What’s the point of being superior, if no one’s jealous!

hilarious..i especially enjoyed the white hair woman with black glasses she was too real thanks for the laughter

As for the parting comment about being able to tell someone’s class the moment they opened their mouth, the first sentence revealing where their father went to school and this being remotely important only in Britain.- I know of one other country- India. Not surprisingly a former colony of Britain!

@tushar1603

4 жыл бұрын

Totally Second it. India beats the British in the class system BY MILES!

@crackajacka87

3 жыл бұрын

I'd add Japan to the list and that isn't a former colony :P

@burxana22

3 жыл бұрын

That's why Britons didn't care about removing the Indian class system, too many similarities.

@divyanshichopra

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely!!! Unfortunately, we are judged for class and caste in India.

@rbrahmadathanful

2 жыл бұрын

@@burxana22 they probably tried their best but simply couldn’t. Afterall there are many lin​guae ​fran​cae

"The most glorious, astonishing, extraordinary baked potato. Whereas, rather boring losing an arm.". Funny stuff.

@maginnuss8791

4 жыл бұрын

Bicycle Ninja "The most exrordinary, astonishing, glorious BOILED POTATO." If you're going to quote him, then actually quote him.

@karent-s7639

4 жыл бұрын

@@maginnuss8791 Well at least s/he said "baked potato" and not "jacket potato."

This makes me miss my British stepfather SO much. The last statement says it ALL...how do you speak...so you are. That was howhe pegged people when back in Britain.He had the "proper"accent and could get away with saying the most outrageous double entendre things simply because of HOW he said them, esp when visiting in America where my mother was born. He was "colonial" born in India in the 20's sent back to school of course as a child...back and forth "out to India" after school holidays. He went to Sandhurst was an officer in the Grenadier Guards, fought in WWII, was hired by a school friend as a shipping executive in that family firm , in the "Far East" his entire career ending up last in "colonial" HongKong .Retired first to Australia then to Farnham, Surrey. He always struck me as more British than the British....something about being a cossetted colonial Brit so he didn't keep up with the changing times. I adored him because he seemed an antiquated character from a musty leather bound novel. He was a great story teller, lived a very full life , chock full of adventure...I mean he really was over the top delightful.

@pbohearn

5 жыл бұрын

Sybil Francis what a character! And a wonderful grandpapa lol

@AlisonsArt

5 жыл бұрын

My mother had a fall and was unconscious. The paramedics came and were putting her on a stretcher. One said, "Just lay back here...." and she said, "That's 'LIE' back."

@MarilynCrosbie

5 жыл бұрын

@@AlisonsArt Love it!

@dogie1070

4 жыл бұрын

You are also a good story teller. I really enjoyed what you wrote about your stepfather!

@dogie1070

4 жыл бұрын

@@AlisonsArt ...correcting grammar no matter how dire the circumstances! That's quite a snapshot of her character :o)

Being an American, I'm not big on the class system. But I do wish that good manners were still important to everyone, everywhere.

@Sunshine-zm1fx

5 жыл бұрын

Manners are part of the class system. I grew up in a rural, working-class town and people made fun of me when I wanted to be polite and learn to have good manners. (They also made fun of me for the amount of novel-reading I did. They always said, "Who do you think you're trying to be?" How dare I want to "better" myself.)

@missylowe2181

5 жыл бұрын

@@Sunshine-zm1fx the fact that you were reading,and wanted to better yourself shows that you were much more intelligent than the people who made fun of you !

@MarilynCrosbie

5 жыл бұрын

@@Sunshine-zm1fx they are threatened by people like you. I hope you continued to be yourself and do what you wanted to do!

@Jay-vr9ir

4 жыл бұрын

@@Sunshine-zm1fx They can go F... themselves, you live your life.

@williamwallace2278

4 жыл бұрын

America has a class system, along with more extreme racial divide ontop

"Only in Britain does anyone think it's remotely important.' Huzzah to that.

I moved to Germany to get away from the British class system! After 10 years in Germany I now sound really strange when I speak English which is perfect-- no one knows where the bloody hell I'm from! :D

I'm Nouveau-riche: oh no, I've just used an affected French phrase, back down I go!

@marinazagrai1623

4 жыл бұрын

Daniel WOODRUFFE...I have news for the "posh/aristocracts" people: your class, at least 70-80%, ancestors lots the family wealth when they've overspent it (or taxation of property by order of the G the V, through the new Labor Parliament -resembling the coup in Russia) a lot of aristocrats married the wealthy American girls with lots of dough to inject some wealth in her new family name.

@horse69outside

3 жыл бұрын

In English please.

