English Teenagers Worst Behave in Europe

Résumé du document

During this seminar, we were asked to show a stereotype commonly admitted about the United Kingdom. When we mention the English educational system, we first think that it is very strict; because we have in mind images of young boys and girls with uniforms, and English people in general are told to be square, polite and reserved persons with good behavior. From our experiences and thanks to the opportunities we had to go abroad, we were shocked about the way English teenagers behaved. Indeed, it seems to be contradictory with the belief we have of their good and strict education. The myth of the English gentleman is about to be destroyed, in fact, some anecdotes that we experienced are in total contradiction with this myth. For instance, in winter teenage girls are not afraid to go to parties almost naked totally drunk, they do not bother about the cold. Violence are more commonly known during sport events, with hooligans for example. To sum up we can say that English youth behave differently than the grown-ups, so it would be interesting to conduct a survey to check if what we have seen is commonly accepted.

Extraits

[...] - 44% of British teenagers have had a fight in the last year, compared to just 28% of German teenagers. - Scotland Yard has identified 169 gangs with about 5,000 members in London alone; we talk about “street gang culture”. Also, more than 70 teenagers were violently killed in the UK in 2008 - 27% of British teenagers regularly get drunk, compared with just a tiny in Italy and in France. But the most relevant fact is that 23% of 14 and 15-year-old girls admitted they got drunk at least once a week, compared with 21% of boys. [...]

[...] English Teenagers Worst Behave in Europe Introduction During this seminar, we were asked to prove or refute a stereotype commonly admitted about the United Kingdom. When we mention the English educational system, we first think that it is very strict; because we have in mind images of young boys and girls with uniforms, and English people in general are told to be square, polite and reserved persons with good behavior. From our experiences and thanks to the opportunities we had to go abroad, we were shocked about the way English teenagers behaved. [...]

[...] We also asked what, up to them, was the biggest issue for the English youth among the following list: alcohol, violence, pregnancy, drug, obesity or tobacco. The answer was quite clear because 64% think that alcohol is the main issue for English teenagers. Actual statistical results Once our survey conducted, we wanted to check what was indeed the reality. Do the English teenagers behave really so badly as we thought? Here are some figures pointed out in various reports conducted in recent years and which turn out to be perfectly convincing. [...]

[...] It was very interesting to conduct this survey because we could realize that in fact the stereotypes about English teenagers were confirmed. And the most surprising fact was that the worst issue for girls was now the alcohol consumption. It would be interesting to compare with the results of the survey of the other group about alcoholism and compare the tendencies. Bibliography www.telegraph.co.uk www.guardian.co.uk www.statistics.gov.uk www.timesonline.co.uk www.news.bbc.co.uk www.caplondon.com Survey about English teenagers If you had to give a number between 1 and 10, how would you grade the strictness of a British education What do you think about girls? [...]

[...] Some factors of explanation How can we explain this phenomenon? Why in a country with a population thought to be square, polite and reserved, adolescents could behave so badly? We have tried to look for some possible factors of explanation and found the following reasons: First of all, teenagers can be defined by how they spent their spare time. Whereas of 15-year-old boys in England and in Scotland spent most evenings with friends, in France that figure was just In Italy of teenagers ate with their families, compared with in the UK. [...]