Insightful Summary of Watching the English Book by Kate Fox

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[00:00:12] Hit your free mind snack now. Today we will unlock the book watching the English,

[00:00:18] the hidden rules of English behavior. When it comes to the English,

[00:00:23] the image they present to the world is undoubtedly contradictory and confusing.

[00:00:27] They are the courteliest gentleman in the world and also the most notorious football hooligans.

[00:00:33] They talk about the weather all the time when they meet, but they don't necessarily like it.

[00:00:38] They tend their front gardens not for admiration but for display.

[00:00:43] They can write highly revealing books about private lives, but they are reluctant to share their

[00:00:48] private doings in casual conversation. Furthermore, through television, books, internet,

[00:00:55] or real life encounters, the strange behaviors of the English may make you wonder why does no

[00:01:00] server acknowledge your presence when you walk into an English pub? Why are house numbers in England

[00:01:06] always hidden out of sight? How come the English always resort to roundabout dialogue instead of

[00:01:12] being more straightforward and direct? Why are they so fond of telling jokes that are not even funny?

[00:01:18] Why in the world do the brits have so many odd behaviors? What sort of people are they?

[00:01:24] The book we are going to uncover today watching the English will answer those questions nicely.

[00:01:30] This book is written by Kate Fox, a social anthropologist from England.

[00:01:35] She is co-director of the Social Issues Research Center in Oxford and a fellow of the

[00:01:40] Institute for Cultural Research. Her work is centered around observing and assessing global

[00:01:46] socio-cultural trends, particularly in many aspects of human behavior. Fox argues that each culture

[00:01:53] has its own rules, though different, the rules are always there. One significant way to differentiate

[00:02:00] one culture from another is to identify the differences in the rules. After having spent 12

[00:02:06] years researching English society, Fox wrote this book watching the English. Her approach is

[00:02:12] participant observation research which involves entering into the lives of her research subjects.

[00:02:18] On the one hand, she observes the customs and behaviors being studied from an internal perspective.

[00:02:24] On the other hand, she observes them as an objective scientist from the outer world.

[00:02:30] She explores the personality traits of the English in two aspects, conversation codes and behavior

[00:02:36] codes. By doing so, she aims to help people understand English personalities.

[00:02:42] In this bookie, we'll get to know the hidden but true personality traits of the English based on

[00:02:48] the rules of English behaviors. Part 1. Personality traits reflected in conversation codes.

[00:02:55] Part 2. Personality traits reflected in behavior codes.

[00:03:00] Part 3. The core personality trait of the English, social disease.

[00:03:05] Matter site, a speech analytics company once experimented on language and personality.

[00:03:11] The results showed that a person's daily speech patterns fully reflect his or her personality traits.

[00:03:18] So, what personality traits are reflected in the conversation codes of the English?

[00:03:24] The first trait of course is the soul of English conversation, English humor.

[00:03:29] Humor is often thought to refer to the quality of being amusing, funny, or entertaining.

[00:03:35] Still Fox stresses that English humor is the opposite. This type of humor tends to be sarcastic

[00:03:42] mocking and bantering. Meanwhile, it is characterized by exposing megalomaniac,

[00:03:48] self-righteous, and boastful persons. For example, if English speakers exaggerate certain parts of

[00:03:54] their speech to sound insincere, the English public will surely greet them with shots of

[00:04:00] derision, such as O. Pemovid. Another example is the Oscar award ceremony.

