Where and how do most British people choose to spend

their spare time? Why?

By Yu Zhijie and Xie Aiyi

Leisure at home• Watching television• Visiting or entertaining

friends• Listening to radio• Listening to records,

tapes or CDs• Reading books• Gardening• Do it yourself

Generally the greater part of most people’s leisure time is spent in the home. Home and family is the main focus of interest for British people.

Watching television and videos is by far the most popular leisure pastimes

• There is a wide range of programmes available, from current affairs to quiz shows. Many television programmes are about music, wildlife, animals, holidays, cooking and gardening. All these things are much cherished by British people. Britain’s regular weekly dramas or ‘soap operas’ have more viewers than any other programmes.

• The British are known as a nation of gardeners. Gardening has been a popular pastime since Roman times.

Every town in Britain has one or more DIY (Do it Yourself) centres and garden centres. These are like supermarkets for the home and garden. These places are very popular with British home-owners at the weekends.

Leisure outside the home• Visit a public house

• Meal in a restaurant

• Library, cinema, museum, art gallery, theatre

• Sports

• Gambling

• Organizations

The most common free-time activity outside the home amongst adults is a

visit to the pub. Why do the British like going to the pub?

One of the main attractions of the pub for all regular pubgoers is that it offers good company in friendly surroundings. Good conversation and good beer are two essential items provided by the pub. beer is the perfect drink for the pub. Many pubs also serve food, from snacks to full meals.

Other attractions include games, such as darts, skittles, snooker, bar billiards.

• The teashop is almost as British as the pub. From 3.00 and 5.30 p.m. Teashops offer you, as well as pot of tea, bread and butter, scones, toast and jam, and cakes of varying quality.

• The English are passionate lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or they cannot do that, to think about them.

• Of all sporting activities, walking is by far the most popular for men and women of all ages. Women generally prefer swimming, keep-fit classes and yoga.

• The game peculiarly associated with England is cricket which has been extensively adopted only in the Commonwealth. Nearly every village in England, except in far north, has its cricket club.

• For the majority of the British public the eight months of the football (soccer) season are more important than the four months of cricket. Every town has at least one professional football club.

• Rugby football got its name because it originated from Rugby Public School. It mainly played by amateurs and favored by the middle class. It is also the game played at the great majority of “public school”.

• Golf and tennis are the more social adult games.• Next to Association Football, the chief spectator spor

t in English life is the horse racing.

Comparison and Contrast between Chinese and British

Leisure• Inside Home

1 Main Similarities: a. Watching TV b. Listening to music c. Enjoying food with relatives or friends2 Differences: a. Gardening b. DIY

• Outside Home

1. Pubs in Britain and China

2. Enjoying tea in different ways

3. Art a. theatre

b. museums, galleries

4 Gambling in China: sports lottery

5 Sports:

A main way of leisure in both Britain and China

Gardening• In Britain

1. Many British own their own homes with attached gardens (about 70% in 1999)

2. British enjoys gardening and improving it to make it more beautiful and comfortable

• In China

1 Space is not available

2 Still some Chinese will do pot plants, keep birds company, etc.

Pubs • In Britain: 1. tens of thousands of pubs in every corner2. Pub is an easy and cheap way to join the British soci

ety and get to know British culture• In China1 a comparably expensive leisure, mainly for rich people2 mainly in big cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hang Zho

u, Guangzhou, etc.eg: Guangzhou pubs Face Cafe/ China Box /Wind Flower/F41 Wine: the catalyzer 2 Cocktail and whiskey: most popular wines3 Mixers and people capable of sampling wine: far from en

ough

Tea in China

• Tea is not only tea in China

it is a kind of culture

• A way of enjoying tea in Guangzhou

• Morning tea:

1. time:6:30-9:30

2. characters: Cantonese, especially the old

3. tea & food: a pot of tea (oolong, Chrysanthemum ),

Dianxin

Art

• Theatre in Britain:

1As a rich land of drama, theatre, being the stage,

flourishes in Britain ( only the capital:100 theatres )

2Though the population of Britain is small, there are

still many audience. • In China

1. People go to theatre mainly for films, but not drama or other forms of operas

2. Operas have only a certain amount of supporters

Museums and Galleries• In Britain

1. More than 2600 museums and galleries throughout Britain

2. They are mainly funded by government

(about 0.44 billion annually )

3. 13 museums including Museum London, The Victoria And Albert Museum are totally free, while others have free access on some days

4. 40% of the population are usual visitors

Museums and Galleries

• In China

1. 2200 museums with 0.16 visitors, only 12.3% of the total population

2. The displays of museums are out of date

3. Ticket is a stopper for many people

References:

• 《英国文化》范中汇• http://life.women.sohu.com/glenfiddich/bar

_gz.html

• http://cn.news.yahoo.com/050518/1308/2byew.html

Thanks for listening!!