4.3 British Character

British people are naturally polite and are never tired of saying “Thank you” and “I’m sorry”. British people are generally disciplined and reserved, you never hear loud talk in the street. British people don’t show much emotion. They remain good-tempered and cheerful even under difficulties. British people like jokes. English sense of humour is famous and humour is highly prized in Britain.

When English people meet someone for the first time, they shake hands. They do not usually shake hands with people they know well. Women sometimes kiss their women friends. When a man meets a man friend, he just smiles and says “Hello”. Men do not kiss each other or hold hands.

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4.4 Family Life

A typical family had a father, a mother and two or three children. This was the image of the traditional British family in the 1950s or 1960s. Nowadays only 7 per cent of British families consist of five or more people. The average British couple today has 1.8 children. Grandparents come to visit, but do not usually live with their children. Most people get married, but many marriages end in divorce, one in every two marriages ends in divorce. This means that there is a large number of “single parent families”: a father or a mother looks after their children alone. Nine per cent of families are lone parents.

A typical British family has or rents a house or a flat, has a car and a cat or a dog. They start the day at about 7 o’clock, have breakfast at 8, and start work at 9 o’clock. More and more women now go out to work like men. The children have lunch at school at about 12.30, and come home at 4 in the afternoon. Their parents are usually at home by 6 o’clock, and the family eats together between 6.00 and 7.00 o’clock. In the evenings, father may go to the pub for a drink, or stay at home and watch TV with the others. Children go to bed early, two or three hours before their parents.

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4.5 Pubs

Pubs are typical of Britain and are an important part of British life. People go to the pub to relax and to meet friends. But pubs are not open to everyone and they are not open all the time. People under the age of 16 cannot go into pubs. And pubs are open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. or later.

In a pub you can buy beer, wine, fruit juice and soft drinks. Beer is the most popular drink in a pub and there are many different kinds of beer.

Many pubs also sell hot food, which is often good and cheap. But you must go to the bar and get your food and drink because there are no waiters in pubs. Most pubs now serve good value hot and cold meals. They often have family areas where a whole family can eat together.

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4.6 The London Underground

The first underground railway system in the world was in London. It opened in 1863 and ran 6.5 kilometres from the west of London to the City in the east. The first lines were built close to the surface and used steam trains. They then built deeper tunnels and the electric underground railway opened in 1890. This system was called the Tube, still the most popular name for the London Underground. Some of the Tube stations are so deep that they were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War when hundreds of families spent nights in the stations.

One million people commute into central London every day. Sixty per cent of these people use the Tube, mainly because the London Underground system extends far into the suburbs: the Northern Line, running from north to south, covers 28 kilometres, the Piccadilly Line, running from east to west is 76 kilometres long.

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