I feel like Britain has a very unique culture towards drinking. In America they don’t tend to have a ‘casual’ drinking scene and people tend to only really drink if they’re partying.
On the other hand, I see a lot of European counties tend to drink for enjoyment, but not necessarily to go mad and get drunk? More so just to enjoy a place or someone’s company?
What are your thoughts? How would you describe the British drinking culture and attitude towards drinking ?
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I’ll answer later, I’m just popping out for one with the lads
“In America they don’t tend to have a ‘casual’ drinking scene and people tend to only really drink if they’re partying.”
Sorry but where do you get this from?
Bars are widespread in the USA and you only need to flick on American TV or film to see scenes depicting all areas of the country with people going for one or two beers with a buddy.
British attitudes to drinking seem to me to be drinking to get drunk, not drinking to have a good time. Or rather, getting drunk = having a good time even if it means doing something you later regret.
From the Army to Freshers’ Week to virtually everywhere, the culture is to knock drinks back and get shitfaced.
And in Europe too, there are cultures of drinking like crazy. You only have to meet Russians, Czech people, anywhere really.
I think it has changed in recent years.
When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s people drank at the pub. It wasn’t uncommon for people to go to their local just to see who was there. I remember my dad would pop down for a swift pint and always know someone in the pub. At some point in the 90s it became people arranging to meet and then getting shitfaced. This seems to have stuck.
My experience of drinking in suburban America is they don’t mind driving to a bar on a dual carriageway, have four or five strong IPAs and jump in their car to go home midweek.
I’ haven’t spent a huge amount of time over there but think there’s a class thing too, maybe richer people don’t get on it as much or as casually, but when you’re in poorer areas there’s probs a bit more of the midweek five pints thing.
Binge drinking
We’ll drink for any reason, no matter how trivial. Tuesday? Drink. New spanners? Drink. We will drink until we are drunk, or more, then do the same thing again at the next opportunity. It’s pretty unhealthy when you get down to it.
Drinking is a crutch and coping mechanism in the UK. It’s why it is so ingrained when it comes to socializing. Many brits feel like they need a drink to be able to confidently converse with others or to “let their hair down”. I think it has to do with how repressed and depressed brits are.
> And look at me mum
> Squatting pissed in a tube-
> Hole at Tottenham Court Road
> I just come out of The Ship
> Talking to the most
> Blonde I ever met
> Shouting
> Lager lager lager lager
> Shouting
> Lager lager lager lager
> Shouting…
> Lager lager lager
> Shouting
> Mega mega white thing
> Mega mega white thing
> Mega mega white thing
> Mega mega
> Shouting lager lager lager lager
> Mega mega white thing
> Mega mega white thing
> So many things to see and do
> In the tube hole true
> Blonde going back to Romford
> Mega mega mega going back to Romford
> How am I at having fun
> I know why you’re on your way
> To a new tension
> Headache
Somewhat problematic. Whilst pubs are getting more expensive carry outs are cheaper. Some multi packs of beer are so cheap that it works out a bottle of beer is cheaper than a bottle of water which is mad. People are drinking at home more before going out and without the restrictions of going to bar to order and staff giving standard measures they then head out at 9 or 10pm absolutely shitfaced.
Sorry, can’t answer now, getting ready to go to the pub.
British drinking culture changes massively with age.
14-18 its drinking at house parties, which depending on who’s house its at can either be like Skins, or like the Inbetweeners.
18-25 it’s generally just going out at the weekend (and in the week if a student) and getting completely shitfaced.
25+ it’s going out maybe once or twice a week for a couple of pints with mates to have a chat, or doing a pub quiz and having a chat etc. Maybe once every couple months whilst still young people will get shit faced but only for special occasions.
More fun than Reddit’s puritan culture.
Have you heard Tubthumping by Chumbawumba?
That.
Unhealthy. but can’t lie had some of the best nights of my life out with my mates utterly shitfaced
Brits drink like Vikings
I got on the tube today at 11:26am and someone on my carriage was half way through a can of beer, so, there’s that.
There is a drinking issue in the UK for sure, including with middle-age, middle-class people.
Really unhealthy tbh, it’s got to point where I have set rules to make sure I’m not drinking daily. Partly due to my social circle but the you coming out for a few beers (daily) really can lead to bad habits.
One word: professional
Its awesome. people on this sub will try and convince you playing warhammer with your cat is more fun though.
There are only 2 versions of a drink that I know of. Going for 1 is actually anything from 1 to about 3. A couple is anything from 2 to coming home 2 days later wearing someone else’s clothes without your wallet, phone keys etc.
We like to brown out.
The main problem with the UK is the binge drinking culture. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the average Brit drinks every single day, but when we do drink we have a tendency of taking it too far. I.e. getting paralytic during fresher’s week is almost a rite of passage. Going out and getting blackout drunk at the weekend is brushed off as “having a good night out”.
As someone who doesn’t drink often it’s difficult to escape the culture and there’s a great deal of social pressure to keep up. I used to be a bit of a boozehound when I was younger but now I’ll have one or two beers a week if that. There’s nothing wrong with having an occasional drink now and then, but I do think that as a society we need to be more mindful of how much we consume.
I’ve been told I have a “drinking problem” precisely because I rarely drink, so there’s that 🤷♂️
Think it’s massively different to Southern European countries like Spain, Italy and also Greece/Cyprus. Also my South American friends.
I’ve never heard them say “let’s get drunk” or something like that. English friends are always talking about alcohol or getting drunk/smashed…my other non-English friends from the above countries focus more on having a nice time or what venue we are going to or it might be “let’s go and have a drink” and one beer takes one hour or more with conversation whereas the English ones just wanna get fucking bladdered.
Don’t know what it is apart from culture and tradition but it’s been said loads of time that it’s a coping mechanism and at for 9 months of the year everyone I know in the U.K. is quite run down and miserable just trying to get through work and the winter whereas my friends in their home countries have a great quality of life year round in that Mediterranean lifestyle.
That practically anything in the British language can be used to describe getting drunk.
Going to get fucking trollied tonight…
Going to get absolutely dairy milked later on…
Might as well get door handled later…
See ya love going out to get absolutely gazebo…
The list is endless.
Brits drink like Americans eat.
An observation that I made as an immigrant from Belgium is that a large portion of the people in Britain, or at least London, are alcoholics. But it is so normalised that most people don’t realise that they’re an alco and their friends don’t notice because they too are binge drinking.
In Belgium the beers are much stronger and most people drink for enjoyment, and of course a lot of people at the pub get smashed, but nothing compared to what I’ve seen here in the UK.
It also seems impossible to do anything with other people that doesn’t involve drinking, which I find kinda worrying. I do drink, but not every activity calls for drinking to me and it can be hard to hang with people who are getting drunk at any opportunity, we just end up being on completely different wavelengths.
Excessive, toxic, endemic.
Ridiculous. I honestly think we might be one of the biggest drinking countries on the planet. Everything revolves around it and I am also involved.