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6 myths about being English.
May 9, 2008 |
Posted by ben hind · Filed Under Culture, Personal, Uncategorized
I am English. And if you’re reading this blog, it most likely means you’re not. A 86.36% chance to be exact (I checked the blog statistics 
). So just so we’re on the same page, I thought it might be fun to give you my run down on the 6 things I find people get wrong about the English. I do apologise to any English readers that might be offended by falling into any of these spiffing categories. Tally ho!
1. All English people drink tea. Don’t get me wrong, I love tea! And so do most English people… but you rarely find any non-adult drinking it, it’s more of an aquired taste. Think of it like vegetables! Oh, by the way, Tea doesn’t come from England 
.
2. Our favourate food is fish and chips. Surprisingly enough we eat more curry than fish and chips. It’s just so much more interesting and exotic that way! By chips I of course mean ‘fries’.
3. We all speak either like John Cleese or Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins. Don’t get me wrong there are some (not that many) who speak like this. But for the most of England we have too many different accents to count. I come from a town called ‘Darlington’ (which, by the way, invented railways and trains) with a population just over 100,000 and I wouldn’t be able to count the amount of different English accents on one hand… never mind the fact we have plenty of Polish, Indian, Asian, Irish, Scotish, etc. people living here aswell.
4. We drive on the wrong side of the road. Different isn’t the same as wrong! Even though we’re just about the only country that drives on the left… 
5. We wear tweed suits, top hats, canes, and every other kind of 19th Century piece of clothing you can think of. No… not unless you’re 100 and you live in a mansion. Though we’re probably not as bold and over-stated as Americans in our dress.
6. We use phrases like ‘tally ho!’, ’spiffing!’, and ‘good show old boy!’ at random. Again, these are ancient phrases that I’ve never heard anyone use without being completely sarcastic. I don’t even know if anyone used them sensibly ever! We do have odd phrases we overuse, but mostly this is because of regional dialects.
Hope this was fun and informative for my non-English friends across the pond(s). So here’s your turn, what do people get wrong about your country?
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To be fair, or rather, not to be fair, I wanted to respond to each point in turn. ;^)
1) All people in NC drink Tea too. It’s iced cold and so sweet it’ll crack your teeth.
2) What?!? No mush peas? No kidney pie?
3) And here I thought everyone in England could hear the Bow bells? Say it ain’t so?
4) Hmmm… I think if found in the opposite lane while driving in either country one might think it to be “wrong” rather quickly! ;^)
5) We’ve all seen “Are you being Served” and Jeeves and Wooster. You cant pull the bowler over our eyes!
6) You forgot Old bean, pip-pip, and right-ho!
Ok, I’ll post things about my area next…
-steve
I’ll just refer to the South East of the US, since we have enough land mass to encompass just about every stereotype if we looked at the whole country.
1) Just because we talk slow doesn’t mean we are slow. But we still might be.
2) We don’t all own guns. There’s one or two of us that don’t have them. Yet.
3) Barbecue is anything cooked on a grill. Not true! That’s a sacrilegious statement and will get you into a lot of trouble in these parts. BBQ is pork, and that’s it. (Sorry to my Tx and Kansas City brothers and sisters).
4) We do marry outside of the family. Quite often more than is the perception. ;^)
5) Serious for a moment:There are many, many others… (we’re all hillbilly, redneck, racist) that simply are not true, though there are always exceptions that like to prove that wrong. ;^( And just because a lot of folks go to church around here, doesn’t mean they are a believer, sadly.
Ben - you’re a good sport to open yourself up like that. I do hope you’ve take my comments here and elsewhere as good, clean, respectful fun! I promise, give and take!
cheers,
-steve
Steve,
I look forward to the day when I can ‘have a laugh’ at church… of course I do that already, to the disapproval of some
. Even if you weren’t respectful it still wouldn’t make it any less fun, I think I’m pretty thick skinned.
Great list by the way. I don’t understand 1 and 3, but that’s probably because I don’t know exactly what south-east USA is like! The whole gun thing scares me… but I’m English so what do I know! I’ve heard about your going to church but not believing problem… we having something a little worse over here. It goes along the lines of ‘if I don’t believe I don’t see why I should go to church’… and even if you do believe it still doesn’t mean you go! Mostly because a lot of churches are so dead over here… with exceptions of course
.
