What do you dislike about your country's culture?

[WomenHour]

I would say the binge drinking culture of the UK

France. The altar of the organized ( creativity- not so much).
Education - no encouragement - you are either a peg in the hole or not. No differentiation.
Hunting practices that belong to another century glueing birds to branches, dragging badgers out of their setts with pliers and Bering them to Seth. So abhorrent. Also the Corrida. All sponsored by Macron and his big land owning mates.

All that education and not a brain cell between them, he used to say

Did he also used to say that that he'd got a Bsc ("Bloody sense of the common kind") from the University of Life, like someone I knew?

Beating them to death.
Lots of good things too though.
Am always appalled by the litter in NI. How much interest have for other peoplés business. And the coats- why does no- one need a coat over their - sectarian- football shirt?

@eaglejulesk

I have no theory- there is a trend of reporting all news stories with a NZ connection, however tenuous. If you don't follow NZ news, of course you are ignorant of it.

I suspect I follow NZ news more than you do, and also news from other countries. Of course a disaster in the Pacific Islands would be reported in NZ, whether someone from NZ had been involved or not, but you seem to think it was only reported because a NZ licence was found in the water. Grow up!

Whoosh

@Inching

My dad who left school at 13 a successful self-taught engineer, always enjoyed the situations where the degree educated engineers had to call him, to sort out a problem they just couldn't get their head around. All that education and not a brain cell between them, he used to say.

That's exactly the kind of story I mean that always shows its head on threads that end up being a mishmash of bizarrely polarised ideas about academic qualifications vs autodidact/practical intelligence. I can't imagine your father was very popular at work if that was his attitude, either.

My father had people work for him. He was a very well known problem solver, very experienced - I think someone who can resolve issues no one else can will always be popular!

@LaMarschallin

All that education and not a brain cell between them, he used to say

Did he also used to say that that he'd got a Bsc ("Bloody sense of the common kind") from the University of Life, like someone I knew?

He was all about having knowledge and experience and being bloody good at your job.

Im from Scotland but live in England. I loathe the 'tall poppy' syndrome in Scotland, particularly in regard to education. It was the key reason I moved away. It does exist down here too, but it's more a general distrust of experts at the moment, rather than a 'oooh you're getting above yourself.
I hate British exceptionalism and what that's led to. We live in a really great country with so many wonderful achievements and things to be proud of. But we focus on some very odd things. It's sad to feel so awful about your own country, I think.

He was all about having knowledge and experience and being bloody good at your job

Excellent. It's good that he didn't have a chip on his shoulder about it.

It's just that, for some jobs, the best way to get the knowledge - if not the experience - is to get some formal education in it.
Experience comes with practice, of course.

@Gardenpad I'm a translator - my undergrad degree was languages, my Masters was Translation and Interpreting Studies - and while I have taught myself several languages on Duolingo (I'm learning Russian at the moment), it's not the same as proper teaching.

That approach can work for engineering, but not something like medicine.

Preoccupation with sport, especially football. And Morris Dancing. I cannot abide Morris Dancing.

[quote PhilSwagielka]@Gardenpad I'm a translator - my undergrad degree was languages, my Masters was Translation and Interpreting Studies - and while I have taught myself several languages on Duolingo (I'm learning Russian at the moment), it's not the same as proper teaching.

That approach can work for engineering, but not something like medicine.[/quote]
I’m not advocating it as an approach - my dad had no choice, education was limited to those who could afford it - he taught himself - he was resourceful, he didn’t blame the poverty of his upbringing. He just had a good laugh when he out smarted the smart people - who can blame him for that!😂

Infantilisation of the poor by the Left and Right. Neither side believed it’s acceptable (left) or worthwhile (right) to expect anyone to try & improve their life circumstances

Now that's an interesting one @jcurve . I do agree with it to at least some degree. I never agreed with all the Blair handouts. The levels of inequality are still appalling.

Gardenpad My father had people work for him. He was a very well known problem solver, very experienced - I think someone who can resolve issues no one else can will always be popular!

Kind of a standard part of a job though, isn't it? For a more experienced worker to teamwork with newer employees. Its not really great to crow about it or use it as a reason to undermine others.

I thought the point in doing a degree in engineering was to be able to draw up algorithms and design new products and not just to problem solve through years of experience - horses for courses and different things, but theres a huge difference between design engineers and maintenance engineers, and you will always need a degree to be any good at the former and to be taken seriously by most modern employers.

The dense if entitlement for everything. Entitled to make a nuisance and drive your neighbour potty, entitlement to demand flexible working arrangement from employer, entitlement to compensation when service is not excellent, to receive the best healthcare in the world, etc...

