Cultural Identity

[blazeofglory]

I came from a agrarian society. That was a totally remote and unexposed village to the outside world. My father was a simple farmer and my mother illiterate. I am the only person to have a graduate degree and my brothers and sisters are fairly educated. Now I dwell in a city and live differently. I have a very educated wife and her background was different. Though she too did not come from a rich family but at least they were better educated.

I had to struggle hard when I had to assimilate into a new social network with newer values and demands. My naivety in my earlier days put me in a much difficult state. I have observed two different backgrounds and cultures.
Now I growing into maturity I do not kind of align with particular cultural setups. I can feel at home with all no matter which religious and cultural backgrounds one has come from. I can digest or inject all ideas.

I can feel comfortable with any customs or people or foods or systems. Though born of an orthodox Brahman family I do not belong to a particular sect. I am not nationalistic. Nationalism is a contagious disease. I fee the entire planet is home to me and Nepal is just by accident my birthplace.

[JuniperWoolf]

I'm from working class stock - my relatives were miners and farmers.

Mine too, and anyone here who knows me can tell pretty easily that I'm very proud of my hard working friends and family. There's a certain nobility to labor. I love a man with rough hands who smells like sweat, with black eyeliner-like rings around his eyes from coal dust that won't wash away in the shower. There's nothing that makes me feel more safe, except for maybe a hunter smelling like soap with his hands stained orange from the blood of some wild beast. I feel so much love for my father and brother just picturing that image. It's strange, I never really felt my culture so solidly until I moved to Edmonton (hateful, vile, souless city) to go to University. The men there have soft hands, and they spend their money on these stupid little $8 coffees from stupid little cafe's, inhabited by pseudo-intellectuals typing away at their laptops or pretending to read a copy of The God Delusion. Bleh. I had to leave that city, or I think I would have died. I'm built for mental strain, not physical, but I can't (I really CANNOT) get my education in a big city no matter how good the school is. Weak men and meek women, and EVERYBODY complaining about EVERYTHING. Give me harsh winters, give me smoke and blood and survival! That's my culture.

I also have a fierce pride for my country. Canadians like to play, and most of us take life for what it is (one big joke). We have a tendancy to sit on decks and porches and pass the entire day drinking beer and making fun of each other and talking about hockey. We also harbor a certain resentment for Americans, but we like Scandanavian countries (probably because they're like us). I don't care if national pride is a good thing or a bad thing, I love my country and I'd die for it.

[Virgil]

Mine too, and anyone here who knows me can tell pretty easily that I'm very proud of my hard working friends and family. There's a certain nobility to labor. I love a man with rough hands who smells like sweat, with black eyeliner-like rings around his eyes from coal dust that won't wash away in the shower. There's nothing that makes me feel more safe, except for maybe a hunter smelling like soap with his hands stained orange from the blood of some wild beast. I feel so much love for my father and brother just picturing that image. It's strange, I never really felt my culture so solidly until I moved to Edmonton (hateful, vile, souless city) to go to University. The men there have soft hands, and they spend their money on these stupid little $8 coffees from stupid little cafe's, inhabited by pseudo-intellectuals typing away at their laptops or pretending to read a copy of The God Delusion. Bleh. I had to leave that city, or I think I would have died. I'm built for mental strain, not physical, but I can't (I really CANNOT) get my education in a big city no matter how good the school is. Weak men and meek women, and EVERYBODY complaining about EVERYTHING. Give me harsh winters, give me smoke and blood and survival! That's my culture.

I also have a fierce pride for my country. Canadians like to play, and most of us take life for what it is (one big joke). We have a tendancy to sit on decks and porches and pass the entire day drinking beer and making fun of each other and talking about hockey. We also harbor a certain resentment for Americans, but we like Scandanavian countries (probably because they're like us). I don't care if national pride is a good thing or a bad thing, I love my country and I'd die for it.

What a marvelous post!!!!! I loved reading every word of that!!!! Four stars for that!



But I got to get you to like Americans better.

[SleepyWitch]

hum, that's a difficult question.