Class amongst the Boers are interesting. The more rough the diamond, the higher the social and financial standing generally. Transporting the black Steinway concert piano from the farm to the Opera House in the city on the same truck that generally transport the race horses to the race course or the cattle from the veld to the abatoir, is nothing strange here....

@HamCubes

4 жыл бұрын

Most elucidating and aptly put!

when I lived in Britain , being South African , the Brits didn't quite know what to make of it , so I befriended the Irish and Antipodean contingent , we had much to talk about , manly rugby and beer .

It's easy if you're Canadian: A serviette is made of paper and likely comes out of a dispenser at a diner. If it's cloth, it's a napkin. The "smallest room" is generally called the bathroom, although it might be called a lavatory if it only contains a toilet and sink. If you're looking for a public facility, you'd usually ask for the washroom. (Restroom is more of an American thing.) "Toilet" refers to the fixture and not the room. When I was a kid, the term "working class" really confused me. As far as I knew, working for a living was a good thing. It was not having a job that put you on a lower level.

I actually hate inverted snobbery! (I don't like plain snobbery either but inverted snobbery REALLY pisses me off). My grandparents lived in council houses in pretty much working class towns in Yorkshire, but my parents are teachers and we live in a nice house, and my friends always hold it against me and assume that my life is perfect just because 'I'm posh'. I really can't stand it when people assume things about me...especially when I'd never do it to them!

The most extraordinary, astonishing and glorious boiled potato😂😂

Amusing. In the U.S. this is more predominant on the East coast. In Southern California, it's all about what you do and where you live. We say sofa, we don't have sitting or drawing rooms, they are living rooms or if you have a new or nreovated home, "great rooms".

@sandramcdaniel2

3 жыл бұрын

Living room and Dining/family room. Good memories.

The blonde lady petting the horse was gorgeous!

My father? He didn't go to school. He dropped out at the third grade to help support the family.

Prince Phillip very dashing especially with aviator sun glasses.

Only in Britain does anyone think class is important. Respecting everyone (even the person who cleans your "lu"or removes your garbage) however, is very important.

I've just come back from the lavatory and am now reclining in my sitting room. As a matter of fact I was given elocution lessons as a child. It was gloriously divine.

@daffyduk77

7 ай бұрын

you mean, the khazi

I once heard a toffy Englishman diagnose a woman as 'a grammar school girl' after a few minutes of talking to her; he then put his own credentials on the table by discussing how at boarding school his masters had canes called persuaders and convincers to beat the boys and of course the boys never bothered mummy and daddy with their troubles. All spoken in a distantiating, ironic tone.

In Canada we call them napkin, living room, couch or sofa and washroom. I think I would blush if someone asked me where to find the toilet - it’s too direct and it makes you picture that person using it.

@2eleven48

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, it's the most terrible thing to think someone is having a piss or a shit in your toilet, because, you know, that's basically something none of us do. I only hope you have a spray or scented candle for the pervert who produces a stinker.

@zutknacka216

4 жыл бұрын

2eleven48 please calm down. What did I say to make you speak that way to someone you’ve never met?

I is classy bruv innit I’m so low class I thought a drawing room was an old name for a room used for writing/studying lol.

Wildly funny! These videos should be shown in many a Communications classroom on both sides of The Pond. Cheers!🙋🏼‍♀️

I think the Indian class (i.e. caste) system (also practiced in Nepal to my understanding) is far more ingrained and important than the British one is today. Maybe it's because this series is over a decade old, but I don't think the class system is quite as 'important' here anymore. Most people in London with money are foreign anyway, and the majority do not care about nor understand being 'upper class' as defined by English standards anyway.

Nothing like British humour 😂👍🏼

The smallest room in my house is the bathroom. In a retail establishment it would be called the washroom or the restroom. The fixture that flushes is the toilet. The room where we sit is the living room or the family room. Napkins are made of cloth and serviettes are made of paper. We use both but not at the same meal. I am Canadian. I do not think we have classes here but some people have more money than others.

@pbohearn

5 жыл бұрын

No serviettes in the USA! Sounds French! And no “Socialized Medicine!” (Aka National Health System) sounds Socialist! Lololol

@Peggyt-jp6mt

5 жыл бұрын

@@pbohearn You must be from LaFayette, Baton Rouge or perhaps New Orleans, all of which are French. As for "socialized medicine", the USA is the only developed nation on the planet that does not have a national health system. Sounds backwards to me!