And then moan when not getting it and blaming everyone else for it.

I think I witness more people who think that no one should ever complain about the NHS ever, no matter how badly you are treated, than I witness of people who stamp their feet and demand special treatment. Sometimes the NHS is absolutely amazing, outstanding. Particularly for emergencies like car accidents etc But sometimes it's just not very good. And most of the time it's somewhere in the middle. But I can't imagine another wealthy country where waiting several years to see a doctor who can help you, whilst your health deteriorates, would be acceptable. Yet here it's always 'well, be grateful, if you were poor in the USA you'd just be left to die'.

Product English woman, and there are so many many great things about the country.

I detest the English soccer hooligans. Most are great supports, but there is a really hardcore group that really damage our reputation.

It's also embarrassing to see so many people with a lack of our countries history. The good and the bad we've done.

Love football, hate hooligans. They belong in the past and should stay there. Everton aren't too bad on the hooligan front but I've been to a match where Millwall were the opposition and getting back to the station was a pain in the arse because the police had cordoned off the away end.

That said, Eastern European hooligans make ours look like Walter the Softy. The Russian ones are terrifying. They have training camps.

Why are disabled people so hated

Ive lived in 3 other countries and spent months at a time travelling. and have to say from my experience, the UK is among tbe most tolerant towards disabled people.

Turkey: Actually had locals come out of bars, cafes and restaurants to gawp and point at a member of our group who had facial deformities.
Same thing happened in Venice.

Have also seen lots of dodgy animal practices that you wouldnt get in Britain.
Monkeys kept tied up in hammocks outside people's houses in the Carribean
Starving dogs roaming the streets in places too numerous to mention.
Cruelty to donkeys, bears, elephants. You name it.

There s a kindness towards animals that the British people show towards their animals that is unrivalled anywhere else.

@AnneLovesGilbert

Football. Fucking football. Multi multi millionaires who literally kick a ball for a living. It’s pathetic and utterly baffling that it’s some sort of bloody national religion.

Best thing about lockdown and me now cutting DH hair is he’s forever free of the fear of sitting down to immediately be asked if he “saw the match”. He’s never seen a sodding match. Liking football, or any sport, is a deal breaker for me and thankfully he detests it as much as I do.

It’s a fucking game! Played by primary school kids outside my house! That’s fine. Don’t pay people quarter of a million a week to do it and use the results of these games to love or loathe other nations.

Anti footballer sentiment always baffles me. The game is clearly popular worldwide which is the reason it generates such huge sums of revenue. If not to the players, the main commodity within the game (and let’s be honest they’re used as such and discarded as soon as they’re injured or no longer any use to a club) who would you prefer the money go to (mega rich owners, agents etc)? And in case you were going to say it should go to nurses, social workers or another worthy cause, it’s not a charity so why would it fund unrelated causes?

Additionally, all of your criticism could be levelled at virtually all entertainment based industries:

Acting: They just dress up and pretend to be someone else...as primary school kids do in the playground

Dancing: Just jumping around to music...as primary school kids do in the playground

If you’re implying your DH not liking football is held against him or causes him to be negatively viewed in some way (by his barber for example) than I completely agree with you that’s wrong. However, to dislike or judge Someone for liking football seems as ridiculous as disliking or judging someone for not...whats the difference?

[quote Twillow]@allworkhomesleeprepeat
To me, eating on the street is rarely essential and certainly not pleasurable - why not just wait until you can sit down, at the very least on a park bench, if you really cannot wait until you get home? I think it smacks of greed and lack of self-discipline, and also contributes to littering in many cases.[/quote]
Wow. I guess I just never thought about it, I don't have a lot of time to stand around judging people for eating on the street.

I'm not from the UK though so probably just a cultural difference. There's a lot of things about UK culture that I find different to mine, eating on the street is another to add to the list it seems!

I've got another for NZ (I actually love my country, but I love her warts and all!)

Cultural cringe. Oooooh, look, we got mentioned in the overseas press, oooh look, a celeb' has said what a lovely country and people we are. . . it's embarrassing. . .

"The fact that dogs are more loved than old people and children."

Yes!

Uk - the food, I wish ours was healthier and less stodgy

You do realise you can buy and cook healthy food in the UK.
Nobody is forcing you to eat Stodgy Food

The food IS stodgy in the U.K. from a cultural standpoint. It's everywhere. Doesn't matter that you can buy other ingredients in the supermarket. Junk is sold everywhere it's pervasive.

Look at the meal planning threads or family dinner idea threads and you'll always see stodge after stodge suggested. It's quite the norm.