What do you dislike about your country's culture?

[WomenHour]

I would say the binge drinking culture of the UK

To be entirely fair, re the language question, if you travel much at all, it wouldn’t be exactly easy to become proficient enough in (say), French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Greek - and that’s just part of Europe.

Whereas if your mother tongue is not English and you’re going to learn just one language to a good standard, it’s not hard to choose one which will be widely understood wherever you go.

Re U.K. culture, I hate littering, the sense of entitlement, the growing cohort of people who are constantly looking for something to be offended or outraged by, the worship of vacuous, useless ‘celebs’, and the tendency of Brits (especially those who haven’t been around much) to whinge that everything in the U.K. is shit, and everything is so much better everywhere else.

And there's also the fact that Brits seem to think that a bunch of arrogant, deluded public school boys/girls who have never worked a day in a normal job in their life and communicate to the public in bizarre catchphrases are the best equipped people to run the country.

Baffling.

Live in UK for past 23 years, originally from US. What I don't like in the UK is the class culture and in the US is the guns and god culture.

@1000umbrellas

A national identity that seems entirely bound up in hating the English rather than pride in our own culture and achievements. Scotland, if you hadn't guessed.

Yes, the anti-English racism (ok English is not a race I know, thank you Lucrecia).

The tall poppy symdrome - the "Dinnae get ideas above yer station - ah ken ye when ye were messing yer nappies" attitude in Scotland too.

I'm in South Africa . . . for me it would have to be the corruption. Everyone has their hand out, everyone wants a payoff and everyone feels they're entitled to skim something off the top without necessarily contributing a skill or anything valuable. Its a huge endemic problem and is stopping us advancing as a country

@DDemelza

The recent development of a culture of unquestioning kowtowing to authority, groupthink, humourless policing of other people's thoughts (NZ).

To the Kiwi being snidely informed about Māori culture by a foreigner upthread- bahaha.

There may or may not be those aware of Maori culture on here, but it may be that there are aspects of their culture that is annoying.

I think there is an attitude of ‘our way or the high way’ with a lot of people in the U.K. and a reluctance to accept change or something new which I dislike.

@Poulter

Added to them the pride in lack of education. I've never read a book and it never did me any harm kind of attitude. It's embarrassing. While saying that they're better than people in any other country.

Very much this.

Also coupled, imo, with the celebration of ignorance and/or stupidity.

Small example was watching "House of Games" on Tuesday (pause here for people to make fun of my television viewing....
There - done? ).
Scarlet Moffatt could barely answer a thing and had to be practically told a right answer by Richard Osman. When she repeated it parrot-fashion, everybody clapped, she was beaming in delight, happy to be the centre of attention, appearing to feel she was wonderful and not at all embarrassing to watch...
It was like being at a party for adults where somebody insists on bringing out their 3 year old to perform their new little dance.

@LaMarschallin - I agree with you regarding the very poor general knowledge which these so called celebrities have - but it's the fact they think it's funny and clever to be so ignorant which is so worrying. Watching Celebrity Mastermind is truly cringey! What worries me is that the young look up to these people as role models.

The constant whingeing, total selfishness, blaming of others and total entitlement of people. The past 6 months have really shown me the worst in people. England.

Reverse exceptionalism. The constant whinging that the UK is the worst at...

It's not, the UK is a perfectly average developed country, if you think that it is some form of backwards hell hole then you ought to get out more.

As we're mostly talking about societal ills rather than culture I'm going with popular approach of seeking to pathologise every fucking thing

Jantelagen. It basically means that don't think you are special.

If you are successful, pretend you are just like everybody else.
If you are happy with how you look, for gods sake don't let anyone know.
If you got a pay rise, don't mention it.

UK

Lack of pride in education. Chav culture (not to be mistaken with struggling for money, I mean the actual culture). Lack of appreciation for the great outdoors.

In Sweden, I should add.

This is a sweeping generalisation of course and its difficult to articulate properly but on the continent there is a combination of self-reliance, personal resilience, personal pride, that seems to be diminishing in the UK. A "continental resilience" if you will. I've lived in Spain, Belgium, France, and visit friends frequently in Italy and Germany in normal times, and they all share it to a degree. I think it's tied up with the way they bring up children ie they are at one and the same time harder on them and give them more independence, but are more overtly loving, and warmer towards them too. Difficult to explain!

And it's tied up with health care also I think. For example my Spanish friend, despite paying higher taxes than many in the uk, is proud to spend her hard earned money on her own health and that of her family ("why wouldn't you, it's the most important thing you have?") and thinks we Brits are weird for spending thousands on our pets but not being prepared to cough up £20 quid to see the doctor and contribute towards a better health system . She thinks our values are the wrong way around "you would rather spend money on shopping". Also, on the whole, there is maybe more emphasis in schools on what is good for the group, rather than the individual.

Increasingly in the UK I think the mentality is "life is unfair and someone else should sort out my problems" instead of having trust and pride in our ability to look after ourselves and negotiate difficulties perhaps? It's almost like a national loss of confidence? A national loss of mental toughness? (This does not include people who have a mental illness of course.)

Having said all that, I rhink the UK is ahead on diversity, and is more nurturing and encouraging of non-conformity, creativity, etc. And I think in some instances we value our countryside more and our wildlife.

The division between the left and right, we need a more centrist government again (I'm left personally) but believe it's the only way to get the right wing govt out.
The negativity.
From many, the mistaken belief that the UK is still important and influential. Err, no. More like a laughing stock.

UK, the obsession with cats, which kill millions of songbirds every year and shit in your neighbours gardens.

Increasingly in the UK I think the mentality is "life is unfair and someone else should sort out my problems"

Agree 100% with this, especially when the problems have been created by nobody but themselves.

The insincerity of British people. They claim not to be racist, sexist, homophobic etc. praising the "tolerance" of the UK, while calling you slurs behind your back.

The rigidity of the class system. It's actually easier to improve your social class in low income countries like India and Nigeria compared to Britain.

Ive lived in England, Spain and now Wales.
Litter, vanadlism and dog shit the same everywhere.

Spain was waaaay more overtly sexist and racist than the UK in my experience.
But the UK seems overall to be zenophobic.

I hate how children are sidelined here compared to Spain. Kids were welcome everywhere and even badly behaved children are not given the snide eyes.
Drinking culture here sucks and means you cant go out for a quick drink to meet friends with the kids... see above.

Entitlement.

UK- drinking culture and the class system

SIngapore- the long working hours culture which is also linked to materialism- if you aren't working till 11 pm every night, you aren't ambitious. There isn't any concept of success other than working very hard and earning lots of money- this is called being practical

The total lack of comprehension from the up-their-own-arses middle classes of the deprivation and lack of resources and choices that passes for normality in the UK. The refusal to recognise their good fortune and relative wealth. The scale of the divisions, as the lower middle have been knocked out leaving only one group or the other.

@Porcupineinwaiting

British exceptionalism.

Cringeworthy when someone's spouting how wonderful xyz is, point out that actually in "name another country" they do things slightly differently and get even better results , cue huge huff and pout and "well it's even worse in "namesanother country". Total fuckingunwillingless to learn anything from anyone.

Ds2 got it in the neck from granny last week for daring to say he preferred the beaches on the Med to ones in the uk because the water's warmer. British beaches cannot be bettered apparently and that includes water temp. The fact granny has no experience of beaches anywhere outside of the uk except for Ireland and the French Alps wasnt a barrier to this opinion.

YES YES YES