The English…

I’m fortunate to travel quite a bit in my job and when I’m abroad people often ask me: what are the English like?

In short, we’re a funny old bunch. Funny, in terms of ‘humourous’ and funny in terms of slightly ‘odd’ as well. No doubt this is partly due to the fact that we have been living on our little island for thousands of years, cut off from our European neighbours. We’ve evolved into a rum and complex group of people.

So what should you expect if you are about to embark on a language course here in the UK? What are you going to find? What are we English really like? Are the stereotypes you’ve heard about all true?

Here we go:

We like to talk about the weather (sad but true)

We don’t talk much to our neighbours (sad but true again)

We never say what we really think (true again -- we’re terrified of offending people)

We’re not good at talking about our feelings (especially the men)

We drink a lot of tea

But we also drink a lot of Starbucks coffee

We don’t go to the pub as much as you think (we prefer a takeaway curry)

Nobody eats fish and chips anymore (chicken tikka massala is our favourite dish)

We stay indoors a lot (it’s cold here!)

We like a bargain (the shops have never-ending ‘sales’)

We like sport

We wish we were still good at the sports we invented

We like music (we think we have the best bands in the world)

We like to be on time

Our trains are not as bad as everyone says they are (unless it snows)

We read a lot of newspapers (so we don’t have to talk to anyone on the train)

We watch a lot of rubbish TV (check out ‘Eastenders’)

We’re proud of things like the BBC (even if it does produce ‘Eastenders’)

We’re wary of strangers (we’ve been on this island on our own for too long…)

We use the word ‘nice’ a lot

We’re nice once you get to know us (honestly)