[00:04:06] As American actors express their ecstasy in a flood of tears, the English TV viewers will

[00:04:12] exclaim and discuss and find them pretentious. English humor is more about expressing their

[00:04:17] dissatisfaction and antipathy with gushing earnestness so that they don't have to vent their discontent

[00:04:23] in action. To the English pretentiousness, boastfulness, patriotic pride, oversellousness,

[00:04:30] and sentimentality are signs of gushing earnestness. The English attitude is, thou shalt not take

[00:04:36] things too seriously. As a result, they tend to respond to overly serious people and events with

[00:04:43] English humor. English humor is an undercurrent that runs through every aspect of life and culture

[00:04:49] in England. You can hear all sorts of intimate and bantering nicknames at the bar. To be specific,

[00:04:56] a plumber is called Leaky, a short person is called lofty, and a skinny person is nicknamed

[00:05:02] stick. You can hear English friends and their new homes boasting self-deprecatingly about how

[00:05:08] they manage to burst three pipes one after the other during home improvements. You can even hear

[00:05:14] two English women exchanging derisive remarks about the recent behaviors of their kids.

[00:05:19] For the English people, humor is an automatic response that comes naturally and blends seamlessly

[00:05:25] into English life. It is as omnipresent as breathing. Contrary to their frank and intuitive humor,

[00:05:33] the English are self-deluded when it comes to class consciousness which they willfully ignore.

[00:05:39] George Orwell, the famous English novelist, journalist, and social commentator once said,

[00:05:45] England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege,

[00:05:51] ruled largely by the old and silly. This quote speaks volumes about the deep-rooted class system

[00:05:57] of English society and the significant ways that the English distinguish between classes.

[00:06:04] To differentiate one class from another, the English use language which is subdivided in

[00:06:09] terminology and pronunciation. Fox tells us that a person with an upperclass accent,

[00:06:15] using upperclass T terminology, is still recognized as upperclass even if he or she is unemployed,

[00:06:21] impoverished and living in a rundown apartment. Likewise, a person with a lower class accent,

[00:06:28] using lower class terminology will be identified as a lower class even if he or she is a multi-millionaire.

[00:06:35] In terms of pronunciation, the differences in the way vowels and consonants are pronounced

[00:06:40] reflect class differences. For the pronunciation of the same word, the lower ranks may drop their

[00:06:46] consonants, but the upperclasses are equally guilty of dropping their vowels. In terms of terminology,

[00:06:53] England's class nature is expressed in an unwritten rule called the seven deadly sins.

[00:06:59] And what are the seven deadly sins? They are seven words that are regarded as taboos by the English

[00:07:05] upper middle classes, pardon, toilet, Serbia, dinner, sati, lounge and suite. If you improperly

[00:07:13] use or simply utter these taboos words in front of the English upper classes, you will immediately

[00:07:19] be demoted to a lower rank or automatically classified as lower class. For instance, it is fine

[00:07:25] to use dinner to refer to supper, but you will be seen as lower class if you use it to refer

[00:07:31] to the midday meal. The English upper classes use lua lavatory to refer to a restroom. In contrast,

[00:07:38] the lower classes say toilet. If someone from the upper or middle classes accidentally uses the

[00:07:44] expression toilet, he or she will no longer be accepted by the upper classes, or they will be

[00:07:50] frowned upon. The everyday language of the English reveals how deeply rooted their class consciousness is.

[00:07:57] However, in an age of political correctness, many English people are ashamed of their over-sensitive

[00:08:03] class nature, so they try their best to deny and conceal this deeply entrenched class consciousness.

[00:08:10] Hence, English personalities reveal a collective self-deception regarding class consciousness.

[00:08:17] What methods of self-deception are adopted by humiliated English to gain psychological comfort?

[00:08:23] When dealing with outsiders, for example, middle, upper middle, and upper class people will use

[00:08:29] relatively polite euphemisms, such as ordinary people, less educated, blue collar, and so on to

[00:08:36] avoid the term working class. For example, it is impolite in English pubs to tip the server directly.