A little peak into the Dutch upper class; Class overhere is more linked to real and serious money, but also to the way in which this is NOT flaunted. Dutch upper class for instance will never drive something ''vulgar'' as a Rolls Royce, Mercedes S Class, BMW or even a Jaguar. That's just common. They drive discrete Swedish quality cars like Volvo or Saab, WITHOUT ( o hear ye all! ) a mobile phone. Preferably well maintained and cherished classics. And when it's a classic a Mercedes also fits the bill. A FWD is allowed, as long as it is a genuine Landrover or a Defender, or a Mercedes G class and you actually live in the country. Their wardrobe is not trendy, but just quality. No fur coats please. And absolutely no synthetic fabrics. Leather is allowed, but suede and (real) tweed are better. Navy blue, grey or black suits and blazers and no ''loud'' ties for gentlemen. Ladies have more freedom, as long as it is not (NOT!) ''sexy''. Anything related to that is considered private and reserved for the bedroom. And they speak without any accent, neither poche or vulgar. Regional however is allowed as long as it is authentic. And an old, but solid town- or countryhouse, furnished with wheatered Chesterfield sofa's and a somewhat tatty wooden floor, with marble in the hall, kitchen (with an Aga of course) and bathroom, which doesn't need to be that big, is more a sign of class than a bulky, new villa, with all the mod cons in a suburb. No stereo's or sound systems, music is produced by intruments they play themselves. And if you really have to, please use earphones in a seperate room. No big tv sets, but a small one in a closet with doors. No I-phones or mobiles please, but lap tops, preferably on an antique desk. And use a leather bound agenda or filofax, with a nice fountian pen instead of all that digital junk. Tennis is sooo middle class. And golf is for people who are unfamilair with the joys of sailing and hunting. Positively NO soccer/football. Hockey and rowing are allowed, but only when you're young. So is horseriding. Ice skating however is a must, allthough totally classless. They donot only speak English, but also French and German. And they know their Greek and Latin as well. They (we) are discrete about our finances, but when needed we just buy it. Money is not an issue or; THE expression that is a dead give away for being Dutch upper class, ''Geld speelt geen rol.''

@irvos6003

8 жыл бұрын

Walter Taljaard this is why I love people from north )

@euomu

8 жыл бұрын

+Irina Voskanova The Netherlands isn't in the north. It's not a Scandinavian country.

@voskan

8 жыл бұрын

+Classified. it really depends on where you look on them from )))

@euomu

8 жыл бұрын

Galeno Delmar Dutch chocolate isn't a thing. You must be talking about Belgian chocolate.

@euomu

8 жыл бұрын

Galeno Delmar oh my god

Very funny how my American working class southern country grandmother said words like sat-tee, luv& doyle 😆

God I loved these three vids! Thank you.

As a Canadian whose family has intermarried with British people I find this subject fascinating and impossible to fathom. It seems to keep your society so distracted and divided...and for what.

The British take the class system seriously. When I lived their in the 80's, everything was based on rank. Where you park your car in the car park, for example. I remember being invited to Ascot, and learning where you parked your car depended on your social status. You have to work your way up. The exception being the aristocracy (toffs), and royals. They use the Royal Enclosure car park, and even then it's based on your rank. The whole thing is silly. Management at lunch with management, never with the subordinates. The British have a place for everyone, from the Queen to the street cleaner. There's even a book, Debretts, that explains everything!

@susanbowman9139

5 жыл бұрын

That reminds me of an incident about 20 years ago when I was with a small tour group from the US in the UK. We had a rather fancy dinner planned one night, and we had an extra paid-for seat as a person had cancelled. We invited our coach driver to join us, and he was actually moved to tears. He stated that a British group would never have invited their driver to join them for a meal. It was a natural thing to do for us.

@samhardy6319

2 жыл бұрын

I think that's a very specific example - generally people don't think much about it.

Australia may not have the same class structure but they sure can be snobbish. I remember that having a double garage was the thing to set you part from others. Or if you had the Ford Fairlane over the regular Flacon you were also one step up the ladder. If you lived in the western suburbs of Sydney you were bottom of the heap. If you took a European holiday that was really something. Did you shop at Franklins or Coles? There were lots of little ways to set you apart from those farther up or lower on the social scale. Most of them were tedious illusions of social difference and importance.

@JM-gu3tx

5 жыл бұрын

I hope and pray not having that annoying twang wasn't one of them. Reminds me of the annoying twang Americans and Brits can have, too. I would like to post that speaking a basic international English is probably the best way to avoid being put into a category. Dialects are fun, though, and can be quite quaint, even strong, like Scots is.

@mscott3918

5 жыл бұрын

cdgh99 Definitely Myers Bargain Basement.

@dawiemeyer1630

4 жыл бұрын

But all Australians are descendents of jail birds, how is a class system possible other than the normal jail gangs that also have a certain hirarchy ?

