British culture: how to be a general alien

Hi guys! How are you today?

After our last vocabulary activity, today I offer you a reading exercise. Now remember the advice shared last week: read the text to get a gist of it, and then check the vocabulary that you really need. 

I underlined the words that I found were interesting to look up in a good online dictionary. Don't forget to check the pronunciation too! Have fun discovering these strange facts about our friends the Brits! I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Don't hesitate to comment, sharing your reactions with us! Have a great day!

1. How to be a General Alien: A warning to beginners (George Mikes, How to be an Alien, Penguin Books, 1966: pp 14-16)

In England*, everything is the other way round. On Sundays on the Continent even the poorest person puts on his best suit, tries to look respectable, and at the same time the life of the country becomes gay and cheerful; in England even the richest peer or motor-manufacturer dresses in some peculiar rags, does not shave, and the country becomes dull and dreary. On the Continent there is one topic which should be avoided - the weather; in England, if you do not repeat the phrase "Lovely day, isn't it?" at least two hundred times a day, you are considered a bit dull. On the Continent Sunday papers appear on Monday; in England - a country of exotic oddities - they appear on Sunday. On the Continent people use a fork as though a fork were a shovel; in England they turn it upside down and push everything - including peas - on top of it. 

On a continental bus approaching a request-stop the conductor rings the bell if he wants his bus to go on without stopping; in England you ring the bell if you want the bus to stop. In the Continent stray cats are judged individually on their merit - some are loved, some are only respected; in England they are universally worshipped as in ancient Egypt. On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners. 

On the Continent public orators try to learn to speak fluently and smoothly; in England they take a special course in Oxonian stuttering. On the Continent learned persons love to quote Aristotle, Horace, Montaigne and show off their knowledge; in England only uneducated people show off their knowledge, nobody quotes Latin and Greek authors in the course of a conversation, unless he has never read them. 

On the Continent almost every nation whether little or great has openly declared at one time or another that it is superior to all other nations; the English fight heroic wars to combat these dangerous ideas without ever mentioning which is really the superior race in the world. Continental people are sensitive and touchy; the English take everything with an exquisite sense of humour - they are only offended if you tell them that they have no sense of humour. On the Continent the population consists of a small percentage of honest people and the rest are a vague transition between the two; in England you find a small percentage of criminals and the rest are honest people. On the other hand, people on the Continent either tell you the truth or lie; in England they hardly ever lie, but they would not dream of telling you the truth. 

Many continental think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game.

*When people say England, they sometimes mean Great Britain, sometimes the United Kingdom, sometimes the British Isles - but never England.