- Ben
[…] Read the rest. […]
Ben,
Thanks, I’ll elaborate on 1 and 3:
1) In the south people speak a little slower than up north, with a different accent. Often times we’re accused of being slow in speech and slow in the head (dim, dumb, uneducated).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_TfpXiVsDc
(ok, that doesnt help my cause… ;^)
Of course, in NC we’re no where as bad as they are in Texas or OK (sorry, just picking on Michael). ;^)
3) It’s good. Though I cant find a verse to support it I’m pretty sure there will be a pig pickin’ in Heaven…
http://hkentcraig.com/BBQ.html
http://www.northcarolinatravels.com/food/barbecue/index.htm
As for the guns, well, it keeps the criminals on their toes!
cheers,
-steve
Ben… I posted follow up comments, they keep getting deleted or marked as duplicates. ??
Anyway, I provided some links to explain the references 1 and 3 for your benefit.
cheers,
-steve
Ben, I live in Maine so I will only talk about Maine. Some of the myths Mainers promote themselves to encourage our tourist industry which is a BIG industry in Maine.
Myths we encourage:
1. If it’s “Made in Maine,” it’s good.
Reality — there is a lot of good stuff but some poor quality things too made by people looking to make a quick buck.
2. Mainers are all friendly and welcoming. Reality — Well, some of them are but some of them just want your money and then for you to get the heck out of our state and stop making the roads and parking so crowded.
3. Maine has clean air and water. Reality — Maine is right in the direction of the air currents that bring polluted air in from other more industrial states and even lakes in the north of Maine that are VERY rural have high levels of mercury in the fish and you are warned not to eat many of them. It’s sad.
4. Maine is filled with hard-working, good citizens. Reality — we have LOTS of this type of person but because I work in the community in community corrections, I see LOTS of people who like to rip off the system, abuse alcohol and drugs, get on disability so they can collect money and not work (there are many people who do actually need that support though).
5. Maine is the way life should be. Reality — it is not easy to make a living in Maine. There is little public transportation, taxes are high, heating costs are high. Unless you are in a city area, there are not a lot of jobs.
Some people who have never been to Maine think that all Mainers talk alike. Not true. Many of us DO tend to turn the “er” sound into a “ah” sound like saying “butter” into “buttah.” If I want to see how “Mainer” someone sounds, I can ask them to say “Park the car in the garage.” It can come out as “Pahk the cah in the gahrage.” My Mainer accent shows in this respect too. Actually, there is some part of England where they talk like that. I listen to British news on public radio and have heard that take on this “a” sound. They may come from the Bath area, I think I read somewhere.
Southern Maine and Northern Maine are very different. Many Southern Mainers would feel comfortable in Boston. Many Northern Mainers would rather go to the Canadian Maritime provinces. I live in the western foothills of Maine and tend to favor the northern attitude myself. I don’t like fast highway driving and crowds though I do like a lot of the shops and restuarant that you can find in Freeport and Portland.
Joanie D.
Steve,
Unblocked your post… it picked it up as spam for some reason! Probably your use of links or something
. I see what you mean about speaking slow, I don’t think Miss South Carolina helped your case! Keeps the criminals on their toes? But surely the criminals have guns too???
- Ben
Joanie,
Whoa, patriotic or what! I’m sure we all think the same about where we come from though. We have the same problems where I live… but in England the benefit system is way out of control. You can get free money over here if you don’t want to work… it’s called ‘Jobseekers allowance’. You can get it while you look for a job but some people just pretend to look for a job and get the benefit anyway.
Bath sounds about right for the accent. I was surprised to learn that some Americans talk like that, I thought it was an English thing. But then again that’s just me being ignorant, which is exactly what this post is all about!
- Ben
Ben,
Exactly right. ;^) Thus, if the good guys give up their guns, only the bad guys will have them.
Now you just need to come over and get some bbq and you’ll be set.
cheers,
-steve
I’ve got a question … what are some cultural myths about Christians in the UK?
-steve
Steve,
Great question, haven’t got a clue how to answer it… probably because I didn’t know there were cultural myths about English Christians! I could think of some cultural myths that English people have about Americans. Like how you all blindly accept young-earth creationism (which I hold to, but not very tightly) which I’m sure you all don’t, and if you do I’m sure like me you hold to it for good scientific as well as biblical reasons.
I could tell you how English Christianity differs from American Christianity, though American Christianity has a huge effect on English Christianity through the God channel and the like.
