As regards social conventions, we must say a word about the well-known English class system. 『This is an embarrassing subject for English people, and one they tend to be ashamed of, though during the present century class-consciousness has grown less and less, and the class system less rigid.』① But it still exists below the surface. Broadly speaking, it means there are two classes, the middle class and the working class . The middle class consists chiefly of well-to-do businessmen and professional people of all kinds. The working class consists chiefly of manual and unskilled workers.

　　The most obvious difference between them is in their accent. Middle-class people use slightly varying kinds of received pronunciation which is the kind of English spoken by BBC announcers and taught to overseas pupils. Typical working-class people speak in many different local accents which are generally felt to be rather ugly and uneducated. One of the biggest barriers of social equality in England is the two-class education system. To have been to a so-called public school immediately marks you out as one of the middle class. The middle classes tend to live a more formal life than working-class people, and are usually more cultured. Their midday meal is lunch and they have a rather formal evening meal called dinner , whereas the working man s dinner, if his working hours permit, is at midday, and his smaller, late-evening meal is called supper.

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