Perception of Great Britain
Not only did I have my family’s ties to London, but I was also very into British media. I went through a phase in the seventh grade, where I would listen to the BBC Radio 1 every morning. Radio 1 gave me the pop culture of Britain; I was able to hear the recent news and the popular songs when I listened, and I loved knowing who the hosts would be talking about next. Along with the Radio 1, I watched many shows like Doctor Who, Skins, Sherlock, Love Island, and more. The shows I watched however, gave me this representation of Britain that confused me. Each show had a different group of people portraying Britain in a different way. Skins was a show that revolved around a group of British youth going through secondary school and preparing for university.
This gave me this representation of what it was like growing up in Britain and gave me a couple presumptions about British life. The first being that you walked or biked everywhere, the second being that every student had a uniform, and the third that drinking was a part of the culture. Unlike the States, there is no need to get a license and drive in Britain because of the walk-ability and the public transportation available. The school uniforms were something I noticed that was very different from my experience since back home it was strictly private schools that would have uniforms. Lastly, the drinking culture was something very different from what I was used to. This had to be from the fact that the drinking age is 18 in the UK vs our age of 21. I saw so many scenes of friends sitting around drinking a beer at a pub which made me think that being British is something I may truly not experience until I could sit with my friends and share a drink. However, when I watched the shows centered around British adults it was a completely opposite spectrum. British humor was dry, the adults were always serious, and Britain was always rainy. These factors were all thing I assumed was true, it was something so easily seen on the media that it assured me of these facts.