Podcast: Britain's Drinking Culture

Hello and welcome to Green-Eyed English, a podcast for intermediate English speakers. Interesting topics, with real, understandable spoken English. I'm Dan Green and today I want to talk with you about England's drinking culture.

Now, although I could do a podcast on England's tea drinking culture, today I am of course talking about alcohol.

British people are famous for drinking alcohol. And, if you had met me a few years ago, you would have known me as a drinker as well. However, these days I have stopped drinking, and I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between alcohol and British culture.

Now, of course, many cultures drink alcohol, but us brits – British people – seem to drink more than average. I just Googled this actually and The UK is in the top 5 of the heaviest drinking countries around the world. So, the question is… why? Here, I think my personal story is a good example.

I was born in the South of England and lived there until I moved abroad in when I was about 26. And, apart from a French grandmother, all of my family are British. In fact, a few years ago I did a DNA test found out that almost all of my ancestors came from southern England… which was disappointing! So, while I was hoping to have some cool international family history, I am at least very, very British.

When I was growing up, alcohol was everywhere. My parents usually had a beer or a glass of wine in the evening, family parties always had alcohol, and so did big events like Christmas, football matches, and so on. Now, this is quite similar to other countries, but I think two things make British drinking a bit different.

The first thing is: we take drinking very seriously. I mean, we think drinking is very important… more important than seeing family, more important than Christmas, more important than a football match. For example, when I was child, my family used to go on ‘booze cruises'. Now, booze is slang for alcohol, and cruise comes from ‘cruise ship'. So, a booze cruise was when we all got in the car and took a boat to France, because in France alcohol was cheaper. When we arrived in France, we would drive to the nearest supermarket and fill the car up with boxes of beer and wine, then we would take a ferry back home. Most of the other customers would be other brits too. Everyone would be pushing around trolleys filled with alcohol, plus a bit of French cheese too (the cheese was important because then alcohol wasn't the only reason you went to France!) Booze cruises were really popular – I think almost every family did them. So, from a young age, it seemed really normal to plan drinking weeks ahead, and sometimes months ahead.

British people also plan how much they are going to drink that day. So, they talk about how much they can drink and still get up in the morning. For example, people might say “Oh, I have to drive my son to football at lunch time, so I'll only drink a bottle of wine.” To be honest, I used to do this but this now sounds crazy to me. I mean, one bottle of wine! If I drank a bottle of wine now, I would fall over.

The second thing is, when British people say ‘drinking' they mean something different to other people. When French people talk about drinking, they usually mean wine with dinner. But for British people, eating and drinking are two different things. A wine or beer with dinner is not drinking. Even if we do that every day, it is not drinking. For us, drinking is what happens afterwards. It is when we drink to get drunk – or, as we say, drink to get pissed. Getting pissed is the important thing and it is what we talk about afterwards. In the UK, you often people saying things like “I was well pissed last night!” or “What a great piss-up!”. In fact, “a great piss-up” tells you a lot. A piss-up means a night of drinking. Other cultures say “what a great night” or “what a great party”, but we say “what a great piss-up” which shows that drinking is more important than the event. The UK has another drinking phrase: “pre-drinks”. “Pre-drinks” are when we drink at home before going out to a bar or club. “Pre-drinks” are as important as the night out. But why? Well, because we use pre-drinking to make sure that we drink enough… sounds crazy, right? But it's true. We worry so much that we won't be able to drink enough from 9pm until 3am that we drink a bottle of wine before we leave the house…

Now that I don't drink, this all sounds crazy. But I think something even crazier is how we teach our children to drink. I remember drinking wine with lemonade when I was perhaps 10 or 11, for example. Other children will drink shandy, which is beer mixed with lemonade. Also, it is very normal to start going out drinking with our friends when we are 15 or 16. Now, I remember getting in trouble with my parents for staying out too late, but I don't really remember getting in trouble for drinking alcohol. So, growing up in the UK, you get taught how to drink, and you learn that drinking is normal. In fact, one reason I stopped drinking was because I became a parent. Basically, I don't want my son learning that drinking is normal because he sees me drinking.

Obviously, alcohol creates some real problems in the UK. Alcoholism, when someone cannot stop drinking, is very common. Many people also have health problems from alcohol. In my family, there are lots of people who drink a lot. In fact, both my grandfathers died from dementia, which is a memory illness connected to alcohol. Before, in my life, I have drunk too much alcohol and had problems too… but that is another story for another time.

However, there might be light at the end of tunnel, which means that things might be getting better. I say this because young people in the UK are drinking less these days. Of course, it will take a long time to change British culture, but this is a step in the right direction.

So, how about your family or your culture? How important is alcohol to them? Do you drink? And, if so, has it affected you? Leave a comment or send me a message.

Finally, if you are a language learner, you should visit my website at greeneyedenglish.com where you can download a learning pack for this episode. It has a transcript, a glossary of interesting language, and notes on useful phrases and grammar.

Nice talking to you. Bye bye!