"What does it mean to be British?" | Essay

Side 1

Engelsk Aflevering – What does it mean to be British?

What does it mean two be British?

“What Does It Mean To Be British” is the question and the topic that the three journalists Ned Tomko, Jo Revil and Amelia Hill try to grasp in an article. The article was published in the magazine The Observer on the 10th of June 2007. The Observer is a weekly newspaper that has been published and distributed every Sunday in Britain since 1791. Thereby The Observer is the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper and very believable for the readers.

The article raises the discussion: “What does it mean to be British?” because Gordon Brown and other politicians were planning to introduce an official British Day. It is clear that the writers are critical of the idea. They write that it is “fevered efforts to bind an increasingly diverse nation together”. The writers underline their opinions by starting the article with a description of the very multicultural area Luton where it is estimated that more than 140 different nationalities live together. By this introduction the writers indirectly say that the attempt of the politicians to calibrate British identity is fake. The writers believe there is no shared British identity, because the country consists of many different types of people with very different backgrounds.

The journalists ask many different people their opinions’ on the subject. An immigrant from Pakistan says that Britain doesn’t have a clearly defined culture. An African Muslim immigrant says that it is hard to absorb the British culture even if one is willing to, because it is difficult to know what it is. The immigrant says that the Muslim religion offers a much clearer identity that the British identity. So it is easier to be a Muslim than a Brit. But because a large proportion of immigrants have a different religion, they are not considered "real" British citizens. The African Muslim immigrant says that even though they have a different religion it does not mean that their loyalty to Britain is different.

Graham Garrett is around sixty years old and has lived in Luton for many years, does not think the Brits stick together or have anything in common anymore. Graham believes he knows what Britishness is, but the problem is that people do not have it in common anymore.

Side 2

Engelsk Aflevering – What does it mean to be British?

The search for a shared British culture started after the bombings on 7th July. British citizens bombed London – their own home. The idea of "home-grown terrorist" is frightening, because it seems that the terrorist did not believe that second-generation immigrants are part of the British community. Even though people have become citizens they are not really British because they have a different ethnic background. There seems to be a kind of internal war, because there is not a particularly good national identity and thus has England to appear as a weak country because of internal differences. Therefore politicians compare Britain with the U.S.A. They believe that Britain, for example, has more history than the U.S.A, but the U.S.A. is better at being proud of their culture and identity. The politicians think that Britain could learn something from the U.S.A.

and that is why they what to introduce a British Day.

The article “What does it mean to be British?” is built up of many quotes from immigrants, the prime minister and politicians, which means that you get several different opinions on the topic.

The headline of the article has been shaped by the question that the article tries to answer, and this brings the reader to look for answers through the whole article. But no clear answer is given.

This means that the receiver has to form his own opinion on the matter.

The journalists think of this article is to open the eyes of the readers, the British people, and get them to realize that it does not help to fight each other, but that they instead should try to cooperate with each other regardless of the ethical background. The politicians try to bring the British people together by focusing on what they have in common. The problem is that no one really knows what it means to be British anymore, because it is a multicultural country. The article ends with a quote from an immigrant who says that you don’t have to fear people with different cultures, because in the end we are all the same. The immigrants’ advise is, that Britain should start to celebrate all the new cultures instead of longing for the British culture that does not exist anymore.

By ending the article in this way, the writers also show their opinion. They don’t think Britain should go back to being more British. Instead they think Britain should be multicultural and forget all about a British Day. The article’s argument is very logical, because the journalist point to the

Side 3

Engelsk Aflevering – What does it mean to be British?

fact that in the beginning of the article, that more that more than 140 different nationalities live in Britain, and therefore it is difficult to find one common culture.

The article was very relevant when it was published in 2007, but it still is today both in Britain and in many other countries. Because of globalisation people are moving around the world and live in countries that are not their own; this raises the same discussion in all countries that have immigrants. It takes many generations for immigrants to adapt to the new country they live in, and until then they will feel and be seen as outsiders. When a lot of people who are immigrants come to a country it will make the citizens wonder what their own culture is, and it is not easy to answer. When a lot of citizens have a different cultural background then it is not easy to know what the common culture is. Therefore the article is still relevant today all over the world.

An excellent essay. Your word choice, grammar, and syntax are those of a native speaker (with a few native-speaker mistakes). The structure of your essay is very good; you set out making your point and arguing it consistently. However, you did not comment on specific linguistic and syntactic choices made by the authors as elements that engage the reader. You did not necessarily focus on rhetorical modes of appeal either.