What is English culture?

[jake-the-peg]

On a thread (that vanished) someone said that they felt English culture was being eroded

I asked what English culture was but didn't get much of an answer

What is English culture - surely not Warm Beer and Morris dancers

[Le Chat]

My usband worked for a German company and I asked him, when he went to his head office in Munich, to ask what what their impression of an English person was. Unfortunately, I have to say, the common consensus was teenage girls pushing prams. How sad.

[DrFilth]

jake don't know what town you are in but when i was a kid there was 2 restaurants on the main road

http://images.google....um=11&ved=0CDcQsAQwCg

( In any case a lot of people do think it. But the development of the culture that we share in the UK now has owed very little to muslim (or any) immigration )

take a look at the link , is that change is not down to immigration .i think there are now about 2 english shops or would you rather me say white

[jason.p]

I think a lot of people (obviously Jake included) see cultural characteristics and national pride as akin to racism. National pride is essential to social cohesion, which involves all members of that society. Without that social cohesion, society fragments as it is surely doing now, and the PC apologists who see national pride as in some way racist, are helping it on it's way.
I'm proud to be British, and of our culture. If that makes me racist, so be it.

[123everton]

Jason you are being asked to list those characteristics that you are proud?

[jason.p]

123 Everton
I'm probably old fashioned, but I like to think we are polite (giving up seats, holding doors etc.), tolerant (freedom of speech, religion etc.)
Resolve in the face of adversity (stiff upper lip!!),
Being reserved, not bragging.
And of course our sense of humour which is second to none!!
I fully expect you to rip this to pieces, but you asked what characteristcs I like to think I have which are typically British, and these are just some of them.

[heathfield]

Much of how we see English Culture was invented by the Victorians. Prior to this, anyone on a lower social scale would do as they were told, or receive a thrashing - and that included all johnny foreigners.
But as the industrial revolution gained momentum, the nouveau riche were desperate to learn how to behave as they thought the nobility did. Books on etiquette flourished, and where etiquette was non-existent, it was invented.
English Culture as we see it today is a hangover from that past.

[jason.p]

How we see English culture may well have some of its roots in Victorian times, as with all other periods of our history. Our "core values" or "culture" are derived from all of our history, and not invented in any one period, and as I said in a previous post is evolving all the time. I still believe that these core values and national pride in them should be a positive aspect in any society.

[123everton]

Jason P, I'm gonna surprise you here, I wholeheartedly agree with you, they are to my mind very British values.
I espouse, and even try practise these values on a daily basis, but in all honesty, how many of your countrymen do?

[jno]

just come across this thread - very interesting.

Giving up seats - no, never. Someone gave me a seat on the Paris metro last month and in Barcelona a few months earlier. But not on the tube in London - except for a couple of times, both by people of Asian appearance.

Queuing, though, is still done much more in the UK than abroad. And the British sense of humour is still different from most (NZers get it but Australians mostly don't).

Jake, surely the national dish these days is not so much fish and chips as curry? As far as I know it was brought back by people who'd been to work for the raj, but it has really boomed under the influence of Asians in Britain.

More broadly, though, UK culture has become very globalised. American language, Japanese cars, continental-style football mania, and a me-me-me attitude that seems to have been largely locally grown.

[123everton]

Someone gave you their seat JNO?
I didn't think you were that old! LOL.

[jno]

I am kinda, 123everton; retired, rather grey-haired and a bit wrinkly. (Also overweight so perhaps they stood up for me thinking I'm pregnant.) TBH I'm not really decrepit enough to stand up for - and yet a couple of young Asians (who were of course quite likely British) have been kind enough to give me their seats anyway. No Anglo-Saxons have done so.

I love the way Japan has Respect for the Elderly Day as a national holiday. That's one more day than you get here.

[jno]

here's something that seems rather British (sorry, I know the Q specified English; not sure if this characteristic is Scots/Welsh or not)

http://www.guardian.c...ky-police-plan-drones

Other countries just don't do this constant surveillance to anything like the same degree. Do Brits mistrust their neighbours more than most?

[rojash]

ahmskunnirt, seems to be under a common misapprehension regarding the word "Great" in "Great Britain". In this sense it means large, and is there merely to distinguish it from the other Britain.

The name Britain goes back to Roman times when they called England and Wales "Britannia" (or "Britannia Major", to distinguished from "Britannia Minor", ie Brittany in France).

[tamborine]

Pull down the bricks & mortar of the society you live in is like pulling down the home you built. If you don't have pride in your home & environment how can you pride your country.

Time for you to look elsewhere? Where else would you choose, and who else would welcome you?

[New Judge]

No, jno, the hyper-surveillance facilities in England are not for the benefit of people who may or may not trust their neighbours. Any use they may wish to make of them is quickly refused under privacy, data protection and human rights legislation.

However (and this is very strange) those facilities are available in abundance to any of the multitude of State agencies for purposes they decide are appropriate. I said it was strange and it is because the legislation which is cited to prevent ordinary citizens from taking advantage of the technology was actually introduced mainly to prevent intrusion into people’s affairs by an over-zealous State!

[jno]

New Judge, as far as I can tell most people are in favour of CCTVs; they fear the streets are full of thieves, rioters and feral kids and think this is a good way of apprehending them. They may be right, I don't know.

[Ankou]

so after reading this thread it appears that it is all about wamr beer anr morris dancers after all.

nothing wrong with that, two of my favourite past-times in fact. there was one post though about being english abroad. i find i don't do that, not that i am embarassed or anything, i just prefer to blend in with the locals and do what they do and only appear english when they ask me where i got my shell suit or to explain what i mean by apples and pairs guv'nor.

apart from that, i'm european me.