Transcript
[00:00:03] Hello. Hello. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the English input and output podcast.
[00:00:11] With this podcast you can easily practice listening to English anywhere. Anytime. Please check my website. If you want to read the transcript for this episode.
[00:00:33] In today's episode. I want to talk about social norms in the UK. Well, what do I mean by that? I guess in Japanese social norms would be 社会規範, maybe. イギリスの社会規範のことです。
[00:00:54] Sorry for the Japanese, but I want to make it clear for you guys.
[00:00:59] Basically. I want to talk about how British people speak to each other, how they make friends and how they act in social situations.
[00:01:10] First, what is your image of a British person? Lots of my students tell me that they think British people are so kind and polite and smart.
[00:01:21] And I think that's sort of true. For example, we will usually open and hold the door for other people. And we often apologise, even when we don't need to.
[00:01:34] Of course, not all British people are gentlemen or princesses like you see in the movies. But there are those kinds of British people in real life too.
[00:01:46] However, however, I think there's a big difference in how British people act with foreign people and how they act with native British people.
[00:01:58] It depends on the place, but generally I think British people are very friendly, and kind to foreigners. If we see that you're not from the UK. We will act politely and we'll help you with anything.
[00:02:15] But when it comes to interacting with other British people, we are usually quite rude and we often speak using a lot of bad language.
[00:02:27] Even when we meet somebody for the first time, we might use a lot of sarcasm or make fun of people to break the ice.
[00:02:37] By sarcasm, I mean 皮肉 And by make fun of people, I mean 人をバカにする and break the ice means 緊張をほぐす .
[00:02:51] So if a British person say something rude to you, maybe it's a good thing. It basically means that they trust you and feel comfortable talking with you.
[00:03:03] And most British people like to talk to each other at the pub. It's a big part of British culture.
[00:03:12] Of course, the more we drink the ruder and less polite the conversations become.
[00:03:19] In fact, it often happens that people will start fighting each other after having too many drinks. I think it's the complete opposite of the gentlemen image.
[00:03:30] Even though I'm British myself. I'm not a fan of using sarcasm or making fun of people. I feel it's a little annoying actually. If somebody is always rude or making sarcastic comments, well, it's a bit difficult to have a nice conversation with this person.
[00:03:55] Another thing British people often do is complain. Lots of people might begin a conversation by complaining about the weather about the train being late, or about other people.
[00:04:10] It sounds like we're very negative people, but it's true.
[00:04:15] So don't worry if a British person seems angry or upset because they're probably just trying to have a normal conversation with you.
[00:04:25] Also that reminds me. If you ask a British person, "how are you?" They will usually reply with I'm "not too bad" or "I'm all right."
[00:04:38] I think if an American person uses these phrases, they probably mean "not good" or "not okay" "so, so".
[00:04:48] But when a British person uses these phrases, we actually mean "I'm good" or even "I'm great" Generally, I think British people don't like to show their emotions. Showing too much emotion can make a person seem a bit strange or even a little crazy.
[00:05:10] But how about in your country? Are there any unique social norms? Where do people go to socialise? And how do people break the ice? As always, I'm interested to hear your story.
[00:05:25] Oh, and by the way, you can leave a voice comment for each podcast by clicking the anchor FM link in the description box or below the transcript if you're listening to this on my website.
[00:05:37] And that's all. Thanks again, guys. And I hope you learned something from today's podcast. See you next time and have a good one.
Send me a voice message about social norms in your country @ Anchor.fm! I always give feedback and advice.