Being British
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying" I admitted, and automatically, my face contorted in to an expression of confusion and I gave an over exaggerated shrug.
My mumblings and body language were sure to tell him I was a confused foreigner, and indeed, the Italian man accepted his mistake and continued down the Roman street.
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| My heritage pie chart: Guyana, Britain and a little bit of France |
When meeting other travelers, a game of "guess my ethnic background" has ended with: Greek, Turk, Iranian, Spaniard and Italian among many others. I guess my actual roots from South America is a bit far to consider when people play that game in Europe.
While I am proud of this heritage, once you talk to me I think its rather clear that I am, in fact quite British.
True, I don't care for Sunday roast, but on the whole I'd like to think I am an upstanding Brit. The most common topics that curious foreigners ask me about Britain are being polite and drinking tea...
Manners
Yes I like to have good manners. Most of the time. Whilst loads of other cultures are perfectly pleasant, for some reason being very polite is seen as a British characteristic.
I did notice that certain kids at summer school did not find that good manners were second nature. Yes we can make excuses for them:
- They are grappling with a second language so that may make them sound rude.
- Being well off they may be a little spoilt or have a maid that does things for them at home. (Stereotype rears its head here.)
- They are still children so might not have excellent conduct for that reason.
There was a kid from Syria who had a good heart, but when he wanted something, would demand of me: "Give me orange!" or "I want more food!" sometimes thrusting out his hand and never really smiling.
Yes, he had contended with the above listed hindrances to politeness, but that did not mean I was going to do his bidding without being asked nicely. I know he was from Syria which is a place that's had extreme hardships in recent years. But this certain boy has not been starving at home- If his parents can afford thousands of pounds for a summer school trip then he can't be too badly off.
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| Summer School: A lovely place to be shouted at by rich children |
I'd like to say the young Syrian learned quickly, but he didn't. Even in the final week I was saying "Ask nicely or no orange for you. Try again in two minutes." It may have only been a four week stay but it may have been the only 4 weeks that year people would require him to be polite.
Those I met in the religious Community farm in Czech Republic weren't rude to each other, but they never said please and thank you as much as I would. We did have some good times discussing British manners and the idea of going to a 'Finishing School', where Brits from the previous century would attend classes on how to present oneself.
At least one thing we did agree on was drinking tea.
Or so I thought.
Tea
I don't drink tea as much as some people do (I know someone who was on 10 cups a day) but I do enjoy tea quite a lot.
So following a confusing journey getting to a farm in the Czech countryside, then I gladly accepted the offer of tea.
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| I am supposed to be at a farm.. I don't know what I'm meant to be looking for. Why is this not the farm!? I am in a new country whose language I don't speak and have no phone. (Dont panic!) |
Well the drink looked liked boiled pond water- clear and light amber but with traces of green. It was a bitte tea called Mate (pronounced Ma-teh). But when drank with honey, which they called 'sweet Mate', it was pretty good.
Drinking it was something to do when I got up at 5.45 and had to sit through 90 minutes of Bible readings with them.
They call our normal tea 'black tea' and they only occasionally drink it. They think coffee is bad as its a stimulant but are happy to ignorantly overlook the caffeine in other hot beverages such as sweet Mate (Which was stored in cannisters labelled 'Sweet Mate'. Yet no one found this funny but I.)
One idea I have heard from various different people is that British are really fussy about how tea is made. Are we? I would not say so- Are you?
I am mad about people calling their dinner 'tea' because that is just silly. Though I may have Northern friend who would disagree.
People in Britain aren't all mental about using teapot instead of teabags, as some of the Community had assumed. And someone in Budapest was worried to put tea in the wrong kind of cup, knowing that I was British and fearing a mistake. He even showing me two different sizes of cup; I said the smaller one is always the wrong choice as you'd get less tea.
But then it was suggested that the milk be put in before the hot water. I thought 'fucking no mate'. Maybe some of us do care a bit about how the tea is made. I mean add the sugar whenever, but it needs to be bag-water-milk, otherwise something I can't explain but which is irrevocably detrimental to the tea occurs.
Don't do it.
What We Aren't Like
I overheard a man in the Czech Community talking about the English people, presumably thinking I was out of earshot:
"An English man would shoot his dog if it annoyed him. Then he go and get another"
I knew that a verbal protest to this ridiculous statement would be all but futile. But what a funny notion of the British people to have.
Living in such a sheltered life as the Community members did, you would understandably warp whatever view you might have of the outside world. Wearily, this was the same man who mused why I had wires tucked in to my ears ("The headphones..? Err, music comes out of them")
These cultural quirks will always crop up when meeting people from other countries, but sharing the truth and learning things yourself is part of the beauty of travelling.
And since my next move is moving to China for a year, I think its safe to say that cultural differences are only just beginning.
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