Interviews >> Nick                                                                         

Nick

(USA via Great Britain)

Pg.: 1,2,3

...continued

4. Europe Languages United,
the school curriculum
and who foots the bill.

Cristina: Didn’t they make you learn a second language in school?

Nick: Yes, five years of French. It was mandatory. You have to learn French or German.

Cristina: These are the only two choices?

Nick: Yes.

Cristina: The government decides the curriculum?

Nick: Yes.

Cristina: It’s different in the U.S., where high school children can choose which classes to take. I knew a boy who never took a class of chemistry in high school because he didn’t want to.

Nick: We can choose some in England. The government mandates the curriculum for the first three years of what here would be high school. Many people stop their schooling there and they go in the professions. But if you want to go to college, you go to school for two more years, where you start with what they call the “O” levels (ordinary). It’s a “General Certificate” or reeducation. That’s like graduating high school here I guess. During those two years you can choose some of the courses but you have to have one art, one humanity (history, geography), at least one science – you have to take math. You can choose from nine different subjects. You can also pick another three or four subjects and they are your college entrance exams. Although they usually recommend some other ones than geography or math.

Cristina: What’s wrong with geography and math?

Nick: No university will let you in. If you apply for university these courses have to be related to whatever degree you think you’re going to take. Maybe if you do geology…

Cristina: Does the government pay for education?

Nick: They used to pay for everything. They paid me to go to university when I went to school. They had a grant system where the government paid all the fees and if your parents didn’t make too much money they gave you a grant, something like $4,000 a year, to go to college. In London they rate it at 25% more. But now they are trying to charge 3,000 pounds a year per student to go to university because the government has cut all the funding.

Cristina: How much does it cost, per average, to go to college?

Nick: About $5,500.

Cristina: What is the average salary?

Nick: Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds for a professional. A nurse probably makes around 9 or 10. A lot of salaries start really, really low.

Cristina: Is it unusual for people to go to university?

Nick: It used to be 10% of the people. The government’s target is 50%. There is no point in going to the university if half of the people are going. The courses are so easy to pass that the degree is worthless.

Cristina: They are going to have graduate school taking place of what used to be a college degree.

Nick: Exactly. The A levels and the O levels used to be brutally difficult 20 years ago but nowadays they are hardly worth taking. It doesn’t mean anything anymore.

In the old days the apprentice system was popular. People used to go very early on, 13 or 14. They would be told “Sorry, there is no way you can go to university but come here and learn to be an electrician or a carpenter. Spend 3 years learning that and then you can go start your own business.” But now they don’t do that anymore. The government makes you go to school until you are 15, 16, 17, even after 18 on this pretense that you are going to college and learn something. You go and learn something stupid. Then you have to go back and try to learn something when you are five years older. But having a degree makes you “somebody”. You have secretaries in England with two degrees. They can’t get a job though but they need a way to distinguish themselves from everybody else.

Cristina: One of the things I like about America is that people preserve their youth. Not just physical but also mental. Many people here in their 40’s and 50’s and 60’s still want to learn, some take classes and some on their own. I don’t know about England but in many places once you are over 35 you are old.

Nick: You mean learning as in going to college or on your own?

Cristina: Both.

Nick: You don’t go to college in England past the age of 25. It’s possible if you are say a wife who got pregnant early in life, your kids are grown and you want to finish your education, or if you are a single mother and you couldn’t afford to but your kids are in school.

It’s really a big, big negative thing if you don’t finish school in 3 years. Because the government is paying they won’t pay for a forth year. It is considered far more important to earn a living.

I think also that in England it’s still possible that people consider experience worth something as opposed to here. Here people give more weight to papers and degrees. Not just college degrees but professional certifications, for example the Microsoft or the Cisco certifications. The last level in the Cisco certification is very, very tough. Somebody I work with took it 5 times and failed. The 6^th time he took it he had to mortgage his house to pay for it – luckily he passed. I’m not saying they are not valuable but… some people pass them and still don’t know anything.

It happens here that I see a person with twenty years of experience being passed on because employers want to talk to somebody who has the paperwork. Although on the other hand it is true that I see people with one year of experience who know more than people with 20 years of experience.

The same in England. If you go to certain companies promotions are still given based on the number of years you have been with a company. Length of service. My grandparents got awards from the company for every five years in service with them.

5. Small town U.K.

Cristina: So if you had no TV, what were you doing after school?

Nick: Playing in the street. We lived in a small village where you didn’t need to lock your doors – you do now but you didn’t back then. We had two acres of land per house.