German atheist, blessed with a Protestant work ethic thanks to my Lutheran working class mother. Getting used to north-western English Catholicism, minus the bit about Jesus, God and the Pope (but they leave that out most of the time anyway). My family background is working class as in getting drunk, beating your children and striving to get a good education (mother) and lower middle class as in being culturally ignorant (father). I'm too well-educated (read: posh and snooty) to watch X-Factor etc., but also too accustomed to poverty/stinginess to regularly spend any money on 'useless' things like going to the theatre or opera. However, given the choice between a musical and an opera, I'd choose the opera.
German "high culture" annoys me because it's basically a mutual admiration society for people who all agree that this kind of "culture" is extremely important, only they don't really know why that is and what German culture consists of in the first place. But everybody says it's important, so it must be true. German (lower) middle class people annoy me because they have a proto-fascist way of teaming up for festivals and organized fun. They look forward to their dozens of festivals all year but once the big day has arrived they are really aggressive, get drunk and jostle each other.

English trash culture annoys me because 11 million people mindlessly follow X-Factor just because everybody else does it.

I'm slightly confused about English people at the moment, because I thought they were reserved and leave each other alone. Everyone here is very sociable, however, and people (mainly posh ones) are very concerned about everybody "fitting in." This is weird because the English go on about how individualistic they are. On the other hand, my pupils don't help each other out at all when one of them doesn't have a pen or a book. They are nice Catholic middle-class kids who all "fit in" very well, but when it comes to borrowing a pen or sharing a book, they are fixated on Miss and cannot ask their class mates for help. .... ok, this is slightly off topic...

In Germany, everything is perfectionist. People make a fuss about details and plan everything ahead three years in advance. Yet life is relaxed. (An English guy told me so!!!)
In England, people can't be bothered to do anything and don't stress about anything (at least they say so 100 times a day). Yet life is hectic and people work and rush around all the time.


Also, people here invade each others personal space all the time. When someone stands too close to me and I take a step back, they don't get the message and stand even closer to me instead of leaving me alone. How does this go together with being reserved? I find myself "cuddling" with colleagues of both sexes all the time. In Germany I would maybe stand/ sit that close to my best friend or my mother. But if I or my friends 'retreated' the other would get the message and not move up closer to them.

I took a quiz on Facebook that said I should be Swedish

[Agatha]

hum, that's a difficult question.

German atheist, blessed with a Protestant work ethic thanks to my Lutheran working class mother. Getting used to north-western English Catholicism, minus the bit about Jesus, God and the Pope (but they leave that out most of the time anyway). My family background is working class as in getting drunk, beating your children and striving to get a good education (mother) and lower middle class as in being culturally ignorant (father). I'm too well-educated (read: posh and snooty) to watch X-Factor etc., but also too accustomed to poverty/stinginess to regularly spend any money on 'useless' things like going to the theatre or opera. However, given the choice between a musical and an opera, I'd choose the opera.
German "high culture" annoys me because it's basically a mutual admiration society for people who all agree that this kind of "culture" is extremely important, only they don't really know why that is and what German culture consists of in the first place. But everybody says it's important, so it must be true. German (lower) middle class people annoy me because they have a proto-fascist way of teaming up for festivals and organized fun. They look forward to their dozens of festivals all year but once the big day has arrived they are really aggressive, get drunk and jostle each other.

English trash culture annoys me because 11 million people mindlessly follow X-Factor just because everybody else does it.

I'm slightly confused about English people at the moment, because I thought they were reserved and leave each other alone. Everyone here is very sociable, however, and people (mainly posh ones) are very concerned about everybody "fitting in." This is weird because the English go on about how individualistic they are. On the other hand, my pupils don't help each other out at all when one of them doesn't have a pen or a book. They are nice Catholic middle-class kids who all "fit in" very well, but when it comes to borrowing a pen or sharing a book, they are fixated on Miss and cannot ask their class mates for help. .... ok, this is slightly off topic...

In Germany, everything is perfectionist. People make a fuss about details and plan everything ahead three years in advance. Yet life is relaxed. (An English guy told me so!!!)
In England, people can't be bothered to do anything and don't stress about anything (at least they say so 100 times a day). Yet life is hectic and people work and rush around all the time.


Also, people here invade each others personal space all the time. When someone stands too close to me and I take a step back, they don't get the message and stand even closer to me instead of leaving me alone. How does this go together with being reserved? I find myself "cuddling" with colleagues of both sexes all the time. In Germany I would maybe stand/ sit that close to my best friend or my mother. But if I or my friends 'retreated' the other would get the message and not move up closer to them.

