“How to be an Alien” by George Mikes

   

Reviewed by Mao Kuwahara,  Kokoro Suigetsu, Nagito Masunaga 

Yuto Fukushima, Natsuki Nishi
 

1)Summary 

The book is about how strange English people are from the perspective of the author. Aliens are a strange thing. The book tells you that the English people are aliens. I am going to tell you the one thing that English people are strange. The author is from Hungary. Usually, the story of the weather is so boring, it is not interesting. However, in Britain, the story of the weather is very interesting and exciting, so the author claims that English people are very different from other countries’ people.

2)Important aspects of the story

The important aspect of this book is that the author imagined that the British would be angry at this kind of black humor. However, the British who read this did not get angry, but thought the book was interesting.

to talk with black humor about various topics such as how to talk when talking about the weather, how to respond when tea is brought at 5 a.m., how to speak English well, and how to deal with English civil servants in England. 

3) This book focused on weird things about the British people from a foreigner’s perspective.I believe strange customs and common sense from the perspective of foreigners are found in every country and I think cross-culture understanding of people is important in modern society.

 For example, From the point of view of people who think slurping noodles is bad manners, Japanese people who slurp ramen are weird. On the other hand Koreans who don’t lift plates at mealtime are strange to Japanese who lift plates at mealtime.There are many strange customs and common sense from the perspective of foreigners in countries other than the UK.
Recently, we have more opportunities to learn about other cultures, so many people are eager to travel abroad.I think respect for local customs and common sense is very important like “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

4) The author of How to be an Alien is George Mikes. He is from Hungary and born in1912 on February fifteenth. Began working as a journalist as soon as he entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Budapest. At the outbreak of World War II, he decided to remain in England, but was imprisoned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1946 and worked as a journalist and humorist.　  

  Also,Based on Mikesh’s experience of immigrating to England, How to be an Alien is a satirical portrait of English society and culture, especially its stranger aspects. 

5)Conclusion   

The content of the book is to introduce various strange and interesting parts of the UK from the perspective of the author, who is from Hungary. The UK in this book is described as a somewhat peculiar and strange country. The book also showed well the author’s alienation from being in the UK but not being a real Englishman.