Our Own British Confidant

Out on the street our group, made up of Steven, Gabby, and myself, met up with a young British man named Luke who gave us an interesting take on the British value system. He gave us an initial disclaimer that he was not like the typical British people, mostly because of his strong Christian faith and the way he was raised. He did, however, have strong thoughts about the way the good people of London feel about their personality preference, specifically the idea of doing, and their short-term versus long-term thinking.

Contrary to the American mindset, Britans don't focus on how much a person can produce and what they can achieve or attain. They feel like you can determine who you are based on your thoughts and attitudes. It's not a requirement to be at the top of your class or be the highest-producing employee in the company, it's a possibility.

Luke also told us that there isn't really a single opinion about short-term or long-term thinking. Everyone is different. Personally he is very short-term, only thinking about what's happening now. But he said many of his friends have their lives completely planned out. It all depends on who you talk to.

The one thing Luke told us, however, was that a lot of it is changing. London is becoming more "Americanized" and there is a shift in thinking in a wide range of aspects. More focus is put on doing and producing than before, and everything is becoming more fast-paced in general.

All in all, it seems that London is a very diverse culture of it's own. It's very hard to determine exactly what is valuable to everyone as a group without polling a large number of people. I think America is very much the same way, although maybe we "adopt" values just to fit in to the culture we've created. I think it would be good for our nation as a whole to stick to what's important to them and stand by their values, no matter what the culture tries to tell them. We might find that we're a lot more unified than we thought we were.