@maginnuss8791

4 жыл бұрын

Tavish M Don't like 'annoying twangs' of Brits, Aussies & Americans but 'dialects' are fun..? You sir, are a tosser. And where are you from, oh basic-international-English speaking one? Do tell, we'd love where this advice on how to speak comes from?

@maginnuss8791

4 жыл бұрын

Dawie Meyer stupid much? You think every person that went to Australia was a convict? HAHAHAHA

I really enjoyed the narrator and his posh voice. Entertaining little programme.

@MichaelSHartman

5 жыл бұрын

A favorite of mine, Geoffrey Palmer. He performed Leonard in "As Time Goes By", and as an admiral in a James Bond film, both opposite Judi Dench.

@ts121084

3 жыл бұрын

But he said “DIE-lemma.” 😂😂😂

Oh we do have class system in the United States, however, we don’t like to admit to it. This is specially true among middle class and upper middle class. Even with the working class there is tendency to look down at others. Accents also play a big part of this also. Here, instead of the BBC accent, we have the Broadcaster speech. In order to hire as news caster or reporter, you need to lose your local and regional accent. This especially true if your from the South or a big city like NY, Chicago, Boston or Pittsburgh. Even among ethnic groups, once you are movie up the latter, you tend to hide, drop or modulate the tone of your voice as to avoid being stereotyped. It’s called “speaking white”.

@653j521

4 жыл бұрын

Eduardo Ramirez Jr I have heard many regional news people with regional accents. It's when they want to go to the national markets that employers want a more Midwestern accent they feel can be understood immediately by everyone. However, that has waned over the years and now you are much more likely to hear regional accents, admittedly muted, on the national platforms, just as the BBC has allowed regional accents on the air. Listeners by now are more sophisticated and can understand a wide variety of accents without straining so much they hurt themselves. :) When my cousin went to a fairly elite college they wanted her to take elocution lessons to lose her accent. She declined. We thought that was hilarious. I don't think it in any way affected her ability to succeed in life. But then, she wasn't on tv or the radio. Just consider what the Golden Age of Hollywood did to accents to see what serious pressure can be placed on those in the entertainment field. They had to affect a "transatlantic" accent or go into comedy or horror. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn each created a persona that the moguls and the public liked. Fortunately people can be more diverse today although we haven't achieved all we can.

@HellwrathUK Thanks for posting this! I find it not only extremely funny/amusing but very insightful into the class system in the UK which is alive and well :)

Jolly amusing chaps 😂😂😂love it xxx many thanks x.

Excellent series!

Love this. Like holding a mirror up to my life. I moved from Lancashire to Oxford to try and dismantle the class system. Oh well, at least I tried!! It didn't work needless to say. I do say serviette and settee.

Thank you! Was feeling homesick and this weirdly cheered me up

Thanks for uploading!

I think, everywhere in the world, you can tell what class someone belongs to the minute they speak. Even in my country, South Africa. But you HAVE to be a local to recognise that..... same as in any country, not only Britain.

Extraordinarily Brilliant!!

As an austrian english student I hereby feel very enlightened! :D Wonderful series!

@dawiemeyer1630

4 жыл бұрын

where does the upper class in Austria live? how is upper class defined in Austrian terms?

Hahaha I don't know why this made me laugh so much; "Toilet? TOILET? It's so hard, isn't it? Where's the toilet you toilet?"@5:50

Haha! The US had its own version of “the BBC read the news” accent. It was a well-enunciated Kansas City accent. The advantage was that it could be understood all over the country without drawing any attention to itself.

@Peggyt-jp6mt

5 жыл бұрын

I think you mean a well enunciated Canadian accent.

@ts121084

3 жыл бұрын

According to linguists, the Ohio accent-somewhat of an oxymoron-is today considered the most neutral.

very amusing and so spot on! Cheers for sharing :)

American class system - people with money and everyone else.

@palyesse

8 жыл бұрын

+naf1943 Nigeria subscribed to this Class system too( I am afraid I shan't be found posh)

@naf1943

8 жыл бұрын

Ditto! And I'm actually kind of proud to say that! haha!

@jesmalar

7 жыл бұрын

Well... no. There's class (simple money) and there's class (you have it or you don't), here in the USA too. "Nouveau riches" are often rude to service people, and don't involve themselves in cultural patronage activities - as examples. Their cars may "look rich," which would be considered tacky by older wealth. Just saying; we can tell here, too, if not at the level of the British. On the other hand, we don't tend to look down on people at all just because they are self-made if they have a "tasteful" approach to their new money - those people gain great respect, and in that sense we're a lot more fluid.

