Why is it the British have this annoying habit of asking the most obvious, and sometimes dumb questions?
As an example, “Oh, is that the time?” “Oh look, you’ve got a new car!”
“Are you alright?” This one really gets to me, especially if a guy has just fallen off a ladder, is bleedingeverywhere and moaning like he’s seen a banshee.
Does any other nation have strange little habits or questions?
I’d be interested to know.
You mean habits like making generalisations about entire nations?
Sorry, melchizedek, but I’ve heard Australians, Americans and people from many countries ask obvious questions.
That is an indirect way of saying “It’s getting late” or “I had not, until now, realised what time it was”.
That is not a question.
What do you suggest? “You are obviously seriously injured and in a great deal of pain” sounds a bit callous.
Seriously, I think that the British sometimes retreat from the use of direct statements where Americans wouldn’t. Direct statements, especially personal ones, are sometimes seen as being a bit rude. It’s part of the same set of cultural norms that stops our athletes from behaving like arrogant oafs at the Olympics and our government from bombing third world pharmaceutical factories.
I was hoping someone here was offering actual “Degree’s in Stating the Obvious”. I could really use one for my desk at work, maybe for a few co-workers too…
On a side note, the thought about bombing 3rd world pharmaceutical factories… Good idea!
Scribbles in his notepad
[DouglasAdams hijack]Anyone read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Ford Prefect makes the astute assumption that humans HAVE to make these obvious statements about people (“you’re tall” “it’s a hot day!”) or their brains will start working or something. Then he rejects it as being too cynnical.[/DouglasAdams hijack]
But aside from that. The “are you alright?” thing, I do that a lot. I mean, I’d try hard NOT to if the person was dripping blood or something, but if you really don’t know. And its sort of an automatic thing. Like, what else do you say in a situation like this, you know?
Anyway. Americans do make obvious statements to. I think its just something attributed to people as a whole…
Yes, I realize we have our own oddities and every nation does, blah, blah, blah, but this is one that drove me nuts about the Brits. They do ask the obvious, and among themselves this may be reassuring but to the rest of us it can be annoying. Often it seems as if they’re using the other person for verification of what may or may not be true - “We went to Spain last year, didn’t we” Well, yes. Or perhaps it’s just a way to reassure themselves – “It’s raining, isn’t it?” Well, duh.
Some of us ask, “See what I’m saying?” and expect an answer. Some of us end a sentence with a question: “So I went to the mall?” “They were having sales?”
The English people I worked with avoided this bit, but it was odd when they said, “Are you all right?” I’d cringe as if I had broken out in boils. Not much different than, “How are you?” but much scarier!
If you’ve ever had a decent course in first aid, you will have been trained to ask exactly that, even if the person you’re asking is patently not alright. Why is this? Well, how the person reacts to the question and how he answers it (or doesn’t answer it) gives you a clue as to what isn’t all right.
As to the rest, what sort of changes would you suggest? Sometimes the obvious is in serious need of being stated. I worry about people who never, ever state the obvious. It makes me wonder if they’re even aware of what’s obvious. >>Devilish Grin<<
~~Baloo
straykat, this doesn’t sound like questions. maybe you’re hearing the inflection wrong? ‘We went to Spain didn’t we’ can be a statement of fact, and if a question then a rhetoric one.
With regard to the ‘Are you alright?’ it’s a way to show we care, a conversation starter/filler. An acknowledgement if you will, like ‘Good morning’.
Basil Fawlty to his wife Sybil in Fawlty Towers’ ‘Basil the Rat’ :-
“Can’t we get you on Mastermind Sybil. ‘Next contestant Sybil Fawlty, specialist subject THE BLEEDING OBVIOUS’”.
Oh, and have a nice day…
Yesterday, my wife and I were standing in line in a bookstore. Being the day after Thanskgiving, the line was rather long, stretching from the registers to about halfway down the store.
As in uffish thought we stood, at least 6 people walked up and asked, “Is this the line?”
Seems to me that Americans leave the British in the dust when it comes to stuff like this.
It’s possible that they were trying to determine where the line ended and the people standing around aimlessly began. You’d be amazed at how many people choose to stop and have a conversation right smack dab at the point where the register line ends.
Instead, it’s more of melchizedek’s melchize-drek. 
