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分类: IT职场

2014-12-29 16:20:01

合璧儿妈妈读书会开到第三期了,有太多精彩的分享。其中首期蔚蔚推荐的老舍先生的《二马》给我留下很深刻的印象。如果说《二马》揭示了旅英华人生活和其国民性的中西文化碰撞,我要推荐的这本Watching the English 则是牛津大学人类学学者Kate Fox 以最严谨的学术思维和方法对他们自己社会的洞察。

watching the english

这本书2005年出版,当时读它有两个理由:一个是因为刚来英国不久,作为留学生,非常渴望能超越对’英国绅士’的肤浅概括,对这个特别讲究社会阶层划分的国家有深层次了解;另一个理由是这本书所用的学术研究方法: participant observation (参与观察法:即深入研究对象的生活来实地互动观察)为正是我的博士课题研究所用的方法。2004年我刚刚从北京结束为期近一年的田野考察返英着手考察资料的整理,归纳和毕业论文的写作。作者从社会观察中提炼洞见的本领让我很受启发。drop

相隔近十年,为什么要重读并推荐这本书?这几个月合璧儿伦敦群里大家有关‘公校’vs’私校” 和 ‘孩子受到bully’ 的讨论都让我联想到多年前读过的这本书。我们这一代的旅英华人父母多为近十年来出国大潮推出来的‘新移民’ ,我们选择在这个国家受教育,成家立业,抚养后代,就不得不面对这个对社会阶层高度敏感的社会环境,读懂这个社会。 人说华人最重视孩子教育。说的直白些,一代代的海外华人砸锅卖铁的供孩子念书,出人投地,不都是想给孩子更好的 “social mobility”, 让他们超越自己的父母,过上更好的日子, 更被这个社会所认可,接纳和尊重么?

我们每天都在面对‘融入’这个话题。那么先让我们看看人家自己人是如何分出个三六九等吧。人说了解一个人的最佳方法是“听其言,观其行”,这本书就是从语言和行为这两个角度来观察英国社会各个阶层,并试图归纳每个阶层的特征。 就像只有学外语的人才会认认真真学语法一样,作者写作这本书的目的就是提供读懂这个社会的“语法”。陈晓陈妍希

这是一本关于英国社会阶层的书,然而全书并没有试图对阶层进行划分,它涵盖的内容包括 “天气,穿着,幽默,语言,手机,酒吧,家居布置,工作场合,食物…” 却唯独没有专门谈论‘阶层“。 正如作者所说的:“上等,中产和工薪阶层”的划分太过简单粗暴,而完全基于职业的A,B,C1,C2,D,E 的划分方式也许适用于购买力和购买习惯的分析却不能提供更多的洞见。作者指出:一个教师和一个房产推销员也许都住联排房,都开Volvo, 在同一个酒吧喝酒,年薪相当,但是我们判断他们的社会阶层并不止于这些如同简历一般的事实。就像工作面试,我们更关心的是更细微,更复杂的, 也更能反映一个活生生的人的那些生活细节他们如何装饰他们的联排房,家具如何摆放;他们的volvo是自己洗,专业洗还是依赖英国多雨的天气;他们和谁一起吃饭,吃的什么,在哪里吃,他们聊天的时候说的话,用的词和发的音;穿什么衣服,到哪里购物……

然而本书的可读性并不在于作者的深厚的学术背景,恰恰相反,书中对英人行为的精细观察常常辅以幽默的调侃和自嘲。切不可被作者开头学术式的研究方法讨论吓住,因为这实在是一本可以当作搞笑书来读的正经书。w

2006年台湾出版了中文版《瞧这些英国佬》,不知道译本是否也还保有原版的幽默风趣。以下的摘录只是书中的一小部分精彩内容,想知道更多精彩,更多共鸣,请读读这本书吧。如果想深入了解这个话题,最好还能结合最近BBC 热播的纪录片 Posh People: inside Tatler 一起看对于真需要阶层攀爬宝典的读者,也许看这本是不够的, 您应该花1000多磅卖本德陪礼礼仪指南 (Debrett’s Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners) 仔细研读,或者报个培训班像凯特王妃那样被从头到脚打造一遍。

Debrett's Guide to Etiquette and modern Manners

有关隐私 (Privacy):英人最恨 ‘好事儿的帕克’

George Orwell observes that: ‘the most hateful of all names in an English ear is ‘Nosy Parker. … in most other cultures, revealing basic personal data- your name, what you do for a living, whether you are married or have children, where you live-is no big deal: in England, extracting such apparently trivial information from a new acquaitance can be like puling teeth-every question makes us wince and recoil.

