Buckingham Palace, a pint of beer,
a double-decker bus, horse racing, fish and chips, cricket… There are lots of
strange things about the British. But what about British people? The Guardian
newspaper asked foreigners living in the UK for their opinions on the British.
Find out what they said and really improve your listening skills and range of
vocabulary!
What comes
to mind when you think of Britain? Buckingham Palace, a pint of beer, a double-decker
bus, horse racing, fish and chips, cricket... What about British people? The Guardian
newspaper asked foreigners living in the UK for their opinions on theBritish.
Here are some of their answers. [Please note: as the speakers are non-natives,
there are some examples of non-Standard English.]
“The
strangest…well for me, can I say food? Like, for example, that you eat on the couch not on a table.” (Irene, 23, a
small business owner from Italy) “When a British person has a problem with
another person they don’t actually come and tell that person directly in their
face.” (Felicia,
37, an obstetrics and gynecology consultant
from Romania)
“Here, if
you’ve done something really good, they will say ‘This is not bad.’” (Spela, 41, a
graphic designer from
Slovenia)
“I find it
strange that British people are so much into
beer and, you know, not into wine. But that’s just me!” (Valeria, 32, a
journalist from France)
“I find it
strange seeing that they still accept this so-called ‘class system’, you know, in education, you know, in the modern
world.” (Dick,
75, a retired oil executive from the Netherlands)
“I really
don’t know, just drinking tea with milk but I had it myself and it’s OK.” (Janis, 25, a
cook and psychology student from Latvia)
“Here in
England I see so many people and it’s 3 degrees Celsius, and they have short sleeves and I don’t understand
it. Fingers crossed to them,
they are heroes for me.” (Jakub, 36, a
wine waiter
from the Czech Republic)
“The
strangest thing about British people is probably lunchtime pints. It always shocks me to go from
a meeting to the bar to have a pint, back to the meeting...” (Hector, 26, an entrepreneur
from Cyprus)
“The mixes
they do with food, I would never understand why in a very English pub there’s a
Thai restaurant… why? Why do they put sweet
corn in tuna… why?” (Helena, 27, a businessperson from Spain)
“People are
very fond of queuing, that’s a stereotype but it’s true. I think I’ve
gotten into the spirit as well, so
whenever I am in another country and people don’t queue I get very angry, so I
think I am slowly becoming more British.” (Philipp, 23, a
law student from Austria)
How strange!