British Culture

As you know, I went to England this summer (SEA program). England was a very nice country, and I had a good time there. However, there were many cultural differences and I was surprised very much. I'll introduce some of them to you.
First example is that people in England don't want to work. In Japan, most of shops open until 9 or 10 P.M. and moreover, restaurants, pubs, or bars open until midnight. I thought it natural, but in England, a lot of shops close at 5:30 in the evening! People working at shops might think it better to go back home and sleep a lot than to work hard and get money. I couldn't believe it.
Second, there were lots of physical contacts between a child and his/her mother or father. My host mother had a daughter, Gracie, and she was already 16 years old. She loved her mother very much, and surprisingly, they had physical contacts everyday. For example, Gracie slept in the mother's bed together, with her arms flung aroung her mother's neck. Hugging and kissing are everyday occurences. I imagine that I do the same thing with my mother, and it gives me cold shivers! I love my mother so much, but I cannot have such a physical contact with her.
Third, as Ken said today, there were many difficult TV programs in BBC, and people liked talking about these issues. My host mother liked watching TV programs like about global warming, natural disasters, behaviors of young people, and educational systems. She always asked me, "What do you think?" and "What happens in Japan?", even when having dinner. In Japan, we seldom talk about serious problems when having lunch or dinner, and instead, usually talk about trifling things and laugh a lot.
Incidents like these examples may occur not only in England but in other countries. They surprise us a lot, but knowing other cultures is very interesting. I'd like to visit many foreign countries, and find many cultural differences :)