book review: watching the english

after a couple of years or more in this country, i finally found a book - watching the english - that partially deciphers and organises all that we are trying to find out about the attitude of this strange people. a good effort on behalf of the author, kate fox, the book being both funny and informative at the same time, without being too funny or too academic at any point in time. i enjoyed every bit of it. [see a couple of these bits below].

now the question remains whether there will be anyone with the guts to write the book about greeks!

a couple of parts i found hilarious:

[...] it is common, and considered entirely normal, for english commuters to make their morning and evening train journeys with the same group of people for many years without ever exchanging a word. the more you think about this, the more utterly incredible it seems, yet everyone i spoke to confirmed the story.
'after a while', one commuter told me, 'if you see the same person every morning on the platform, and maybe quite often sit opposite them on the train, you might start to just nod to each other when you arrive, but that's as far as it goes.' 'How long is a "while"?', i asked. 'oh, maybe a year or so - it depends; some people are more outgoing than others, you know?' 'right', i said (wondering what definition of "outgoing" she could possibly have in mind). 'so, a particularly "outgoing" person might start to greet you with a nod after seeing you every morning for, say, what, a couple of months?' 'mmm, well, maybe' my informant sounded doubtful, 'but actually that would be a bit, um, forward - a bit pushy; that would make me a bit uncomfortable.'
this informant - a young woman working as a secretary for a PR agency in london - was not an especially shy or retiring person. in fact, i would have described her as quite the opposite: friendly, lively and gregarious. i am quoting her here because her responses are typical - almost all of the commuters i interviewed said that even a brief nod constituted a fairly drastic escalation of intimacy, and most were highly cautious about progressing to this stage, because, as another typical commuter explained, 'once you start greeting people like that - nodding, i mean - unless you're very careful, you might end up starting to say "good morning" or something, and then you could end up actually having to talk to them' [...]

[...] tea is still believed, by english people of all classes, to have miraculous properties. a cup of tea can cure, or at least significantly alleviate, almost all minor physical ailments and indispositions, from a headache to a scraped knee. tea is also an essential remedy for all social and psychological ills, from a bruised ego to the trauma of a divorce or bereavement. this magical drink can be used equally effectively as a sedative or stimulant, to calm and soothe or to revive and invigorate. whatever your mental or physical state, what you need is 'a nice cup of tea'.
perhaps most importantly, tea-making is the perfect displacement activity: whenever the english feel awkward or uncofortable in a social situation (that is, almost all the time), they make tea. it's a universal rule: when in doubt, put the kettle on. visitors arrive; we have our usual difficulties over greeting protocol. we say 'i'll just put the kettle on'. there is one of those uneasy lulls in the conversation, and we've run out of weather-speak. we say, 'now, who'd like more tea? i'll just go and put the kettle on'. a business meeting might involve having to talk about money. we postpone the uncomfortable bit by making sure everyone has tea. a bad accident - people are injured and in shock: tea is needed. 'i'll put the kettle on'. world war three breaks out - a nuclear attack is imminent. 'i'll put the kettle on' [...]