What British People Think About British People | Easy English 77

Hello, welcome to Easy English.

Today, I want to know what Brits, think about Brits, let's go.

What do Brits think about Brits? - I’m actually not too sure.

No? - I'm really not too sure.

What do you think about other British people?

Well, I'm kind of proud of them. - Yeah? - And I feel part of them.

Okay. - But I'm aware that there's obviously many Brits that…

I don't know, probably xenaph… you know, you got bad... bad ones,

you've got a good ones. - And what is it about… what are you kind of,

proud of? Is it about there nature, about how… how we sort of,

generally behave or our history or… - Yeah, I think so,

I think generally, we’re quite a funny nation. - Yeah, okay.

Good sense of humour, we've lived abroad in different countries.

Where abouts have you lived? - Lived in Germany, Holland, America.

Wow, okay. - And er… we always missed it, that's for sure.

Well we missed… we missed home and we missed the people as well.

I think the humour is unique isn’t it? - Absolutely.

Right, well I think… I think we're such an insular country you know,

with the… Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.

And I just think we all… we all think we rather marvellous

because of the industrial revolution for a start,

we started all that off. You know, Erm… and we…

we were well ahead at that point.

I do think we have an inflated view of being English,

some people just think it's the best thing in the world.

Not looking at all the other cultures, all the other countries,

you know, I… I do think we've got it out of… out of sync really,

for sure.

You know other British people right? - Yes. - Yeah.

What do you think about them? - I think they’re like, posh. - Posh?

Yeah. - All of them? - Most of them. - Okay - And erm… - Are you posh?

Not really. - Okay. - I go to school in Newhaven.

And that’s not posh? - Not really. - No. - Okay.

What do you think about the Brits? - That’s a very good question.

I… I think it's a moving feast right?

I think it depends on which part of the country to go to,

it depends on the people you meet and the storeys they have to tell you.

I… I think there's a country of stories,

I think that we're all great storytellers in Britain

and part of being British to me is about that,

it's about embracing these storeys, it's about erm…

having humour with the storeys and how you tell them,

and it's about embracing how we’re all entirely different

and how we’re all individual in our pursuit, in our beliefs,

our cultural heritage, our views on society, all these things.

Erm… so to be British has… has changed an awful lot

over the last hundred years or so, of course it has,

and erm… there’s been a great shift, I think in acceptance and…

and hopefully things will… will stay… stay the same

and of course with the recent climate with COVID,

we’ve had to pull together and we are a community,

Bigger and… and smaller. And I think that, to me,

it's about those things.

My opinion on Brits, I'd say are not particularly that great.

Okay. - I know, I think that Brits have got

a bit of a bad name for themselves, especially abroad,

because they’re quite lager-louty. - Yeah?

We’re… and we very, very self conscious of ourselves, aren’t we?

You know like, you get… most of Europe aren’t as apologetic

when they bump into each other.

So, I think we're really sensitive and we're lager-louts and we’re…

I think we’re a strange bunch really. - And is this…

is this your opinion? Or is this what you think...

is this a generic view? - This is probably… oh this is… Oh, this is…

‘cos what's the question? The question is what I actually think…

no but I think… - It doesn’t have to be, it could be like,

what do Brits as a group think? Or, what is your sort of,

very specific opinion, from all the British people you know?

We’re er… individual, we’re different for the rest of Europe.

Yep. - Got our own little quirks. Erm… like our home comforts.

Yep. - And, We’re good fun. - Okay, I’m interested in the quirks.

Yeah. - What… what quirks kind of, identify Brits to you?

Er… tea, Marmite, beer, full English breakfast, Sunday roast. - Okay.

Erm… - Is there… is there more… I’m thinking more like,

behavioural things that… that we can all say we have as Brits?

It might be clichéd but... Slight superiority complex. - Oh yeah?

Yeah. - Okay. - I think. - Why do you say that?

I don’t personally have it myself but I… I… it my observations.

Okay but, Superior about what? - Like if you go abroad, you want…

you want stuff that you have at home when you're abroad. - I see.

Yeah, I'm… I'm a bit different because I was born here,

but I've got… my parents are from Sri Lanka,

so I've always had another culture involved. So I've noticed it,

even in Sri Lanka, you can see the colonial influence,

how it's made its mark, like the tea, the cake, the beer, G&T.

Yeah, we demand our own… - Or… or yeah, or it's… it's good,

so it's rubbed off on other people I guess, two ways of looking at it.

What… what do you think about British people?

We have a lot of banter and we don’t take anything seriously.

Okay and can you define what… what is banter?

It's just where you joke about and you don't...

you just take the p**s out of each other.

Where you make fun of people because of their hair or something.

Just like him, ‘cos he’s ginger. I’m not ginger!

So this is banter right? - Okay,

and this is what all British people can do or what?

Some, ‘cos we have a few mates who’ll just sit there

and we will take the joke out of them,

then they'll just sit there crying for the next week.

So, would you also say that British people are sensitive?

some, some, some of them. - Most of us just banter all the time.

Yeah. - So… - Tease each other. - Would you say you two are kind of,

guys that aren’t sensitive but have this banterous humour? - Yeah.

We all banter. - Okay, do you have any banter for us right now?

For each other, why don’t you… - He’s ginger. - I’m not ginger.

Right, now give it back. - Um… his teeth are offside. - Fantastic.

We're not socially distancing, but his teeth are.

British people, just generally, just joke about more, normally.