I took a quiz on Facebook that said I should be Swedish

I agree with you about many things, espacially when it's about British trash culture. But today X-factor is over

To begin with I'm a Pole, European, technically speaking Catholic, but really I'm agnostic. This year I came to the UK to study(in one of the best all girls' boarding school) But as soon as I finish my a-levels I will probaby move out.
There are several things about British people, their culture, style of life and mentality which I find really suprising and I don't like it.
Firstly, what struck me the most when I arrived, that British people don't really seem to belong to Europe. They are thinking of themselves as seprate, isolate part of Europe.
Gnerally I was really suprised to find out how most of people here perceive Europe. One of the teachers here(French teachers, more suprisingly) said once 'Europe is such a beautiful country'. It's not a country, it's a CONTINENT. Additionally many girls at my school, although most of them took Geography for their GCSE, don't know most of European countries, not to mention Asian and African ones. It began really annoying for me to tell people here where Poland is, and yes, we don't speak Russian, nor German there for milions times.
The most dissapointing part is how my peers are stupid in terms of general knowledge.
Some of them get always A*, but they don't have any additional knowledge about world, or, what's even worse about the subjects that they're taking.
Once I was talking with a girl who always gets A for her English lit essays. I mentioned that I have just seen 'Dorian Grey' and then I asked her whether she had ever read the book. She said that she had never heard of this book before, moreover she didn't know anything about Oscar Wilde.
Another thing ehich it's really weird for the, it the fact that the British girls in my classes seem to have problems with English langauge. My mother tounge is not English and now here I had to explain to my collegues here what some English word mean like 'authentically', 'pathologist', 'tyranny'. Isn't it odd?
Plus I was bewildered how the girls from my 'posh' school spend their leisure time( in a nutshell- go to pub/club, get drunk and then have sex with some random guy. And next weekend- another party, another guy). In my country, some girls belong to this slutty category as well, but usually they are like this, because their families are dysfunctional and nobody cares about them. But here I have a feeling that parents of these girls really cares about them and they would be shocked if they knew how their beloved daugthers spend Sunday&Saturday evenings.
To sum up: I don't really think that I will ever been able to 'fit it'. And I don't really think that I will make friends at school(maybe with other oversea girls, because fortunately thy are not like these). Originally I was planning to stay here to study at British Uni, but now I am not sure, whether it is good idea.
I don't have a certain cultural idenity. I'm not missing Poland, and its culture. But on the other hand, the British culture and way of life don't appeal to me.
SleepyWitch I may do this test on Facebook, to find out to which nationality I fit the best

[Paulclem]

I agree with you about many things, espacially when it's about British trash culture. But today X-factor is over

To begin with I'm a Pole, European, technically speaking Catholic, but really I'm agnostic. This year I came to the UK to study(in one of the best all girls' boarding school) But as soon as I finish my a-levels I will probaby move out.
There are several things about British people, their culture, style of life and mentality which I find really suprising and I don't like it.
Firstly, what struck me the most when I arrived, that British people don't really seem to belong to Europe. They are thinking of themselves as seprate, isolate part of Europe.
Gnerally I was really suprised to find out how most of people here perceive Europe. One of the teachers here(French teachers, more suprisingly) said once 'Europe is such a beautiful country'. It's not a country, it's a CONTINENT. Additionally many girls at my school, although most of them took Geography for their GCSE, don't know most of European countries, not to mention Asian and African ones. It began really annoying for me to tell people here where Poland is, and yes, we don't speak Russian, nor German there for milions times.
The most dissapointing part is how my peers are stupid in terms of general knowledge.
Some of them get always A*, but they don't have any additional knowledge about world, or, what's even worse about the subjects that they're taking.
Once I was talking with a girl who always gets A for her English lit essays. I mentioned that I have just seen 'Dorian Grey' and then I asked her whether she had ever read the book. She said that she had never heard of this book before, moreover she didn't know anything about Oscar Wilde.
Another thing ehich it's really weird for the, it the fact that the British girls in my classes seem to have problems with English langauge. My mother tounge is not English and now here I had to explain to my collegues here what some English word mean like 'authentically', 'pathologist', 'tyranny'. Isn't it odd?
Plus I was bewildered how the girls from my 'posh' school spend their leisure time( in a nutshell- go to pub/club, get drunk and then have sex with some random guy. And next weekend- another party, another guy). In my country, some girls belong to this slutty category as well, but usually they are like this, because their families are dysfunctional and nobody cares about them. But here I have a feeling that parents of these girls really cares about them and they would be shocked if they knew how their beloved daugthers spend Sunday&Saturday evenings.
To sum up: I don't really think that I will ever been able to 'fit it'. And I don't really think that I will make friends at school(maybe with other oversea girls, because fortunately thy are not like these). Originally I was planning to stay here to study at British Uni, but now I am not sure, whether it is good idea.
I don't have a certain cultural idenity. I'm not missing Poland, and its culture. But on the other hand, the British culture and way of life don't appeal to me.
SleepyWitch I may do this test on Facebook, to find out to which nationality I fit the best

Hi Agatha. I'm sorry that you are unhappy with British culture. A lot of what you say is true of some, but not all of us.
The British lack of knowledge about Europe does go along with the feeling of separateness that Brits feel about it. This is neither sensible nor commercial, and has meant we have a closer relationship with the USA, which, whilst not a bad thing, takes precedent over relations with our Euro-neighbours. it shows in our terrible attitude to learning languages. We are a bit complacent, as everyone else sems to learn English.

