Hello again and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope. Now on with the show. Hello Anlan.
Hello everybody.
Today we're going to talk about another major topic in British culture that is class system.
Yep. So many of you probably watched shows like Downton Abbey or some British comedy shows as well. And there's lots lots mention of the class system.
And also in classic English literature, there's also a lot of mention of the class system. Would you say that British people in general are more class conscious than other English speakers?
Absolutely. That's because the class system has a very long history in the UK, especially in England.
So the idea, for example in Downton Abbey, 'upstairs, downstairs', upstairs being the upper class that owns the house and downstairs being the lower class that are the servants.
Yeah, it was all about the lives of the masters, of the nobility and their servants as well. There was actually a TV show called Upstairs Downstairs which was very popular.
Alright so the word servant, you can't really use it nowadays that much can you? I mean just for normal people.
Yeah the word servant, you really don't hear that much in its original context. It is a very historic term.
So these nobility normally just see them in period dramas for example like Downton Abbey. But do they still exist in current day UK?
They still exist. If you go to the UK, you probably will never meet someone from the nobility because this is simply not that many of them.
They're usually not just walking down the street.
No.
But you do see traces of them even though you don't see these people. But for example, I always remember in central London, there's a huge piece of land that is just owned by one family. So you cannot own the land forever. If you buy there, you can only own it for like ninety nine years because their ultimately owned by this family. That is nobility.
Yeah. And that's the same in quite a few areas in London as well.
So back to the whole class system. So we talked about the upper class and then you have?
Well then you have the middle class and you have the working class as well.
The working class this is called. And what actually decides which class you're in? Is it the money or …?
Um it's to a certain extent money, but a lot of time it's the class that you were born into. So in the UK is actually relatively rare to go up or go down a class.
So the social nobility, the classes you were born into. So if you're born into the working class, you probably will to state your entire life in working class.
Yeah.
Okay but are the upper class you just said, it's not just entirely about money. But are the upper class rich?
They are rich to a certain extent. They're not as rich as they used to be and sometimes they're not rich at all because they have to pay lots of tax for their states as well.
And they don't work, do they? I think that's one of the things they mentioned in Downton Abbey. they are rip the upper class, they don't really work.
Uh no lots of them are landowners.
And then they just usually get their income from the land.
Year and but obviously it's expensive nowadays to be passing nobility because of all the taxes and all the money they have to spend looking after their houses.
So that's the upper class. What about middle class? Can they go up or working class can they become middle class?
Yes. You can go from working class to middle class. It's normally about education and it's about job opportunities as well.
Ok. So now let's take a closer look at each class. Let's start with upper class. Upper class is sometimes also called the upper crust. Upper crust, also used to refer to upper class and what are they?
Well they made up of the traditional nobility. So the nobility in lots of cases are over a thousand years old and they still have country houses and many of them still go to elite schools such as Eton.
All these public schools. Public schools there for the social elite, a lot of them are the upper class. Country homes, these are just big houses like you see in Downton Abbey isn't it?
We call it country homes or manor houses.
So they usually are only interacting with their own crowd I guess.
Yeah their own crowd, also sometimes the upper-middle class as well.
The upper middle class. So do people think very positively of upper class? For example being upper class, is that always a great thing that people look up to?
Actually not really, not so much any more. Now being upper class isn't that popular and many expressions that we use are negative to describe the upper class.
Such as?
Such as toffee nosed.
Toffee nosed, t o f f e e toffee. The original meaning is just a kind of candy isn't? But toffee nosed in British English means upper class, but in a negative way.
Yeah. And also you have the term, you can call someone a toff.
That's from toffee, toffee nosed.
And you can also describe someone or something as posh.
I think we mentioned this one before. Posh is usually to refer to someone from upper class. But posh is less negative. It's just like a joking way.
Yeah, and we also use to describe luxury things as well. So for example a posh restaurant.
A posh car. That is about the upper class, the upper crust. And the middle class, is it the same in the UK as in the United States? Do they also live in the suburbs?
