Lu: Hello again ,and welcome back to Britain under the microscope, you know recently I read an article and that says 80后 is out and now it's world for 90后 and 00后. Whenever I hear those expressions, a lot of students ask me how to translate them into English. So do you have actually like post 80s, do you have this kind of expressions in English?
An: not really, we wouldn't say by decades, we would say by groups of people, so what is it like in the UK?
An: It started from 1945 with the baby boomers,
Lu: the baby boomers that's right after the Second World War,
An: Yep, it was just after war and the population started increase, so we called them the baby boomers that's from 1945 to 1965.
Lu:1945-1965 ,that's a little bit like our 50后，60后 I guess.
An: somewhat, yeah.
Lu: And then?
An: then you have generation X
Lu: generation X, that's following baby boomers
An: Baby boomers up into 1980 and then in 1980 it changes to generation Y or millennials
Lu: generation Y or millennials. Millennials is a word I often seen 千禧一代。This is a whole generation that spends two decades, 20 years.
An: so for example, millennials is from 1980 to the beginning of the new millennials, 2000
Lu: they called generation Y or millennials, this includes our 80, 90. What about the even younger generations, 00后?
An: we would call them generation Z,
Lu: generation Z, so this is new generation, they were born around 2000
An: 2000 up to nowadays
Lu: so baby boomers, generation X, generation Y or millennials, generation Z. So let's talk about these generations, and especially the millennials. Whenever you talk about generation, you heard the word generation gap, because people were born in different times, so they have the different ways of thinking. Is that a problem in the UK as well?
An: Not as much （没那么严重） It's not as evident as it is in China. For example, I hear people talk about the generation gap quite a lot in China, but in the UK we don't talk about it as much.
Lu: but what are the differences, what's the main differences between let's say baby boomers and the millennials.
An: the baby boomers, they were the first teenagers so to speak. So just after the Second World War, Europe was more peaceful, so people started thinking about leisure, thinking about music, so for example, the Beatles is the band of the baby boomers, so rock & roll
Lu: that's also the baby boomer.
An: and it's also the dawn of consumerism, when people were able to go out and buy more things, and they were able to enjoy their money a lot more.
Lu: they start to use their money to enjoy themselves
An: but one major difference is that with baby boomers, especially in Britain, it was a start of the a welfare state
Lu: what is a welfare state? I do heard about it a lot. When you talk about Britain, but what is a welfare state?
An: welfare state, the idea comes just after the Second World War, where health, education would be free. For example, the NHS comes after Second World War.
Lu: NHS. That's National Health Service, is to provide free medical care for all residents of the UK
An: so with the baby boomer as well after the second world war, there were lots of building work, lots of houses were going to up, so the property prices were very cheap
Lu: we've talked about that in our housing episode, so they benefitted from the cheap housing prices, so they bought houses
An: Yeah, absolutely. So for example they had the right to buy housing scheme, which we talked about in last episode. For a person who is over 65 now, so a baby boomer, 77 percent of them own their own homes
Lu: 77 percent, what about younger crowd, what about people in their 30s for example
An: according to the latest statistics, people are under the age of 35, only 34 percent of them own their own homes
Lu: that's a big divide, 77 and 34 percent.
An: and these statistics they consider even a few still have a mortgage, that you own your owner home
Lu: as long as you gotten foot on property later, right to buy council house, but now you can't do that any more
An: no, you can. But there's not many council houses any more, they've been bought.
Lu: that I can image. Was the millennials are not as rich as their parents?

An: No, the baby boomers and generation X, there was always the understanding that each generation would get richer but nowadays, we predict the millennials in the UK will never be as rich as their parents.
Lu: that's really sad because you grow up, and you think, that for each generation you get better, that's where the hope is, they must have a lot of things to worry about it for young people, it's quite difficult for them now.
An: absolutely, if you look at main complains to millennials, one the first is expensive housing.
Lu: In china as well.
An: also expensive rents as well, many of them have to rent, and job insecurity
Lu: same here in china.
An: you also have student debts, as well with tuition fees
Lu: student debts, that's when you borrow money from the bank, to go into universities
An: yeah, because, twenty years ago, they started paying tuition fee
Lu: only for twenty years?
An: yeah, only twenty years ago, before that, university used to be free, but it was more selective than it's now. so in the UK, it's quite common to go to university, but maybe 30 and 40 years ago it was a big forever but it was free
Lu: and also tuition fee has just gone higher and higher, especially for the famous universities, so you mentioned about job insecurity, so is it more difficult for young people, for the millennials or even younger generations to get a job?
An: it's a lot more difficult now, especially in the UK, the idea of zero-hour contract or zero-hour job
Lu: what is the zero-hour contract?
An: A zero-hour contract is contract where an employer doesn't guarantee how many hours you work?
Lu: does that mean that you don't get any base salary?
An: No, you work when there is work, so for example, lots of big companies they use the zero-hour contracts
Lu: is that just like part-time?
An: it's close to part-time, but with the zero-hour contracts, lots of time they don't have to pay a lot of benefits to workers
Lu: that's really bad
An: it seems it isn't. A lot of people don't like that, a lot of people complain about that, however, some people do like the flexibility.
Lu: so if they don't have job security, and the housing is really really expensive. Where do they get money, can they get money from their parents?
An: in the UK, there's an expression "the bank of mom and dad"
Lu: "bank of mom and dad "you would think because their mom and dad, are generally the ones with money. So that was about the economic side, what about the political side? Do they have a voice since we know that UK is also going to an aging population, you have older people than younger people. what's that like the government policies, are they focusing more on older or younger?
An: at the moment, the government is more focused on older people, that's because most of voters are older. So For example, the government has given free TV licenses to older voters, to older people there are free bus passes now. And a lot of benefits for older people
Lu: and there aren't that many for younger generations?
An: No, so you can see this in the UK, with Brexit.
Lu: I remember watching some interviews where interview younger voters, and a lot of the younger voters, they voted No, and they didn't want Britain to leave the EU
An: no, but it's just because older people tend to vote in much bigger numbers than younger people, so there was lots of controversy in UK. Because the older people were vote in Brexit, but you will see younger people that would have to live through. What was going on?
Lu: that really doesn't sound fair, so we talk about all these specific problems and complaints about the millennials in the UK. Let's look at the similarities, for Chinese I think 80后90后 00后 this is pretty much the internet generations now , everyone is hooked on their phone with sharing everything online, sharing their life. is that same in the UK
An: exactly the same in UK, most people do live more online now
Lu: so do they use the equivalent of WeChat you know, like Weibo, obviously in the UK equivalent of it, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
An: something like that
Lu: so we learn a lot about millennials in UK.
An: I would say if you want to learn more, it's a good idea to read things like the BBC and British newspapers. There lots of talks about millennials and the sort of issues, they have to face.
Lu: actually, I just read an article on Guardian about generation Z, so perhaps it's time to check it out, find similarities and look at the differences. And you can probably put all your thoughts in a more global context.
An: for example, are there any similarities between your generations and generations in the UK, that's now what's you thinking on comment section?
Lu: we're waiting for your comments, and that's all for today's Britain under the microscope. See you next time.

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