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English Language and Culture Summary I
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Culture and Literature 2 Summary
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Engels: taal en cultuur I - Petty facts
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ELCCountry and people
The British Isles are two large islands standing next to each other: Great Britain and Ireland. The
Republic of Ireland governs Ireland while the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
governs the whole of Great, Northern Ireland and smaller islands.
Four nations can be found in this area: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The unification of these
nations was completed in 1800, when the Irish parliament joined the English, Welsh and Scottish
parliament. But in 1922, Ireland became a separate state.
The English culture is very dominant in Britain today. That’s also why most people refer to Britain as
England, which is not correct. The system of politics is of English origin and the main language of all
four nations is English too. Other examples of English domination are:
- The supply of money is controlled by the bank of England (the ‘Bank of Britain’ doesn’t exist)
- Elizabeth II is the monarch of all four countries, but Scotland and Northern Ireland have
never known an ‘Elizabeth I’
- The use of the term ‘Anglo’ which comes from Angles (tribe who settled in England in the
fifth century). The name England is derived from their name. When we’re talking about
Anglo-American relations, we do not mean England and America, but Britain and America.
To not offend someone while talking about nationality, it’s best to use ‘Britain’ when you are talking
about the place and use ‘British’ when describing their nationality. Only when you talk about people
of England you should use English. But it is important to remember that England is not the only
nation in Britain.
Because of migration, a lot of Welsh, Irish and Scottish people can be found in England. Some of
them don’t describe themselves as English and others describe themselves as not only English but
also Welsh or Irish or Scottish. This also counts from migrants from outside the United Kingdom.
Some are loyal to the country they live in and others to the country they came from. But crossovers
are possible, for example, a Scottish person can support the national team of England during a
football game against Belgium.
,Geography
Belfast Birmingham Bradford
Bristol Cambridge Canterbury
Cardiff Dover Edinburgh
Glasgow Inverness Leeds
Liverpool London Manchester
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Oxford Plymouth
Sheffield Stratford-upon-Avon
,London
About a fifth of the total population of the UK lives in London. The city is important. It is home to
government departments, the Parliament, major legal institutions, and the monarch. It is also the
business and banking centre. It has a West and East End. In the West End you can find expensive
shops and cinemas, and the East End is the residential area of the poorer people.
The majority of the Londoners live in suburbs and travel to work each day (centre of London). The
city has a large cultural variety: nearly 300 languages are spoken there and a third of the people who
live there were born outside Britain.
Southern England
The most densely populated area in England is Southern England although it has no large cities. The
area is known for its rural beauty and its countryside. British people love that, and the area is
populated by retired people.
The Midlands of England
This area does not have many positive associations in the minds of British people and is sparsely
populated. It contains a lot of industrial areas. But tourism has flourished in Stratford-Upon-Avon
(Shakespeare’s birthplace).
Northern England
The north of England is sparsely populated. In this area are also a lot of industries, known as noisy
and dirty. The towns there are difficult to build on, which explains why the area is sparsely
populated.
Scotland
Scotland has three remarkable areas. The north and south are sparsely populated because of valleys
and upland, people live in small towns. The centre is densely populated, 80% of the population lives
there, the cities Glasgow and Edinburgh are the largest cities.
Wales
Wales is mountainous, but the south part of it is the most densely populated area in the country.
That’s also where Cardiff can be found, the capital of Wales.
Northern Ireland
Belfast, located in the east of Northern Ireland, and the north-west are the only parts of the country
which are heavily populated. The rest of Northern Ireland is agricultural and known for its natural
beauty.
, Identity
Scotland
Scotland is in many aspects organized separately and differently from the rest of Britain. Some
examples are its education and welfare systems. Also, its banknotes are printed by itself. The Scottish
have their own way of speaking English. It’s a dialect (Scots) and is only spoken by the people of the
working classes.
Wales
The Welsh organisation of public life is similar to the English one. The people of Wales do not really
consider themselves as Welsh or as only Welsh. In the 19th century, people from England, Scotland
and Ireland came here to find work. Today, many of those people have a home here or a holiday
house. The only important identity of the Welsh is their language: Welsh. It’s the mother tongue of
about 20% of the people of Wales.
England
There’s a little distinction between ‘English’ and ‘British’. While the Scottish, Welsh and Irish sport
teams have their own anthem, the English one is God Save the Queen, which is the same as the
British one.
Northern Ireland
There are two communities is Northern Ireland where people are born into and stay there for the
rest of their lives.
- Protestants: ancestors from lowland Scotland or England. They want Northern Ireland to
remain part of the UK.
- Catholics: Irish ancestors. They want Northern Ireland to become part or the Irish Republic.
The two communities live side by side, but differently: they listen to different radio and television
programmes, live in different housing estates, read different newspapers, …
Other ethnic identities
The people of the four nations look the same, eat the same, are mostly Christian, have the same
mother tongue (English), … But this is not the case for people who came from other parts of Europe
or elsewhere.
Two major groups of ethnicities present in Britain are:
- Black Caribbeans: most of them were born in Britain. The immigration started in 1948 and
continued during the 14 following years. In 1962, the immigration slowed down. The
immigrants took low-paid jobs. They mostly worked on buses and trains.
- Asians: they come from the Indian subcontinent. The immigration took also place in 1948.
These communities stay together, marry among themselves so that they keep their language,
culture and religion. Asian parents want to have control over their children (born in the UK),
this makes it difficult for them.
The family
Family identity is weak in Britain. Family events are not usually accompanied by large gatherings of
people. Family in Britain means the nuclear family, the ones who live in the same house. But this is
not true for some ethnic minorities. British people do not live with different generations in one
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