We can talk about the weather...


After recommending this book for years to other expats I've finally gotten around to reading it. The first chapter revealed that even though I've been living in the UK for nearly 7 years I have spent that 7 years committing a major, major social faux pas.

It turns out that weather conversations are meant to be about agreement, not dissent! Now I'm good at agreeing during the summertime conversations but if you are an English person having a chat with me during the winter it normally goes like this:

English person: 'oooh, it's a bit on the cold side today'

Me: 'Cold? This? I'll show you cold! Where I grew up it was -30 degrees for two months of the year. You couldn't go outside without 5 layers and people regularly freeze to death in snowbanks! And you think this is cold?'

Apparently this is the worst possible thing to do- not only am I disagreeing, I've gone straight into bragging/boastful one-upmanship mode. Which is a very un-English thing to do. Whoops!

By the time I finish this book perhaps I will understand even more of this social nuances I've been missing.

I wonder if it can explain to me the big mystery of the English though- what's with all that behind the scenes grumbling about things but no actual complaining to the forces in power?

Oh hang-on. I think I might have an inkling of the answer. Dare it be that people think that grumbling is fun? Oh dear...