@bethbartlett5692

5 жыл бұрын

Oh there's a How Much and How Long - among the 1% - (MS Astor's List, so to speak) lol - but yes - we are quite Lower Minded Ego -

@latinaalma1947

5 жыл бұрын

@@jesmalar It used to matter WHERE and how you had your money and how long you had had it. It was preferable to have had it from being landed during from Colonial times (the Byrds of Va.)even if you had lost it. Family names really mattered. In non-Colonial areas like Texas eg Houston, if your money was from (Horror) OIL like the Bushes, you were declasse, it had to have been from cotton, the old money crop. "Cotton people" would sneer at the oil money donors to the museum or symphony trying to "buy their way in" as many had been roustabouts or dirty oil drillers...literally covered in oil once upon a time. All over the world "class counts"...eg Central American countries it matters greatly if your ancestors were of the Conquistador class...names Like Marroquin eg and whether your family had and esp STILL have a homeseat in the former Colonial capital of C.A., Antigua, Guatemala.Property prices there rival Miami as a result and the diaspora all over Central America flock to Semana Santa processions in Antigua Easter week to reminisce .

In Chile as well, the class identity is instantly revealed as soon as you open your mouth. The "Brits of America" as the chileans are called in the region,

Loved this

"The word 'common' seems to _meeeUH_ as someone to be frequently encounteredUUH"

Loved this!!

Oh my fav Brit @ 3:58 - Laurence Llewellyn! I love this talented Interior Designer - he is so fun! ...Lady's Room. Every Time - not toilet! And - nope - You've not been to the NE or South - USA! Truly Class Conscious. USA

In America, in private you say use the bathroom, in public you ask for the restroom.

@Wanamaker1946

4 жыл бұрын

Matrim Cauthon ...very true. I would here my mother say, “I’ll be right back, I need to refresh myself”. I like the description of using the lavatory. This came from school days. I love the little girl when asked what her daddy did for a living. She sweetly said, “he is a “Chauffeur” So cute.

@MrJm323

4 жыл бұрын

@@Wanamaker1946 ...What IS a scuffer?

@Wanamaker1946

4 жыл бұрын

MrJm323 Sorry, I never go back and edit my comments. They always respell or use a word that has nothing whatsoever to do with what I wrote.

The last bit was right on the mark. In Canada class is this ancillary vestige of older societies. Sure, we have an upper class but it doesn't immediately show, nor does it matter all that much. I had a friend that I went to summer school with that apparently belonged to one of the richest families in the city. But I didn't know until a few weeks in and I certainly couldn't tell by just looking at her. This stuff seems so alien and therefore intriguing to me.

@653j521

4 жыл бұрын

MobiusCoin Do you have your guests take off their shoes before they can bring germs into your pristine home? There are ways to immediately know what class you are. And then there is the east/west divide that brings out other aspects of class.

Aaah...England, please don't ever lose your poshness.

this whole thing is hilarious

So funny and educational! Good Gawd, Man!

I went to boarding school in the UK and his is ball busting funny!

cont'd Depending on where you live, we say den (which is where we read and watch the TV) and formal livingroom or diningroom, I never hear lounge ever! except maybe to refer to people lounging by the pool. Very interesting comparisons.

In Canada many people do not refer to the 'bathroom' as a room at all but an action. "I have to see a man about a horse", "I have to carve a bit of wood", "I have to read up on the stock market", etc.

@Rosie6857

6 жыл бұрын

Similar to what I do. The terms used depend on the circumstances. I would never tell my rather posh cousin I needed a f****** piss (as I would say down the pub) but would say rather discreetly "I've got to go upstairs". I'm lucky in that I can adapt but it would be a healthier society if one didn't need to.

The BBC accent sounds very pleasing - some of the others are not even intelligible.

amazing!

Excellent video. We have the same nonsense in Mexico, especially if one prepped with the Jesuits.

@latinaalma1947

5 жыл бұрын

Oh yes, Latin American countries are incredibly class conscious.US Americans have no idea that there ARE any class differences in Latin America unless they are well informed. They lump the upper class Latinos in with the campesinos and or even drugeros, it is all the same to them....that too is weird. Completely uninformed. I also love it that when my blonde blue eyed self is in the USA, Latinos there assume I cannot understand Spanish, which has led to some very odd situations. When I answer them in Spanish they look astonished as if a dog could suddenly could speak!

I enjoyed this series. I just have to add that in French society it is quite easy to "peg" people as well. I don't think class is a strictly British phenomena. I am very familiar with the French system, so I can say with some authority that is quite as bad. Just think where the terms "parvenu" and "nouveau riche" etc...come from. :) So I can only suppose that class is just as discernible in other societies as well.

honesty, i don't think i would really want to mix with the upper class and posh-wannabes... they seem to fixated on really superficial things, and most probably aren't very well grounded in reality.