The pub/ club thing is a Brit feature - and is a bit embarassing after a certain age. I know because I was heavily involved in it as a young fellow. Not everyone is like that though. I have to admit, European cafe culture is much better, but you might find that some euro countries have similar attitudes to the Brits.

The problems with the English language is not a new thing. if you travel over england, you'll find that there is a wide variety of accents. Here in coventry, itis not uncommon to hear someone say, "We was up town last night." it is a feature of local language, despite being incorrect, and similar things occur in different parts of the country. You might like to try to listen to a Glaswegian - from Glasgow. It's like another language.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Agatha, some fair comments there about British culture, generalisations in a way, but certainly they hit me as fair ones and one that I have voiced myself - particularly the comments about education and the drunk culture. It is certainly odd that British students don't seem to be as adept with their language as their European counterparts, I don't know if this has to do with the standard of state education in the UK or if it is a cultural problem, but it is not good.

Most Brits don't feel part of Europe, which is probably partly due to the little bit of water keeping us apart, but also as Paulclem says partly due to the influence that American culture has on the UK, through the film and television medium (which I am not criticising, by the way - just sayin') and the UK’s seemingly obsession with it. Take for example the American elections which the UK press was totally obsessed with, for most people who only turn on a TV or read a newspaper the vast majority of European and world cultures just don’t exist outside of holiday desinations.

Personally, though I wouldn't give up quite just yet, there are bound to be many people who think just as you do, and I think you have a better chance of finding them at university too, so don't eliminate that out of hand.

[The Comedian]

Mine too, and anyone here who knows me can tell pretty easily that I'm very proud of my hard working friends and family. There's a certain nobility to labor. I love a man with rough hands who smells like sweat, with black eyeliner-like rings around his eyes from coal dust that won't wash away in the shower. There's nothing that makes me feel more safe, except for maybe a hunter smelling like soap with his hands stained orange from the blood of some wild beast. I feel so much love for my father and brother just picturing that image. It's strange, I never really felt my culture so solidly until I moved to Edmonton (hateful, vile, souless city) to go to University. The men there have soft hands, and they spend their money on these stupid little $8 coffees from stupid little cafe's, inhabited by pseudo-intellectuals typing away at their laptops or pretending to read a copy of The God Delusion. Bleh. I had to leave that city, or I think I would have died. I'm built for mental strain, not physical, but I can't (I really CANNOT) get my education in a big city no matter how good the school is. Weak men and meek women, and EVERYBODY complaining about EVERYTHING. Give me harsh winters, give me smoke and blood and survival! That's my culture.

I also have a fierce pride for my country. Canadians like to play, and most of us take life for what it is (one big joke). We have a tendancy to sit on decks and porches and pass the entire day drinking beer and making fun of each other and talking about hockey. We also harbor a certain resentment for Americans, but we like Scandanavian countries (probably because they're like us). I don't care if national pride is a good thing or a bad thing, I love my country and I'd die for it.

A big "Yee haw!" for this post -- makes me want to break out a cold, cheap beer and sit out in the snow.

[Agatha]

Yeah, I know that it's a huge generalisation what I have written and surely not every here is like that. The truth is- being here in boarding school doesn't provide many opportunitties to meet different people. Here in the UK the only people I know are other students from different public schools.
Probably people from 'non-posh' schools are different. My roommate is classical example of snobby girl from middle class, her friends are the same, and at the beginning I was hanging out mainly with them. Their main life aspiration is to hook up a rich 'buff' guy. My roommate was once showing off about 'the first guy with who I got off was Etonian'. She told me that she did not remember his name, but he was Etonian and that what does matter. And now she's obsessed with some guy who lives in Richmond('such a posh place, I always wanted her boyfirend from Richmond') plus another positive feature of him is that he's over 18('so he can buy alcohol').
And I think that across Europe, UK, USA etc teenagers drink a lot, but people here do seem to have no limits. I have never met so many girl desprate to have a boyfirend, that's probably why they are behaving like slags on the parties especially. But again it may be connected to the fact that my school is all girls'.
That's true that Americans do infuence on British to great extent. But what I don't like that most of Brtitish thinks that they are superior to Americans, that Brtitish culture is better. A lot of British people who I have met here do not have high opinion of Americans. One of my teachers always tells some anecdotes about Americans which have one conclusion: 'These stupid Americans'. But people don't really seem to notice that nowadays British culture is strongly affected by American one and there is no significant difference between for example quality of TV programms in the UK and in the USA.

