Terribly sorry – but Britain’s famed politeness may be a myth | Lynne Murphy

Research shows that English speakers are rather keen on saying thank you. But are we really expressing our gratitude?

In 2015, Simeon Floyd, then of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, gave a lecture in Antwerp about expressions of gratitude in eight cultures around the world. I was lucky enough to be there, and have been thinking ever since about the videos he showed. In one, a Cha’palaa speaker in Ecuador goes to a hole-in-the-wall shop and asks for some cooking oil. Receiving it, he turns away and leaves. In another, a British student eyes up another’s biscuits and asks for one. As he reaches into the proffered packet, he smiles and says, “Sweet!”

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2J4HRj5

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