This fair and green land
I've recently finished reading an interesting book (yeah, I know, you're surprised, me reading) titled Watching the English, and after living here for several years it's amazing how right-on it actually is. Before I moved over, I'd read Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson and couldn't bring myself to believe the things he talked about in his book. An orderly queue of one? What is a queue? Why is there only one in it?
However, after living here for almost 4 years now... EVERY WORD HE SAID IS TRUE. The English are a strange, funny little people, and Watching the English only confirmed this. There was a phrase in the book that I thought summed up England perfectly (besides that they have satire instead of revolutions) and it is the English 'protest' chant. You know, like when Americans are marching to protest something, and they shout 'What do we want?' 'World Peace!' 'When do we want it?' 'NOW!'
The English chant goes 'What do we want?'
'GRADUAL CHANGE!'
'When do we want it?'
'IN DUE COURSE!'
And that, my dear friends, is England to perfection.
However, after living here for almost 4 years now... EVERY WORD HE SAID IS TRUE. The English are a strange, funny little people, and Watching the English only confirmed this. There was a phrase in the book that I thought summed up England perfectly (besides that they have satire instead of revolutions) and it is the English 'protest' chant. You know, like when Americans are marching to protest something, and they shout 'What do we want?' 'World Peace!' 'When do we want it?' 'NOW!'
The English chant goes 'What do we want?'
'GRADUAL CHANGE!'
'When do we want it?'
'IN DUE COURSE!'
And that, my dear friends, is England to perfection.
posted by Auglaise at 4:01 PM
2 Comments:
I love the English chant. I'm American, but I resist sudden change. I need to move to England. In due course.
I keep meaning to read both of those books. Perhaps we can mail each other books we want to read. :)
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