Schools in Britain are taking part in a competition to do a Doodle 4 Google. The theme is My Britain and what does it mean to be British?
We thought it would be a nice idea to find out what images of Britain the visitors to our website have and compare them with our students.
What does it mean to be British?
What makes you feel British?
What do you most value about living in Britain?
When you go on holiday, what do you miss about home?
We look forward to reading your ideas.
Visit projectbritain.com for more about British life and culture.
Monday, April 24, 2006
My Britain
Posted by Woodlander at Monday, April 24, 2006
Labels: questions and answers
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10 comments:
An image I have is people sitting on the beach despite the weather being cold. It always amuses me
Following on from Sally’s comment, what makes me feel British is eating fish and chips sitting in a deck chair on Brighton Pier
The Telegraph did a survey on ‘What it means to be British’. This reply made me smile:
“Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign. “
Diagoras, Switzerland
Standing in the rain watching a football match
As an new resident in England I see many things that are so obviously “British” to me, but people that have been here all their lives don’t. It’s very hard to have a sense of your own culture while you’re in it! I’ve only noticed my own culture when I left and moved here. The most interesting thing I’ve noticed as a “British Culture Trait” would be the ability to take anything from any other country, absorb it, make it your own and swear up and down it is British. I can’t tell how many times I’ve had someone standing in front of me telling me how awful -insert other culture of choice- is and copying trends from those cultures, or at least the T.V./media concepts of them. Some of the absorbed concepts work (The Beatles went over well) some don’t (Tammy Faye Bakker killed the panda eyes long ago). On that note there isn’t much variety in the fashion to go with anyway. That was explained to me by a 13 year old as “yer a chav or goth, or you aren’t worth noticing”
It may be cliche, but I also noticed the tea. Be it a cheating partner or a chipped nail, you will always offered is a cup of tea and a biscuit in seconds. I have to admitt, it does help.
Another major cultural difference I’ve noticed is how very aware of social class people are. Within 2 minutes of 2 English persons meeting they have made up ideas of where the other came from, that persons social, educational, financial background, and each will fall in to “their place” according to the things they believe about the other. Always boggles my mind.
I don’t feel British. I’m Scottish.
I think that Anonymous above may find that that Scots tend not to be impressed by social class.
Well im british so I think the main british things are: eating fish and chips from the “chippy”, sunbateing on a beach when its raining all the time, and one more haveing a kebab and beer after a night in the clubs!
I Never felt very patriotic about being British untill i left to live in Oz, now i cannot get enough. I have a belt buckle which says it all….British by Birth, English by the grace of God !
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