Are you a snob?

[Alan]

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Hello,

They often say the English are very class conscious. Maybe they are but are they any more so than other nationalities? I've written some thoughts on this whole business and concentrated on the word 'snob'. Do you know what it means? Or more to the point what about you? Would you consider yourself a snob?

Alan

http://www.english-test.net/newsletter/are-you-a-snob-182.html
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[Foah]

Hi Alan,

to be honest, I don´t think that people were serious contradicting ever having been snobbish. It´s not so easy to overcome that temptation. You easily can prove that visiting a country in which the money that hardly suffices for a live in your homeland allows you to live that of an Earl............... where you hardly have contact to the common people. And if, you know them as people who try to benefit from the opulence they expect you to own. And in fact, you spend an amount for a night in a hotel natives have for a month´s life. To me it´s easy to become snobbish then........., isn´t it?

Michael

P.S. nice story again , thank you
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"Ho ho!" said the clown

[Kitosdad]

It is SO EASY to be a snob when you have money.

When you have next to no money it is difficult not to be a slob.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Political Lurker]

Well Hello Alan
Regarding the English and Snobbery ?

I would have to say I would find them very similar to Germans.

Having lived in both countries I would say there are many parallels in this regard.

I would generally compare Bavarian people with Southern English (Greater London) in which a lot can be insular and stand offish to outsiders

and also Northern and North East England with North and North East Germany (East-former DDR)

At the end of the day they are both very similar in Blood and the Aristocracy from both countries are tightly interwoven with one another - our own royal family being German.
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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

[Alan]

HI A L,

Thanks for that. You have made an interesting point.

Alan
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[Political Lurker]

Sorry I forgot to add Al... that as you know yourself Northern English and North East English people are generally slightly "poorer" (for want of a better word) and generally "Friendlier" like their North German counterparts.

Hamburg is obviously quite "snobby" and its Northern but generally I think the 2 countries are very similar in many ways not just in snobbery and I think this helps to explain some of the almost obsessive "competitiveness" between them.

Like they say

"Familiarity breeds contempt"

On an individual level this is the same reason you sometimes fight or argue with someone when you first meet them because sub consciously you are looking at part of yourself and you will firstly see it as a threat - even though you have a great chance of going on to become very close.

The Germans and the English are pretty much the same tribe.
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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

[Borislav]

Hii Alan,
I don't consider myself like a snob.Of course there would be people with contention if I am a snob or someone else.
It is interesting that the word remained for a class of people which are ordinary.The difference is only today the snobs looks down on people who consider inferior but actually they aren't.It isn't a complete turnaround but a liittle bit modification.
I don't understand about that certain professor and his book for upper class.The U-class words are words that sounds more scientific, am I right ?

[Torsten]

[Cgk]

Hello all,

I think every human being with half a brain has the tendency to act or react in a snobbish way every once in a while. It's not a nice trait, but it is all too human. The rich look down on the poor, the educated look down on the ignorant, men look down on women (and I don't care if they say otherwise), one race looks down on another race. Even the poor look down on the poor, the ignorant look down on . . . someone . . . if they know how, and I definitely know a lot of women who look down on women. And perhaps being snobbish isn't just human. If a lion could speak, he would probably say, "Heh, what's a gazelle but food."

Perhaps it would help to go by the motto: I think, therefore I'm nobody.

Claudia

P.S. Ambivalent.Lurker, consider yourself lucky that you don't live in the Middle Ages. If you had called a Norman-French noble "English" or "Anglo-Saxon", oooohweee! He would not have been a happy fellow! ;-) As far as I know, the Welsh did that to provoke the Marcher lords.
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In the land of the ignorant, the biggest fool is king.

[Pasban110]

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Hello all.
Well, Thank you Alan for this nice article. It is wonderful. If you mind, I have some questions to ask about this article:
1 - What does 'it's managed to turn itself inside out' mean?
2 - What does 'It started to life' mean?
3 - Why did you use 'in' in 'It started to life IN the 18th century'?
4 - What is the difference between 'U' and 'non-U' words?

Thank you in advance.

- Salivan

P.S.
For your question at the end of the article, to be honest when I feel that I am going to be a snob, I force myself to no to be. However, it sometimes goes out of hand, and sometimes you need to be a snob. For example, when a (bad/rude) student come to you and ask some irritate questions, you must act as a snob. I think it prevents those students to do actions like that. Snobbish people have their own pride.

[Kitosdad]

When I was rich, I found I ran the risk of often being pretentious. Invincible is probably more apt.

Now that I am VERY poor, I find myself to be far more tolerant of everyone.

I speak to everyone I meet, no matter rich or poor, in exactly the same friendly manner.
Now I have dozens of friends, whereas earlier I had only a few. People for the most part respond to a friendly smile and a pleasant greeting.

Having become poor appears to have become compensated in my being far happier than I ever was in my former life.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Political Lurker]

[Thendral]

Hi Alan,

Interesting read..
Instantly I fell in love with your style of writing :)

Cheers,
Thendral

[Dina27]

Hello,

It`s so strange for me and looks like a joke when an Englishman writes "We are all equal". I studied English at the college and these two words SNOB and a Native English Speaker were synonims there. Unfortunately I didn`t know this. Our family business made us the reachest people in our small town. (the meaning is completely negative;-)
By the end of the second year I was completely fed up with russian variants of Estrella, King Richard and Oueen Elizabeth. And after winning the second place at the language Olimpiad to the great suprise and displeasure of the snobs ;-) gave up the college and started teaching. I found out recently that Estrella is looking for a job as a shop assistant. Is a good snob can be a good shop assistant? ;-)

Ever curious,

Poor Dina ;-)

[Translator189]

my greetings
thank you for evoking this issue , but I think that being a "snob" is inevitable especially when you find some peaple showing off , so i think that one should be modest with whom deserves, and snob with" arrogants