Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

My my, Mr Gugelhupf you do seem upset !

The vitriolic response from you and others just illustrates the depths to which public discourse in the UK has sunk.

Perhaps your response is so heated because you know that there is something very rotten in the State of Britain ?

Have a nice day.

[leeroy]

[SueH]

It seems Leeroy has got in with many of the points I would have made if I really had the time and energy to respond at length. I�m afraid (pace grahamb) that Scot47 s posts rarely enlighten in any constructive way and after a time are as predictably amusing as a saloon bar bore. I wouldn�t use the language gugelhupf used, but I can understand some of the frustration behind the sentiment. I quite expected to see his statement �Politeness and diplomacy are qualities traditionally highly regarded in this neck of the woods� transformed into a negative opinion from Scot that hypocrisy and mealy-mouthedness abounds. There is in fact no discourse in any detailed sense to which we can respond. I can well believe the statement that �I am in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - which I find a more congenial place than Her Majesty's Dominions�, and I seem to recall money being mentioned but I don�t recall any other reasons for this opinion. This may be more a reflection of the person than of the country, but it is difficult to tell. Generally Saudi posters seem to have a jaundiced enough view of both the country and their expatriate colleagues and the word �congenial� seems conspicuous by its� absence.

So far this thread has criticised negativity and apathy in the UK as well as hoping that we �outgrow your positive outlook on the wonders of life in the UK�. I suppose I might agree with �confused��.

[steampig]

Well, blow me down if the UK forum hasn't just taken off! As for the negativity about Britain. Let us make a few points. Working in London is a particularly unremunerative place to be in our line of work. I won't say 'profession' or else Scot (probably correctly) will jump down my throat. However, there is a world outside of the bustling metropolis. If you want to earn some money try going 'up North', where life is far from grim and can be reasonably remunerative. The universities in the north of England are overflowing with Chinese students, which has inevitably led to a great increase in the need for teachers and a consequent need to pay reasonably. Far from the 12 pounds an hour you will get in private language schools in London, I know most universities pay over 20 pounds an hour and one that pays nearly 30 pounds an hour, which is respectable income, especially if your rent is cheaper.
I think, and I am certainly not going to check it up, that it was in Sherlock Holmes story that Picadilly (the London one, before outraged Mancunians write to tell me there is more than one) was the centre of the Empire and rather like a giant plughole attracted all the scum of the earth. I am merely paraphrasing. The point being that the concept of Britain 'going to the dogs' is a universal theme of British life. I think it was Dostoevsky who wrote of the melancholy English drowning their sorrows in public houses, not talking to each other. Now since he also commented that English women were the most beautiful on earth, he may not be the world's most reliable correspondent, but I hope you take my point. Erasmus, wrote scathingly about the coldness of British housing after visiting Thomas More. He, also, wrote about how crap the wine was, which was a little unfair since climate change during the fifteenth century had rendered our vineyards obsolete and we, therefore, were importing our wine from France. The French no doubt, as they do to this day were selling their rubbish abroad whilst keeping the drinkable stuff for domestic consumption. Even in The Middle Ages it was said that ' the English take their pleasures sadly'. It probably accounts for our national pastime of flagellation, which means that pleasure can only be accompanied by pain.
Historical correspondents going back to the middle ages also point out that the common Englishman had a remarkable capacity for mindless drunkenness and violence. Recognise anything here?
Personally, I blame the climate. It is impossible to be happy for too long in a climate as dark and dank as the British one.
Now there are plus points to all this. The British are a wonderfully sceptical people who have a proud philosohical tradition of empiricism that wholeheartedly flies in the face of most of the european tradition. Not being excitable they tend to treat ' triumph and disaster' with similar acerbity. They have put a great tradition of words to be the servant of literature and rarely that of political polemic. They have a healthy scepticism of politics of all kinds, especially, when it involves ideas. Their dislike of ideas has meant they managed to avoid some of the twentieth century's worst manifestations in communism and fascism. However, their inate sense of freedom allowed Karl Marx to spend his time in London writing 'Das Kapital'. Incidentally, both Marx and Engels utterly despaired of the English as a revolutionary people despite the fact that 'Kapital' was entirely based on Britain's nineteenth century capitalist society. So, it's not all bad I think.
Anyway, that's my two pennorth. I hope it hasn't caused too much offence.

[gugelhupf]

Thankyou, Steampig, for a breath of fresh air! Thanks too for the reminder that GB extends well beyond the M25.

[naturegirl321]

[grahamb]

Yes, he died last July, if I remember rightly. A friend of his posted an announcement about it.

[grahamb]

The UK extends even further north than the dark satanic mills. There's a quaint little place called Scotland. It's not perfect, but the natives appear immune to the Europhobia that is endemic in England.

[leeroy]

Yep. That's why people don't like scot47. It's because he's Scottish.

[khmerhit]

Carry On Up the Khyber, Scot. Keep up the good work, cheerio pip pip and all the rest.

[SueH]

Ah yes, Khmer - a classic of the genre, best after a number of pints of Pedigree and/or a few spliffs, according to choice.

[Capergirl]

Well, things are getting heated on the UK forum!

@Leeroy, I agree with you. Why would any sane North American want to come to your piddly little country? (Well ok, all the phone boxes may not be red, but those double decker buses are damned charming! )

I feel sorry for the queen's palace guards, though. Can you say "cruel and unusual"????

[Will.]

Right.........
Correct me if I am wrong, but a certain lady of the spangly pants was planning to visit the southern parts of our wonderful metropolis this month, if my memory serves me well.
The continent of origin of this young lass? North America.
The question asked: why would any sane North American.............
Does this mean you are no longer sane or you are no longer visiting?

[Capergirl]

Is your name, Leeroy?

Will, I would have to have been considered sane to begin with in order to be now declared "no longer" sane, but you are correct about the my North American roots and my plans to go to your part of the world. Yes indeed, I had planned to make a trip to England this spring but that trip has since been put on hold indefinitely. I had also intended to find ESL work there, if possible, but those plans have changed as well (for reasons I would rather not get into here).

Nonetheless, I still think England is a beautiful country and would love to return sometime in the future, even in spite of the large number of people who insist that the English are boorish and rude.

[Teacher in Rome]

... which judging by some of the comments in this thread, they are!