I’m delighted to welcome back my real ‘merican guest blogger, Sabrina. She has an ‘opposite’ view to mine – opposite in the sense that she now lives in Europe and puzzles over Brit-speak in much the same way as I puzzle over ‘merican. She's chilling out in the UK at the moment - literally it seems. Over to Sabrina:
I’m in England for a week and baffled by an idiosyncrasy. Are the English genetically less cold sensitive than people of other countries? It’s amazing to see people dressed in light clothing as if they were enjoying balmy temperatures on the Italian Riviera. But in reality, the daytime temperatures have been 6°C/42°F.
At night, when it is even colder, the girls dress in the same uniform: mini-skirts, bare legs, bare shoulders, spaghetti string tops, open-toed high heel sandals, but not a sweater or jacket in sight. I know the pubs get really warm, but these girls spend as much time outside as inside, walking from pub to pub, smoking a ciggy, and waiting for their train or bus home. The young men have a bit more clothing on: they wear T-shirts but no jacket.
So Vicki, I have a theory about this and maybe you can tell me if I’m wrong. I think that when English babies are born, they are first bathed in ice water before being given to their mother. And each day babies are dipped in ice water to toughen them up. How else could anyone stand the cold the way English do?
Sabrina Gerland Mallon was born in California and has lived in Germany for 25 years, where she is a Business English and intercultural trainer. She kindly allowed me to drag her away from finishing her PhD in intercultural communication to write this piece. Thanks Sabrina!
Click here to see another of Sabrina’s takes on the British.
Hi Sabrina – this made me laugh. I live in Siberia and it gets pretty nippy here in the winter but, still, I have to open the window from time to time because it gets too hot for me. My students can’t believe it: it’s minus 40 – why would I want to open a window. Maybe it is genetic.
“and the same thing happened here last year
but you don’t wanna know
in England people walk around wearing raincoats
and running shoes in the snow
you don’t wear no hats or gloves
it don’t make no sense
you still think with that silly umbrella
you can conquer all the elements.”
Loudon Wainwright 111 – another American who suffered in the English Winter from his song ‘You don’t wanna know’ and his album Therapy 1989
Pretty nippy in Siberia at minus 40, Sputnik? I think you’ve just inspired another post on British understatement. Thank you!
Oh great reference Chris – thank you!
LWIII can be seen performing it here folks: (ah sorry – since I posted tthat the video has been removed from youtube, but it’s perhaps worth doing a search?)
Vicki i didn’t give you a link to that video because the performer is NOT Loudon but the impersonator – Jasper carrot.
Loudon’s original is soooo much better – i’m listening to it now (on cassette – how retro eh?)
Nuts. I say, the Brits are nuts.
No really, they say that everything we experience happens principally in the mind and that one can even control temperature there.
So my explanation for it is this – the masses follow, no matter what it is they’re following because if they perceive something to be “cool” (pun not intended) then they will do that thing – like wearing Uggs, like wearing spaghetti straps in winter.
And the mind becomes so convinced that the latest “hottest” trend is indeed the right thing to do that the normal effects of temperature are completely banished and in fact, they do really feel comfortable walking around like that.
Of course, Sputnik is the exception.
There really can be no plausible explanation for opening a window at 40- … nope, the sheep theory won’t work there… hmmm…. hmmm…
Sabrina, yes, quite possibly the Brits are bathed in iced water upon birth.
Karenne
p.s. :-)Hi again, nice to see you again via Vicki’s blog.
Oh Chris – I didn’t realise. Thank you for putting me right. Avoid that link I just gave to an impersonator folks and go buy the original.
I forgot to mention that, so ingrained is the compulsion to expose ourselves to the cold in Britain, we have the word ‘nesh’, meaning you feel the cold easily, i.e. too easily. This word has a bunch of other meanings to do with weakness, cowardice and general pusillanimity. All of which goes to show that we can’t help our addiction to the cold – it’s even in the language.
Ha ha…
I have noticed this behaviour myself. The funny thing is when you ask a British friend if they aren’t feeling cold, the usual retort is “But I’m English!!”
As if we Greeks, French, Americans, Italians, are mere weaklings compared to the sturdiness and bravery of the British race…
Go figure!
Well Marisa,
See the thing is that after being colonized by Angles, Jutes and Saxons in the 5th Century and then almost wiped out by Vikings in the 8th, not to mention the battle in 10.. what was that number, ..66, they were hardened…
oh, wait, the Greeks, French, Italians all went through lots of trials and tribulations too… nope there’s no answer for it other than it’s gotta be a mind thing.
Dear, dear. This post seems to be attracting far too much attention, particularly from warmer Grecian and Caribbean climes.
Please understand that you are poking fun at Cool Britannia’s national dress here. If it makes our lips turn from red to white to blue – well, who cares, as long as the upper one gets stiffer.
I am amazed at the discussion that my contribution has caused. It looks as if we are all considering our own behaviours in how we deal with weather. And look at us from the warmer climates are the ones who are talking the most! (I’m originally from California) Though I love Vicki’s comment about the stiff upper lip red and blue colouring. Now that is a new way of looking at the subject!
