Topic: Language peculiarities .
I have read the article , it is taken from UK national daily newspaper “The Telegraph”. The headline of the article has immediately attracted my attention : “Translation table explaining the truth behind British politeness becomes internet hit”. The subtitle is “The British trait of being too polite to speak one's mind has led to a table translating numerous hollow English phrases becoming an internet hit”. The author of the article is Alice Philipson.
This article is about the table which shreds light on how difficult it can be for a foreigner to understand what the British really mean . Alice Philipson writes about Britons who tend to begin a sentence "with the greatest respect ...', but they actually mean 'I think you are an idiot’. Their innate politeness can fool a person because when they say :’you must come for dinner', which foreigners take as a direct invitation, but is actually said out of politeness and often does not result in an invite. Alice Philipson mentions that Duncan Green ,a strategic adviser for Oxfam posted the table, which has been posted on an number of blogs and has attracted thousands of comments from both Britons and foreigners claiming the interpretations are true to life, he described it as "a handy guide for our fellow Europeans and others trying to fathom weaselly Brit-speak».
It’s very interesting how diffent culture and mentality of different nationality can be . I wonder about the fact how the British can hide their rudeness under their good breeding with the help of educated speech.
To my mind British don’t really polite , they have a different way of speaking, different way of thinking ,different mind. They just can not be direct due to their nature .
But on the other hand may be they are generally more circumspect with strangers ,especially with foreigners.
I think that this article can be very helpful for foreigners . It can teach them to be more attentive to the British speech because they can be not as kind as they seem.
What do you think about this matter? Have you ever deal with British "politeness"?
I have dealt with British politeness at reading books or watching films. I think British politeness is as ordinary as rudeness in Russia. It is obvious that the concepts of politeness are not universal and depend on the culture in which they were formed. So it is no wonder that British speech etiquette has such traditions.
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