Village People

When people think of England, many automatically think of London. Here Andrew Fox takes a look at life in a typical English village

   There are many times when people ask me, an Englishman, why I came to Brazil. It is a reasonable question, but normally the way it is asked gives the impression that I did something either very adventurous, or just weird. The real question seems to be, “Why on earth did you want to leave England?”

   I cannot answer that question here, but I can tell you that I did not leave a life of high-energy excitement in the center of London. Many people equate England with London, but this is like thinking that Brazil and the Amazon are one and the same.

    Last April I went back to England for the first time in over seven years. I stayed in Clarborough, a very small village a few miles outside a very small market town called Retford, in the north of Nottinghamshire County.  Let me tell you a bit about life in a place like this.

Things to do

Not much. Activities are limited to walking the dog, running around fields, or going to either the pub or church (or one, then the other). Churches and pubs are the main focal points of village life, often being found near to each other. Clarborough has the Chesterfield canal running through it, so you can sit next to that and feed the ducks and swans, and take in the air. Relaxation is an art that has to be practiced. 

Traffic and Transport

Not a problem. Villages do not have very large populations – Clarborough is home to 1,100 people – so even in the rush hour, it does not get very busy. Having said that, cars are almost indispensable, as bus services tend to be irregular.  

Housing

You will not find any apartments in Clarborough, or any villages like it. England in general is not part of the apartment culture, and people live predominantly in houses of varying sizes and descriptions. A typical house will have 3 bedrooms and is 76 square meters in area. Of course, there are large variations.

 People

All village people are the same: cautiously friendly. Crime is not a huge problem, but it certainly does exist and the days of leaving front doors open and people being happily carefree about personal security are long-gone. There are “Neighborhood Watch” areas in which neighbors are constantly keeping their eyes open for strangers. This is the result of sparse police numbers in rural areas, making neighbors more reliant on each other for early signs of possible problems. One thing is for sure, if you are new in a village, it does not take long for the local residents to hear about you.

Article and Pictures – by *Andrew Fox -

www.maganews.com.br

(*Andrew nasceu na Inglaterra e vive no Brasil há mais de 12 anos, onde trabalha como professor, tradutor e também como redator, revisor e colaborador da Revista Maganews)

Vocabulary

1 reasonable - razoável
2 weird - estranho

3 to equate – aqui = igualar uma coisa com outra coisa

4 a few miles – a algumas milhas

5 county – região

6 pub – típico bar inglês

7 church – igreja

8 Chesterfield canal – rio

9 duck – pato

10 swan – cisne

11 to take in the air - respirar

12 housing – habitação / moradia

13 bedroom – quarto

14 square meter – metro quadro

15 cautiously friendly – cautelosamente amigável

16 front door – porta da frente

17 carefree – tranquilo / despreocupado

18 long-gone – exp.idiom. – há muito tempo (já é passado)

19 neighborhood watch – vigilância do bairro

20 sparse – escasso / pouca (o)

21 reliant - confiante