Reading British Culture
Reading British Culture
Reading British Culture
Britain consists of four separate nations that were slowly unified over a
period of several hundred years. Those nations were once very different in
character with the culture of Ireland, Wales and Scotland being mainly
Celtic and the culture of England being mainly Germanic. As time passed
the English culture came to dominate the islands because of Englands
military and economic power, so that many aspects of life in Britain are now
organized in agreement with English tradition and practice. Although some
aspects are still organized separately or differently for the other nations,
with Scotland having its own legal system for example, the dominance of
England has come to the point where today people confuse it with Britain,
often to the anger of the people of the other three nations.
The ambiguity between the use of the terms England and Britain has
entered the language in a number of areas. For example, the Bank of
England is the institution that controls money in the British Isles, and the
term Anglo has come to mean both relating to England and the English
and relating to Britain and the British. There is also the tendency to not
mention England when something is related to England and to specifically
mention Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland when the same thing is
related to those nations. This has the effect of making the other nations
appear to be different or lesser than England in some way.
The dominance of the term England in the language may therefore have
some negative consequences for Britain as a whole. Welsh, Scottish and
Irish people have very strong identities and would never describe
themselves as English so that the use of the term England instead of Britain
1. Answer the questions in your own words.
to talk about
at one time
habit
undesirable
a) Eire
b) Britain
c) Northern Ireland
d) England
e) Scotland
f) Wales
5. What adjectives are used to describe the people who come from the following
places?
a) England
b) Scotland
c)
d)
e)
f)
Wales
Eire
Northern Ireland
The United Kingdom
6. Talking points:
Is there always a dominant nation in a country?
Which is more important for you: your culture or your country? Why?
Do you think some people in your country feel excluded? Which people?