[Paulclem]

Yeah, I know that it's a huge generalisation what I have written and surely not every here is like that. The truth is- being here in boarding school doesn't provide many opportunitties to meet different people. Here in the UK the only people I know are other students from different public schools.
Probably people from 'non-posh' schools are different. My roommate is classical example of snobby girl from middle class, her friends are the same, and at the beginning I was hanging out mainly with them. Their main life aspiration is to hook up a rich 'buff' guy. My roommate was once showing off about 'the first guy with who I got off was Etonian'. She told me that she did not remember his name, but he was Etonian and that what does matter. And now she's obsessed with some guy who lives in Richmond('such a posh place, I always wanted her boyfirend from Richmond') plus another positive feature of him is that he's over 18('so he can buy alcohol').
And I think that across Europe, UK, USA etc teenagers drink a lot, but people here do seem to have no limits. I have never met so many girl desprate to have a boyfirend, that's probably why they are behaving like slags on the parties especially. But again it may be connected to the fact that my school is all girls'.
That's true that Americans do infuence on British to great extent. But what I don't like that most of Brtitish thinks that they are superior to Americans, that Brtitish culture is better. A lot of British people who I have met here do not have high opinion of Americans. One of my teachers always tells some anecdotes about Americans which have one conclusion: 'These stupid Americans'. But people don't really seem to notice that nowadays British culture is strongly affected by American one and there is no significant difference between for example quality of TV programms in the UK and in the USA.

You are socialising with a narrow group of people who you know are priviledged. It's hard to generalise just from them.

I do have to agree that British culture is superior, but then I would wouldn't I? In fact Yorkshire culture is the most superior, but that's only my opinion.

American bashing is a sport in England - well they do put themselves out there! Of course any sensible person can find an idiot or two in a population of 169 milion or so, but I know plenty of idiots in this country.

What's quite funny is the USA's portrayal of Brits - they are often the baddies in films - cunning and Machiavellian. I'm not sure what that says - perhaps it's a reference to the War of Independance where we were the cunning bad guys and they are still secretly scared we'll take it all back.

[Virgil]

As a "stupid American" I have to say Paul you underestimate the US population. It's not 169 million, it's now over 300 million.

I don't know about Ameerican bashing in England. It probably depends the circles you travel in. When I was there I got quite an affectionate reception as an American, especially in a few pups I went into, even a slap on the back as we were peeing at a urinal.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yeah, I know that it's a huge generalisation what I have written and surely not every here is like that. The truth is- being here in boarding school doesn't provide many opportunitties to meet different people. Here in the UK the only people I know are other students from different public schools.
Probably people from 'non-posh' schools are different. My roommate is classical example of snobby girl from middle class, her friends are the same, and at the beginning I was hanging out mainly with them. Their main life aspiration is to hook up a rich 'buff' guy. My roommate was once showing off about 'the first guy with who I got off was Etonian'. She told me that she did not remember his name, but he was Etonian and that what does matter. And now she's obsessed with some guy who lives in Richmond('such a posh place, I always wanted her boyfirend from Richmond') plus another positive feature of him is that he's over 18('so he can buy alcohol').
And I think that across Europe, UK, USA etc teenagers drink a lot, but people here do seem to have no limits. I have never met so many girl desprate to have a boyfirend, that's probably why they are behaving like slags on the parties especially. But again it may be connected to the fact that my school is all girls'.
That's true that Americans do infuence on British to great extent. But what I don't like that most of Brtitish thinks that they are superior to Americans, that Brtitish culture is better. A lot of British people who I have met here do not have high opinion of Americans. One of my teachers always tells some anecdotes about Americans which have one conclusion: 'These stupid Americans'. But people don't really seem to notice that nowadays British culture is strongly affected by American one and there is no significant difference between for example quality of TV programms in the UK and in the USA.