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别装灯了 (Oh, come off it!):英人不屌任何人

‘Oh, come off it!” is a strong candidate for England’s national catchphrase. …the lastest slang is being ‘up themselves’ or ‘full of themselves’…as someone once said, the English have satire instead of revolutions.

Tony blair

阶级划分关乎语言:一张嘴就露馅

“…class in England has nothing to do with money, and very little to do with occupation. Speech is all-important…. there are other class-indicators-such as one’s taste in clothes, furniture, decoration, cares, pets, books hobbies food and drink-but speech is the most immediate and most obvious.”

发音:BBC English or ‘oxford English’ is more upper-middle than upper, it lacks the haw-haw tones, vowel swallowing and pronoun-phobia of upper-class speech.

用词: “U and non-U” refers to upper-class and non-upper-class words.

阶级攀爬避免七宗罪:

1. Pardon: a lower class indicator, some even refer to lower-middle-class suburbs as “Pardonia’. Upper-middle will say ‘Sorry?” instead of “pardon”, Upper class or working class will just say “what”?

2. Toilet: upper or upper middles say ‘loo’ or ‘lavatory’, ‘gents’ ‘ladies’,’bathroom’…only lower middle,some middle-middle or working class say ‘toilet’.

3. Serviette: is the working class version of napkin.

4. Dinner: is again a working-class hallmark if you use it to rfer to the midday meal, which should be called lunch. Calling your evening meal ‘tea’ is also a workin-class indicator. The higher echilons call this meal ‘dinner’ or ‘super’. tea, ofr the higher classes is taken at around four o’clock and consists of team and cakes or scones….while lower class call this ‘afternoon tea’.

5. Settee: a settee or a couch is below middle-middle, upper-middle or upper cal it a sofa.

6. Lounge: Settees are found in ‘longes’ or ‘living rooms’, sofas in ‘sitting rooms’ or ‘drawing rooms’ (drawing room is short for withdrawing room)

7. sweet: upper or upper-middle call the sweet course ‘pudding’, never sweet (middle-middle or below), or ‘afters’ or dessert’ (least offensive of the three)

Other wordings to be mindful:

how to talk posh

“叉子上不超过8颗青豆”:怎么吃比吃什么重要

英国人跟食物的关系被形容成“无爱的婚姻”, 美味佳肴在英国人看来是 “特权“ 而不是 “基本权利”。“most of us are proud to claim that we ‘eat to live, rather than living to eat”。就是这样一个不讲究美食的民族,却在用餐礼仪上锱铢必较,最著名的“叉子上不超过8颗青豆”并不仅是夸张的笑料。原因就是用餐礼仪的方方面面都 能暴露一个人的社会阶层。

有教养的上等人:叉子朝下,一边叉住几颗豆子,一遍把更多的豆子用刀叉挤碎推在叉子背上送进嘴里。更讲究的人家会要求孩子 “每次最多不超过八颗豆”。那些常见的吃法:叉子翻过来当铲子用,或者,直接用勺子吃青豆可都是会贻笑大方的哦。

pea-eating

坚决不能像美国人那样把所有的食物切成小块,然后把刀放下,只用叉子吃。有教养的英国人总要每次从一整块食物上切下来一口吃的下的小块。面包也是一样的吃 法,用手掰成小块,抹上黄油,小口吃完再继续。餐桌上的水果也是一样要分/切成小块来吃,一次吃一整根香蕉在英国人眼里是‘monkey style’, 正确的吃法应该是:香蕉剥开,切成小块,慢慢享用。

二手店购物不丢人?

The upper-midle classes will hunt for bargains in second-hand and charity shops, which lower-middles and middle-middles would be reluctant to be seen dead in. …Yet the upper-middles and middle-middles would be reluctant to buy their groceries in the cheap supermarkets, with names that emphasize their price-consciousness such as Kwiksave and Poundstretcher, favoured by the working classes. Instead they shop in middle-class supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and tesco, or the slightly more upper-middle Waitrose.

M&S:英国社会阶层指南针

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Different class buy different things at M&S:

  • Upper-middle: food and underwear+ plain and basic items
  • middle-middle: food (not entire week shopping), wide range of clothes, furniture
  • lower-middle/upper working: food as special treat, clothes, cushions, duvets and towels

爱阅读的民族,不阅读拉不出

bog reading

  • Jaremy Paxman: ‘a people obsessed with words”, more newspapers per head than almost any other country.
  • “Reading book ranks as even more popular than DIY and gardening in national surveys of leisure activitiy and over 80% of us read a daily news paper.”
  • There are many Engish people -particularly males- who find it very hard to defecate at all unless they have something to read. If there is no proper bogside reading, they will read the instructions on the soap-dispenser or the list of ingredents on the spray-can of air-freshener.

(本文英文部分如非特殊说明均为引用或者摘录原文)

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