AIBVB - Am I being very British (lighthearted thread)

[Wills]

I want to know situations where you think to yourself "No other culture would do this! I'm sooo British"
So for me we have 4 kids and despite warning them that it's their planet and could they turn off lights as well as energy bills are going up etc they fail consistently. So Dh has lost it and changed the worst offending light switches to ones that react to Alexa so that we can go to bed and basically say "Alexa turn off all lights". The thing is that whenever I give Alexa a command and it does it I always say thank you. I'm responding to a computer with politeness, enough so that my younger kids are doing the same and the older ones just laugh. Anyone else have similar examples of being very British.?

Tut? That's outrageous!

My husband and I once spent a whole afternoon in a North Carolina heatwave looking for Twinings teabags. And Reader, we found some! ☕️

Quite, an almost obscene display of emotion.

An ironically raised eyebrow should suffice

Surplus2requirements · Today 15:38

An ironically raised eyebrow should suffice

But what if they spot you in the rear view mirror? Unlikely, I know, as most of them only look as they leave the kerb; but is it worth the risk?

some countries queues are just less obvious. I can't remember where - I think possibly Spain, when you enter a shop you ask 'who is last?' and then you know that you will be served after that person.

My one was actually someone else - after airport security at the packing station I turned round without looking and hit a security guard in the stomach with one of the grey trays. As I was still processing what had happened and what an appropriate response from me would be HE apologied to ME. presumably for being where I wanted to swing my tray!

I always say 'please' to Alexa.

There are places where queueing has different rules. Eg in Thailand (I think) you queue for a particular toilet cubicle, where as here the person at the front of the queue goes into the next free cubicle.

some countries queues are just less obvious. I can't remember where - I think possibly Spain, when you enter a shop you ask 'who is last?' and then you know that you will be served after that person.

Same in some instances. Like doctor's waiting rooms, offices etc.in shops usually only if hhere is no spacd to stand behind each other.

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I was told by a cashier in a French supermarket they knew I was British because I was so polite and said 'merci' as you do. The one's I've heard that really piss me off, are the ones that say, I'll take!! Heard in a Calais supermarket one Saturday. After she'd gone, I said something to the butcher, and he hadn't been impressed either.

Focus on manners is definitely a British thing. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist in other countries or is superior. It just plays a different part in social interactions adn expectations. And, dare I say it, can even be pretty passive agressive.

In my original native language (been in the UK for 20 years now, so definitely more British in my ways than I wouldlike to admit - I thank Alexa too OP) there isn't a word for please. You can ask for something politely, e.g. may I have, or may I ask for, but there is no word in the vocabulary that means please.

yanbu. We always say please and thank you to Alexa. Especially important because she has a female voice.

Oh this reminds me of an experience DFIL had on the tube. He has aged well and used to work in the fashion industry so dresses snappily (imagine Donald Sutherland, or George Clooney in 20 years’ time).

He was sitting in a priority seat, and a woman marched up to him and said “you should be ashamed of yourself sitting there while my husband stands! He’s 68!”

DFIL: I’m 77

Woman: He’s had a heart attack!

DFIL: I’ve had two, and a pacemaker.

She glared at him and marched off again, dragging her poor husband down the carriage with her.

I’m told the man looked completely fine, wasn’t unsteady on his feet or anything. I don’t know why she picked on another, older man and not on any of the younger passengers sitting in the other priority seats.