DeadVim

I had to google that, I thought he worked for the United Nations

MartinLuther

Admittedly one of the programmes was about Alexander Downer. Now there's posh

Wendy

You should come live next door to me Mags...not because of any other reason than we'd have so much fun (I live across from a pub too!)

Wendy

Who!? See, I only watch soaps and drama's - none of that 'posh' tv for me

BadgeIsBack

...coffee...on the keyboard..my worst nightmare!

renth

You snob. I tried some the other day - it tasted like shit.

MissNyz

Hi, Im OzzieEagles daughter... Having just arrived back from living in London for 5 years I can definitely say from my experiences the UK has pretentiousness imbedded in them and it is especially rife in London. I found it to be a daily experience being exposed to pretentiousness.

My worst experience was whilst working in a specialist media recruitment agency I was asked by my bosses to go to finishing school so that I could lose my Australian accent as it sounded too common my response to that was I don't want to lose my heritage or forget where I came from!

Australian's may ask how much your house costs but the reason the brits don't ask is because they already know how much your house cost as they are so used to being competitive and house proud they do the research all the time.

Everyday living in London is a competition especially as a Girl living the London life in your 20's. Beginning the morning rat race walking to the tubes you were looked at up and down to see who looked better and who was wearing the better clothes, have the nicer handbag (something I definitely got caught up in - I went and bought my fair share of designer handbags) There is definitely a lot bigger emphasis on that in London then here in Melbourne - you would definitely be scorned for holding a fake handbag in London however.

Here many people have them and they laugh at the ridiculousness of holding a 1000pound bag... The pretentiousness seems to run so deep that they don't even realise that they are judging or being competitive. It even extended to where you went for a holiday (watch your head if you went to Spain)! If you wanted to be seen as cultured it would need to be the south of France, Italy or the Cotswolds! It is definitely hard to generalise and I was able to mix with very different people in london one of my closest friends went to a very posh grammar school in Kent and another in an estate in manor house and they both are down to earth people. I just think that the UK is far and away more pretentious, especially London as the emphasis there is on money and who has the nicer life. Whereas in Melbourne it is in reach for more people to live an excellent quality of life in terms of houses, cars and jobs, as there is more freedom, time and land!

Weebie

Australia is jsut as bad. No one cares if you have a massive new big house its all about your location. and People will judge you on how much money you have, what car you drive and which $16k a year school you send your kids to.

The brits who don't beleive in this live in outer bogan areas where every 6th house is counsil of course status there is irrelavent.

Although Sydney has been proven as the city where people the most will ask you where you live Melbourne for my liking is a prententious nightmare.

BadgeIsBack

Well this carries some weight - from a girl who had the privilege of growing up in the inner Northern subrbs of Melbourne! My view is that it all depends. It might be that life might seem less cut-through if you returned in your 30s - who knows. Being 20 is tough in London at times.

You've heard my commentary about my experiences here, here is my advice.
To the OP. If your question is because you feel somewhat tried by the attitudes of people around you then consider Australia carefully. It might be that you feel economically disadvantaged, or that you don't - but don't want to have reminders of it everywhere you go.

In both Australia and the UK there are whole demographics where ordinary people having risen above a subsidence living then decide to spend the surplus on things which makes their lives more comfortable. They also turn their thoughts to retirement and how to provide for themselves and their children. Sometimes this is displayed in crassness. Sometimes they are bored. The difference is that in Australia demographics are so homegenised that whole suburbs and swathes of society can seem very fleeting and shallow. In the UK people, houses and vilages are far more close together and there is a far larger mix of people living closer together - the pub etc the ties. I would say culturally in Australia there is a whole aspect of middle Australia which would offend the very sensibilities of the equivalent in the UK. The median person living in Australia is probably very different to the median person in the UK.

The problem for the migrant is not knowing where to move to in Australia, or indeed how to live, to feel settled, and then not be able to afford it when that place that suits is then found. Many people move to Australia and end up in that middle section of society and feel lost amongst it all. If like Margaret, you come from a poor village in Scotland then many things in any city or suburb in the world is going to seem a bit cutthroat. It's all about choice at the end of the day.

