Over the past month or two I have really started to notice how bad my road rage is getting. Not in the sense of getting out and headbutting the driver overtaking me in a 30 zone...although I am sure that probably would bring immediate satisfaction!
I'm talking about when you're reversing out of a space and suddenly a BMW swerves past you at 40mph (no offence to owners of a BMW but these sort of people are letting the side down!) common courtesy has always been something that I believe us Brits pride ourselves on and that is exactly what got me thinking about typical British habits.
So here it is, Five Very British Habits That The Rest Of The World Will Never Understand!
1. The apology for NO reason at all. Now this is definitely one I can strongly relate to. Anyone living in a busy city knows that riding on public transport in the middle of rush hour is not the one! Sweaty armpits in your face, barely a molecule of oxygen in your carriage and then someone walks into you. 'oh dear I'm so sorry' I find myself saying as the real offender glides off as if I didn't exist....now this obviously isn't always the case, thankfully a lot of people are lovely and polite but why do we apologise when the incident is through no fault of our own?! However, in my opinion this is a habit of the British that I hope runs on forever. A little bit of common courtesy is never going to do you any harm, hey, maybe someone might even learn from it?
- One thing I have really noticed is that even when Brits are being rude we commonly start and end with 'I'm sorry but' ..
3.The Queuing for everything. Now this is real Brit behaviour! Anyone living in a big city will encounter this being challenged on a daily basis by confused tourists who are baffled by the fact there are 25 people standing directly behind one another. I am sure I'm not the only one when I say I've often joined a queue with little to no idea what the queue is for! It royally annoys me when someone comes barging past to the front without waiting, but, of course, the Brits are often too polite to say anything!
4.The Greeting. Okay so, I walk into an establishment, wait in the orderly queue and then walk toward the member of staff who will then help me. I say "Hello there, how are you?" and they respond. For Brits, this is just the way things are and I think it's lovely! But those who aren't British find it astonishing that we would ask a complete stranger about their well being! I never realised this until I was out with my Hungarian friend who made a point of saying "why did you ask them how their day was, do you know them?".
5.The Weather. When a conversation hits that awkward phase, what do you do? Talk about the weather of course! Despite that fact it has been raining for 2 months straight we still manage to reel out a good 5 minute conversation about it. Unfortunately with it being so unpredictable this also means we must fill our everyday bags with an umbrella, some sunglasses, our swimsuit, sun cream, flip flops, snow boots, a spare pair of pants and a rain mac...
Now then, anyone for a nice cup of tea?