Generally, British people
are renowned for being
polite. But some older people
in Britain think that people’s
manners are worse than
they were in the past. When
children were sitting at the dinner table fifty
years ago, they could not put their elbows
on the table or speak with their mouths
full. Sometimes, the youngest children
were not allowed to speak at all. But today,
conversation at the table is normal.
Although manners at home have
changed, public manners are still important
to most British people. They are famous for
their ability to queue for a long time, and
become very unhappy if somebody ‘jumps’
the queue. British people are often too
polite to complain about bad behaviour,
but will not hesitate to say something about
queue-jumping. The weird thing is that
even when they complain, British people
sound like they are sorry and say something
like “I’m very sorry but I think I was here
first.”
When it comes to apologising, the British
go further than almost every other nation.
It’s normal to say sorry if you bump into
somebody with your supermarket trolley,
but British people often say sorry back to the
person that hit them! Now that really is polite!
The rules about good and bad manners
change as the world changes. A good example
of this is how people use their mobile phones.
Most people agree that talking loudly about
boring business or family problems on a
mobile phone while on a train or bus is rude.
But many people still do it, and although the
other passengers roll their eyes and look angry,
very few Brits say anything to the person on
the phone. Then there is the question of
when to switch your mobile off. In a cinema?
Yes, definitely. In a business meeting? Yes,
probably. At a business lunch? Well, possibly.


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