But there are plenty of run of the mill places where you can move to and feel no one gives a toss!

Bermudashorts

Spent 15 years in London, not once did anyone suggest I should try to lose my northern accent and as for going to finishing school, do me a favour ... not suggesting you are making this up but to present this as a normal London experience is just stupid.

Perhaps you were unfortunate in the company you kept because the London you describe is unrecognisable to me. i arrived in London as a 25 years old and I can assure you I wasn't looking to see what everyone else was wearing, you seem to be the one who was doing this..?

BadgeIsBack

I would say that of course location is important - I was taught this by the media and people of the UK. Location is important because of demographics.

I would say that people who don't focus on inquality are people who feel that they are where they want to be in life - and perhaps don't feel aggrieved by their economic situation, nor have to rely on it singularly.

Margaret3

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My worst experience was whilst working in a specialist media recruitment agency I was asked by my bosses to go to finishing school so that I could lose my Australian accent as it sounded too common my response to that was I don't want to lose my heritage or forget where I came from!





I have to put up with comments like that at least twice a day the worst was my poor daughter though, standing up to answer a question at school, and the teachers response, was 'just sit down, i cant understand a word your saying', i'd hazzard a guess she had even more difficulty understanding me as i stormed the school, lol, but just to be on the safe side, i put it in writing for her!

BadgeIsBack

The problem with these anecdotal experiences is that they are just that - stories. At 20, working in design, you probably would have a go with the bags..

In some mobs in London having a strong regional accent would be a bit of a problem and I was often told by agents that - as if thank God! - that I was the right sort of person to send to some of the banks. After one interview, it was decided that the skill-set was not an exact mix -but I was told, however, I was the right sort of person.. Finishing school would be a bit of a joke - or - it's amazing how insecure some people can be about Antipodeans in the office. There is a girl around here who reminisces about comments on 'Antipodeans'. Besides, many city places rather like Antipodeans - they can mix it in with the old boys.. I remember London offices having their share of barrow boys, Estuary girls and old Etonians, with the occasional Aussie roaming in wearing a Driz-a-bone..

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Do finishing schools still exist?

I used to get the piss taken out of my Mancunian accent in Bristol all the time.. but the guys doing it were not being pretentious, they were just on a wind up job.

MissNyz

The class system was definitely a real shock to the system for me in London, as growing up in Australia there only really seemed to be 2 classes to me - city and country with 2 different accents and 2 completely different ways of life.

In London there is so many different accents, upbringings and people from different walks of life. The moment you speak in London you are automatically put into a category and judged which is something that definitely doesn't happen in Melbourne and something you may not even realise is happening.

If you meet someone that has an Essex accent you are already sub-categorised and put in a different class as opposed to someone from Surrey and if you are a Northerner living in London again you are put into a category.

My bosses were incredibly pretentious at the recruitment agency both from humble upbringings one from country Wales and the other from Essex (who did go to finishing school to lose her accent). They did work hard to get where they are now with a successful company in Oxford Circus and beautiful houses in Highbury and a porsche and a SLK.

The recruitment agency was a real eyeopener, as I thought that if you were qualified for the job then you would be put forward for it but for them it was down to appearance, university you went to and accent. Maybe, this was because it was dealing with PR, Advertising and the media industry. Working there I really was exposed to judgemental, prejudiced people on a day to day basis. I did only work there for 13months out of the 5 years that I lived there so did manage to have different experiences in other offices.

Another great experience was Newport Pagnell and being classified as country as I was from Australia and being behind in the times even being asked if we had culture where I was from!? I spent 3 months living in Milton Keynes and have never lived in a more uninviting place. I wasn't able to make any girlfriends there and was continuously ridiculed for being Australian. When I said to my employees and a few of the neighbors I was planning on moving to London I was warned sternly against it and told that I wouldn't make it out alive considering I had grown up in Australia.

I do think that there is pretentiousness in Australia but definitely not to the extent there is in the UK especially with the class system that is instilled in the Brits. I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing to be asked where your from or where you live but definitely the tone in which people say it or there response to it can be. I definitely didn't feel privileged growing up in inner Northern Melbourne surrounded by what is now the story line of underbelly! It did however, make things interesting!