Need a helping hand!

[anna-gorokhova]

Hello! I’m a foreign senior student, who is currently carrying out a scientific research, centered around British national character and would appreciate it greatly if you could lend me a helping hand and take part in the anonymous public opinion poll which I need for my thesis.
***
The TASK is as SIMPLE as that: all you have to do is just to look through THE LIST OF CONCEPTS below (home, freedom, privacy, common sense, sense of humour, gentleman, fair play, stiff upper lip, tradition/heritage, dignity/pride) and ARRANGE them IN A HIERARCHY, according to your personal perception. Put a numeral (from 1 to 10) opposite each concept to show the degree of its importance and relevance as you see it (1 – the most inconspicuous concept, 10 – the most significant concept accordingly).

A random example:

Home – 8
Freedom – 10
Privacy – 6
Common Sense – 9 … etc.
Sense of Humour –
Gentleman –
Fair Play –
Stiff Upper Lip –
Tradition/Heritage –
Dignity/Pride –

THANKS A LOT IN ADVANCE! I REALLY need your ideas for my project to base the research on the NATIVE SPEAKERS opinion. It would be absolutely marvellous if I could get at least 15-20 poll replies from you (because otherwise it will be no easy matter to draw a clearly-cut picture of regularity and interrelated aspects). But I’ll actually welcome ANY quantity! Waiting for your feedback.

[vascop]

This is not a good survey in my opinion, because you are limiting me to the topics YOU have chosen. So I will exercise my freedom and provide you with no answers to your survey.

[vascop]

Also, I don't believe in national characteristics anyway - it's a myth!

[vascop]

Also, it's hardly scientific research, more like cheap tabloid journalism!

[anna-gorokhova]

I see your point. Thanks anyway.

[anna-gorokhova]

And certainly it's not me who is limiting you to the topics, it's the scientific literature I'm basing my thesis on.
If you could put forward some other aspects which are more relevant in your opinion, I would highly appreciate it!

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unsure 20 would be a significant sized sample. And I think some of these labels are open to interpretation. Not to mention I'd probably put them all top (well most of them anyway.)

Assuming this is not a wind-up. Probably as follows ? (But ask me tomorrow and I may have moved some.)

10 - Freedom
9 - Privacy
8 - Dignity/Pride
7 - Fair Play
6 - Common Sense
5 - Tradition/Heritage
4 - Home
3 - Sense of Humour
2 - Stiff Upper Lip
1 - Gentleman

[Old_Geezer]

So Anna, what part of the world are you from ?

[anna-gorokhova]

Oh thank you! At least one reply. I'm sorry if my question is somewhat disturbing or is not properly thought over. Well, of course I realize that 20 and ever more will not be enough at all. But at least your feedback will help me to compare the facts thrown light upon by various literature sources and your personal ideas, which are truly precious!
I'm from Russia.

[mollykins]

what do you mean by the concept of home?

[anna-gorokhova]

Home presupposes family, household.

[tamborine]

Are there many english students in Russia? What subjects would they be active in ?

[Androcles]

Sorry Anna, but this is not scientific research by any stretch of the imagination. You are asking questions of a group of people who are operating under internet names, whom you have no idea who they are, where they are from or even if they are British at all. No serious academic study would collect data like this from a totally unstructured and unknown source and expecting such a small and statistically insignificant response.

Sorry, but I can't see your examiners giving this any credence at all for a thesis.

[anna-gorokhova]

In fact I'm not that well aware of statistics concerning "English students" in Russia but I guess we have quite a number of them here, because the English language has asserted its authority as the international means of communication. As for students in this country ... they might be active in a vast variety of topics depending on their age, social status, interests, etc. What topics in particular do you mean? :) When they [students] enter the process of cross-cultural communication they as a rule strive to master their language skills or just delve deeper into different cultural background.

[LoftyLottie]

Home 9
Freedom – 10
Privacy – 8
Common Sense – 4 … etc.
Sense of Humour 3
Gentleman 2
Fair Play –7
Stiff Upper Lip 1
Tradition/Heritage 5
Dignity/Pride 6

[LoftyLottie]

Sorry, it's out of order. But just done very quickly

[anna-gorokhova]

Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate your help!

[anna-gorokhova]

Androcles, what you are talking about stands to reason. I'm no scientist for sure and I realize that these methods are somewhat pseudo-scientific. But I have a vague idea where else I can find people, eager to express their ideas and answer my questions, more than that people, who come from the UK. Undoubtedly, the Internet is far from being a reliable source, but I have nothing to do, because it's my examiners who approve of carrying out the survey. I searched on the Internet where I can ask the UK citizens a question and that was the first site on the list so here I am. Do you think it would be relevant if I perhaps visited some university (Cambridge, Oxford) sites? Though I'm afraid the audience there will be no homogeneous whole either. :( The best thing ever is face-to-face communication, which I can hardly afford now.

Anyway, researches like that have already been carried out by various scientists and there are certain hierarchies drawn. But the literature is not quite up-to-date. So what I'm striving for is just to gather your replies, analyze them thoroughly and see what the MODERN native speakers' point of view is to show the picture from a modern angle.