1. You have a lot more extremism over in American that you don’t see so much in England. You don’t see a lot of fundamentalism over here if any at all. You also don’t see so much of the weird and spooky extra-biblical charismatic stuff as there is in some parts of America. We’re very moderate in our beliefs and practices and it’s not very English to go over the top!
2. A lot of our churches are in ancient (we’re talking a 200 to 300 years old if not a lot more) buildings, it’s very very rare to see a new church building in England. Let alone it looking like it was built to look half decent from the outside.
3. Our churches are tiny as less than 5% of the population is Christian. And most of these are Christians because they’ve been brought up with Christian morals, not necessarily Christian beliefs (in God, let alone Jesus) and they most likely won’t want to come to church. The church I go to has about 20-40 people coming on a Sunday, and sometimes it’s as low as 10 of us. And that’s not abnormal! No real mega-churches like in America… though one or two have 3 or 4 thousand coming each Sunday.
4. Since we’re a quite reserved culture traditionally we don’t tend to express ourselves in worship very well. I see in America people getting really excited in church (watching from TV channels you understand)… which we don’t see in England. Apart from one or two churches that are breaking the mold, but traditionally we’re very reserved and don’t show much enthusiasm.
Hope this helps… though it seems like I’m feeding the myths rather than making them disappear!
- Ben
Ben, There are about 30-40 in our rural Washington church. After coming fron So. Cal I learned a term I find I use all the time. It is “Down below.” A friend came to visit and when I used the phrase “we’re goen down below” he had an image of fire and brimstone. People here use it to mean “going to town.”
Mainers refer to people who live here now but who moved here from someplace else as being “from away.” Like if you asked someone, “Is John a Mainer?” the response would be, “No, he is from away.”
In the town I grew up in right across the river was the town that had some clothing shops and a few other shops. When we walked there we said we were going “overtown.” I have never heard that expresssion ANYWHERE else, including anywhere else in Maine. It was just peculiar to citizens of my town.
Joanie D.
Mike and JoanieD -
Interesting - I’ve never heard those expressions. I’m sure we’ve all got regional ones that would further illustrate the point. I’ve always wondered how these things come about historically. (was there an event, or unique setting, etc)
Ben,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I guess that’s probably what I’d have guessed in both directions.
Are there a diverse number of “flavors” of church (denominations, differences) or are they all the same type for the most part?
Your stereotypes of US churches are true here too, meaning that we see some of the same things you pointed out and we have the same impressions, eg: what you see on tv. We dont claim a lot of them either. ;^) I think we would have a large number of varieties and denominations. Of course, I live in what’s called the Bible Belt, so there is a culture of church going (and like I mentioned before, not necessarily believing, etc. people grew up with it…)
And, to encourage you somewhat: My church only has about 10 folks too, though we’re always excited to see what God will do with it. The size bring some challenges, but moreso has brought great blessing to those involved.
cheers,
-steve
Steve,
Wow, we’re not so small over here afterall! In terms of ‘flavours’ we don’t get so much variation over here. Most churches are very traditional; hymns, old style buildings, liturgy, average age about 50. But there are some churches like the one I go to that’s trying to be different; modern music, modern presentation, more informal, trying to appeal to the younger generation (by which I mean under 50s). So there is a bit of variety but not so many extremist groups (Jehovahs witnesses, Mormons, Word of Faith, Fundamentalism, ‘Very-Weird-Charismatic’, you get the idea!).
- Ben
You never addressed the most pressing British myth, however. How many of you really have a sonic screwdriver stashed away in your Tardis?
Ben,
I totally understand. Another question, if you dont mind - with churches being smaller in size, do you find that more ministers are bi-vocational? Or how do they support themselves and families?
-steve
Michael,
Contrary to popular belief, Sonic Screwdrivers are a complete myth… a very English one. I mean… Sonic Screwdrivers became obsolete after the manufacturing of Black&Decker Sonic Power-tools. Everyone knows that! And as for the Tardis I believe it to be philosophically improbable for time travel to occur as it leaves serious implications on the space-time continuum. Hence they were banned in the late 1990s, though ‘the Doctor’ still illegally runs his to the entertainment of his viewers.
Steve,
A lot of ministers have to be bi-vocational, our church for example cannot pay the wages and pay the bills to keep the church building running. Our previous pastor had to go back to work after we ran out of money to pay him. It’s fair enough as he has a family that he has to support some how.
- Ben
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