What do you think are the characteristics of the English ??

Answer 1

talk about weather alot, moan alot, love a good cuppa(cures everything), roast beef with all the trimmings, when there is a real emergency everyone rallies around. Strawberries and cream at wimbledon, football dominates most conversation down the "local"!

But typically the main characteristic of English i would say is a great sense of humour and they are often slightly eccentric.
Oh yeah and a true english man always supports the underdog!!

Answer 2

The main characteristic of the English is that it is so difficult to define what being English means. Our society has changed so much over the recent past that all the stereotypes are being eradicated. Jeremy Paxman's book The English is a good read.

Answer 3

The sense of humour I would have to say, both by quality and volume. Nothing is taboo, people make jokes about everyone and anything, all the time, even if it might be quite a sensitive subject. The mentality that life must go on, and you should be able to laugh about almost anything. The sarcasm obviously too, almost our entire sense of humour is built on it.
That's the main thing I've noticed about being English, we rarely take anything completely seriously, everything is fair game for satire and ridicule, and everything is a joke.

Polite I'd like to say, although obviously, with the rise of the chavs, that isn't always the case. Quite traditional too.
Are quite happy foods that aren't fancy; I know very few people who'd rather have a very fancy meal with exotic salads and red wine sauces over sausage and chips. I think that's why our cuisine is mocked so much.

I'd like to go on complimenting ourselves about ore stoicism and the like, but I'm not exactly an unbiased individual.

Answer 4

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RE:
What do you think are the characteristics of the English ??

Answer 5

Reserved, the majority have good manners, dry wit, insular, binge drinking, have a good sense of humour. Why do people seem to think when 'the English' are mentioned on here that it means the English language? And Angelo26 when we say the English we mean people who were born in and inhabit England and call themselves 'English', Britain and British are both political inventions!

Answer 6

Apart from talking about the weather?

Interesting question given that the concept of Englishness has evolved. Yes, read Jeremy Paxman and Kate Fox for a real grounding but characteristics could be viewed as:

Positive
Polite, unobtrusive, inventive, eccentric, tolerant, cultured and literate.

Negative
Xenophobic, nostalgic about past times when England was a power, insular, elements of class and snobbery still pervasive.

I think this could be a long running question.

Answer 7

I'm Welsh but most of the English I know (including my other half and his family) are decent, down to earth, funny, nice people to be around. You do get the odd snob but then you get them everywhere sadly. Thats nothing to do with their nationality.

English people usually have a good sense of humour and are pretty friendl and open to new experiences. Being a "Celt" myself it shames me to admit that Celts can be pretty defensive about their heritage and can be aggressive and have a massive chip on their shoulder - they can be very unfriendly to anyone different to them - loads of the Welsh boys I know have this big "thing" that everytime they meet an Englishman they have to pick a fight with him, which is really stupid and annoying. Most English guys I've met are not like that at all.

I think some Scots are the same (not all obviously).

When I go to England and tell people I'm Welsh they are usually really nice and tell me about the holidays they've had in Wales. I've never experienced any nastiness at all which is why I get so embarassed by the way Welsh people act towards the English.

Answer 8

Read the book by Kate Fox, Watching The English.

Answer 9

Now is this English society per se or the oafs who come on here?
It used to be about a sense of fair-play and an old-fashioned set of manners.
Now they seem intent on getting everyone to dislike them.
The nutters who come on here are not indicative of English people, most of whom are the same as the rest of us.
Their football fans are loathed the world over but they too are just oafs.
I feel sorry for modern England as it doesn't seem to know what it is.
England has given so much to the world, compared to not just civilisations barely out of the Iron Age but other industrialised countries.
I fear it is an end-of-Empire thing and a sense of (misplaced) guilt.
Chin up Nigel, it isn't all that bad!

Answer 10

Some can be snobby, some can be fun, some can be bossy and others dumb.
English stereotype would be patriotic and posh with no interest in any other country.
However, polite and usually nice to talk to.
Opinions are opinions