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Hey everyone and welcome back to
another episode of the 

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Understandable English Podcast. 
My name is Oliver and today we 

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are going to talk about 
understanding the British people

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or understanding the British 
mentality. 

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So how British people behave or 
think, how they can be seen as 

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perhaps different, some cultural
differences. 

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The reason this topic came up is
I was thinking with people who 

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live here, how people behave 
differently, so some cultural or

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mentality differences. 
We're going to be basing or 

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reading this off of an article 
and it's called Tips for 

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Understanding the British 
People. 

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I will link this article in the 
description of the video if 

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you're watching on YouTube and 
of the podcast if you're 

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listening to this on Spotify or 
Apple Podcasts or Google or 

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wherever you listen. 
So with the way the world has 

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changed with globalization, 
which is the process of things 

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becoming more global and shared,
the Internet has played a big 

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role in this. 
We can watch videos or content 

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from countries all around the 
world, and we also can all 

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communicate and share our ideal 
ideas and mentality, which has 

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led to us becoming more familiar
and similar than ever before. 

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However, I think of course every
culture and country has 

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differences too and it's 
important to understand those. 

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Otherwise we can try to think 
about different cultures through

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the way we were raised for 
through our own cultures 

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mentality or mindset. 
The difficulty with this, for 

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example, is that something which
is acceptable or normal in one 

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culture might be seen as where 
rude or unacceptable in another 

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culture. 
So it's important to understand 

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the culture and the context of 
each country that you go to. 

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Which is why today I want to 
focus on my culture on the UK in

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general. 
It's important to note that of 

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course the UK is different. 
All over there is England, 

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Scotland, Wales and Northern 
Ireland, and each of these 

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places have their own cultural 
differences too. 

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But I'm going to look at some 
general ideas within the article

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that I'm going to read, or at 
least take ideas from and 

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discuss them with you. 
So let's get started. 

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One of the big focus points or 
points of UK culture and society

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is individualism. 
So individualism, what is this? 

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So society in the UK likes to 
focus on and reinforce 

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individual achievement. 
So we are very focused on 

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individuals. 
Other countries for example have

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more of a collective focus, so a
focus as a group, so achieving 

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things together for the better 
of the country. 

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This could be seen within 
certain political ideas such as 

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communism or socialism, but the 
UK tends to be very different on

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this. 
It's a lot closer to the USA, so

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very big focus on the 
individual's interests. 

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So in the UK the individual, so 
one person, your individual self

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and your rights are most 
important. 

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So everyone should look after 
themselves and their family 

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before everything else. 
So people tend to be more 

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private and focused on 
themselves and their close 

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circle of family and friends, so
that can be a little bit 

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different from some societies. 
This can also affect the 

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workplace and business. 
Teamwork is important of course 

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to achieve goals, but even 
within teams people can compete.

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Management particularly likes to
look at individual performance 

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as well as team performance. 
So the performance of individual

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people is very important and it 
can be very competitive. 

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And this also is the case in 
education. 

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Education is a competitive 
system. 

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Here it is based on your 
individual performance and at 

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achieving the best that you can 
achieve. 

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The next area we will look at is
communication. 

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For me this is the biggest 
difference from other countries 

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or a lot of other countries, 
because there are countries that

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have similar communication 
styles to the UK. 

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The UK has very mixed 
communication, so different 

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parts of the UK can be 
different. 

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In the South of England, for 
example, people often seem to be

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more indirect and reserved, so 
more private with their emotions

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and what they think. 
People in the north of the UK do

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tend to be more open and direct 
about what they want and what 

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they think, but of course every 
person is different and 

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communication styles are 
different from each individual 

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to the next. 
I'm not going to talk about 

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communication too much because I
do have a few extra podcasts 

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that I have made in the past 
about indirect and direct 

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communication and also about 
British politeness, so how 

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people perceive things as polite
or as rude. 

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OK, so the next point that this 
article talks about is personal 

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space. 
And it says that in general the 

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British are quite private in 
nation or in natural in their 

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nature, so they are naturally 
quite private. 

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And the quote they have put is 
an Englishman's home is his 

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castle. 
So people put a big value on 

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their home and it is the place 
where they can be themselves 

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most freely and outside of the 
home. 

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So in society, in public, people
behave and conform to the social

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norms. 
So the normal social behavior. 

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Personal space is seen as very 
important in the UK and people 

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don't like to stand too close 
together. 

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They don't like when people 
invade or enter their personal 

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space. 
Of course, again everyone is 

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different on this point. 
Some people love to hug for 

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example. 
Uh, some people like a 

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handshake. 
This is different from person to

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person, but in general people do
like personal space and they 

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don't like people being too 
close and all over each other. 

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They do like space here. 
Another big point in UK culture,

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which is particularly important 
for work culture, is action. 

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So in the UK there is more of a 
doing orientation or a tendency 

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towards action which is being on
time, so not being late and 

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getting your work done. 
Often companies don't care so 

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much about the time but more 
about the result, so getting the

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work done and the result. 
This can be different because I 

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know even when I lived in Russia
for example, companies would 

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want me to stay in the office 
for all of my working hours even

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if I wasn't doing any work. 
The time mattered more to them 

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than the action and the result. 
Whereas here most companies, 

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they want the result. 
If you get your work done then 

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it's not as big a deal if you, I
don't know, finish early or go 

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home a little bit early. 
The result and the action is 

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important. 
But I think in general that this

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also is different from the city 
to the countryside and from the 

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South to the north. 
In the north and in the 

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countryside things tend to be a 
little bit slower. 

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But within the workplace, I 
think it's true and that it's 

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important to remember especially
being on time. 

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It's a big part of British 
culture and being late can be 

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seen as being lazy or not 
respecting someone else's time. 

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Those are the main points that I
want to talk about today. 

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I hope that was interesting and 
helps you to understand some 

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different characteristics of the
British people and society here.

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If you enjoyed this podcast, 
please be sure to come back for 

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the next one. 
Follow the podcast and if you're

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watching on YouTube, subscribe 
to the channel. 

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Thank you very much for 
listening and I hope you have an

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amazing day. 
Goodbye.