Name : Atifah Khoiriyah

Reg. Number : 1910732012

Course : Intro to British Culture A

The Summary of “34 Things You Don’t Know about English Culture”

Charity

1. Wearing poppies
Poppie is like red flower made of paper. People wear it around November because 11
November is a day to commemorate people died because of fighting in World War 1. So, this
is a charity event to raise money for survivors of those wars.
2. Fun runs
In this event, a lot of people are very into running and saving money for charity and
sometimes they also wear a fancy dress costume which is really hard to wear. Before they all
race, they’ll go around asking everyone “Can you sponsor me? Can you give me some money
for my run?”
3. Red nose day
It’s a charity television event on the BBC where they raise money for the charity they support
(some of them in the UK and some others are global charities). People will wear red noses on
that day.
4. Children in Need
It’s like raising money for children’s charities. They have Pudsey Bear as the mascot. People
can also raise money themselves with their families, and then people at school can bake cake,
have an old clothes sale, and so on.

Advertising
5. Compare the Meerkat
It’s an insurance company. They decided to use Meerkat animals to show the insurance which
is considered really funny and they love this animal.
6. You’re so money supermarket
It’s a price comparison website. It’s considered so strange because it shows people jumping
around, a dog sing, and so on.
7. John Lewis Christmas advert
It’s been a tradition of advert every year during the Christmas time. It’s like a short film about
a boxer dog and other animals like fox jumping in a trampoline in a garden with the music
that brings an emotional feeling in some way.

Geography
8. North/ South divide
It is not in terms of location on the map, but in terms of the culture like accents. In the south,
they make a vowel with o like /clɔ:ss/ while in the north they say /clɒss/. People in north
 England are known to be warm and friendly, while southerners are known to be more cold,
reserve, and stuck up. Then, men in the north are like tougher and stronger, while men in the
South are like weak and not manly.
9. Bloody Londoners
Sometimes Londoners don’t want to recognize that they are from London because Londoners
are not so warmly received, and welcomed, and liked by people around the country especially
in smaller villages even though some people think London is like a country itself. People
think that Londoners have their own culture, outlook, and fashion which are different from the
rest of the country.

Holidays
10. Fun Fairs B.H.W (Bank Holiday Weekends)
It’s when rides that do something exciting, and lift you in the air and make you scream and
go or scare you in the ghost train, and spins you really fast. It will be in a big park and only
on Bank Holiday Weekends.
11. Bank Holidays
It’s usually happen on Monday. Most office jobs are closed on that day. But if you work in a
shop clothes or supermarket, the business you work in might be open. It’s special because so
many people are off on the same day. It’s in August but the time might change year by year.
12. English Seaside
In this moment, people will have chips and fish to eat, and arcades especially when the
weather is rainy. Arcades are places where you can go in to play game machines or to win
small amounts of money on different machines.
13. BBQ + drink in the park
It would happen on a sunny bank holiday weekend. You might see people having BBQ and
alcoholic drinks in the park, and sometimes picnic as well.
14. Pimm’s O’clock
It’s an alcoholic drink specifically to drink in early summer when the tennis is on at
Wimbledon, a famous tennis courts. The drink is called Pimm’s. It has strawberries and
other kinds of fresh fruits in it.

Life Events
15. Birthdays 18, 21, 40, 50
These are considered important birthday and people would have a party or do a big
celebration on those ones.
16. Marriages
In the UK, get marriage is very expensive so that many couples do opt not to get married.
The tradition of the marriage is the party before the day itself. A stag party for men and the
hen party for women that they wear fancy dress together and do something silly for fun
before the wedding.
17. Funeral
 When English person dies, the funeral is normally one to two weeks after the death. The
person can be buried or cremated. At the funeral, typically you’ll have a buffet when there’s
different food already there and you can just go up and take it. Then you’ll also have
refreshments. It can be any drink either alcohol or non-alcohol. Then, there’s Hearse drawn
carriage as well. It is the car which the coffin is inside to drive it to the place where the
funeral is. You can also see many wreaths. It’s when the flowers are all together when
somebody dies with the word “Mum, dad, or whoever died”.

Big Brother and the Nanny State

 Big Brother is a way of saying the government is watching and controlling you, and the
Nanny State is a way of saying the government wants to protect and keep you safe.
18. CCTV
In the UK, there is a lot of CCTVs in public places watching you all the time.
19. Official things far in advance
Anything official that you have get in touch with the government for or fill out forms that
you do far in advance. For example, if you need a new passport, you must apply it a long
time before you need it so that you will get it on time.
20. Driving + Parking Rules
It’s hard to pass the driving test to get the license. Even, people can also easily lose their
driving license as well if they break the law such as drive car too fast, drink alcohol over a
certain amount, etc. Besides that, wherever you go, you always have to pay for your parking
and they are really careful that they park their car in the right place and time.
21. High Visual Kids
When young children go anywhere like a school trip, you might see them walking around in
a high-visibility (bright-coloured) jacket or vest to keep the children safe.
22. Internet filters
In England, there are a lot of restrictions when you search for things in internet.
23. Bin wars
There are many rules about the garbage and the rubbish. The local government come and
take it away from your house like only in every two weeks and you must put it out on
Tuesday morning before 8 am, etc. If you miss the rubbish and don’t put it on the right time
or right bag, then you have too much rubbish and the fox mess it up, this is when you get bin
wars because your neighbour will be angry with you for not being organized with your
rubbish. Bin wars can also happen because of different system of recycling. For example, in
that area, you might put everything in the blue bag, but in other area, you can’t put
newspaper or glass on that bag that makes it complicated.

Hobbies
24. Rambling
It means going into the countryside for long walks. People have got the right to roam to walk
through the countryside and to enjoy it.
25. Dog walking
You’ll see many people waking with their dog for being healthy or just as pleasure and
sometimes when they meet each other, they’ll talk about the dog, not the people.
26. Model making
Some people are interested in making models of ships or trains where they very carefully put
the model together over a long time.

Food and Drink

27. Eating ‘on the go’
It means when you walk down the street and you eat something simultaneously. Even, some
foods are designed for this way such as a sausage roll and packet of crisps.
28. Death of the pub
It means that many pubs are closing down because alcohol and drinking in the pub are quite
expensive. Also, you can’t smoke in the pubs.

Cultural Life
29. Remoaner
A “moan” is like “Oh, I don’t like this” and “re” means that people want to remain in the
European Union. So, “remoaner” means that they don’t want to accept the fact that the UK
voted to leave the EU so they are upset about it.
30. Political correctness
It’s like when people would not realise that something is politically correct, but it has to do
with the things or opinions are acceptable to say or not allowed to say.
31. Posh
If you’re posh, this means born into a family, that has money and is wealthy. However, more
than the money, it’s about the name of that family such as where they come from or have
they always been an important family, do they have a good connection, have they been to a
boarding school, etc. Your family background makes you to be posh, not because of you
make a lot of money.
32. Council houses
The property prices in England are really expensive if people want to buy their own houses
so that some people live in council tenants. This is when the local government owns your
house and you pay the rent. Then, when there’s a problem with the house, the government
will fix it.
33. Public outpourings of grief.
An “outpouring” is so much being expressed and “grief” is when you feel about someone
dying. It started back when Princess Diana died and when people loved her so much,
everybody talking about it, and wanting to give flowers, or making a concert, lots of articles,
and being on TV about the person dying and how wonderful they are, etc. It’s like a few
weeks after the person dies. It can also happen to famous figure.
34. National treasure
A national treasure means a person who is special, so loved, and who represents the
character of the England so that they become popular on TV such as the artist called Judi
Dench.