Generally yeah. Uh, if you are middle class, you probably have a nice house in the suburbs and you probably an educated professional, so like a doctor, teacher or a manager.
Oh so someone with a specific skill. So someone with a specific skill.
Or education.
Education. Doctors, Lawyers.
Yeah.
So what about the working class then?

Well the working class is larger portion of the population. Generally the idea with working classes is that they live in inner city, council estates.
In a city? meaning like city center or close to a city center. So the middle class they live in the suburbs and they actually the poorer working class would live in inner city.
Yeah. Well traditionally at least, but it is changing a little bit. But the idea of a council estate as well.
Council estates, it's government provided and they're usually for people with lower income.
Yeah so that's one of the definitions of the working class that they probably haven't gone to university. And also they tend to be a little bit more conservative as well.
Conservative, like in, they are probably not very liberal minded when it comes to, for example immigration.
Yeah, so as a comparison, Brexit was mostly the working class that were voting for Brexit.
They are at the idea of little England.
And as I said before, it's also they probably don't go to university, and they would do blue collar jobs, so for example building, plumbing or unskilled work.
So upper class they don't have to work, they don't work. Middle class they do highly skilled professional work and the working class generally more like unskilled or perhaps semi skilled work.
Well that's definitely the traditional idea that many people have, but as we'll talk about in our next episode, it is a little bit changing nowadays.
It becomes more mixed, the class system.
And also it's changed a lot because of politics and also the society of the UK has changed a lot since this more traditional model. But many people still have this in their mind.
So this is the original, the traditional class division. But like you said earlier, it's not just the money that separates people. It's also for example, their taste or they like cultural.
Yeah, for example culture is very much linked to class. So upper class liking things like opera. Working class uh liking sports like football or TV.
So some of the cultural activities would also be tagged as a posh activity for example liking opera.
Yep or elitist.
Elite e l i t e. Elitist 就是精英阶层的感觉。And what about language and accent？In the accent episode we did talk about that in the UK, traditionally people feel like you can tell someone's class from how they speak from their accent.
That is still the case. And lots of people, if you talk in a certain way, then you get associated with a certain class. But as we talked about in previous episode, when we talked about RP, it's important to know that foreigners are not part of the class system.
So sometimes if you try very hard to learn to posh accent and you're talking to British people who are not from that posh class, people would think quite negatively actually about your accent, wouldn't they?
Yes it's a bit strange and as the same, foreigners are not judged by the same standards.
So in the end let us look at some of the very common expressions in English that are involving the idea of class.
Yeah. So for example, you can describe something as 'not in the same class'.
Not in the same class, meaning not in the same social class.
Or not the same quality or not the same level.
And also second class citizen? You say I don't wanna be treated like a second class citizen.
Yeah. A second class citizen means that you don't have all the rights and responsibilities. We don't see first class citizen, but that's the idea.
And I always wanted to ask like in English, you don't really have so much the idea of 富二代 right? But you do have 'to be born with a silver spoon in the mouth'. So what does that mean?
So to be born with a silver spoon in the mouth or to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth, it means that you were born into the elite. So you automatically have all the advantages because of your family.
So your life as privileged.
Yes. And that's what we would say, to live a life of privilege.
To be born into for example upper class.
Yeah. But obviously the opposite would be 'underclass'.
Oh do you actually say underclass?
Beyond the class, yes. And mostly it's got the idea of people who are very very poor so even below working class.
Struggling to make ends meet, struggling to survive.
Yes. That's the underclass.
Certainly we packed in a lot of information about the British class system, but remember those are only the traditional ideas.
Yep. In our next episode we will be talking a little bit more about what the class system means nowadays and also how is changing as well.
The new definition of new classes.
Yeah. So if you have any questions please leave them in our comments section. The British class system is very complicated. So it's worthwhile just maybe thinking again when you watch those British TV shows.
If you understand a bit more about the British class system that will certainly give you a more in depth understanding of the TV shows or the films that you watch and also the books you've been reading.
So until then, see you next time.
Bye.

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