Hello welcome to Easy English.
Wikipedia has a list of common British stereotypes,
that I want to find out if any Brits match up to.
Let's go.
So, I'm going to read out some of these British stereotypes to you.
Okay. - And you have to sort of, give me your thoughts
and if you match up to these. - Okay.
So the first one is; politeness.
Well, I try and be polite most of the time.
So is that a no or a yes? - Erm… I… I well I think it’s a yes,
but I'm not consistent.
So the first one is; politeness.
I'm polite to the nth yes, I feel. - No you’re not.
Did you change your voice? - Yes, absolutely. Very much so.
I’m actually working on my politeness, I'm trying to be less polite.
Less polite? - Yes!
I can be polite, I can be impolite as well.
Really? You got a switch? - Yeah, well you know,
politeness has its place, but sometimes it can be a little bit…
too much, sometimes. I think we’re a bit… too…
sometimes we’re too polite.
Yeah, I’m really polite.
In what way; you say your p’s and q’s or?
Yeah, all the time. Open doors for people.
Do you say sorry too much?
Yes, treat those the way you wanna be treated. - Yep.
Nice, this is like, something you got taught as a kid?
Yeah, yeah, it is. - Definitely.
Yeah, politeness goes a long way
and we’d like it with our children too, so important.
Nice.
Yes, I'm polite, yeah.
Yeah? In what way; you say your p’s and q’s or?
Yes, I say er… please and thank you quite a lot,
apologise probably when I shouldn't.
Yeah, it would bother me if I thought someone thought I was rude,
so yeah, I think I'm polite.
Try to be. - Try to be. - Yes yes, definitely.
D’you know sometimes… okay, so I can't eat dairy;
it makes my stomach really uncomfortable but to be polite, I will.
Really? - Yeah. - Yeah, I’m like; why’d you do that?
Wow. - I don’t want to be rude.
And are you a sorry person? Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. - Sorry for everythi… Sorry’s always a word used…
I have a guilty conscience. - Brilliant. Okay, humour;
I think we answered that one just then, to be honest.
Oh yeah yeah, definitely.
In this list it is about dark humour. - Oh.
Dry, dark humour. - Yeah I'd say stereotypical… well you see,
I’m from Liverpool, so we have a very stereotypical idea
about humour there, which is Scouse humour.
I think in… in England, it depends on where you're from.
The humour can be very, very different.
Yeah, I think it comes with the politeness, isn't it.
So you have to have… you have to like,
have like, a slightly dark or dry sense of humour.
Because otherwise, you’ll probably just have a nervous breakdown.
I think there’s the climate and the island nation.
And I guess, there’s just the Tories everywhere,
you have to maintain a sense of humour.
Do you have friends that have dry humour?
Yeah, got a few friends where… where you just at first,
you sort of, can’t work them out. But then you're like;
oh my god, yeah. And once you start to work them out, you’re like;
oh, they’re just so funny.
Sort of like, the meaner they treat you,
the more they like you, almost. - Yeah.
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, like my wife. - Oh dear.
Tell me about Scouse humour then.
So I’d say Scouse humour is erm… we take the p**s a lot.
So it's very, very sarcastic.
People can think we’re arguing, but we’re just having a chat.
And I’d just say it… it’s definitely dark and it's very,
very sarcastic.
Tea. - Love tea. - Yeah? - Absolutely adore tea.
I do love tea. - Do you love tea? - I love tea, yeah.
Love it.
Tea. - Tea? - D’you drink tea? - Yes. - Yes.
How do you have your tea? - white, with sugar; one sugar.
I have mine… now I have mine with er… like er…
might be an oat milk, might be a pea milk;
I like to try different milks in them now.
A pea milk? - Yeah, pea milk’s actually very nice.
Never had that.
I love a cup of tea. - You love a cup of tea?
Have to have one in the morning, have to have one in the afternoon.
Tea, I hate it, it's the devil's brew. - really?
I have never drank tea in my life. - But how d’you know then?
Well, I have tried it and I just think it's horrible.
Right, okay. - Everyone in my family drinks tea;
tea is the first drink of the day,
for everyone I know and all of my family.
And several teas through the day, but I can’t stand the stuff.
Lack of emotion. - Have I got a lack of emotion? No. No.
Lack of emotion. - Oh no, no. - I’m dead, dead inside.
Erm… no interestingly, my mom, when I say I love you
and I go to give her a hug, she like,
will hold my shoulders and like, remove me… - Wow. - From her.
Are you emotional people? - Yeah, I reckon I’m quite emotional.
Hell no!
I don't think I am, particularly.
I think I am quite emotional and I kind of like,
show quite a like, wide range of emotions,
especially to children and stuff.
But I think in a public setting;
I think we're kind of, conditioned to hold in.
So I think I'd feel a bit awkward if I lost it in front of strangers,
for example or cried at work or… or whatever, so yeah.
I see. - I think… yeah, I think there is that hesitancy, sometimes.
Because of society that we're in, yeah. - Interesting.
If I'm at home or anything like that,
it's not so bad but I think…
the stiff upper lip might come out if I’m in public.
Another sort of, generational, gender thing isn’t it.
Like, ''pull your socks up'', keep… ''take it on the chin''.
These are (Boris)
Johnson's words by the way.
I don’t think… yeah, I don't think I could do it in public, no.
Okay, so we’re ticking that box, a little bit.
I’d say, about emotion; even though we don't show it,
doesn’t mean we’re not feeling it.
Weather talk. - Yeah, it’s gotta be done; yeah, it’s windy down here.
Ah, a great subject of the British people, isn’t it? - Yeah.
Talking about the weather. - Yeah, obsessed.
The next one is teeth. - Teeth, don’t like dirty teeth.
