Text_1

Text 1: The British Character

It may be painfully obvious that the British Isles are surrounded by the sea-they are islands, after all. But if you were to wonder how this affects the British character, then the first of the two key answers is the “insular” men-tality of the British, and the second being nearly a thousand years of uninter-rupted tradition - the last serious invasion was by the Normans in 1066.

Taking the first, even in the twenty-first century, British people are re¬served, aloof and often haughty. Europeans and Americans are usually very surprised by their desire for privacy and the British still use such popular sayings as “An Englishman’s home is his castle” to describe attitude rather than any physical protection. This “insular” or “island” mentality of course varies across the countries that make up the UK. Even so, it is possible to generalise into groups or categories. For example, the Southern English, the Welsh and Highland Scots are the most closed, Lowland Scots and Midlands English are more open and the Northern English are sometimes hospitable and friendly. Or especially suspicious!

If you were to visit Britain, you would immediately notice the almost chilling politeness of the British and the peculiar way that people will apolo¬gise continually. If you were to bump into a person with, say, a shopping trolley, then the braised victim will often turn round and say “Oh, I’m ter¬ribly sorry”. A person exiting a building would not dream of letting a door slam into a stranger and people politely queuing could not imagine anyone pushing in for any reason. Two people at a doorway may spend conside¬rable time saying “You go first” “No, you” “No, you go first” and so on, A plate of cakes on a table after a meal may often have one left after everybody has finished - if you were to take the last one then you would be thought of as being dreadfully impolite.

The image of the British Gentleman has spread throughout the world to the confusion of many other cultures. The British view that it is better to participate at a sport and play honourably, than to win, is absolutely in¬comprehensible to an American. In the USA, to come second, never mind third or worse, is humiliation. This British honour of participation may be combined with great patience. A cricket match at international level, (a “Test Match”) takes place over five days.

Americans are usually regarded as boorish by Britons, and perhaps because they often try too hard to be polite in an artificial and insincere manner - repeatedly saying “Have a nice day” and US fast-food cafe staff have to smile at customers or risk being fined or sacked. Such behaviour is alien to the British.

The second, tradition, is the cornerstone of the British character and an-other way to realise this is to look at places and their architecture and history. If you were to drive across the southern half of England on the A3 03, then asyou cross Salisbury Plain,

you would see a remarkable

sight that so many have seen

over the past 5000 years,

as Stonehenge comes into

view on the horizon.

There are many Neo-

lithic and prehistoric sites

around Britain, Roman

remains in such cities as

Chester, Colchester, Bath

and Canterbury, the remains

of Viking settlements in York and from the Norman invasion in 1066, many

stone castles and fortifications. Very many villages and towns in Britain

today still have Norman churches and cathedrals dating from the eleventh

century. The locals all think of them as just ‘the church’ and that it’s nearly a

thousand years old isn’t especially remarkable. People still drink at the ‘Old

Trip to Jerusalem’ pub in Nottingham which dates back to the twelfth cen-

tury. Tourists flock to Stratford-upon-Avon where Shakespeare’s birthplace

is, and the cottage where he lived with Ann Hathaway, his wife, in the 16th

century, still stands, near many other buildings the same age or older.

Below A Victorian Romantic painting of Godiva’s ride. Even places off

the tourist map such as Coventry have a significant heritage. Lady Godiva rode

through the streets of Coventry in about 1050 to persuade her husband, Leofric,

Earl of Mercia to reduce punitive taxes on the people of Coventry. Legend has

it that she rode naked to stress to her husband how important this was to her,

but Coventry’s townspeople

so respected her that nobody

looked at her nakedness

during her ride. The excep-

tion was allegedly ‘Peeping

Tom’ who was struck blind

as a result. Whether she was

actually naked or not during

her ride and whether Peep-

ing Tom existed depends

on whether you believe the

chronicles dating from 1236.

But the point is that the city was significant even then. The oldest Coven¬try school, Bablake School, was founded in 1344 and many of the original buildings still exist, although the school moved to a new site not far away in the nineteenth century. That each of the school’s pupils knows the age and tradition of the school is certain, yet they often take it for granted.

This acceptance of long-standing and uninterrupted tradition is deep within the British psyche and is one of the explanations why the stand-offish yet confident Brit feels no need to assert his ‘superiority’ by showing off to his foreign peers.