British Stereotypes in the Very Funny TV Advert (VIDEO)

British stereotypes, exaggerated politeness and the little cultural codes that make speaking English far more interesting than simply knowing the words.

British stereotypes have been around almost as long as the British themselves.

Tea. Queuing. Talking about the weather. Keeping calm. Apologizing when somebody else bumps into you. And, of course, being unfailingly polite even when circumstances really do not call for it.

The image above takes that idea to the extreme. One person simply shouts “HELP!” while the stereotypically polite Englishman apparently expects something closer to:

“Excuse me, Sir. I am terribly sorry to bother you, but would you mind helping me for a moment, as long as it is no trouble, of course?”

Ridiculous? Yes.

Completely invented? Not quite.

That is why stereotypes can be funny. They exaggerate something we recognize.

And British English gives comedians plenty to work with.

A British person saying “Not bad” may actually mean something is very good.

“Quite interesting” does not always mean the speaker found something particularly interesting.

And “We might want to think about that” can sometimes be a remarkably polite way of saying: No chance.

This is also where learning English becomes much more interesting than memorizing vocabulary and grammar.

At Verbalists, we have always looked at language as communication, not simply as a collection of correct sentences. To really understand people, you also need to understand humor, tone, understatement, politeness and the cultural habits hiding behind the words.

You can understand every single word somebody says and still completely misunderstand the message.

We have done some digging and found the great video below, which plays with exactly the same idea. The McVitie’s advert, created for the French market, takes a collection of familiar British stereotypes and pushes them just far enough to make the cultural differences instantly recognizable and very funny.

And if this makes you realize that there is rather more to speaking English than knowing when to use the present perfect, have a look around the Verbalists Education & Language Network portal and explore our English language courses abroad.

Language Courses & Study Abroad at Their Best | Verbalists

Studying in an English-speaking country puts you into the situations textbooks cannot really reproduce. You hear how people actually speak, joke, disagree, apologize and communicate outside the classroom. That is a big part of becoming a “real” English speaker.

It is also one of the reasons Verbalists has become known internationally for an approach that combines serious language education with travel, cultural immersion and real-life communication. We do not want our students to simply know English. We want them to know how to use it with real people in the real world.

So yes, learn your English. But also learn when “not bad” is actually praise, when “interesting” is probably not praise at all, and when somebody saying “sorry” has absolutely nothing to be sorry about.

That part is usually more fun anyway. 🙂

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