@mscott3918

5 жыл бұрын

Here Beforeyou I don't agree at all. The real fun is with the old fashioned working class and upper class, who get on and enjoy life and don't give a damn about what other people think. The middle class are too insecure, having risen from the working class and often aspiring to be upper. They are the real snobs. Certainly the upper class have no need to be.

@dogie1070

4 жыл бұрын

I like nice people the best! They seem to be everywhere. No two are alike.

@avamasquerade

4 жыл бұрын

The only thing more boring than tolerating this malignant tedium is watching someone try to emulate something so fantastically, mind-bogglingly, GLORIOUSLY(!!!) *boring*...am I doing it right yet?

@SubjectRandom21

4 жыл бұрын

That's because they aren't grounded in reality. Their focus really is on very superficial things. They care way too much on what and how others perceive them either in public or in private. Behaviour is also incredibly superficial and blindingly obvious to anyone. Rich people, either super rich or just rich, worry about losing money and yet don't want to be seen to being behind the times. Most of them have very high attitude levels of being cavalier and can't take it if someone is "better than them".

@yukiphan7547

4 жыл бұрын

@Here Beforeyou And one paycheck from being homeless.

It was kind of funny to watch this as an American. I had to Google so many of the slang words. LOL I don't think marks of wealth are as easy to see here. Some of the poorest people I know own $500 phones and some of the wealthiest raise chickens and grow gardens on modest farms. Not that it really matters.

@sherryd3299

5 жыл бұрын

The poorest people I know too all own $500 iphones. I have some money in savings and some in a retirement fund but I have a cheap smart phone.

@mscott3918

5 жыл бұрын

Sherry D So do I. My phone was £35 and does all I need. In my local town I see people begging who have £1000 smartphones.

In America it's all.about where you went to school.we absolutely do have a class system. Buried under the hostile.racism.

It was a sad day when the notion of class became related to bank account or heredity.

That was wonderful

"i would rather have molton lava poured in my ears than say 'serviette'" she said it get the LAVA!!!!

@Elle_Gowing

5 жыл бұрын

Molten lava. Is there any other kind?

As an American, I find it difficult to wrap my mind around this. Since we don't have an aristocracy in the same sense as the English, we don't follow the same norms. Here wealthy industrial families rise and fall in rather dramatic ways, so even the rich tend to be more crass. We do look up at the rich, but not because they come from old money, but because they're usually new money an we relate to them.

@MsMesem

10 жыл бұрын

Sorry but I spent time on the east coast and everyone seemed to be totally obsessed with family origins and living style. Came on the Mayflower etc. You took the BUS!

@randolph1917

10 жыл бұрын

MsMesem Who is denying that? Most Americans are of at least partial British ancestry, even black Americans.

@bunnihophop

10 жыл бұрын

MsMesem Sure but we don't really label who is what class by their accent. We really only can tell what part of the US they're from. If you went to Texas, you couldn't tell whether you're speaking to a rich oil guy or someone from the trailer park. They all sound the same because they are from that area! lol

@randolph1917

10 жыл бұрын

Lisa Gherardini Well, it depends, at least in the South we do have the accent of the Southern Aristocracy, the southern belle type, spoken by the elite oil, cotton, and agricultural industrial families. They speak in a longer more drawn out and elaborate words.

@MsMesem

10 жыл бұрын

It ain't necessarily so... The t'ings dat yo' li'ble To read in de Bible, It ain't necessarily so.

Talking about the class system is something only affluent cultures do. Others hardly have the time to worry about class as they go about the daily business of living. It is true, only in Britain is it such an issue, it is something unique. And it is such a trove of material for satire! Harry Enfield's Tim Nice But Dim for example, just great comedy. Class and geographic-accent divisions in Britain are core ingredients that make british comedy great in all its non-PC glory.

@653j521

4 жыл бұрын

Soilhands You need to get out more. It isn't just in Britain. In many poor countries there are the haves and the have nots. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You think THAT isn't an issue? :) It is such an issue they have revolutions over it.

@soilhands7853

4 жыл бұрын

@@653j521 Not really. You misapprehend me. I never said that poor countries don't HAVE the same situation. Of course they do. I am saying only in affluent countries and especially in Britain that it becomes something so pervasive and talked about in social culture and media, and so openly made fun of on telly.

I grew up speaking American- English, I use words such as washroom or restroom. I think asking for the toilet is pretty crass. I say napkin, living room and couch or sofa.