Having been away for over 20 years, I have found myself looking upon my countrypeople with amazement, and the first thing I do when I get to my parents’ house in winter is to go to the bedroom and close the window (which I know will be open).
However, there is an opposite, equally bizarre attitude which I experience here in Romania, that of being obsessively anti-cold. It does get very cold here (it was -23 yesterday and it’s March), and obviously wrapping up warm in such temperatures is sensible. But come spring, if I dare walk out the house with my daughter in +15 degree temps (C) with her not wearing a hat and scarf, I am shunned like a child abuser. Many people here stick cotton wool in their ears for much of the year so as to avoid draughts. I mean they can’t hear anything and run the risk of getting run over and stuff, but at least their inner ears don’t get chilly.
I like to think I have somehow gravitated to a sensible middle ground, where cold is neither the biggest evil that the world can present, but nor is it something to ignore as if it were nothing more worrisome than a light zephyr.
giggle
This is just so true,here in German the Germans simply cannot understand the Brits especially the soldiers running in t-shirts and shorts in the winter. It is one of the questions I get asked most often I think . An especially going out in the evening without a coat. I asked my Yorkshire husband and my married to a Scot daughter why they were not putting a coat on when they went down to the pub. Too much trouble was the answer we put it on ,take it off in the taxi,then put it on to go from the taxi to the pub then take it off and find somewhere to hang it in the pub. Not forgetting that they then have to remember to pick it up before they come home. I think I have the answer it is simply too much trouble and they don’t feel the need for it.
Sheila
Hang on, hang on!
I’m a Brit and i’m freezing just reading this!
I’ve got thermo underwear on and a hat on my head and my wife is even colder.
The central heating is on full blast, i have a fire in the stove AND i’m wearing pyjamas under the double thick duvet when i get into bed tonight.
And i live in the South of France.
This is great – our stereotypes are being broken! There are Brit around who wears thermals to bed.
Sorry about the grammar errors. I meant: There are Brits around who wear thermals to bed
I think Chris got kicked out. He HAS to live in the south of France because they are the only ones who would take him. And Karenne, I am uncomfortable with the delight I detect in your recounting of the history of British defeat… I sense bitterness ; P
Here is Japan, it gets much colder than my native southern England…. but the heating is lousy and there is no double glazing. As with so many other things, the Japanese attitude to cold is confusing. School girls wear jackets, hats, earmuffs…. and miniskirts. The heaters are whacked up full blast and it all blows straight out the window.
And if you sneeze, people instantly ask you if you are cold. Not if you HAVE a cold…if you ARE cold.
I’ll tell you my theory. We Brits have learnt to ignore the weather because it refuses to follow any logic. It could rain, it might be sunny, it could be quite warm, there may possibly be a bit of snow. Probably, at some point, it’ll be cloudy. But in all likelihood it will be ALL of these things at some point. So why worry about it? Just wear what you want to wear and let the weather get on with it.
I remember a trip to Brighton beach with my wife (a native of Japan). She complained, incredulously, that she was both too hot and too cold, AT THE SAME TIME. Yes, my dear, I explained… that’s the weather. Don’t encourage it.
Mustn’t grumble though.
That’s the spirit, Chris
Darren your explanation is quite logical. If you have so much weather change, why let it get in the way? Your comments reflect that English pragmatism and “stiff upper lip” attitude. So it isn’t genetics after all.
And they say Dogme is THE topic of the week…
Oh Chris you are just nesh :-)).
Darren you are so right, the British weather gets the treatment it deserves from the British citizen. If it is going to behave like an attention hungry child we are going to treat it like one and ignore it ’till it grows up.
Dear Vicki love the topic.
Love seeing you here too Sheila. Warm, toasty wishes from a chilly, Philly.
Wehey! I need to make an update to this post.
Folks, Sabrina Gerland Mallon is no more. I’m thrilled to announce (for possibly the first time in wrting in public, Sabrina?) after her successful viva, we’re now addressing DOCTOR Sabrina Gerland Mallon.
Bravo Sabrina! So well deserved.
Thank you so much Vicki! This is really much appreciated. My son is calling me: “Dr Mom”:)
Oh Darren, no! Sorry, currently writing a PK on the history of English and was just taking the p***
Just to add ‘my mustard'(as they say in German) to the Brits and the weather – I was quite surprised at our Christmas party in Munich when an English gal appeared in a flimsy summer dress, light jacket (synthetic, no problem) and stocking-less feet in peep-toe footwear – so the spirit of bravery goes on to conquer the continental punies!
Ha! Welcome Joan and thank you so mcuh for chipping in. (Pls forgive my tardy reply!) Trust that English gal has survived the winter – but she sounds like she is made of such stern stuff that I feel sure she mustard. 🙂
[…] Gerland on our penchant for dressing scampily in chilly weather and how we don't know how to say goodbye. Posted by Vicki at 7:42 […]