British Thinking: Characteristics That Separate Us From Americans

Before I studied in the United States, I never realized that there are many obvious characteristics of our British people. Our way of thinking is also different from that of the United States. In a word, the most important characteristic is to use two words to summarize, that is, introverted and implicit. Now, I will carefully write down some of the thinking ways and characteristics of our British people, which can help you better integrate into British life and get along with British people when you come to live and travel in the UK.

The first one is the way we communicate. In contact with strangers, the British generally do not automatically go forward to introduce themselves to others, but let others introduce them. Because in our British culture, if someone else is responsible for the introduction, it will appear that they are valued and dignified. If we introduce ourselves, it will appear that we are not a very dignified and dignified person, and we cannot be respected, because there is not even a person willing to introduce us. Or think this person is too impatient. On the other hand, it's sometimes insulting to directly ask the other person what their name is. As a result, the British are generally less familiar.

Because of the culture of self-confidence, when Americans talk about themselves, they often speak a little better than reality. But we English people will not speak for ourselves like this, or even speak for ourselves more weakly than the reality. Because we feel that we speak highly of ourselves, but it is a symbol of super self distrust.

It seems to be a kind of modesty, but in fact, in our British hearts, we are also very proud of our own excellence and hope that others will know it. But for cultural reasons, let's not express ourselves, we hope that the other side will dig slowly. If other people cross us face to face, we will not modestly deny it, but will feel that it is deserved. This can be traced back to the customs left over from the feudal period in Europe. There is a hierarchy between people, which leads the British to pay more attention to face. In ancient and modern times, English people always like to introduce themselves to speak for themselves and so on.

For example, in a British social activity (such as a party), everyone's goal is to observe and test the social level of other people around. At the same time to help other people to introduce strangers, while maintaining their own mystery. It doesn't matter if you introduce it to others, because it doesn't affect your level in other people's eyes, and it can show you have quality. In the social activities of the United States, no one has this feudal consciousness, which leads to all people can only express or create their desired status by themselves.

The second one is our etiquette. Influenced by religious belief and historical culture, one of the advantages that we Britons are praised outside is that 'we understand very well, men and gentlemen, women and ladies'. Indeed, etiquette is a very serious thing in Britain. Sometimes it goes too far. In the eyes of the British, one must pay attention to one's behavior in public, because others can know one's manners, politeness and accomplishment from it.

In social situations, British men are extremely gentlemanly. It is not only reflected in British respect and care for women, but also in their clean appearance, proper dress and proper behavior.

In dealing with people and things, the British pay attention to implicit and distance. For us, only a proper distance can lead to a stable relationship between people. But also, it is based on a kind of jealousy, confidence and arrogance within ourselves, but we will not show it, just like our character.

But sometimes because we pay too much attention to etiquette, it will make us turn a simple thing into a lot of complicated thing. There was a joke that mocked the red tape in our culture. A man fell into the water and asked for help from the old man on the bank, but the old man ignored him. Only when he says a long list of complex English politeness can the old man help him: Excuse me. Sir. I'm terrible sorry to both you, but I wonder if you would mind helping me a moment, a s long as it's no trouble, of course

And the last one is humor. When I first came to live in the United States, sometimes I told a joke, and it is very embarrassed when I found that no one else except me got a laugh point on the scene, At the same time, I found how unique the characteristics of British humor were.

British humor is often ironic, unexpected, fantasy and absurd, and usually we also like to play word games. But also because of this kind of jumping off thinking, not everyone can understand our laugh point, so our jokes often become cold jokes.

We like to satirize our acquaintances and we like to laugh at ourselves. When we tell jokes, we are usually targeted, or a certain group, or a certain person, may also be ourselves. When the target of a joke is someone else, we should make sure that the target doesn't understand our joke, but other people in the audience will understand it soon. This is the fun of our jokes. So when you are in front of your British friends, you suddenly find them all laughing, but when you are alone, you should be aware that you may have been taken as the target of the joke.

Fellow is one of the British jokes. A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The driver says, “Ugh! That’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” The woman stalks off to the rear of the bus and sits down. She turns to the man sitting next to her and says, “The driver just insulted me!” The man says, “You go and give him a telling off. I’ll hold your monkey for you.” In this joke, the woman took the baby to the bus, but the driver laughed at the child's ugliness. The lady was very angry and complained to the passengers nearby. As a result, the passengers asked her to go to the driver to ask for advice. He came to help look after the monkey. In the story. The passenger caricatured the child as a monkey to highlight the child's ugliness.

In fact, all the characteristics I mentioned above can be traced back to our British people's implicit appearance, but they are the embodiment of extreme self-confidence and even arrogance. Due to the influence of Royal aristocratic culture, we will also consider ourselves extraordinary, and we should be dignified and polite everywhere to show our identity.