Essay On British Stereotypes

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British Stereotypes & Multiculturalism
“On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners“ (Mikes) As Mikes famous quote above suggests, there are many stereotypes about England, especially the United Kingdom. When most people think about Britain, they think of the bad cuisine, the poorly weather conditions, the exaggerated polite etiquette of the British people or that all prude Britons love their national sport, cricket. These stereotypes are only schemata (Erll; Gymnich 73) but Britain is more than that. Its capital London, for example, is a cosmopolitan city which is influenced by various cultures, which settled down there over years; and so do the people immigrate to all over the country. The country represents a melting pot of cultures today (cf. Crowther; Kavanagh 286) The United Kingdom has approximately 64 716 000 citizens (cf. United Nations 17) …show more content…

By way of example, the British language is mainly influenced by Asian languages: Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi or Gujarati. These non-indigenous languages are promoted by the government through teaching and independent newspapers, radio programs or television shows (cf. Christopher 38). Furthermore, in the inner districts of London, for example, one-quarter of the inhabitants are Bangladeshis, but unfortunately, the less speak English. In particular, the most women there cannot speak English, albeit, the children can speak both, their mother tongue and the national language. Nevertheless, the encounter of two cultures takes shape as innovative and awesome at the same time. It facilitates new ideas and constructiveness for new art, like novels, films, music or stage plays (38). All in all, it “propose[s] a complex new British identity, one composed of varied cultural, political and historical influences” (Christopher

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