This week, someone asked me if there were any expectations of mine that England had not met. In other words, was there anything that I had expected to be an English thing that wasn't true. And there are a few! First of all, I feel extremely lied to by Harry Potter. In this iconic Christmas scene, Ron and Harry wish each other a "Happy Christmas." Which led to my natural expectation that British people wished each other "Happy Christmas" rather than "Merry Christmas." Unfortunately, untrue. While wishing someone Happy Christmas isn't unheard of in England, almost everyone says "Merry Christmas." I was heartbroken.
That isn't where British stereotypes have had the greatest let down, though. The most shocking fact will have to be with the consumption of tea. I was under the impression, like most Americans, that all British people drink a lot of tea. In my mind, there was an image of British people coming together every day around late afternoon to sit down and enjoy a classic cup of tea while discussing the queen and Sherlock Holmes. I have noticed that British people do take their tea seriously: every kitchen in the country has a kettle. This is different than in American households like my own, where owning a kettle is optional. There is a lot of shock explaining this fact to people here. They demand to know how we warm our water. The answer is either boiling it on the stove, using our coffee makers (which British people don't own?), or microwaving it. I said this and there was only utter shock on the faces of my English friends. But while everyone has a kettle, many young people don't even like tea. To me this was shocking. In my mind, I understood that ever single British person not just liked tea, but loved it. Worshiped it. An tragically untrue stereotype, apparently. An odd thing, though, is that the word tea doesn't only refer to the beverage. The evening meal (what you or I might call "dinner" or "supper"), is often referred to as "tea." I don't know why, but many people do it. If we were to sit down to have an actual cup of tea during an allotted time, the term would likely be "afternoon tea." There are a lot of people who don't drink tea, but those who do are quite strict about how it's made. I've learned the method pretty well at this point, as I have made a few British friends who like tea, so I can share with you the "proper" way to make tea (at least according to one British person):
1 Comment
Edie Golden
12/4/2017 09:19:19 am
Grandpa would love to see your writing.....his dream was to write a book. I love you
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Amy Golden
Amy will be spending the academic year at the University of Sunderland in England studying journalism. Archives
February 2018
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