I taught in South East London a few years ago, and the students there would definitely be defined as Chav's.
They are Britain's white trash. They were dressed badly and had manners that were even worse. Check out the Lauren character in Katherine Tate's show and you'll see what I mean.
Sadly what has happened in the UK is that the working class as known by our parents began to disappear as the traditional job market went and social security went up.
Don't get me wrong there are still some hard working well respected working class people in the country.
But the Chav is something new. The ones I met were second or third generation (white and black), who were living off benefits. Their parents and grandparents had never worked.
Cabbage I must add though that they were definitely NOT racist, in fact bizarrely many of the white children looked up to and aped the black american street gangster style/life. There was less racism in that school than any other I've experienced.
They knew their rights better than many law graduates.
They had no desire to work, no ambition to do anything with their lives. They didn't see the point when they could get so much for free and then get other things usually illegally on the side.
I remember when it came time for them to go on work experience, most were back in school by the end of the week because they had been told to do something they didn't want to - like sweep a floor or make coffee!
The majority of them had all the latest designer tracksuits and trainers, mobile phones and laptops. They were responsible on more than one occasion of breaking into the school and were the reason there were under cover drugs officers permanently in the playground.
There is a whole underclass that has been created in the UK, and maybe this is one of the reasons many expats don't want to pay taxes any more?
Hi,
I taught in South East London a few years ago, and the students there would definitely be defined as Chav's.
They are Britain's white trash. They were dressed badly and had manners that were even worse. Check out the Lauren character in Katherine Tate's show and you'll see what I mean.
Sadly what has happened in the UK is that the working class as known by our parents began to disappear as the traditional job market went and social security went up.
Don't get me wrong there are still some hard working well respected working class people in the country.
But the Chav is something new. The ones I met were second or third generation (white and black), who were living off benefits. Their parents and grandparents had never worked.
Cabbage I must add though that they were definitely NOT racist, in fact bizarrely many of the white children looked up to and aped the black american street gangster style/life. There was less racism in that school than any other I've experienced.
They knew their rights better than many law graduates.
They had no desire to work, no ambition to do anything with their lives. They didn't see the point when they could get so much for free and then get other things usually illegally on the side.
I remember when it came time for them to go on work experience, most were back in school by the end of the week because they had been told to do something they didn't want to - like sweep a floor or make coffee!
The majority of them had all the latest designer tracksuits and trainers, mobile phones and laptops. They were responsible on more than one occasion of breaking into the school and were the reason there were under cover drugs officers permanently in the playground.
There is a whole underclass that has been created in the UK, and maybe this is one of the reasons many expats don't want to pay taxes any more?