know how to!

All these unnecessary words like “Sorry!” and “Thank you!” and questions like “How are you?” without meaning it, but just because they don’t know what else to say, can sometimes be very annoying. Can’t they just be quiet instead?!

HUMOUR
British people often overestimate their sense of humour. I can’t remember how many times I have heard “We have a dry humour, you will not understand.” Maybe this works for Americans, but don’t worry it is not so good!
Recently I went to a comedy night but I didn’t laugh a lot because they were either speaking too fast or I didn’t know enough about British history and current affairs. I am getting there - someday maybe I will do stand up! :)

COLDNESS
In the wider world British are known as a cold nation. They will often call total strangers “Love” or “Darling” but on the other hand be quite cold to their families, partners and friends. What a contradiction!!! But I should also say that church people are a little bit warmer, although still not enough!

FOOD
How creative is it to have fish and chips or sausages and mash for your national dish? But at least they have a big choice of other cuisine! Jamie Oliver is my favourite chef and for me the second best dessert in the world is British trifle (the first is tiramisu!).

Soon after I came I needed to charge my mobile phone and then I realised that they have one more pin than everybody else in the world. Why! Aren’t two enough? It is enough for us! Or is this just to make life more difficult for us foreigners? Anyway, my creative Norwegian friend Torgeir had the idea of putting a key in the third hole in the socket. It really works but it doesn’t seem a good permanent solution (I hope you see why) so Annette bought an adapter for me!

The good thing about all this is that, with time, you learn that there is Britain and the rest of the world. You get used to the left side of the road being the right and learn that Scotland Yard is not a playground but where detectives hang out and that fireworks are amazing. British people are very busy so you have to start making appointments well in advance. There are no toothpicks in restaurants or in peoples’ houses so after having a meal you must learn to smile carefully.

Having said all this it is not so bad here!