Why Is Public Television So British?

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If Public television is to reach the masses, why is it mostly centered on the British ideal of normalcy? What ever happened to voices of Pakistan, Argentina, Africa, South America, Thiland and many other voices in the world? Are we only defined by the British viewpoint of life? I reject this. I want to be informed about the whole world. Not just European Views.

That's one thing about television that I will never get. I'm so sick of hearing about Coronation Street and Downtown Abby. I'm glad I don't fit the British norm of life.

I actually agree. I remember a program about castles, but they omitted the Arab history of the castle and only talked about ones in the UK. You know, they had the in Africa, the Middle East, and Spain first, right?!

More than likely--it is because it is so cheap to re-broadcast British shows.

They don't even have to be translated or subtitled. That list of places in the OP--I don't think any of them have shows broadcast in English.

In my state, one of the two PBS stations uses a woman's voice to introduce the more "fashionable" programs. The voice includes a p.o.sh. London accent. Now, which Utahns find such an accent so appealing that they don't recognize the pretense? Probably those in the wealthier parts of the state (Park City, Sundance and Federal Heights). The rest of us are ranchers, farmers and others who love being Utahns, not Londoners (even if we enjoy some British comedies ... go Red Dwarf!).

Now, if this PBS station wanted to include a British accent among its voice talents, at least it might want present a diverse range of accents (Welsh, East-End London and Cornish). But, no. It chooses the one accent that is connected with "sophistication." And then, this station promotes the PBS line of "diversity" programming. Yeah, right; diversity. My British ancestors are probably spinning in their Westminster crypts.

In the name of "diversity," British TV channels themselves now use regional accents to announce shows, which would be a nice idea if some of them didn't sound so bloody awful.

And I'm not talking ethnicities, it's not Jamaican, Indian, etc. Just Geordie, East End Cockney, etc.

But with some of them it's the equivalent of having an extreme Southern accent or Bronx accent announcing the next program.

There is even a "low class" accent they've just stinkin' MADE UP. NOBODY talks like that, but they've obviously and clearly taken an RP-speaking voice-over artist and TOLD them to dumb it down for the masses. It's beyond condescending. I'd rather hear a standard RP English accent but the PC crowd thinks that's too elitist. PC BS.

I don't see that where I live so maybe it's a culture thing or something. I live in the Pacific Northwest here. Maybe they just don't air lot of British stuff or I just don't watch enough TV. All I see on TV is CNN and Nick Jr and Sprout and Disney Junior and Dr. Phil and sports because my parents and my children watch that stuff and I only watch Dr. Phil, plus The Middle and Netflix or youtube.

Because British is the best.

Seriously though, I do get annoyed when most of the internet is American. Every time I want to search for something on sites like Google, I feel I have to word it the American way, otherwise I don't find the search results I want.

Joe90, that actually might not be a good thing -- if you word things in a search the American way, it will give you American websites and not so much the British ones, which you might find more pertinent to your search.

I think you should word things the British way, as you live in Britain. Also, I don't think anyone should feel they have to Americanize things for a message board, like these ones, for example, that are predominantly American-populated. The only reason I do that is because I lived half my life over there and old habits die hard as I had to adapt to life there and I was there for half my life as it was at the point when I left.

But if you're British living in Britain, don't feel you need to state things the American way -- you'd be surprised how many Americans will know what you mean anyway, or if they don't know a word or a thing like what Tesco is, they can guess or they can ask.

That's true.

Or use Google. I have had to get into the habit of using it. There are even places that only exist on the east coast I have never seen or heard of like Food Lion for example or Winn-Dixie. I didn't see a Walgreens until I was 17 because they started to come out to the Pacific Northwest. Even here in America places don't exist nationally so other Americans might not even know what another American is talking about. But even I don't try to nationalize my words.

Through my 6 years of being a member here, I have often been misunderstood by using British terms for things. Some members have even attacked me here for ''not being clear'', or have completely took my post the wrong way. You'll be surprised at how many words Americans use different to what us British use.

For example, one time a lot of posters got confused about ''primary school''. They thought it meant a preschool, but in the UK a primary school is a school for children aged 4-11. Also talking about school life is very difficult because different countries have different school systems. For most of the UK it's just preschool (aged 2-4), primary school (aged 4-11), and secondary school (aged 11-16), and sixth form (aged 16-19) which is optional.

I just feel like I have to elaborate most things I say, because British members are outnumbered here - which it will be because America is a much bigger country with a much bigger population.

I know about the British system and their culture because I read about it and I know you guys do your education system differently. You even have years than grades. You have headmistresses than principals. You have reception than kindergarten. High school is for ages 11-16 while here it's for 14-18 for grades 9-12. Most kids are 18 when they graduate high school. You have 11 years instead of 12. People are done with school ate age 16 while here it's 18 and then it's college. It's like everyone is one grade ahead over there so I wonder what happens if an American family had to move to the UK, how would they figure out the year system and where to put their kids and what if the kid was a Junior in high school but moved to the UK with their parents? How would they still do school? They would be done with their year already if they had grown up there. Does that mean they would have to go straight to university? What if it was the opposite? Someone finishes year 11, their family moves to the US, oh no they would be going into their Junior year of high school, does that mean they still have to attend school or can they just go straight to college?

All people can do is research your British culture. You put in your location, people see you are from Great Britain, they can do their research on your terms you use for your country. It doesn't hurt for everyone to learn. If you say skip and someone gets confused, you can tell them it's where you put the trash and show them a photo of it and they will see it's what you guys call a dumpster. One time I used the word trunk and someone from Australia got confused so I figured they must not call it that there. You guys call it a boot, we call it a trunk.

So keep on using British terms and put in your location. It doesn't hurt to have everyone learn about your culture.

I don't have any issues with people posting in British. But, Americans are so self centered than many of us have trouble with metric! I'm one of the exceptions--I have metric machine tools.

translation [idiomatic] ain't cheap. so they go with a ready source of recognizably English-speaking programs.

I don't have a problem with British. What I do have a problem with is the phony "diverse, all inclusive, PC" attitude of public television, when only one set of ideas is represented. Also, the only programs that are remotely interesting on PBS occur during the pledge drive season. ("We want your money. We can't fund wonderful programs such as Science and Nature Series-Cats without you!)