In today’s program we are going to look at some new language, which suggests that perhaps the way we deal without feelings really has changed.
That same expression “emotional literacy” came up later in a conversation I had with Clair Raina, she is a broadcaster and writer and is also Britian’s favorite agony aunt, she has a column, it’s called “A problem page”, in which she replies to readers who write because they are having a personal difficulties.
This openness, emotional openness idea is not naturally English , it came from America, notably from the West coast of America, there something about futher west, the further west you go in the states, they are more willing people to talk about their feelings, it's an extraordinary thing. We see it on the movies, we see on television. But we in England will take up some of the ideas, and then we are a bit embarrassed about it because people are still rather shy, a little bit stiff upper lip.
Phrase is “Stiff upper lip” as in "try to keep a stiff upper lip", and it meant control your feelings at all costs. Not everyone thinks that it was such a bad thing.
All this talk of emotional literacy and the end of the stiff upper lip firstly rose as Nick Coan said at the time when princess Diana dead in 1997. It was then when we saw thousands of members of the public openly showing their feelings. We have no grief in our lives, we have no bereavement to cope with. And many people feel hard to talk about their bereavements.
Weren’t we analyzing ourselves and talking about a more emotional Britain. We don’t only use phrases like “emotional literacy” , but we also use, perhaps overuse, ordinary words, like ‘care’ and ‘share’ and ‘touch’ and ‘feel’. No these little words have been combined in very popular phrases- ‘caring and sharing’ or ’cary-shary’ and ‘touchy-feely’.
When you see ‘y’ in the end of a word//it’s a way of making things smaller, and what you talking are talking about smaller- keepy, warmy, lovely and it...