What about teeth? - Well, there’s this…
I think it comes from the Americans;
they sort of, see us as kind of, these like, peasants,
when it comes to our… - Dirty teeth, yeah yeah,
well then they all buy teeth, don’t they?
Erm… well as my wife says; the Americans have got fantastic teeth.
They spend a lot of money on ‘em. - And us?
Oh, I spend a penny on mine and mi… mine are national health.
Socialist teeth. - Socialist teeth.
Teeth! - Yeah yeah, that’s the stereotype.
Oh well the American stereotype of the English teeth is erm…
is yellow and un… and unbleached and un… and no veneers.
See, I would just say, their teeth look weird
and overly white and like tombstones, marble tombstones.
So, as long as your teeth are clean and strong.
Ceramic bathroom in their mouth.
Yeah, d’you know what I mean? So… yeah. - Perfe… I like that.
Teeth. - I’ve got some, yeah. I've got great teeth;
never had a filling in my life. - Wow.
Yeah, I’m proud of my teeth. - That box is not ticked.
No, it's purely genetic. perfectly straight, never had a problem.
Wonderful.
I mean, do you floss yourself? - Er… - You should do.
Yeah, I should do, but I always get the string stuck.
Oh yeah. - You can get the harps, though.
Which are so much easier, you don’t need to be doing this nonsense,
you just run the harps in and out, so that's the way for you to go.
And believe me, you’ll be better off for it. - Probably, yeah.
Your breath will smell better, your gums will be healthier.
The only thing with those, those still…
they can still stick though, can’t they?
I do… sometimes I get one back there and it sticks in there,
I gotta get the scissors and cut it out.
Trying to get it out. - Oh it does, it catches.
So this one is called food,
but it's more that our food is all very beige,
do you agree to this? - Erm… Yes.
Don’t you find that’s changing? I think it's changed with…
with all the chefs now, the TV chefs and the cookery programmes.
I mean, I… I love to watch the ''MasterChefs''. - Yep.
''MasterChef'' Australia, I love to watch these things.
Yeah, different cultures, travelling, all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, yeah. So, maybe it's opening up for people’s views on…
But, for you specifically, you're still kind of,
sticking to that meat and potatoes kind of thing?
Well, I'm a vegetarian anyway, my wife and I are vegetarian so er…
maybe a bit different for us, a bit.
I think that’s… that's a big thing now, isn’t it?
People going that way. - Yeah, I can’t go vegan,
I can’t go vegan, no. - Yeah, you still like your cheese and…
Yeah, I do. I love my cheese.
So, you got a bit more colour on your plate now? - Yeah, yeah.
Beige food. - It’s definitely beige.
Not a meat and potatoes fan, I guess.
Monolingualism. - Monolingualism?
Are you learning a language, do you know a language?
So yeah, we are. I’m… I’m… I'm guilty of that, I speak English.
But have you learnt or are you learning?
I’ve learnt a little bit of Spanish, I’ve erm…
learnt a little bit of Hindi.
But I'm definitely not the way I should be,
compared to how the other people are from other countries.
I'm not learning, I know very basic French,
‘cos I spent a lot of time on holidays in France, my whole life.
But very…. just enough to get by. Other than that, no.
And I'm ashamed of it. - Any desires to?
I wish I could, which I had learnt but…
yeah I mean, I'm old now, so my brain's not so good.
So, it's harder to pick stuff up, yeah.
It’d be nice if the kids do. But yeah…
Yeah I… I can get by in French and… and Spanish.
But I know… I'm embarrassed when I go on holiday
and everybody wants to shout in English. - Oh yeah.
Thinking that that's you know, A;
they need to be understood and if they shout it…
it'll turn into Spanish or French or something.
Last one; anti-social behaviour abroad.
Yeah, that horrifies me and it… I…
I can’t bare the way certain kinds of English
and British people behave, when they’re abroad.
But have you… have you, yourself been guilty of it?
No. - Never? - No, I’m… I’m… I… I tend to just,
really believe in being respectful of the culture,
where you… well I'm not very anti-social when I’m here.
So, you know, even if I get one drink too many,
I don't start having a fight or throwing stuff
or being lewd and over the top.
If dancing and having a laugh is anti-social
and that’s as far as my anti-social goes.
But I think when you’re in another culture,
you should be really respectful of that culture.
The way they should be, when they're here.
I don't like it when I see it.
But no, I don't think I am, at all.
No, never been guilty of it? - No.
I did used to go and follow Manchester United quite a lot,
in Europe away. And erm… we… there were a lot of fans doing that,
but we used to go for like, three nights
and make the most of it and go to Porto,
go to Milan, to Paris and erm…
And you also got so drunk, you injured yourself a lot of times.
Fine, but we did… we did the galleries.
Really? - We did, yeah… - In full kit?
No, not at all ‘cos we… we were (Manchester) United fans,
but it doesn’t mean that’s our identity.
Yeah, of course, yeah. - The funny thing; is the amount of like,
people you'd see enjoying a bit of culture as well,
which you wouldn't expect. You know, you’ll be like;
oh, I know him from the Stretford End and you’re in the Louvre.
And you’ll be like; Alright pal! So that was quite…
you know, pleasing to see.
Thanks for watching this week's episode.
Let us know, in the comments below
thoughts that you have on British stereotypes
and we’ll see you next week, bye.
And then, anti-social behaviour abroad.
Oh I think it's embarrassing. - Yeah, are you guilty?
No. - Have you been guilty? - Erm… No, I don't think so.
Have I dear? - We try to distance ourselves from anybody...
No, have I been guilty, though? - No, I don't think so.
No, I don’t think so. - Not in my company. - No. - Perfect.