As I look back at my time in London, I realize that learning about and meeting many British people in London is harder than I expected. Yes, there are many people who speak English, even with a British accent, but more often than not, they are from another ethnicity and have lived in the UK their whole life.
London is the world most global city for sure. I find that I am more likely to speak to someone from Spain, Poland, India, France, and even Americans than a true Brit whenever I am about in the city.
In my classes, I have made friends from Zimbabwe, Italy, Mexico, and Spain but I have only made one British friend.
Furthermore, there seemed to be more genuine "ethnic" or international restaurants to go to than British ones. The only British food I tried was fish and chips and a microwave bangers and mash dish.
London is catered more to the world and it for sure is not the hub of British culture and expression (in terms of people, rather than history). While I came to grips with this and didn't mind it at first, I then begin to worry that I didn't really know the British culture so much as I know how the world gets along in one city. I really wanted to get out of town and experience the UK so I traveled to Scotland and Wales--places that had a more pronounced culture. However, I wanted more; I wanted to know more of the British culture down to family life and I didn't know how to find that out (as I had no British friends to ask).
(HOSTUK enters, stage right ;)...)
The HOST UK program did just that, put me in the home of a real British family where I was able to spend a weekend and live with this family, outside of London of course.
I was placed with a lovely older couple in Buckinghamshire, northwest of London, in the countryside. We walked through British villages that were centuries old and it was such a different and great experience and I got to try so many different and new British foods as well. We discussed many things about the US, UK, and Malaysia (another student from Malaysia was on her host visit as well) and we were learned so much about the UK in context of history, culture, geography, attitudes, climatology etc.
I learned to cook British dishes and I am so excited to come back home and cook a bread and butter pudding with custard for my mom!
Being in London has been a great experience, but doing the HOST program has been what I can hold on to when I think of real British people. I highly recommend this program to anyone.
www.hostuk.org