One thing we say here that I always thought was very British: can I give you a lift? and we attach the word "actually" after a sentence. Still fun to see the differences.

I need more from the clip @4.45 LOL!!

@stayjit1 Where I was born in Canada we called it the washroom.

We have a very strict system of class in the US. We just like to pretend we don’t. Because our country is so large, there are many regional variations. For example, people from the northeast and west coasts believe they are superior to everyone else. This is so funny because the rest of the country has the opposite view. My southern belle mother would faint dead away if she had to speak with someone from New Jersey. They would be so appalling to her refined sensibilities.

Only in britain do they think class doesnt wxist else where. Hello remember india your former colony?. Caste system ring a bell?

@marinazagrai1623

4 жыл бұрын

Myron Venero...of course they are the only people who think they're different...it's such a pretentious idea! People have had some class system as far back as we can think of. The better hunter was the "strongest and got the chicks"... The British aristocrats got along very well with the Indian aristocracy because they lived under the same social system.

This satire reminds me of the book, "Everybody Poops."

What I love about the U.S. is such things are ever so very, very subtle.

@pbohearn

5 жыл бұрын

Tavish Yes and no cuz celebrity culture (rich AND famous) and “bling” populism adds into the formula what is the glaring wart of the newly rich: aspirational but crass hunger to acquire and exhibit a lux life all the while acting the fool, or thug or ho lol. Education? Usually not interested. Basic courtesy, social skills and concerns outside of oneself demonstrated? Rare, indeed. Cringe worthy moments? Daily. In the hyper competitive aggressive, screw regulations and get government oversight off our backs, we are left with the behavior best exemplified by our Common Commander in Chief : pushing, literally shoving, his way through a Group of European leaders he was meeting for the first time, so that he would get to front and show everybody that he’s in front, quite shamelessly.

@gplunk

5 жыл бұрын

Old money in the U.S. is like that; nouveau riche is an entirely different matter....

From this I seem to be working class - thank God!

I beg your pardon Mrs. Hardin is my kitten in your garden! LOL!

Smashing!

We say bathroom or restroom, instead of toilet. Which is so crass, about like asking "Do you have a bowl I may piss in?"

@JulieWallis1963

4 жыл бұрын

NothingToNoOneInParticular but there’s not always a bath in there. I would never _want_ to rest in there either.

@NothingToNoOneInParticular

4 жыл бұрын

As open and forthright American can be, like it or not. We treat baser functions with circumspection. Restroom is as oblique as it gets and the norm. Truly to ask for a toilet is as crass as asking for a bowl to piss in. Lol We are a Puritan founded country, after all. Lol

I'm not British, so could someone please tell me what the class implications are of what I would term the Promiscuous or the Errant 'R'? It is heard at the end of words which are supposed to end in an indistinct vowel sound, as in: "Ameriker and Canader are two countries in North Ameriker." I'd be grateful after wondering a long time.

The beekeeper is frumpy.

After thinking about it, the United States seems to have a class system, but with less emphasis. There are distinctions in housing, automobiles, attire, speech, and possessions. It chiefly revolves around the appearance of disposable income, and attitude. Ironically, those through merit have risen from humble beginnings to wealth tend not to be snobbish. These tend to be smart with their money because they know it's value, and how to make more with it. Lasting quality ranks above fads. Personally, I dislike snobs placing them with pretentious, and self-religious people.

