Chapter 22 Excerpt

Miscellany...and Manners

This is the chapter for the stuff that didn't seem to fit smoothly elsewhere, along with a few minor etiquette pointers that Americans should probably be aware of. In this chapter I touch on the fact that the Brits say "please" a lot (sometimes too much) and expect to hear it from everyone around them.

It will probably come as a shock to a lot of Americans, but I have been quietly studying the use of this word, and I'm afraid to say it's not used very often in the States.   Americans are much bigger on the "thank you"s, and might be equally surprised to discover that when thanked, many Brits don't acknowledge it, or at best will say "No problem".