06 Oct '06 12:00>
Originally posted by Dr StrangeloveSorry, I apologise for my harsh words in my earlier post, I did not put my thoughts across very well. I hope I have not offended any of you. 😳
Sorry to hear you've had some poor manners from some of my countrymen [or women] I can only say, we are not all like that. I always reply to a message, unless I haven't seen it of course.
I know that you are not all like that and I come accross people with good old-fashioned manners every day, in "real life" (outside RHP). I love the British and I have chosen to live here after all 🙂
I feel I ought to explain what I meant by "I can't say I'm surprised as I've got used to their ways" as it sounds really bad!!
In France, we just have a slightly different way of communicating with others; we are more communicative with strangers, we acknowledge our interlocutors, we address them using their title: any foreigner who has been to a French supermarket or ordered a train ticket in France will have noticed that:
a) the person at the checkout will have made eye contact (acknowledging your interlocutor)
b) they will have greeted you ("bonjour madame" or "bonjour monsieur"😉 and smiled and said goodbye. It is expected and I can safely say I have never had any checkout person NOT say these basic but important greetings.
Go to a supermarket in England for instance and 3 times out of 10, the checkout operator will not even make eye contact with you. If they do, they can be grumpy (remember I'm foreign and when I utter "good morning" , it's accented so I'm aware I get this more often than the natives). On the other hand, Sainsbury's supermarkets greet you with a gigantic orange banner that says "Hello" ! ! !
I've got side-tracked.. To go back to the original point, there are cultural differences , a lot of people in Britain have got a different way of doing things that's ingrained in the culture; what I meant when I wrote "I can't say I'm surprised as I've got used to their ways" is that I accept it, I accept the British reserve even if sometimes the lack of manners still drives me up the wall, then I get all stroppy at the supermarket and embarrass myself... 😕