[00:08:43] It is regarded as a rude reminder of their service role. As a sign of equal treatment,

[00:08:49] offering a drink to the servers is a substitute for tipping. When a customer invites a waiter or

[00:08:55] waitress for a drink, the price of the beverage is added to the customer's bill. Although this round

[00:09:01] about way of disguising status differences remains a one-way commensality, it provides the

[00:09:06] English tremendous psychological comfort to temporarily forget class differences by using politeness as

[00:09:12] a disguise. Next, we'll look at the English's skillful use of etiquette. The English protocol is

[00:09:20] more like a powerful tool of communication and a pretend friendliness. In addition, it is their

[00:09:26] primary way of avoiding conflict and promoting exchange. The weather is what the English consider

[00:09:31] the best facilitator of conversation. Still, a critical principle of whether talk is not to

[00:09:38] disagree with the weather being discussed. In other words, when someone mentions that it's cold

[00:09:43] today, out of courtesy, you have to return an affirmative concurrence and not give the opposite

[00:09:49] response, even if you don't think it's cold at all. If you have a pension for expressing yourself,

[00:09:55] how can you appropriately respond to the other person? Fox mentions that you can reply with,

[00:10:01] yes, but you know I don't tend to notice the cold much, this feels quite warm to me. Though

[00:10:07] it's a bit self-contradictory to reply with a positive response yes and then a negative

[00:10:12] answer with this feels quite warm to me, etiquette is far more important than logic in this case.

[00:10:18] The different ways of conducting bonding talk between males and females in English society

[00:10:24] also clearly express the precedence of etiquette over logic and reason. Bonding talk is a conversation

[00:10:30] that strengthens friendship. At English social gatherings, it's not uncommon to see two or three

[00:10:37] women tirelessly complimenting each other during a bonding talk. Their compliments may jump from

[00:10:42] hair to shoes and from modes of speaking to mannerisms. Moreover, their praises are accompanied

[00:10:48] by self-deprecation, such as your hair looks great, I wish I had gorgeous hair like you,

[00:10:54] mind so boring and messy. In the meantime, the person receiving the compliment should never

[00:11:00] be comfortable with it. They must follow through with a counter compliment, otherwise they will

[00:11:05] be seen as rude or even arrogant. Honestly, if you pay close attention to their conversations,

[00:11:12] you will often notice blindness and irrationality. For example, one woman might praise her female

[00:11:18] friend who is a normal face for having a skinny look while being critical of her own normal hair

[00:11:24] condition which is so boring and messy. English men have different ways of talking. Their

[00:11:30] conversation seems more like a competition to demonstrate superiority by belittling each other.

[00:11:36] For instance, a racer, a football team, or a philosophical theory might be topics for the

[00:11:42] minds better than your scheme. Although men may raise their voices and swear in this type of

[00:11:48] conversation, the exchange will go smoothly and amicably, because there exists an underlying

[00:11:53] humor and a mutual understanding, the differences of opinion are not to be taken too seriously.

[00:12:00] That is where the hearts and minds of both sides come together. Therefore, only mock anger,

[00:12:06] pretend outrage, and joky one-upmanship appear in this type of conversation, whereas over excitement

[00:12:13] and actual boastfulness are prohibited. In England, male and female bonding talks are mostly different.

[00:12:20] Still, they do have some commonalities, such as prescription of boasting, prescription of humor,

[00:12:26] dislike of overzealousness, and polite hypocrisy. We have just covered the content of part one.

[00:12:33] Personality traits reflected in conversation codes. Let's do a quick recap. Firstly,

[00:12:40] humor is the soul that rules English conversation. English joking is neither amusing nor funny.

[00:12:47] It tends to be sarcastic, derisive, bantering, or driven to expose megalomaniac, self-righteous,

[00:12:53] and boastful persons, it's more about expressing their dissatisfaction and

[00:12:57] antipathy with gushing earnestness. Secondly, the class consciousness of the English is mainly

[00:13:03] reflected in terminology and pronunciation. Since they are ashamed of their oversensitive class

[00:13:09] nature, they try to hide their class consciousness through self-deception. Lastly, English etiquette

[00:13:16] is characterized by a pretend friendliness. It is their primary way of avoiding conflict and

[00:13:22] improving communication. We also learned about the protocol for whether talk and different

[00:13:27] kinds of bonding talk between men and women in England. Today we are just sharing limited content.

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