My wife is one of them forrins that UKIP and the Daily Mail is always going on about

...so, as a full-blooded Englishman, I'm always interested in her perspective about us Brits.

There are many things here that she finds totally baffling: the TV license, benefits culture, marmite, Ealing Comedies, emotional repression, knock-knock jokes, warm beer, and why a grown man would want to watch Gerry Anderson programs.

But the one thing that impresses her is our acceptance. The fact that in England (and especially in Brighton) you can be what you want, dress how you like, do whatever makes you happy, without being judged. In her culture, people dress in their finest clothes to go to the shops, because whenever you're in public, you're on display. People have to have expensive clothes, a new car, a new house, to show that they're successful - even if they can't actually afford it. Life is an endless round of social competition and conspicuous consumption.

Another related thing that delights her, and is totally different from her home culture, is the way that people of all ages and backgrounds hang out and interact in the same pubs and restaurants. Her society is far more stratified.

Personally I feel quite proud of those things. To the point where I can just about accept the Gerry Anderson thing.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 11:30, 11 replies)

I wish people WOULD dress better,
seeing the occasional grubby prole slouching past my window in their pyjamas makes me choke on my foie gras
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 12:01, closed)

I'm intrigued
As to what sort of forren she is. The differences between cultures fascinate me and I can't work out where you're talking about.

On the subject of wearing nice clothes in public, one of the Tesco's in Cardiff had to make a point of banning people from coming in dressed in pyjamas and dressing gowns. Honestly, some people aren't even posh enough to get on Jeremy Kyle.
(Eukanuba, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 12:43, closed)

Italy or Spain is my guess
or possibly Brazilian if she's an electrician
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 13:04, closed)

Or Eastern or Central Europe
except maybe for the house bit - people would live in a tiny apartment and pay less in rent than their car repayments.
( wakeupandsmellthebacon, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 13:28, closed)

America
Fuck yeah.

Or maybe the UAE.
(squigbobble existed, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 13:49, closed)

Brazilian, in fact

On the subject of clothes-consciousness while shopping, I saw the following cutting from an American newspaper:

"Debra Jackson says she likes shopping at The Dollar Palace because 'I don't have to get all dressed up like I'm going to Wal-Mart or something.' "

.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 16:08, closed)

I hope you've instructed her
on the pitfalls or leaping over ticket barriers at tube stations.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 17:47, closed)

You can dress how you want
because we're generally too polite to give voice to our judgements of others (occasional stabbings aside). Make no mistake, though, we Brits are still passing judgement on everyone we meet, we jus do it quietly.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 13:43, closed)

This is a benefit
of living in a culture where it's generally considered rude/mentalist/drunken to shout at strangers in the street.
(squigbobble existed, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 17:37, closed)

The TV license
In South Africa they have a few SABC channels which are ostensibly licence funded after the BBC model. Perplexingly, however, they run just as many ads as the purely commercial channels. The licence is in theory mandatory but their enforcement budget doesn't go any further than very earnest adverts saying, "pay your TV licence - it's the right thing to do". I found pretty much every aspect of this quite hard to understand.
( pineapplecharm D d M Y, H:i, Wed 9 Oct 2013, 11:42, closed)

Try Japan
Where apparently just owning a Sat Nav is enough by law now to pay NHK's licence fee.
(ParaSitius is an Optimistic Pessimist, Wed 9 Oct 2013, 13:01, closed)