We would set fire to cardboard boxes and ride our bikes through them to see who got burned or not. We built a tree house somewhere, rode our bikes through the stream and got covered in mud, see if you can buy alcohol and get drunk… that sort of thing.

Cristina: Is there an age limit for that?

Nick: In England it is 18 but there is no photo ID. They have to guess. Of course, in the village everybody knew how old everybody was.

6. Family life.

Cristina: What were you guys doing as a family? For example, I have a friend who’s been living in France for some time now and she was telling me that when families gather (at least her family) – and they do this once a week or at least once a month, they all have to sing a song.

(Note: Nick bursts into raucous laughter. He didn’t delve into any explanations, but apparently the singing bit didn’t really jibe…)

Nick: My grandparents lived next door. We didn’t really do very much like that.

Cristina: Did you travel? Did you camp?

Nick: Yes.

Cristina: So what’s the parents’ situation in England? You don’t talk back to them…

Nick: You don’t talk back to your parents, your parents are always right. “I made you, I gave you life, I have power over you, you shut up and you do what I tell you to do”.

Cristina: “You go to the college I want you to go to”…

Nick: No, when you are at a college age you start being treated more equally. They know that once you are gone you don’t have to come back. My parents were actually decent about it. When we were really young it was “You do whatever we tell you to do, no arguments and no complaints. That’s the way things are.” But when you start being towards going to college they realize that you are gone.

7. The stages and joys of the friendship game.

Cristina: Did you have friends, close friends you grew up with?

Nick: Not really. There were two different phases really. There was phase 1, when I did have friends from early childhood, but I don’t speak to them anymore. I actually met one of the guys randomly at the pub last time I was in England and it was very strange. None of my friends from the village actually went to university. They all left school at the first opportunity, they are still living back there and working in the trades. They moved a bit around the country. That guy is working as a plasterer and construction worker.

The second phase was with people I knew from high school. From 11 till 16 school is mandatory and if you want to go to college you need to take the extra two years. Those are your entrance exams. I do have close friends from that period.

Cristina: Was it hard for you to make close friends in the United States?

Nick: Yes. You don’t see people as often and if you don’t see them that often you can’t really become close friends. I know people here who consider me an extremely good friend and I don’t see them more than once a month. I consider them friends but it’s different because they are friends that I would do anything to help though I don’t know them like I know some of my friends in England. But I think that could be an LA thing because of the distances and because of the way people are here.

8. The cousin from across the pond
and are we really that alike?

Cristina: I think a lot of people think that because you came from England, moving to America was like visiting your cousin from Texas or something…. But is it really that close? Did you have any cultural shocks?

Nick: It was more of an overall strangeness. I didn’t really notice it all that much until I went back to England and then came back here. It was odd coming back. Hard to describe. People do go out a lot more here – to eat, to the movies. In England it is a big deal to go to the movies.

When you are young you sort of make your own entertainment. You went to the theater if you were rich. Twice a month, maybe.

It’s strange for me to live in a city like Los Angeles, because it is so spread out and everyone is driving. Although where I grew up you also had to drive everywhere. But somehow it is different, sort of less friendly, people keep to themselves a lot more. Maybe not with their family or close friends but …

Cristina: You think it’s harder to make friends here?

Nick: Yes.

Cristina: Do you think it’s a California thing?

Nick: I haven’t really lived anywhere else. Although the places I’ve been, the bigger towns, it seems kind of the same. It was hard to make friends in London also.

I do think that people here are a bit more selfish and the adults act a bit like children. “I can do and act however the hell I like and that’s how it’s going to be.” Whereas in England people prefer to keep it away and keep the decorum.

Of course, the way things look in England is different. The streets are smaller, buildings are made in bricks and cars are smaller and older. Wherever you look, it is different.

9. The ol’ man upstairs, the “great void”
and that sort of thing.

Cristina: How about religion? It seems to me there is the perception in Europe that people in America are a lot more religious. For the most part Western Europe is agnostic, isn’t it?

Nick: Go to Ireland and ask them!

Cristina: Alright, that’s the exception.

Nick: In England everybody is supposed to be a member of the Church of England. The older generation still believes in that but I think now it’s more of a social thing; partly they are so scared of dying and not going to heaven that they’ll say they believe that stuff even if they don’t.

Cristina: Do you find that Americans are religious?

Nick: Not really. I don’t think everybody I really know goes to church. I think a lot of people like to say that they are religious or they believe in god because they somehow believe that they’ll go to hell if they don’t. But in terms of going to church and doing anything about it… one of my friends goes to church when she feels guilty about something or when she needs somebody to help her.

Read more: page 3

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