For the English? Londoners?

Question

I have read a little about yobs and yob culture. Could you define that for me, and how I could avoid them when I travel to your country. I will be spending time in London and in Scotland. Also I read in a previos question about being "cought" on camera and answers included cought and caught. In reading English books I don't ever remember seeing cought. I cought an accepted spelling of caught?

previous Is cought still and accepted....

Answer 1

the word is 'caught'. And yobs and yob culture are sadly a part of the UK landscape now. We have a society that is soft on crime and even softer on criminals, and so yobbish behaviour including trespass, vandalism, graffiti, muggings, drink and drug related crimes, car theft, burglary, is dealt with leniently, the yobs concerned know they will have social workers and various other organisations ensuring they receive the softly softly approach and they more or less laugh in the face of the law.
Having said that, there are still nice elements of society, people willing to be friendly, do good deeds, it's just society is more cynical even of well meaning people, so if you smile at someone don't expect a smile in return. Mostl likely whoemever you smile at will think you are going to harm them.
certain areas are more prone to this behaviour than others, I would avoid dimly lit alleyways, deserted bus stops, and don't make eye contact with people especially if you feel threatened.
But more than that, focus on the belief that it isn't all doom and gloom, you only hear about the bad aspects, and there is a lot that is good still, just have a nice stay

Answer 2

Yobs are normally referred to as people behaving antisocially, and yob culture means the way they behave. Yobbish behaviour depends on what you're used to, but is normally found in correlation with alcohol, poorly educated people, bored youths and low incomes.

You get 'yobs' on the top decks of buses mucjing about with their friends, on tubes playing their music out loud, in the pub swearing lots, spilling beer, being aggressive, and generally out and about. To avoid, go to nice pubs, take taxis if paranoid, but most of the yobbish behaviour you come across is nothing more than annoying and you should try and ignore it or leave the situation.

By the way cought is wrong and not an accepeted spelling

Answer 3

Yes - you will find people talking about yobs and the yob culture and, yes, it is a very real problem in Britain.

But I don't think its any worse than in any other city I've ever been to in the world. There are places in Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Rome etc where I wouldn't want to go either.

The advice to avoid obvious places given above is very good - but please don't be put off coming to Britain to visit.