IIP England Final Paper
In the world today there are many different cultures and societies. My group and I have been given the task of interviewing a former citizen of one of these countries. On Thursday April 24th 2008 we were able to interview a man from England, Steve Reiman. We asked Steve a number of interesting questions and for each question he had an equally entertaining answer. The questions ranged from topics such as education and healthcare to civilian rights.
For the first topic in the interview, we touched on the subject of education. Education in England is thought of as a regular part of life. “There are more chances to get education in America than in England. I think that people strive towards education more here in the U.S. because of all the publicity it is given.” In England education is not as hyped up as here in America. Sure people still want to go to college and learn over there but from what Steve says, here in the U.S. it means more to people when they enter college and have a chance to further their studies. The school system in England is very different. “At the end of each school year, we take one bog test. If you fail this test then there is no going back. You either pass and go on to the next grade or fail and stay behind. Everyone gets stressed over this.” Students must take one huge test at the end of the semester to determine what they have learned and if they have learned enough. This is very different from the U.S. where, if you fail the final the worst that would happen is that you need to go to summer school. I much prefer the system here in America. Students have way less stress put on them and they still try hard because they don’t want to go to summer school. In England with all the stress put on students it seems as if at the end of the year they would freak out and mess up.
During the discussion about Healthcare, we learned a lot of interesting facts. When we brought up health insurance Steve got super animated. “Big, big difference between here and England. BIG difference. Health insurance is free for everybody.” In England healthcare is absolutely free for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re a homeless man on the street, you’ll still be covered. When I learned this fact I was slightly astonished. I had automatically assumed that healthcare cost people money anywhere and everywhere in the world. Shortly after I was angry because of all the trouble paying for insurance has put millions of families into.
I also asked about how the weather is over there and if it endangers any lives. I had recently heard about some tornadoes and an earthquake that had happened. “You heard about the tornado and earthquake huh? Well that is actually a very rare occurrence. The weather is very mild most of the time and basically stays the same.” Weather in England is pretty much normal. Well, normal San Franciscan’s at least. Steve said that one of the reasons he likes it so much here is because the weather reminds him of London.
Civilian rights in England are certainly different from the U.S. The rights of women have changed a bit over the years. “Women are treated quite poorly when compared to how America treats them. There is a lot more sexism around and sexist jokes. A lot more than would be allowed here.” Women by American standards are treated quite poorly when it comes to sexism in England. This has changed though; it used to be far worse than what it is now. Here in America I hear women get angry over a slight remark from a coworker or some random guy on the street. It makes me wonder how English women deal with. Do they do something? Or perhaps they just ignore it. That is one issue that really made me wonder. They also tend to be more separated from the males in their society whereas everyone mingles here in the U.S. From what Steve told us I learned that there are very different rules in England than here. “Just the other day I was jaywalking and I got cited a hundred dollars. That would NEVER happen in England. They are a bit more lenient on some rules but there are cameras EVERYWHERE on every street. They catch anything someone is doing.” Some rules in England are nonexistent while others are unheard of here in the U.S. When Steve told us his story of how different it is here I thought that maybe they are way more lax over there. Then when he told us that there are cameras everywhere my train of thought did a full-blown u-turn and started thinking about how many protests would be in effect if the U.S. ever installed cameras everywhere.
During the interview we talked about education, civil rights, and healthcare. We learned heaps of information on England. Right now I feel like an expert on England’s modern society. The interview was a grand success and I enjoyed every minute of it.