We all know that the British people love their manners. They are part of their national identity (特性), as well as having fish and chips and complaining about the weather. Recently I read online that they said “sorry” up to eight times a day.

    After some research I have not been able to find any specific reasons why they are like this. I suppose, for centuries, manners, including how they behave at table and talk to other people have been one of the differences between the lower and upper classes and those manners show their social classes. Britain has traditionally been a quite conservative (保守的) country. There are many articles suggesting that their seemingly polite attitude of always saying “please” and “thank you” is quite false because it is impossible for a person to always feel that he or she wants to thank someone or say “please”.

    Maybe it is for this reason that people are going one of two ways: they are too polite and hold back their feelings or they are not polite at all and express their true feelings directly. Some British people are tired of pretending that they are always happy and having to please others. But sometimes because they feel they have to be polite, they are prevented from saying what they truly think.