Niceties

The Brits are not falsely friendly. In other words, if they don’t know you they won’t pretend to be your friend in the way an American would. With Americans it is always, “Hello. How you doing? How’s the family? Great to hear it.” Not the case here across the pond.

In a way I much prefer it the British method. For those who know me well you know that I don’t enjoy being falsely friendly. To be perfectly honest, if I never had to say hello to a single person that I saw on the street I would be perfectly content. Not that I am a recluse or anything. I just really hate chit chat and small talk.

But I have grown accustomed to it. I do it. It’s fine. And because I have become used to it, it is weird to not have to do it here. It is relieving in a certain sense. My concern, however, is that I don’t have a gage on when small talk starts to become acceptable here. Take the people who work at the gym, for instance. I see the same faces four or five times a week. I even have to talk to them because I have to tell them whether I am going to the pool or the fitness area (They have a crazy system there where they print out a receipt and then I deposit that receipt in a basket at a different location even though I’m pretty sure all they do is throw them out without checking them).

But back to the point. Should I try to engage in small talk with the receipt lady? I do sometimes hear the person behind me or in front of me doing it, but I seem to think those people are the minority. Perhaps they actually know the receipt lady. They might even know her well enough so they don’t refer to her simply as “receipt lady.” Who knows? Would it be impolite to be too polite? Would receipt lady take it as phony? Would she be put off by the phoniness? It’s too much of a risk to try it. I have to face this woman several times a week. I would like to avoid as many awkward interactions as possible.

Enough about me. How are you doing?

Comments Welcome,

Andrew