UK, Ireland /
English/British rudeness - what do Polish people think about it? [168]
Although I'm not Polish, as an American I too have found Brits, both at home and abroad, often
chronically snide, almost condescending, though not especially pompous or opinionated like many
French, Swedes or the Austrians!
Just recently, my wife and I returned to Forest Hills, Queens to pay a visit on some friends of ours
whom we hadn't seen in years since moving her to New Jersey. At the restaurant, we were all
seated at the bar waiting for our table, when I dropped some change which almost rolled under the bar.
A youngish woman from the UK, judging from her strong London accent, picked it up for me unsolicited
for which I obviously thanked her with a "Thank you so much, madam!", at which point, she retorted, "Sir,
I'm not a madam!! That really makes a bad impression, don't you think?"
My wife and our friends found such a direct, in-your-face response as the very height of rudeness.
