Manners & Rudeness

Recently I went to a party with around one hundred guests a mixture of British and French, all very informal at a friends house. One thing struck me very forcibly and that was the vast difference in manners between the two nationalities.

When French folk arrived they greeted other guests as they went in, just the usual smile and 'Bonjour'. The British however just walked past with not so much as a glance let alone a polite greeting to anyone except those people that they knew - everyone else just seemed not to exist. This to me is rude and bad mannered but exception could be made for those newly arrived here but none were newcomers, all had lived here at least several years.

One would like to think that even simple contact with local people such as shopping that some basic idea of how things are done and said might have permeated even to the slightest degree but no sign of that was apparent.

The French guests were chatting with both others born here and some expats as one does at a social gathering. The colonials however were gathered in their own very exclusive cliques and any non-member was given a very cold shoulder.

What French people think of this insular and ignorant attitude is best left to conjecture but I know many expats are seen as rude and impolite. Lord only knows why my fellow countrymen and women behave in this way because it creates a very poor impression of British citizenry. When in Rome, the dictum says, do as the Romans do, this surely equally applies wherever in the world you find yourself. I've found that this policy works and have met some great people here by adopting even the simple basic niceties of life.

Quite in what light the insular colonial attitude portrays my fellow countrymen I do not like to venture but it is little wonder that the British as a whole have a poor reputation abroad.