WS 2011/2012                               exam translation                                          text 00

Britain

Britain is a land of very mixed and varied racial origins and composition, and this is particularly true of England proper. Mediterranean, Celtic, Roman, German and Scandinavian are the basic, long-term elements that have combined and contributed to form the character of the people which is more complex than is often realized, especially by those with a passion for generalization and over-simplification, with an eye for the “typical” this and that rather than for the individual. If we like to make a broad twofold distinction between the Anglo-Saxon (Germanic, non-Celtic) sphere of influence, on the one hand, and the Celtic on the other, we can no doubt find essential traits of mind and character prominent in each. We may venture the generalization that the non-Celts tend to be cautious, reserved and practical in temperament and approach, guided in the first place by fact rather than by theory, of a solid, even slow intelligence rather than quick-witted or highly imaginative, with ideals such as the notorious “common sense”, balance, tolerance and moderation. The Celt, on the other hand, while not lacking in the qualities just enumerated, is more open and impulsive, of a vivid and fanciful imagination, nimble-witted and quick in the uptake, a lover of talk and of eloquence, of colour and ornament. There is truth in this very broad distinction and we may pursue it a little further.

As important as the distinction is, of course, the fact that the two types, if we can so call them, blend and merge, probably throughout the British Isles in some degree but with particular and often disconcerting subtlety in England itself — a mixture usually well-balanced, but a mixture. Perhaps the best way to try to understand that phenomenon, the “Englishman” — still, it seems, for many an exasperating task — is to be prepared to find and accept a blend of contrasts rather than try to apply any single preconceived idea or standard.

from: John Bourke, Britain. A Short Introduction for Students of English, p. 12 (Hueber Hochschulreihe 3, 1971)  

"The perfect Brit":

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