ATTENTION VISITORS AND THE NEWLY REGISTERED!!!!!!

[Chris OConnor]

This is all helpful information. Us regulars need to do our best to make newcomers feel welcome. This type of forum can be intimidating at first, but once a person becomes comfortable and starts posting they tend to stick around for a long time.

[Penelope]

I am a well-known Lancashire Lurker.

I joined Booktalk because I tut tut all the time at the Americanisation of the UK. I get scared of the influence America has on our grey drizzly little island.

Confront what scares you eh?

Here am I being confrontational! - Here, there and everywhere - with the owner of this site's kind encouragement! I will post all over the place, wherever I feel provoked, until I feel at home somewhere.

And I do thank you for the opportunity.

[Ophelia]

Hi Penelope,

I think I'm not exactly the sort of person you were thinking of in terms of confrontations, but I do have a lot to say, and I'm sure other members will rise up to the challenge.

I am French. In 1990 I worked in San Diego, California, for a year, as a teacher (my first stay in the US).
Tell you what? It was DREADFUL. Cultural shock for a year, everybody was doing everything at top speed...
Someone announced to me (just because I was European) that HE did not understand British humour... and I was trying hard not to answer "I bet you don't!".

Well, work was dreadful, and the holidays (hiking in national parks) were bliss... but there was also the holiday in Hawai where I chose the quietest island and was greeted by a fair number of MacDonald's...
(This is the short version).

Then, in 1993, I went on a similar exchange programme in England and taught French for a year in Southampton.
Piece of cake! Everybody was behaving normally, etc...

But, what I'm driving to is... Never give up!
You're doing exactly the right thing by coming here.

My story is that, about a month ago, when I was looking for a book discussion forum, I didn't have a country in mind at all. Did I find an intersting forum in France, or in the UK? No!

And as for Americanization of the bleakest (ie financial) sort, aren't we responsible for not resisting?
During my year in England I went to ballets and wonderful things in London, but as far as cinemas were concerned, in Southampton it was American blockbusters or nothing, so I didn't go for a year. It doesn't have to be like this-- why don't we show more European films? Why did I know more about British cinema than my British colleagues?

I'll look forward to reading your posts Penelope, diversity is great.

P-S: I see that you are from Cheshire. My two best friends in England are from Wilmslow. I've done some lovely walks with them in many different places.

[Penelope]

I have never been to the US Ophelia. It is not fair of me to judge when I haven't been to see for myself is it? I have lots of cousins who live there, having emigrated when they were little children.

We get all sorts of television programmes from the US and of course the 'empty' films.

Because of all of this 'propaganda' I think most of the British people identify with the US. My husband and myself and 'some' of our friends feel more European. We love France and Belgium. We visit France often and feel at home there. Well we like your attitude to food - mostly. Not just about filling ones stomach - quickly. Fast Food - a curse from our US counterparts.

Our National newspapers report on what is happening in the USA and in the UK, but we get very little information about what is happening in Europe. We, for our part, still insist that we are Europeans!

We borrow films from the public library - Continental - we love the humorous ones - they don't insult our intellect by underlining everything in red. Actually we enjoy all foreign films - and watch Russian, Chinese, Afghan, Korean and in fact, anything we can lay our hands on. I am not so great with irony myself - I don't know what is so funny about Jane Austen.

But I do love the inovative American use of language. That makes me laugh and cheers me up. I really believe that there are good people in all nationalities, colours and creeds - but there are others who make you wonder! There are definitely national traits.....but as you say, God Bless the Mix....we only fear what we do not understand.

[Ophelia]

Penelope wrote:

We, for our part, still insist that we are Europeans!

I sometimes think that there are two countries living side by side in the UK:

- The people like you and my Cheshire friends, those I meet because of my hobbies ( Ramblers' Holidays, Scottish Country dancing) who go to the continent for other reasons than just the beach and discotheques.

- the staunch insulars -- here it is partly a generation thing (meaning, unfortunately, that the hostility seems to come rather from the younger generations), part of it is funny, part of it is alarming.

I'll give two examples:

1- The last time (more than ten years ago) I organized a school trip to England, we stayed with families in a small place near Oxford.

