Being a pom in NZ I often come up against Maori culture and their way of living. This lead to me thinking about British culture, What would you say are the main points of british culture and way of life? Especially if describing it to a foreigner.

A kind of stout miserablism.

Let’s start on something easier,

1)what is ‘British’
2)what is culture?

Beer and football.

I don’t think there is a singularly identifiable British culture in itself as Britain includes diverse cultures from Wales, Scotland and England.

Bitter and Rugby

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvPuj4f5CKw[/video]

I think that technically it is an oxymoron.

Let’s start on something easier

Culture is something you grow in petri dishes.

The British are the result of leaving a petri dish out in the endless, endless rain.

LOL @ Noteeth! 😆

definitely moaning about stuff

british culture is dead.

it was replaced by chav thug materialistic greed selfish culture in the early 80’s when thatcher was in power.

It’s rather like the life of sheep.

You’re brought up by your mother, or the mother of another lamb until you’re old effort to feed yourself.

You live with the belief you have freedom, yet follow everyone else through the fields, usually along the same old paths as you and others have ever done.

Occasionally you’ll be taken to one side and there you have hope for a less sheep like existence, however you find yourselves shoved into a Dip or VAT and have everything you been saving taken from you. and shoved back into a live of grazing and following the other sheep.

At time you be pushed into a room, were one by one you’re pulled to one side, tossed on your back and properly fleeced of everything, then you’ll be chucked out in the cold, nekid and in tatters.

You will either live you life like this and get to breed or end up making those in control of you lives fatter.

super answer no teeth 😛

Bureaucracy. The computer says noooo.

the perpetual rivalry of the prim toffs versus the gruff peasants amid the confused and pompous bleating of the middle class sheep in between..

A little bit of this

Daily Mail-o-matic

A combination of the responses from SbZ and yunki.

There is no’British’ culture

It’s not a monoculture (thankfully).

It’s Cultimultural.

the perpetual rivalry of the prim toffs versus the gruff peasants amid the confused and pompous bleating of the middle class sheep in between..

Beer and football.

Aren’t those just englandshire and not Britainland?

As Wales doesn’t really have toffs, we’re all gruff peasants who prefer rugby to football and drink bitter. 😉

Xenophobia, ignorance and fear of anything difference characterises a lot of the populace – together with intolerance and the desire to destroy anything foreign. Oh, and a love of German pseudo executive cars.

whatever it is…..you miss it a little when you move away….living in Aus for past 6 years and there are many things that are missed from the UK culture: footy, humour, music, quality tv, ……i’m sure these all contribute towards ‘UK culture’.

Moaning, beer, fry ups, page 3, fox hunting, public school, council estate, binge drinking, tea drinking, football hooligan, country gents, Chubby Brown, Stephen Fry, MCC, working mens clubs, Carry on films, Brideshead revisited…….

I’d say we’re a bit confused really. But our superiority complex means we are still better than everyone else!

I`m rather saddened by many of the answers above, personally I dont think the majority of us are a bunch of chavy, moaning xenephobes. The vast majority of British people I know are open-minded, warm, friendly, funny and tolerent, this includes youths.

Culture for me is the framework which everything hangs off and I think Britain`s is extremely rich and diverse.

British culture is Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish and Breton culture. English culture is German. 😉

british culture is dead.

it was replaced by chav thug materialistic greed selfish culture in the early 80’s when thatcher was in power.

So, what was it before that, then?

No doubt going on strike because the canteen had run out of teabags was a part of it…

British culture is a mixture of proud traditions.

One such tradition is being proudly upheld here by fine British patriots……

…..it travels well btw

i think you british people fail to understand what the british culture is.
It’s something I can’t name or describe in a few words, but it is something that I would recognise in a heartbeat.
Something that brings a smile to my face as soon as I touch down at the airport and that make me think I am back here as soon as go through the doors of the terminal building.
Something you can’t touch, something you cant smell but something you know is here, unmistakable and yet undefinable…
HTH

HTH

Well if I’m honest, no, not really.

As beautifully demonstrated here, British culture is steeped in cynicism.

Sure, we have a percentage of idiots, but I don’t think that differentiates us from a lot of other countries. It does sadden me that our cultural ambassadors these days seem to be the “Brits on the lash” stag party / football fan brigade.

juan – Member
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Something you can’t touch, something you cant smell…

You can usually smell it.

Sure, we have a percentage of idiots

Cooee! (Waves) 😀

You could read Jeremy Paxman’s ‘The English’ although I can’t recall anything profound from it.

Hmmm, I am amazed at some of the answers, what happened to being proud of being British? I know I am. Are most of you ashamed to be British? If so why?

British culture is the meek, Nimby-ish middle ground between the prolelitarian, binge drinking soap opera loving mouth breathers and the hyper elitist workshy toffs in their ivory towers.

“If you want to imagine the future of British culture, imagine a Hyundai Getz, driving slowly to the garden centre, forever”

Brainflex when I was in the forces I was proud of being British but it was slowly eroded the more and more British I saw overseas and it was well killed off upon my return to uk 12 years later after seeing the state of the place and a lot of the people

There isn’t much of a ‘British’ culutre on account of Britain being a political convenience rather than a clearly defined homogenous whole.
Lots of evidence of English culture, Scots culture, Welsh culture, Irish culture but I’m not convinced of how much of it interrelates to become British. In fact I’d say English culture is more influenced by culture from the Commonwealth than it is by Burns or the eisteddfod.

I’m certainly having no truck with any of that awful diddly diddly music either.

Ok, trailmonkey talks about english culture, can anyone sum that up for me? I would say that is harder to define than british culture, We dont have national costume, an english anthem or english beliefs or do we?