- •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:
7. Good Guys and Bad Guys
BRIT-THINK: Selfish people (those who raise a finger or two to ‘we-think’) get the jump on others. These include:
1. Those who have made lots of money in property or trade (but not those who have inherited it). To take an active role– to strive – is to invite censure.Passive good fortune gets you off the hook, since it’s not your fault you’re loaded.
2. Manual workers on strike for more pay, who turn out – infuriatingly – to have real bargaining leverage. This is called ‘holding the public to ransom’. The popular Brit-press assumes the role of ‘the striker’s conscience’. Power – workers are exhorted to ‘consider the elderly’ before turning off the juice. Railway workers are cautioned that action will ‘only hurt the commuter’... or nurses and teachers that ‘patients and children will suffer’. It is hoped that this will remind them of ‘we-think’, and make them ashamed to exploit an obvious industrial advantage.
Ordinary Brit-citizens are automatically expected to place ‘vocation’ or a sense of ‘duty to the wider community’ before personal concerns like the right amount of hard cash. This applies to nurses, power, water and railway workers, miners and teachers... but not to doctors, Cabinet Ministers, top Civil Servants, or Captains of Industry. Logic also inverts in the case of the Queen, who is perceived as the embodiment of ‘we-think’ – a woman who regards duty as the highest privilege – despite a personal fortune worth billions of pounds. According to classic Britthink, she is seen as self-sacrificing, socially virtuous, and rich.
AMERI-THINK:More ‘me-think’. No expectation of high social ideals from Joe Average. No concept of ‘Pleb-Oblige’. Make no mistake: Americans are charmed by altruism when they find it; but it is not regarded as compulsory for the lower social orders.
Yanks are the world’s biggest sceptics when it comes to human motivation, since they take it for granted that – with the exceptions of Mother Teresa and Bob Geldof – others are busy looking after Number One. There are only two certainties in life, and both should be borne firmly in mind:
everybody likes ice cream;
every man / woman has his/her price.
Undiluted ‘me-think’ irritates Brits, who fear:
that Yanks perceive only the basest motives, and
that they’re probably right.
One last cultural point: Yanks loathe sharing, which is incompatible with ‘me-think’. They specially hate the British practice of sharing restaurant tables with complete strangers. No American hotels – even the oldest ones – were built with shared bathrooms. Shops have no communal fitting-rooms. Only dire financial constraint will induce anyone to accept a party telephone line. There is onlyone thing a Yank will share with any equanimity.His dessert.
Comprehension
Exercise 1. Make up 7–10 true or false statements about the text to check comprehension.
Exercise 2. Sum up the main points of the chapter in your own words.
Language practice
Exercise 3.Find words and phrases in the text that can be used as synonyms of the ones below and comment on their possible difference, stylistic and otherwise. Think up appropriate contexts with them:
to argue, bargain / annoying, niggling / cheerful and happy / to be on the look-out / Don’t worry / a report on how things are going / to steal, grab / a place one enjoys going to / to exchange / nervous and anxious / generosity.
Exercise 4.Write out all collocating phrases for contrast from the text. Comment on their difference, stylistic or otherwise, and be ready to give more authentic examples with them.
Exercise 5.Identify the cultural information, cultural things and stereotypes in the text (see Introduction) and comment on them. An up-to-date dictionary on language and culture or any reference book will help you do it better. Note: you are expected to be able to sort out factual information from the author’s emotional attitude and evaluation.
Exercise 6. Phrasal Verbs Practice.
Write out all the sentences with phrasal verbs, look them up in a recent dictionary and write out more sentences with them. Translate the sentences in writing, possibly with a number of options for different speech situations.
Exercise 7.What other language from the text would you like to select as common idiom for intensive study and why?
Exercise 8.Make up a list of advanced topical vocabulary on the subject, explain and practise it with your classmates.