英国式的傲慢:甚至以只掌握一门语言为荣

说起英国人，人们常常形容他们是缄默而喜欢自嘲的。吹嘘自己的成就可以说是一件不礼貌的事情。你大概可以想象，当我看到本文题目里这个问题时是多么的气愤，我难以相信有人会认为在英国生活的我们更能容忍傲慢。但是当我细细想我对这件事的反应时，我才意识到：哦，这就是一种傲慢。

英国式的傲慢通常与美国式的傲慢表达方式不同，后者（不太公平地说）往往表现为高傲无礼地大肆吹嘘。相反，英国人的这种傲慢常常无声地体现在一些想当然的固定思维中。就比如说，英国人认为自己是不可能傲慢自大的。众所周知，在国外的英国人好像觉得他们遇到的每个人都理应会说英语。有些人甚至以他们只掌握一门语言为荣，就好像学习另一种语言就是对另一种文化的屈从似的。幸好，不是所有英国人都这么觉得。

私立学校的洋洋自得

古老的英国教育系统中生长出了另一种表现形式更加招摇的傲慢。大约93%的孩子上免费的公立学校；另外7%去收费的私立学校，大部分是寄宿制学校。有些英国人非常坚信正是这种私立教育助长了英国人的优越感。我们的首相，伊顿公学出身的大卫·卡梅隆便是个极好的例子：确切地说他并不傲慢，但是却对自己的身份表现出极强的优越感。虽然极端，但真实存在的是，有一小部分接受私立教育的学生确实表现出令人难以忍受的自负，尽管他们并不喜欢夸耀自己，但自恃清高得足以称得上傲慢。

原文:

The British are often depicted as reserved, and inclined towards self-deprecation. Boasting about one’s achievements is considered impolite. My first reaction to the question of this article was, as you can imagine, indignation that anyone could suggest that we in the UK are unusually tolerant of arrogance. It was only when I thought more deeply that I recognised my reaction for what it was: an example of arrogance.

British arrogance doesn’t always exhibit itself in the brash boasting one might (quite unfairly) associate with America. Instead, it often manifests itself in quiet assumptions. For instance, the assumption that we couldn’t possibly be arrogant. Brits abroad are famed for assuming that everyone they meet will speak English. Some are even proud that they are monoglots – as if it is a mark of subservience to explore another culture. Thankfully not every Brit feels this way.

Private school smugness

But there is also another kind of arrogance – a rather more ostentatious form – that seems to stem from archaic elements in the British education system. About 93% of children attend free ‘state schools’; the other 7% go to private schools, which charge fees and often involve students living at the school during term time. It is a popular belief held by a number of Brits that this “private education” encourages a sense of entitlement. Our Eton-educated Prime Minister David Cameron is a good example of this: not arrogant exactly, but supremely confident in his own skin. At the extreme end of the spectrum, there are a minority of privately educated students that are insufferably overconfident and – though not boastful – so smug as to qualify them as arrogant.

（来源：微信公共号 Kandongsee）