New Horizons Digital 1 • Unit 7 p.82 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE Read and listen. Culture Crisis The UK is changing! We are experiencing a real cultural invasion by other countries. Is this a good or bad thing? Steve Chang looks at the changing face of Britain. If you walk down a British high street today , it is very easy to forget where you are! Shopping streets in British towns are all the same. In every town you generally find the chain stores – Currys, The Body Shop, Boots, WH Smith, McDonalds, HMV, Blockbuster Video, Next, Gap, Benetton – and the major banks. Small shops which are not part of a chain are becoming very rare. What’s more, many of these chain stores and the products they sell are not actually British. America has an enormous influence on the UK these days. The British eat large quantities of American-style fast food. But the USA isn’t the only country to influence what we eat. Here in Richmond, for example, we have Indian, Chinese, French, Greek, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Ukrainian restaurants.

Read and listen. Culture Crisis - Oxford University Press · and French designer clothes in our clothes shops now. A lot of mobile phones, TVs, cameras, video cameras, DVD players

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New Horizons Digital 1 • Unit 7 p.82 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

Read and listen.

Culture CrisisThe UK is changing! We are experiencing a real cultural invasion by other countries. Is this a good or bad thing? Steve Chang looks at the changing face of Britain.

If you walk down a British high street today, it is very easy to forget where you are! Shopping streets in British towns are all the same.

In every town you generally find the chain stores – Currys, The Body Shop, Boots, WH Smith, McDonalds, HMV, Blockbuster Video, Next, Gap, Benetton – and the major banks. Small shops which are not part of a chain are becoming very rare. What’s more, many of these chain stores and the products they sell are not actually British.

America has an enormous influence on the UK these days. The British eat large quantities of American-style fast food. But the USA isn’t the only country to influence what we eat. Here in Richmond, for example, we have Indian, Chinese, French, Greek, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Ukrainian restaurants.

Page 2: Read and listen. Culture Crisis - Oxford University Press · and French designer clothes in our clothes shops now. A lot of mobile phones, TVs, cameras, video cameras, DVD players

New Horizons Digital 1 • Unit 7 p.82 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

The USA also influences other parts of our lives. Most computer products are American, such as Microsoft software and Macintosh computers, and who hasn’t got a pair of Levi jeans?

A very big American influence on UK culture is, without a doubt, American television. A large number of the films, soaps, reality TV shows and quiz programmes that we watch here come from the USA. The consequences of this are enormous. American TV is changing the way we speak and act. Young people use more and more American words and expressions.

However, it isn’t just an American invasion. We find Italian and French designer clothes in our clothes shops now. A lot of mobile phones, TVs, cameras, video cameras, DVD players and MP3 players that we buy are made by Japanese companies.

So is this cultural invasion a good thing? Well, you decide. But can you imagine life without your mobile phone, MP3 player, designer jeans and a nice chicken curry?