Yes, they are certainly narrow-minded but I am afraid the non-posh schools, state schools you mean, have just the same sort of issues, even if it is shown in a slightly different way. I must say I feel sorry for you being surrounded by the sort of snobbish attitude you describe, I really don't like that sort of thing, but I'm sure that there must be somebody around who is more down to earth, hopefully anyway.

You are right what you say about TV, I'd just avoid it altogether if I was you.

[Paulclem]

As a "stupid American" I have to say Paul you underestimate the US population. It's not 169 million, it's now over 300 million.

I don't know about Ameerican bashing in England. It probably depends the circles you travel in. When I was there I got quite an affectionate reception as an American, especially in a few pups I went into, even a slap on the back as we were peeing at a urinal.

Sorry Virgil - it is my imperfect memory, and just goes to show...

300 million, and you still have all that space left over. Pity us poor brits. We're living in each others back yards by comparison.

[LitNetIsGreat]

As a "stupid American" I have to say Paul you underestimate the US population. It's not 169 million, it's now over 300 million.

I don't know about Ameerican bashing in England. It probably depends the circles you travel in. When I was there I got quite an affectionate reception as an American, especially in a few pups I went into, even a slap on the back as we were peeing at a urinal.

Yes, its not really American bashing in a nasty way, its more like a gentle mocking. You know you might here a silly news story alongside the conclusion of "typical American" with a shake of the head and a tut, that sort of thing, not anything really nasty - honest.

[Emil Miller]

hum, that's a difficult question.

German atheist, blessed with a Protestant work ethic thanks to my Lutheran working class mother. Getting used to north-western English Catholicism, minus the bit about Jesus, God and the Pope (but they leave that out most of the time anyway). My family background is working class as in getting drunk, beating your children and striving to get a good education (mother) and lower middle class as in being culturally ignorant (father). I'm too well-educated (read: posh and snooty) to watch X-Factor etc., but also too accustomed to poverty/stinginess to regularly spend any money on 'useless' things like going to the theatre or opera. However, given the choice between a musical and an opera, I'd choose the opera.
German "high culture" annoys me because it's basically a mutual admiration society for people who all agree that this kind of "culture" is extremely important, only they don't really know why that is and what German culture consists of in the first place. But everybody says it's important, so it must be true. German (lower) middle class people annoy me because they have a proto-fascist way of teaming up for festivals and organized fun. They look forward to their dozens of festivals all year but once the big day has arrived they are really aggressive, get drunk and jostle each other.

English trash culture annoys me because 11 million people mindlessly follow X-Factor just because everybody else does it.

I'm slightly confused about English people at the moment, because I thought they were reserved and leave each other alone. Everyone here is very sociable, however, and people (mainly posh ones) are very concerned about everybody "fitting in." This is weird because the English go on about how individualistic they are. On the other hand, my pupils don't help each other out at all when one of them doesn't have a pen or a book. They are nice Catholic middle-class kids who all "fit in" very well, but when it comes to borrowing a pen or sharing a book, they are fixated on Miss and cannot ask their class mates for help. .... ok, this is slightly off topic...

In Germany, everything is perfectionist. People make a fuss about details and plan everything ahead three years in advance. Yet life is relaxed. (An English guy told me so!!!)
In England, people can't be bothered to do anything and don't stress about anything (at least they say so 100 times a day). Yet life is hectic and people work and rush around all the time.


Also, people here invade each others personal space all the time. When someone stands too close to me and I take a step back, they don't get the message and stand even closer to me instead of leaving me alone. How does this go together with being reserved? I find myself "cuddling" with colleagues of both sexes all the time. In Germany I would maybe stand/ sit that close to my best friend or my mother. But if I or my friends 'retreated' the other would get the message and not move up closer to them.

I took a quiz on Facebook that said I should be Swedish

Hi Sleepy,
Reading what you have written is very interesting for me because you are at a similar age to that when I first went to Germany;which was before you were born.
Now, as you can imagine, I was told the Germans were a terrible people who had exterminated millions(?) of people etc. etc. etc. Despite this, they had produced the greatest music, which is my passion, any nation has ever produced. When I went to Germany to visit Beethoven's birthplace I discovered a people and a political system that far outweighed the silliness of the welfare statism of the UK. From then on, I watched as the UK slumped further and furher into dependency, relying on handouts from the German central bank and the International Monetary Fund to keep the UK afloat. I learned to speak German and discovered that, on average, they were far more educated than their English counterparts. My acquaintences in Germany ranged from university professors to working class people but, generally, I found them to be intellectually superior to their UK equivalents.