- •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:
Class Act
AMERI-SNOB: In Britain, voting-patterns are fairly reliable indicators of ‘class’. Stateside, it ain’t necessarily so. Therefore, American is commonly billed as ‘the Classless Society’. Not true! Yanks are every bit as status-conscious as Brits. The difference is that, in America, class is not something you’re born with, but something you can achieve. It has less to do with heritage thanimpact. Americans think that Joan Collins has class.
They are also terrific snobs. ‘Class’ – as Brits understand it – is about your past. Snobbery is about now. To Yanks, it’s about places you don’t want to be seen in, cars you won’t drive, places you never shop, life-styles you don’t want to have. It’s about the right addresses, restaurants, clubs, hotels. Because Yank-society is so fluid, you can move to a new town – or even neighbourhood – and ‘create yourself in your own image’. You can constantly up-date, and if necessary, custom-design a New You. Yanks do this meticulously, in a thousand different ways. Personal development is an important key to social mobility. Choices you make must be the right ones. You must look good, live well, project successfulness if you want to pass muster. So Yanks think carefully about points of style. A Class Act in America is a triumph of form over content.
As in all things, Yanks are prepared to work much harder at class than Brits, whose place in the hierarchy is immutable, and guaranteed – removing all need to keep up appearances. Which is why many top Brits feel perfectly entitled – with a touch of reverse snobbery – to be perfect scruffs.
Yanks pay the price for unlimited social mobility. If British birthday is a trap, it is also secure, obviating the need to prove anything. One Just Is. Yanks, in their anxiety to define themselves, grasp at straws – Cartier tank watches, or Gucci reversible belts. Status-symbols are class. Money is class. Spending it stylishly is classiest of all. Yank-snob knows that suburban living in Connecticut is class, but New Jersey isn’t. Ownership of virtually any apartment in Manhattan is now class. Driving a Jag or a Mercedes is class, but an (equally expensive) flashy white Cadillac isn’t. A condo in Palm Beach is class, one down the coast at Lauderdale isn’t. Shopping for discount clothes at Loehmann’s can be class, J.C.Penney’s never. You can take the kids to McDonald’ for hamburgers and still have class - but if you eat there without them – you’ve blown it.
The Ameri-snob is also unforgiving. Because he is self-made, he demands the same initiative from others. Because his expectations are high, no time for shmos. Because in America anything is possible, he has no patience for failures. Including his own.
Yanks are terribly hard on themselves. If you can do it, it follows youshould do it ... no excuses allowed. And there’s very little room human frailty, few allowable shortcomings. If you’re fat, you must be stupid. At any rate,fat is notclass. Increasingly, Yanks are perfectionists.
Comprehension
Exercise 1.Make up 5–7 true or false statements / multiple choice questions about the text to check comprehension.
Exercise 2.Sum up the main points of the text in your own words trying to sound as English as you can.