- •К.В.Голубина
- •Introduction the cultural impact of a foreign text
- •Unit 1. Think global, speak local (Tape)
- •Unit 2. Basic brit-think and ameri-think
- •The most important things to know
- •1. I’m gonna live for ever
- •2. New is good
- •3. Never forget you’ve got a choice
- •4. Smart money
- •5. The consensus society
- •‘Them ‘n Us’
- •(Brian Walden The London Standard)
- •6. ‘Me-think’ vs. ‘We-think’
- •7. Good Guys and Bad Guys
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 3. Brits and yanks abroad
- •Amer-Executive
- •Ameri-wife
- •Brits on us hols ... A word of warning
- •A Brit goes Stateside
- •Mrs Brit
- •Brit groovettee
- •Us / uk guide to naffness-avoidance: What not to do in each other’s countries
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Shopping (uk)
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 4. Strictly business
- •Succeeding in business
- •Intimidation and desks
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 5. Brits and yanks at home Home as backdrop
- •Home as bolt-hole (‘Don’t tell anyone I live here’)
- •1. For the affluent, aspirational, or upwardly mobile:
- •2. For everyone else:
- •Some like it hot
- •Brits on heat
- •Ordeal by water
- •Beddy-bye
- •American dreams
- •Closet needs
- •Comprhension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 6. Going places (Film)
- •Unit 7. What do they aspire to? ‘Having It All’
- •Brit soap
- •Strike it rich
- •Success story Double standards
- •Nothing succeeds like success
- •Failure: Anglo-American excuses Making dramas out of crises
- •Delegating blame: ‘It’sa notta myfault!’
- •Bouncing back Recovery from adversity
- •Set-backs
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •The Neasden connection ... Place-names
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Writing
- •Unit 9. Patriotism (Multi-media support available)
- •Eco-chauvinism
- •Buy British:
- •Dollar allegiance … big bucks
- •Pound of flesh
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 10. The establishment
- •The Brit-Establishment includes anyone who:
- •It does not include such instruments of the Establishment as:
- •Amer-Establishment
- •America’s Haute-Establishment – Anyone who:
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 11. Yes, prime minister. The smoke screen (Film)
- •Unit 12. A better class of foreigner ‘Foreigner’
- •The foreign menace
- •British league-table of foreigners (reading from most to least reliable)
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 13. Class The thorny question of Class Gotta Lotta Class
- •If you are a Brit, you will vote Labour if:
- •If you are a Brit, you will vote Conservative if:
- •If you are a Brit, you will vote Liberal, sdp, or sdp-Lib. Alliance if:
- •Class Act
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 14. Only fools and horses (Film)
- •Unit 15. The food connection
- •Eating in Britain: Things that confuse American tourists
- •The importance of sharing
- •Brit guide to Ameri-portions
- •British/american food
- •Unit 17. The importance of being cute
- •Other cosy things Brits do
- •1. Extol the amateur
- •2. Obstruct mPs
- •3. Fill their national newspapers with ‘Around America’ columns
- •4. Cultivate their gardens
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 18. Goods and services Consumer durables and vice versa
- •Conspicuous Ameri-consumption:
- •Attacking the problem
- •Example:
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit19. Doctor doctor Medicine
- •Moi first, doc
- •Doctors
- •Perfect Brit patients
- •The perfect Ameri-patient
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 20. Laws of the lands
- •Comprehension and language
- •Unit 21. Rumpole and the age of miracles (Film)
- •Unit 22. Judging a nation by its television Meet the Press: The media we deserve
- •Ameri-vision: You are what you watch
- •Brit-tv: They’re watching me
- •You are what you read
- •1. Brit tabloids are more explicit.
- •2. Brit papers declare political affiliations.
- •3. Yanks don’t have national newspapers.
- •Snigger Press
- •The international co-production deal: Brit-mogul meets Yank-mogul
- •The 8 commandments of international co-production
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Writing
- •Unit 23. Good sport
- •Fair play
- •American football is:
- •Brit-footie is:
- •Comprehension
- •Language practice
- •Speaking
- •Unit 24. Oxford blues (Film)
- •Unit 25. Humour travels? Transatlantic laughs:
- •To be funny in America, you have to be:
- •To be funny in Britain, you have to:
- •Comprehension
- •Unit 28. One foot in the grave (Film)
- •Unit 29. East-enders (Film)
- •Unit 30. The final solution: or, whatreally counts
- •1. The Royal Family
- •2. The Pub
- •Double raspberry ripple to go
- •Appendix I The Special Relationship
- •Yanks (on brits)
- •Brits (on yanks)
- •Appendix II Glossary of us-uk equivalents
- •Glossary (and translation) of Anglo-American weather terms american
- •British
- •Appendix III The ones that don’t translate
- •Appendix IV The very, very best things in America
- •The best of British
- •Contents:
If you are a Brit, you will vote Labour if:
… you see yourself as bottom half of the eco-pile, identify with salaried workers rather than bosses or the self-employed, question the beauty of the Capitalist system, support the extension of the Welfare State, and – more generally – the redistribution of resources from ‘Haves’ to ‘Have Nots’.
You are doubtful about:
the wisdom of Anglo-American nuclear policy,
support for the Israeli cause,
the objectivity of the Brit ‘tory’ press ... ‘pro-Yank, biased against Russia, Conservative Party lackies’.
If you are a Brit, you will vote Conservative if:
… you instinctively group yourself with society’s ‘winners’, see yourself as upwardly mobile, feel that, on balance, the present Capitalist system represents the best of all possible worlds. You identify your personal interests as bound up with the ‘Establishment’, feel impatient with welfare spending, sceptical about public ownership, and generally anxious to ensure the survival of the status quo until you get where you’re going.
If you are a Brit, you will vote Liberal, sdp, or sdp-Lib. Alliance if:
.... you’re all of the latter (see Conservative voters) but conscience-stricken about the poor and less educated, obsessed with marginal libertarian issues (‘a better deal for remand prisoners’, ‘compulsory seat belts for rear-seat passengers’), confused about defence, living in a nice residential area, a regular Guardian reader, and richer than nine-tenths of all Conservative voters.
There is one more category of Brit voter worth noting. Known as ‘deferential Conservatives’, these are people of modest means with no real power-base and no significant stake in the system, who could normally be expected to vote Labour. But they don’t. They vote Tory because:
their mothers and fathers did,
they have confidence in the system, plus an abiding and deferential respect for the clever people who run it,
they don’t like to be any trouble to anyone.
Deferential Conservatives know that they’re not going anywhere, but they don’t seem to mind. They accept their place in the general scheme of things. Anyway, ‘better the devil you know’ and so on. Deferentials are phobic about change. Some political analysts claim that all Brits are deferential Conservatives at heart.
Sons and daughters of deferential Conservatives often display a tendency to cross over in the opposite political direction. This is specially true if their parents’ modest but unstinting efforts have provided them with tertiary education. They are Britain’s equivalent of Yuppies (Buppies?) and have bright futures, but are somewhat crippled by an emotional dilemma. They see their parents as wimps and victims, but can’t face the trauma of despising them. Instead, they turn upon the (Conservative) system which emasculated them, and develop serious social consciences. This means that they wear jeans and hush-puppies, study law but decline to practise, vote Labour and go to work for the BBC. There they spend the rest of their natural lives making hard-hitting documentaries about the perils of multi-lateralism / atrocities of British troops in Northern Ireland / Nelson Mandela, and eventually end up as Heads of Department.