The British are renowned for being non-confrontational, easily embarrassed and overly preoccupied with manners. It is because of these cultural quirks that journalist Rob Temple began regularly posting on Twitter under the name @SoVeryBritish to share some of these amusing tales of social awkwardness and embarrassment. He now has over half a million followers which is a testament to how many people empathise with his sentiments.
Take a look at some of the scenarios he mentions below from his new book 'Very British Problems' . If you can relate to most or all of these, you are well on your way to being 'So very British'.
- Sounding sarcastic no matter how many ways you say, “That sounds great”
- Waiting for permission to leave after paying for something with the exact change
- Feeling you must press the train door button within a millisecond of illumination or be judged an amateur
- Being flabbergasted at how many people add milk at the wrong stage of the tea-making process
- Greeting a friend in the supermarket, then creeping around to avoid seeing them again
- Wondering whether to hurl yourself through a window when someone sits next to you on an empty bus
- Feeling your life lacks excitement, so dunking your biscuit for an irresponsibly long time
- The anxious bewilderment when clocking the stranger deciding to join the queue at your side rather than behind you
- Looking away so violently as someone nearby enters their PIN that you accidentally dislocate your neck
- Saying, “It’s nothing, really,” to indicate you’re remarkably close to losing consciousness
- Not wishing to tell someone they’ve misheard you, so simply soldiering into a completely different topic of conversation
- Saying “left” and “right” at random, rather than admit to the optician that all the lenses seem identical