In areas such as Oxford, providing accomodation for foreign student groups is such good business that more of those services are offered than can be reasonably accomodated. The local youth seemed to resent this invasion of their territory, and abuse was occasionally directed at us-- which, fortunately, my students ignored.
Some of my students (who were from a small town in the east of France)
asked why those peoople didn't like the French, but it wasn't the French specifically I think, it was ignorance and hostility to people from a different country speaking a different language (I'm not saying this couldn't possibly happen in France but that would be a different posting).

I think part of the problem is the state of foreign language teaching in the UK, which from what I hear is on the decline. I can understand why motivation isn't strong when you don't really need foreign languages for practical purpuses (with more and more people speaking English on the continent). The problem is that your foreign language class, even if it can't make you fluent or good enough to read foreign literature, is the one place where you get the opportunity of seeing things from the other's point of view, and with his words. So less emphasis on foreign languages means more insularity, and so on...

2- I happened to read some of the comments the tabloid press wrote on an occasion when a German football club was visiting (perhaps for the World Cup) a few years ago. All the insults were terms from Word War II,
I couldn't believe printing such stuff was allowed! Even the men from my grandfather's generation had much more restricted vocabulary when speaking about the people who had been their captors for four years, and then the comments were clearly directed at things from the past.

So, again, vicious circle.

We borrow films from the public library - Continental - we love the humorous ones - they don't insult our intellect by underlining everything in red. Actually we enjoy all foreign films - and watch Russian, Chinese, Afghan, Korean and in fact, anything we can lay our hands on.

You are very lucky to have such good libraries. I gave up on the local one many years ago, and video shops are also boring. However, in Tours we can see the films at a very good non-profit cinema.

[Penelope]

In most areas of England, education is a mess. My daughter is a teacher of English Language at secondary school.

There is a lot of aggression/anger in our youth. They seem to choose any communal victim to release it. Looking for a common enemy.

The French are much to be admired - because they wont be pushed about. Perhaps we are just a lazy race, having accepted opinions fed to us by our right wing press.

I am not alone in my feeling of helplessness in the face of media power. We often feel ashamed of the behaviour of our football supporters when abroad. The press print zenophobic, provocative headlines - then berate the people for behaving like hooligans.

[tlpounds]

Why do so many of you guys lurk, then join and then NEVER make a post? I mean, I just wonder thats all. At least answer THIS post. Come on...please? Just one answer to one question at least: WHY did you decide to register at Booktalk?

I registered back in 2005 I believe, and at that time, I was living overseas in Japan. I was working full time --teaching English as a foreign language. However, I also had just started a Masters program. My intentions when I joined was to read in my spare time and post my thoughts about the books on the weekends. Oh, but how naive I was! Teaching full time and working on a Masters full time = little spare time, so I was just too exhausted to read, think critically, and respond to literature beyond what was required for my degree. Therefore, I faded fast from the forums. However, now it's 2008, and I just graduated a month ago. (Yea!) So, I jumped right back into something that I've been wanting to do for years: BookTalk!
LOL, though! My friends as work think I'm crazy. They have some idea of the sheer amount of work it takes to earn an advanced degree, and then one month later they see me tearing into The Stuff of Thought. One of my co-workers was simply puzzled. "You mean to tell me that after you've spent two years reading and writing non-stop, you want to do book reports in your spare time?!"

[annaisabella]

I also have my reasons for not posting as much as i want to and although they sound lame, that's the way it is.

I'm online only when i'm at work and as a HS Registrar, having to handle the paperwork of almost a thousand kids, leave me no time for almost nothing. Sometimes, when i get to read the stories at booktalk, i have to close the door of my office and just pretend i'm not in ; then i can give the stories a quick read, print out what interests me most and take it home to read.

I rarely go online at home cuz the internet connection is really bad. I tried to post a message here once and it took almost 15 min to open the website and another 10 to log in! But, i do know what's going on and who posts what here and believe me, i do learn a lot more than i would by interacting with friends of mine here in Jakarta

[Audrey]

Well, let's see here, I joined because I love to read and I enjoy hearing other people's thought. I like to think it makes me a little smarter :]

[ParanoidAndroid]

because this website is infinately confusing