Obsession with class is essentially insecurity. A person who is secure in his 'upper-classness' doesn't give a rip about class because he can take his position completely for granted: his ancestors reached the top and he's stuck there. No need to prove anything because everyone knows. Thus he is so secure in being in 'the class everyone ELSE aspires to' that he can dress in raggedy clothes, raise chickens and collect toilet seats if he wants to, and never bother asking anyone what school he went to or where his house is or what his father does: who CARES when you know that YOU are at the top of the heap? Everyone else is obsessed with class because of the great insecurity of knowing that they are not in the highest class. So they want to prove that they are higher class than they are, or they go in for reverse snobbery and try to be lower class than they are, or they insist that class doesn't really matter and it's stupid. But the only person not talking about class and truly not caring about it is the person who is securely in the most desirable class: the rich and privileged descendants of the powerful and privileged. It's the same when you've got people living in a culture with a lot of mixing of races. A snobbery will develop about different people's degree of 'whiteness' or whatever the color of the rich and privileged in that place. American Blacks don't like to talk about it, but they judge a Black person more or less fortunate based on how light or dark his or her skin is. Likewise Indians prefer to have Caucasian features and complexion rather than a darker, more obviously Indian complexion. On the other hand, being half-white in Japan or China or Korea is likely to make you second-class compared to the majority. It's all about the security of KNOWING you are 'in' and have the 'right' pedigree to be among the privileged and powerful (which often equals rich) or the insecurity of knowing that you're not in that group. It applies everywhere - at school, in offices, in courtship, in race, in professions and in 'pedigree.' I often think one reason that the English are so snobbish and hateful of Americans is because Americans as a rule have a complacent, unquestioning security in themselves and the superiority of being from the USA rather than from anywhere else. After all, people EVERYWHERE want to emigrate to the US, don't they - rather than, say, Latvia or Nicaragua. They have for centuries, so the US must be better than other places to be born and live in, if people from every country are so eager to get the hell out of their country and get to the US (including a large number of our 'founding fathers,' who came from Great Britain). I think it's the American's complete lack of giving a damn about class distinctions that annoys the British - who MUST have SOMEONE to look down on (they built a whole empire on race snobbery, after all). Essentially, the British are deeply insecure people. They really NEED to feel superior because they know they are not really much as a race; they have no particular genius for anything; their racist empire was a human rights nightmare and eventually slipped out of their limp, incompetent hands. What have they got to pride themselves on when racism is no longer allowed? Class distinctions and the pretensions of superiority, snobbery and looking down on others - like the French and Americans - who don't give a damn what the British think about anything. Kind of sad that a whole nation should be so insecure and have so little to take real pride in that they have to invent artificial distinctions to boost themselves up somehow.

As a german I had never heard the word "drawing room" before reading the Jane Austen novels and watching the movies ... but it was little words and phrases like this (which were horribly botched in their translations into german ... "taking orders" was translated literaly instead of "becoming ordained"[1]) which made me interested in the actual culture of the upper-/middle-classes of the time. MANY problems of today can be explained by a look at that ... like the fetish/addiction of the english ruling class with their financial system. It was a leeching "slaves harvest sugar for us and we reap the profits" back then and now it is the same with all the investors and their "global trading" nowadays. [1] Since then translation errors have become somewhat obvious to me and they are VERY frequent in the BBC productions of Jane Austen.

@FigaroHey

5 жыл бұрын

'Taking orders' DOES mean 'being ordained.' It also means, 'accepting commands from a superior.' The two are related. A man who is ordained to the priesthood 'takes orders' from his religious superiors (in the sense of receiving ordination and accepting commands), because he 'takes orders' from Christ himself (Go out into the world and proclaim the Good News, and Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ' - Christ's Great Commission to his disciples.) If you heard 'taking orders' in a Jane Austen novel, it almost definitely meant 'being ordained to the Anglican priesthood.' Off the top of my head, I can't think of any examples from Austen in which someone 'obeying commands' would be described as 'taking orders,' since that's virtually restricted to a military context (or nowadays, a waiter in a restaurant) or someone working in a mercantile position - none of which are described in detail or feature prominently in Austen's work (soldiers and sailors in her work are always in the company of ladies, not engaged in soldiering or sailing or taking orders from a superior officer).

the "class system" is one of the most fun aspects of British life...8>)

It's quite simple. It's how you treat people, sense of humour, being self deprecating & empathetic. The rest is just details & most importantly it has absolutely nothing to do with money. My aunts Fanny Weetabix & Thelma ffanshawe-Chomodley taught me that.

When I was an exchange student in England, I said the word “bathroom“ and was told that was very offensive to say. Also, I was to say “bin” not “trash can.”

@ts121084

3 жыл бұрын

What I find hilarious is that most-not all, but most-of the standard American terms for these objects and rooms are considered upper class in the U.K. I personally use “restroom,” and would say “bathroom” only when speaking to an intimate partner or close family member in the privacy of my own home, and never when guests were present. My 90-year-old grandmother, who told me at an early age to never say “couch,” still speaks of the “powder room” and the “ladies’ room.” (There is, I might add, one common-class marker in the U.S. that drives me up the wall: use of the term “den” or “rec room.” Eek!)

Oddities; many Brits (WC) pronounce garage as gar-idge, but everyone in US as ga-rahj. However, Brits at the bottom and ALL Americans say ad-ver-tize-ment, not ad-ver-tis-ment. Then again, all Brits say President O-bamm-a, instead of O-Bomb-a.

The way she says toilet! 😂😂😂

LOVE IT!!

Setees are typically lightweight?

The evening meal is dinner not tea,you wouldn't hear anyone say we dress for tea.

@BigyetiTechnologies

3 жыл бұрын

Tea is what you have when you get home. It's only dinner if you go out.

Nancy Mitford's book on speaking in U and Non-U covered all this with an acid wit.

Intellectual power simply isn't a factor in the English class system.