What is Englishness?

I'd like to share with you some postcards I brought from England. Two of them seem to be part of a series called 'Get around in English. Lesson nº...' and probably this is done on purpose to mock at EFL Coursebooks. That's what I thought when I first read it, but maybe you have a different interpretation! The first postcard, the one with the man drowning in the river-Thames maybe- is hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing when I read it precisely because during my first days in London I was shocked to discover that every English person I met was as polite as the man in the postcard. The man who checks your seat at the theatre says 'Thank you' when you give him the ticket, the teacher at the course would apologize for silly things or use constructions such as 'Would you mind...?' ' If that's not too much trouble...' every time she wanted us to move, or to change pairs, etc., etc. Then I got used to it but at the beginning I couldn't believe my ears. And after some days I reached the conclusion that we Argentinians are so very impolite! I hate generalizations but I honestly believe that 90% of us are like that. A few days after I came back to Argentina, I was at the butcher's and I literally stared at a woman who instead of 'asking' the butcher for the things she needed was actually giving orders to him, using the imperative: 'Dame 1 kilo de supremas. Ah y matambre también quiero. No, no no me lo cortes así. Bueno, ¿cuánto es todo? No me des dos bolsas, poné todo en la misma.' Oh my God! This is so rude! Isn't she listening to herself? She did not even say 'please' or 'thank you' when she left.

In my opinion, this is an issue for us as teachers and teachers-to-be, because we need to make students aware of this huge difference between the target culture and ours. What is your view on this? Do you agree?

The second postcard is also amazing! After quite a few years of studying Phonology at Teacher Training! When I saw this postcard for the first time, the long hours spent in front of the mirror practising the English sounds came to my mind. Did that happen to you as well? And when you listen to native speakers you realize that your Phonology teacher was not exaggerating at all. They actually speak like that! Our students also find the sounds odd or overdone when they listen to CDs in the classroom or even when they watch films at home, even though American movies are more common. I will never forget the way my teacher at International House, Fiona, pronounced my name. She produced the a: sound in the middle of my name, it was delightful to listen to her. For the first time in my life, I wanted a teacher to call me in class!!! Isn't that funny?

Well girls, if I happen to find more postcards like these-I'm almost sure I have more but the big question is where-I'll also share them with you!

We keep in touch! :)