‘Cos you see it so often or it’s on TV or something like that?

Well, it's like, everyone has this like, thing like, British are like,

people are all posh all that. But like, they're not really,

just like, everyone just jokes about.

Some people take it, some don’t. So it just depends on the person really.

And the posh thing. Er… where does… do you think this is like,

someone else’s opinion that’s not true or…

Well most like, people from other countries think like,

you… English people like, are all posh and that, and they’re just like,

just drink tea for like… on a daily basis, so yeah.

Okay, and er… do you… is this not true? You don’t drink tea?

I drink tea. - Well I drink tea.

Oh okay, so it’s really true then.

Could you sort of, specify a typical British humour?

Self deprecating. - Nice. - I think that… that’s pretty… pretty obvious.

Certainly the other nations that we lived in,

they didn't quite get that kind of humour. That kind of sarcasm.

Banter. - The banter. The took everything literally, where we don't.

Could you… could you, because banter’s a… kind of a work which…

it has different connotations doesn’t it? - how would you erm…

how would you describe banter?

Well you were in a football environment, weren’t you? - Yeah.

So it was… It was all to do with football. - It’s quite a har…

it can be quite harsh, it can be seen as quite harsh can’t it?

Even between friends, you know,

they could walk in a pub and the first thing you do is tell them

how band their jumper or shirt is don’t you?

Er… and other nations tend not to do that.

But it's… it's… it's a term of endearment when you…

when you say that to er… to your friends perhaps.

What would you say about Brits nowadays? Modern Brits?

When I think of my mum and dad and my aunts and uncles, all who are dead.

They were… they were brilliant, you know.

They… they knew what they were, they did… they did… they…

they went to work, they came home, they looked after the family.

I do think modern Brits do moan an awful lot,

I don't think they have the same feelings as…

about family especially and social stuff, that they did back in… say in,

you know, after the wars, because they came out of that

and they rebuilt the whole country, socially especially I think.

And I think, you know, that's a lot to do with it,

but I do think we are very socially minded and stuff like that.

You know, you look down your nose, you know that programme about,

I looked down my nose at him because he's only this,

and then someone else looks down at him, you know,

we're… we're very much like that,

I do think we do that judging sort of thing.

And I’ve got a bad neck. - Yes. Yeah, that's right.

yeah and I've got a bad neck as well, so what do you expect,

that's right yes… yeah, yeah. - We’re… we’re kind of the…

modern day Brits are almost like the spoiled child.

Well they are. Yes, they haven't had to work hard for anything

I don't think. I mean, obviously going to university,

and that’s so much easier than it used to be.

Yeah, so yeah, I think we have it handed to us almost,

we are almost like in nanny state, I think.

How would you describe this humour? - Erm… ruthless at times,

ruthless and direct sometimes, occasionally slightly erm…

dark as well I think sometimes, the British humour,

they can be quite dark. Also you can be sometimes,

overly respectful as well, you know,

we don't want to hurt others feelings being British,

and we have that respect, I hope for… for each other, most of the time,

not all the time, most of the time, I’d say.

Funny, ‘cos it’s quite a contrasting thing you just said.

Yeah, it is a contrast, yeah. - Brutal but with a… - Brutal.

We don’t want to offend anyone. - I think… I think with your friends;

around your mates you can have that brutality, you can be just…

just on the edge, right, and be cutting,

but I think with those you don't know with that kind of sense of,

you know, humour being used to to offset some things

that aren’t so great, you know, to offset that kind of erm…

atmospheric challenge you have from some people, sometimes.

Yeah, and you hear all the time right, you hear it wherever you go,

this British humour. And small talk, we’re very good at small talk

in Britain and all that time we kind of, use for small talk,

I mean, goodness me, that… that's gotta be years of our lives,

all of us, engaged in… in the small talk,

about the weather and all kinds of other… other unimportant things

which we are so obsessed with.

Insecure lager-louts - Insecure Lager-louts.

And that's what people think of us,

and that’s what I also think we’re all like. I'm not a lager-lout.

Well okay, but you’re a Brit! - Yeah but, I used to be a lager-lout.

A reformed… - not deformed, reformed. - Okay, so er... but then,

if this is a past version of yourself,

then maybe there’s a modern version of Brits

that is different to this lager-lout. - So… well, I suppose it…

but it's like every culture, we've all got our different erm…

we’ve all got our different, we’re quite opinionated aren’t we?

Don’t you think? We’re quite opinionated. So… and we're quite judgmental,

we are judgmental which I don't…

and I'm trying to work on that myself as a Brit,

but I don't like to be so judgmental, but we are,

but then I think that's just the rest of the world,

I think all human beings are. So I have…

have I helped you here on this question about Brits? Not really.

I've sort of gone worldwide. - You’ve sort of, looped back round.

But what sets us aside? Is it just the beer drinking and the insecurity?

Is that it? - Er… I’d literally…. I… yeah, it's…

we’ve just got that whole… we… I don't think our reputation’s that great.

No. - No, I think we've got a lit… not to the rest…

not to the rest of Europe, say,

I think we’re the… we’re the naughty bunch.

Right. On our little island. - Yeah, just… we’re just naughty.

so we've got a bit of a… yeah, a bad name for ourselves.

But, we’re alright, we do it alright.

Thanks for watching this week's episode,

Let me know in the comments below what

you think of your fellow country-folk

and we'll see you next week, bye.

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