Class and Responsibility

Class in Britain

Vocabulary: Britain has become less class-bound

• Wheatcroft, Geoffrey . The Making of the English Middle Class. <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99jun/9906class.htm> 22.10.2007

l. 1	toil - hard unpleasant work
l. 3	meritocratic - a ~ system is a social system where people get power / money on the basis of their ability
l. 8	to dilate - verb to become or to make sth larger, wider or more open
l. 8	predecessor – Vorgänger
l. 10	artificial – not natural (künstlich)
l. 11	albeit – although
l. 12	bundle - They bundled her into the back of a car.
l.17	reflection - your written or spoken thoughts about a particular subject or topic
l.18	to absorb - to interest sb very much so that they pay no attention to anything else
l.22	eminent- famous and respected, especially in a particular profession
l.25	distinctive = having a quality or characteristic that makes sth different and easily noticed
l.26	to acknowledge - to accept that sth is true
l.28	occupation - a job or profession
l.28	to observe = to see or notice something
l.33	triadic - divided in three parts
l.34	dichotomous - contrasting
l.36	pedantic - too worried about small details/things
l.36	nicety - precision
l.38	to apply in - to fit in
l.39	extending – cover area/time/distance
l.40	sharply aware – to exactly know sth (sich genau bewusst sein)
l.42	gentry – rich people owning land/upper class; burghers/citizen - middle class; toilers – workers, lower class
l. 47	to undermine = to make sth, especially sb’s confidence or authority, gradually weaker or less effective
l. 48	assertion = a statement saying that you strongly believe sth to be true
l. 48	hitherto = until now; until the particular time you are talking about
l. 54	to acquiesce = to accept sth without arguing, even if you do not really agree with it
l. 60	burgher = a citizen of a particular town
l. 62	wisdom = the ability to make sensible decisions and give good advice because of the experience and knowledge that you have
l. 62	virtue = behaviour or attitudes that show high moral standards
l. 64	crucial = extremely important, because it will affect other things
l. 66	consciousness = the state of being able to use your senses and mental powers to understand what is happening
l. 69	to obsess = to completely fill your mind so that you cannot think of anything else, in a way that is not normal
l. 71	yokel = if you call a person a yokel, you say they do not have much education/ understanding of modern life, because they come from the countryside
l. 76	peculiarity = a feature that only belongs to one particular person, thing, place, etc
l. 76	significance = the importance of sth, especially when this has an effect on what happens in the future
l. 77	distinctions = a clear difference or contrast especially between people or things that are similar or related
l. 79	anachronistic = a person, a custom or an idea that seems old-fashioned and does not belong to the present
l. 81	endeavor = to try very hard to do s.th.
l. 83	hitherto = until now
l. 89	meritocracy = the group of people with power in a social system
l. 90	indication = SYN: remark, sign
l. 92	sham = SYN: false, pseudo
l. 93	heir = legal right to receive sb’s property, money etc.
l. 93	dukedom = Herzogtum
l. 93	audibly = hörbar
l. 94	agonizing = causing great pain
l. 95	striving = to try very hard to achieve s.th.
l. 96	to peter out  = to gradually become smaller etc. and then end
l. 96	marsh = an area of low land that is always soft and wet
l. 96	amorphous = having no definite shape; shapeless
l. 97	vaguely = in a way that is not detailed or exact
l. 97	plebeian = uneducated, poor people
l. 98	avocation = SYN: hobby
l. 101	to desert = SYN: to sink
l. 102	clergyman = a male priest or minister in the Christian Church

Summary of the six main passages of the text:

1. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke of an ever growing middle class of people who see themselves as "working class", but have more abilities, opportunities, tolerance and ambition than their ancestors. According to him, soon everyone will be middle class. His predecessor , John Major imagined a classless society, but did not succeed, because in a society there will always be differences e.g. in income, power, abilities, so you never achieve a completely classless society. Margaret Thatcher called class a Communist concept, as it only saw the opposition of two classes.
2. It is an English obsession to divide the people in classes. As politicians and historians claim, the English care much more about class division than other countries. But there will never be a classless society as long as there are differences between people, e.g. in education, personal abilities, salary, jobs etc.
3. There are three different kinds of class-systems: hierarchical, triadic and dichotomous. The first one means that every person is part of a chain from highest to lowest and everyone knows exactly where they stand. The Triadic model is the division into three different parts: low, middle and upper class. The dichotomous system divides society in two completely opposed classes (e.g. rich/poor, capitalists – proletarian masses => Marx).
4. History shows that classes didn't only have conflicts (Marx) but could also cooperate. Moreover, society has always only worked as the majority of the people have accept it – including the idea of social inequalities. In England, the majority of people who believe in the triadic concept see themselves as middle class and are proud of it: A nation of “burghers”, tradesmen, reasonable, educated middle-class citizens!
5. During the industrialization, the system of class divisions changed from one defined by hierarchy to one defined by class, which had a huge effect. It helped to define a working class and brought forth the idea of an upper-middle class of “gentlemen” Most important for a gentleman: language => accent. In times before the Industrial Revolution people from poor to rich spoke the accent of their country/region, but now it was a question of speaking the accent of a class. So the upper-middle-class for example began to speak/speaks the “Received Pronunciation (RP)” or “Oxford English”, often learned at a “public school”
6. Public-schooling became a distinctive feature ~~> public-school-educated Tony Blair leads Labour (!). Upper- to upper middle-class accent arrived sometime in the eighteenths century and was a sure sign of class. Today this is departing. ~~> Today educated men like Tony Blair "lower their voices" if they speak on TV ==> try to sound less "upper-middle-classy" than they are. At the same time the children or the nobility no longer find their careers in parliament, the church of England, diplomacy or the Army and also speak "Estuary English".

Being Middle Class isn't funny ...

Being Middle Class

Musts	Problems/Fears
bladibla bladibla	bladibla bladibla

Social Exclusion

See David Batty. Social exclusion: the issue explained

Signs of/factors leading to social exclusion:

• unemployment, poor skills ==> low incomes
• poor housing
• high crime
• bad health, drug addiction
• lack of medical care in deprived areas
• family breakdown
• high teenage pregnancy rate
• homelessness
• high number of young people not in education/training or employment and truancy/school exclusion

Solutions: Government tries to establish institutions that

• analyse the causes and publish the results in reports.
• critically evaluate local governments' work to improve efforts to help socially excluded groups
• help to improve cooperation of departments / institutions to solve the multi-faceted problem
• initiate programmes to improve health of children, reduce teenage pregnancy and school exclusion and to counsel young people about education and employment
• coordinate efforts to encourage private investment in deprived communities.

Essay - Every child growing up in poverty is a ticking social timebomb

Collection of ideas

These children will often ...

Thesis Statement	Supporting Points (more general/abstract)	Examples (specific, images)
become criminals	don't have money to buy special things -> steal	girls steal e.g. a Prada handbag
turn to violence	can't express themselves, envy, surroundings are bad -> learn solving conflicts by violence, aggression as a way of getting money	throwing stones at expensive cars/ scratching with keys
have no positive idols	unemployed parents -> missing successful role models/ belief in working your way up	girl sees her mother prostituting herself -> role model for her later life
have no motivation	children think they don't have a chance to get out of poverty/bad money situation	parents don't give their children any hopes (no disappointing later) parents can't afford university -> tell them that from the start
be in danger of becoming depressive	can't afford, what makes your dreams come true; work hard -> nearly no result; often have been rejected	s.o. wants to found a company but he doesn't even get the money from the bank
have no education → find no jobs	no money/supporting background
elect extremists	believing in wrong promises, no achievement of big parties for poor people	total equality (left party), electing the right party against foreigners taking their jobs
develop anger and hatred	-> see violence
make money with prostitution	only way of getting money very fast, no need of qualification
face teenage pregnancy/parenthood	girls want something that loves them, role models -> seeing it as normal

Writing an introduction

Check if the introduction ...

• introduces the topic (+)
• gives readers an idea of what dirction the essay will take (+)
• provides an overview of the structure/line of argument (+)
• implies/poses a question and creates an expactation/interetst in the readers (+)
• states general truths/defines what needs no definition (-)
• asks questions/announces answers but does not give them (-)

Possible Introductions

• Question:

• Basic thesis/contrast ==> Definition:

• Surprising fact / statistic:

• Quotation:

Class: Two Language Samples

• RP Received Pronunciation, University education
• EstEngl Estuary English