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The British have a similarly strange relationship with the word "Brilliant".
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/ha0rz/britis...
e.g. "very interesting" -> "clearly nonsense"
It's embarrassing and cringe-inducing to read that even one person--much less an entire culture -- feels more dignity getting beaten down and bullied by strangers or peers than confronting them openly or berating them publicl.
“Thank you” seems to be similarly versatile in London. You can’t go 30 minutes without hearing it. Once when I was in a bookshop and approached the counter with a couple books to buy, the shopkeeper opened with “thank you”. To this day I don’t understand what that was about.
The fundamental difference between deteriorating British culture and successful American culture: British feel "indignity of open confrontation". Honestly shocking. The indignity in America is usually in NOT eventually openly confronting wrongdoers. It's embarrassing and cringe-inducing to read that even one person--much less an entire culture -- feels more dignity getting beaten down and bullied by strangers or peer…
I think this speaks more to a culture of thinking of other peoples’ experiences/rights/feelings as well as their own.
Whenever I drive in the US I’m always staggered by just how selfish people are on the roads, for example. Is another car very clearly merging onto a highway where it would be easy to make enough room for them to merge? In the UK, 90% of the time the cars on the highway will make room. In the US I’ve literally never seen it happen.
“Thank you” seems to be similarly versatile in London. You can’t go 30 minutes without hearing it. Once when I was in a bookshop and approached the counter with a couple books to buy, the shopkeeper opened with “thank you”. To this day I don’t understand what that was about.
The British have a similarly strange relationship with the word "Brilliant".
"absolutely fantastic" also works
Though, they don't mention the "I am sympathetic to your plight" version of sorry that seems to confound ppl a lot (which I also do)
I’m a Brit. It was only after living overseas that I realised just how mad our use of “sorry” can be. An example. One day I was on the tube. My bag was on the seat next to me. A bloke gets on, points at my bag and says “sorry”. What he actually meant, was “move your bag”. The thing is, if he had said something so direct, I would have said “sorry, what did you say to me?” And on and on…
What’s mad about that? The sorry was for interrupting and engaging you and having a favour to ask. The sorry itself wasn’t a command, it was an apology for the implied command.
Highly abbreviated exchange combined with a gesture.
“Thank you” seems to be similarly versatile in London. You can’t go 30 minutes without hearing it. Once when I was in a bookshop and approached the counter with a couple books to buy, the shopkeeper opened with “thank you”. To this day I don’t understand what that was about.