English culture is so diverse , it’s sometimes difficult to notice what IS english culture, especially after coming from such a multifaceted city as NY. But after being here for almost three weeks I have started to realize more nuanced differences than the fact that there are no stop signs in London. For instance, their complete disregard for the American right to bear arms. They just don’t understand why anyone would need a gun.
I also have become aware of how different our newspapers are. I’ve been told that the ‘main’ newspapers here are The Guardian and The Times. Comparing these two to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, makes English news papers look like tabloids. They just don’t seem as serious. There are articles about the royal family with titles like “David Cameron may have said something he shouldn’t have about the Queen.. AGAIN.” While, they do have things that seem more serious, the royal family is a big part of the culture here and insulting the Queen is a rather big offense for them.
Some other differences are in relation to their views towards smoking and alcohol. Both are so entrenched in their culture, its weird coming from a place where if you smoked in a park, people would instantly heckle you with a barrage of loud obnoxious coughs.
Another interesting difference is how aware they are of the world. From my experience, America citizens are overwhelming unaware of countries past western Europe, let alone their current events. The other day, I had a sixth year (sixth grader) tell me where the island of Comoros is (never even heard of it). Because, England is physically connected to the rest of the world, its citizens seem to be more educated and concerned with the rest of the world.
Also they use the words naughty… a lot. It’s really amusing.
While on a traveling high, within the following weeks, I went to Stonehenge, Bath, Harry Potter Studios, and Cardif (Wales). I will hopefully do a little more traveling while I am here. You know what they say… I actually have no idea, but I assume someone once said, “when in Europe, travel Europe”