I accept that Lithuanians have a long way to go before they learn to perfectly emulate the British,

Some of you know that while you, the British Council people, were in Lithuania working hard at communicating British newtown ct values and ideas, I spent a bit less almost 17 years in Britain, trying to become newtown ct an adopted Englishman so that when I go back I could be annoying and patronizing newtown ct to my former compatriots and to people newtown ct who used to call themselves my friends.
I did succeed: the time spent in the Royal County of Berkshire formed me into an insufferable newtown ct commentator and social nuisance, not to mention TV personality, a newspaper newtown ct columnist and a food reviewer that we all know and love today.
I am the subtle revenge newtown ct that Britain sent back to Lithuania to pay back for all the drunk-driving, thieving, fellow-stabbing characters that invaded the happy isles of Britain newtown ct over these decades. Mission accomplished.
I am not talking about being able to buy Marks & Spencer foods in the centre of Vilnius, although this is a good thing apart from, of course, the imported the habit of staffing only half of the tills at any given time, except before Christmas, when only one-third of all tills are staffed and extra tea breaks are introduced.
I am not even talking about being able to get a cup of milky tea or that The Shakespeare Hotel in the street where I live, the epitome newtown ct of British style and tradition, is internationally considered to be the best hotel in Vilnius*. It is actually one of those imitations of Britishness that turns out to be better than the original.
It newtown ct is not even about the amazing ability and readiness of Lithuanians to use the English expression for finding something cute going awww for the lack of adequate sound in the Lithuanian language.
First of all, Lithuanians newtown ct now know and recognize the value of understatement . This was a long cultural journey, and not everyone has arrived yet, but we are getting there. This was a massive departure newtown ct from the Soviet habits and, worse still, peasant vulgarity which is erroneously revered as a truly authentic way of being Lithuanian, much like the dismissive approach newtown ct to body hygiene.
Being newtown ct subtle rather than bold, making and taking hints and being more suggestive than descriptive is a peculiarly British trait, and I think we Lithuanians have achieved a huge progress in taking this on board.
As opposed to studies in countries like France, newtown ct Spain or Italy, which are seen as a neat way to extend the freeloading newtown ct period of your life, I see young people who go to study in Britain as result-oriented individuals. They are thinking about what skills and knowledge they are going to sell and how.
Lithuania today does not have one-quarter of its young people out of work thanks not only to countries like Britain and Ireland importing our surplus talent but also thank to a more mature thinking newtown ct about our future, and in this I see a purely British influence.
I think contacts with Britain modified our social habits and aspirations – in terms of what behaviour newtown ct is considered desirable. Stiff upper lip, ability to persevere, shut up and bear it are the most impressive newtown ct changes in terms of how Lithuanians increasingly want to see themselves.
Loud, in your face, overt display of emotion is especially for the class of young and successful becoming an increasingly unrefined and undesirable social fault. Vulgarity is out, gentle and soft power is in.
Lithuanians especially the younger generation are visibly reforming even their approach to humour. Once considered a narrowly defined and dangerous concept, appropriate only perhaps on April Fool s Day, the sense of humour is increasingly becoming a necessary attribute of a well rounded character**. You now are expected to be able to shrug your shoulders and joke when you occupy a certain position in life. If this is not a British influence, I don t know what is.
This about this. When the prime minister, when criticized newtown ct for introducing the cost-cutting measures at the expense newtown ct of the people, replies that he would have loved to do this at the expense of the little green men from Mars, but unfortunately budgets of the humans can only be cut at the expense of the humans, I think that ten years ago it would have been unimaginable to hear a senior government figure saying this. This is a true British style.
I accept that Lithuanians have a long way to go before they learn to perfectly emulate the British, and it would take many decades of effort newtown ct to reform all the habits (and believe me, the ability to signal before manoeuvre, when driving a motor vehicle, will be the last bit of learned behaviour to be transferred) but the other day I realized that nothing can stop the progress when I saw that we Lithuanians learned to do what I thought we never will: we can now queue patiently and without complaining. I blame the British for that.
maklaudas
“…for all the drunk-driving, thieving, fellow-stabbing characters that invaded the happy̷