Cultural studies

British Studies Quiz

Test your Knowledge

I. Choose the correct answer for each question.

1. The capital of Northern Ireland is

1. Dublin

2. Cardiff

3. Belfast

2. The British flag is often called

1. the Union Jack

2. the Stars and Stripes

3. the Maple Leaf

3. Ben Nevis is

1. a famous footballer

2. a sort of whiskey

3. a mountain

4. The national currency of the UK is

1. the euro

2. the dollar

3. the pound

5. The most popular sport in Britain is

1. ice hockey

2. baseball

3. football

6. Britain’s national drink is

1. tea

2. Coca-Cola

3. coffee

7. The mysterious Loch Ness Monster is from

1. Wales

2. Iceland

3. Scotland

8. The famous British newspaper which is printed on pink paper is

1. The Times

2. The Guardian

3. The Financial Times

9. The Beatles started their career in

1. London

2. Liverpool

3. Birmingham

10. The kilt is

1. a shirt

2. a skirt

3. a pair of trousers

11. British football fans

1. are the most indifferent fans in the world.

2. are very reserved.

3. have a very bad reputation in Europe for their behaviour.

12. Stonehenge is about …….. years old.

1. 40

2. 400

3. 4000

II. True or false.

1. The future king of England is called the Prince of Wales.

2. Welsh is an official language in Wales.

3. The BBC stands for “Best British Culture”.

4. A mile is longer than a kilometre.

5. Elizabeth II has two birthdays.

6. In Britain, black cats are believed to bring bad luck.

7. Speakers’ Corner is part of the British Parliament.

8. The President of Britain is elected every seven years.

9. A bobby is a guard at the Tower of London.

10. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.

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PART ONE

British cultural studies

• Subject

• Iceberg of Culture

• High Culture and Sub-cultures

• Culture and Traditions

• The Language of Cross Cultural Communication

Cultural studies as an academic discipline emerged in the second half of the 1980s. The subject of British Cultural Studies is the history, social and cultural practice of people of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and also connecting with language phenomena.

British Cultural Studies as a multidisciplinary subject is based on the notion of culture. In the United Kingdom, sociologists and other scholars such as Stuart Hall and Raymond Williams developed Cultural Studies. They identified "culture" with consumption goods and leisure activities (such as art, music, film, food, sports, and clothing). The British version of cultural studies was developed in the 1950s and 1960s. In the United States, "Cultural Studies" focuses largely on the study of popular culture, that is, the social meanings of mass-produced consumer and leisure goods. It began to combine political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, media theory, film/video studies, cultural anthropology, philosophy, museum studies and art history.

According to the British scholar Robert Gibson’s view of culture, it is an iceberg phenomenon. The visible part of culture is formed up by institutes (state structure, government, mass media, education system, etc.), artifacts (fashion, food, etc.), and behaviour (body language, addressing other people, conducting business, expressing love, hate, etc.). The invisible part of an iceberg of culture is made up of beliefs (faith, religion), attitudes (those formed up by upbringing, education) and values (shaped by the family, tradition, society).

"Cultural studies" is concerned with the meaning and practices of everyday life. These practices comprise the ways people do particular things (such as watching television, or eating out) in a given culture.

Culture is made up of High Culture (Arts) and Sub-cultures.

“Culture” includes traditional high culture (the culture of ruling social groups) and popular culture.

High Culture or Arts includes literature, visual arts, especially painting, architecture and the performing arts – music, drama, dance and film.

In cultural studies, a subculture is a culture (whether distinct or hidden), or a group of people, which differentiates from the larger culture, for example, if a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture. Members of a subculture often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, mannerisms, and ar got. The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of subcultures. It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Music-based subcultures such as jazz, punk, hip hop and rave cultures now may represent mass culture. The punk subculture's distinctive (and initially shocking) style of clothing was adopted by mass-market fashion companies.

Cultural studies comprise all the meaningful artifacts of culture. A cultural artifact is any object made or modified by a human. An artifact is anything that can be placed in your houses. Artifacts deal with kitchen and history of food, body culture and sports, housing and privacy, parks and gardens.

The word “Culture” has a number of meanings. It often refers to music, literature, art, and higher education. It also means the customs of a society and the way in which people interact with each other.

These are fundamental things that everyone knows from his or her childhood, and which are automatic to the people who live in that culture. They include everything from the common courtesies (правила вежливости) and details of daily life to the deeper issues of a person's place in society, of family, of life.

Certain types of behaviour are expected in English-speaking countries. The Americans like to speak about their home, colleges and achievements. The English like to speak about weather. Nicknames are much more often used in the USA than in Britain.

People in both countries consider time as an expensive object or material. They talk about it in many different ways. They save it, waste it, spend it, kill it. They have free time, leisure time, spare time. They invest in it and carefully budget it. Be polite and friendly in public places. Daily showers and a fresh set of clothes are the norm. Smile and people will smile with you.

There are around 6,000 living languages in the world. English is one of the most widely used languages in the world. Today knowledge of foreign languages is important because they are the main and the most efficient means of information exchange between the people of the world. Over 337 million people in the world speak English as their mother tongue, and about 350 million people speak it as a second language. English is an official language in over 75 of the world’s territories. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, in the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic, Canada and South African Republic. As a second language it is used in the former British and US colonies.

English is the major international language for communication in such areas as science, technology, business and mass media. English is used as one of the official languages of the United Nations Organisation. It is the language of computer software and video games, literature and education, popular music and satellite broadcasting, academic conferences and international tourism.

English is the language of international commerce. Over 80 per cent of the world’s electronically stored information is in English and two-thirds of the world’s scientists read in English. English words are borrowed to add to other languages. Almost all computer terms in Russian are taken from English.

Every good specialist has to know English because it is necessary nowadays. When learning a foreign language you learn the culture and history of the country where this language is spoken.

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PART TWO

BRITAIN: GENERAL SURVEY

1. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

• The British Isles

• England

• Scotland

• Wales

• Northern Ireland