How to be an alien.

En 4º ESO, en la clase de inglés, estamos leyendo un libro titulado "How to be an alien" (George Mikes [1912-1987]).

En él, el autor trata de darnos algunos consejos acerca de cómo comportarnos cuando estamos en Inglaterra para no hacer demasiado "el ridículo". Básicamente, el autor afirma que los ingleses son realmente diferentes al resto de los europeos y que, además, están orgullosos de serlo. Es más: para un inglés, se encuentre en el lugar del mundo en el que se encuentre, los extranjeros son siempre "los demás".

Aquí tenéis un par de fragmentos del libro, escrito en clave humorística.

"I believe, without undue modesty, that I have certain qualifications to write on "how to be an alien." I am an alien myself. What is more, I have been an alien all my life. Only during the first 26 years of my life was I not aware of this plain fact. I was living in my own country, a country full of aliens, and I noticed nothing particular or irregular about myself; then I came to England, and you can imagine my painful surprise.

It was like this. Some years ago I spent a lot of time with a young lady who was very proud and conscious of being English. Once she asked me - to my great surprise - whether I would marry her. "No," I replied, "I will not. My mother would never agree to my marrying a foreigner." She looked at me a little surprised and irritated, and retorted: "I, a foreigner? What a silly thing to say. I am English. You are the foreigner. And your mother, too." I did not give in. "In Budapest, too?" I asked her. "Everywhere," she declared with determination. "Truth does not depend on geography. What is true in England is also true in Hungary and in North Borneo and Venezuela and everywhere."

The title of this book, "How to be an Alien", consequently expresses more than it should. How to be an alien? One should not be an alien at all. There are certain rules, however, which have to be followed if you want to make yourself as acceptable and civilised as you possibly can.
Study these rules, and imitate the English. There can be only one result: if you don't succeed in imitating them you become ridiculous; if you do, you become even more ridiculous."

Al hilo del tema del libro, estamos debatiendo el tema de la diferenciación europea. Os paso un link para que veais una presentación humorística sobre las diferencias entre los italianos (tan parecidos en muchas cosas a los españoles) y el resto de Europa.

Sólo tenéis que pegar la siguiente dirección en la barra superior del buscador.

Seguiremos debatiendo...

http://tcc.itc.it/people/rocchi/fun/europe.html