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Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour
 
 

Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour [Kindle Edition]

Kate Fox
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (164 customer reviews)

Print List Price: £9.99
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Product Description

Review

'If you like this kind of anthropology (and I do) there is a wealth of it to enjoy in this book. Her observations are acute...fortunately she doesn't write like an anthropologist but like an English woman -with amusement, not solemnity, able to laugh at herself as well as us.' -- Daily Mail

Times Literary Supplement

Kate Fox consistently reveals us to ourselves. She is meticulous, illuminating and very funny indeed

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 649 KB
  • Print Length: 436 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0340818867
  • Publisher: Hodder (11 April 2005)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B002V0929W
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (164 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #8,571 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars People-watching at its best 31 Jan 2005
By A Common Reader TOP 50 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Kate Fox is a well-known anthropologist who now turns her attention to the very strange behaviour of the English people. The book's chapters cover various aspects of this one by one, including mobile phone use, dress codes, food rules, rules of sex, driving and many other topics. Her basic conclusion is that the English are a buttoned-up race who use many displacements behaviours to cover up their essential embarassment in all social situations. Remove from us our dogs, our gardens, our pubs and our "weather talk" and you uncover a people who would run a mile rather than engage realistically with their fellow humans.

Kate Fox intersperses her study by telling the reader about the research she undertook and it is amusing to read of occasions when she deliberately bumped into many English people to see whether they would say "sorry" (the invariably did). Her visits to pubs result in some instantly recongisable behaviours which seem to have the force of law behind them for woe betide anyone who transgresses.

I enjoyed reading how humour suffuses all English social situations. It is impossible to interact with the English without making jokey, ironic comments, as anyone who works on a daily basis with English people will testify to.

The book is itself humorous and light-hearted but is by no means light-weight for it has some serious messages which will interest anyone who is English or who has to deal with the English in daily life. By the end I admired Kate Fox for providing us with what is really quite a scholarly study, but one which draws you on chapter by chapter, smiling at her insights as you read.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book 18 July 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a foreigner living in the UK this book helped me a lot.
Now, it's much easier to understand why English people behave in certain ways that differs from my culture.
I can now go to a pub with my colleagues, talk about the same subjects and also talk to strangers saying something like "nice weather, isn't it"? (Read the book and you'll understand why)

The very beginning of the book is boring because she repeats all the time her methods. After that the reading is very pleasant and I enjoyed it a lot.
I think it deserves 4 stars and I definitely recommend to all foreigners living in the UK.
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134 of 145 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice weather if you're a duck. 11 May 2004
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I heard there was a book coming out about English "quirks" I knew I had to get it. I love people-watching and love the idea that certain traits are inherent to the English tribe.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn't disappointed. This is a hefty book, and I'm not a "read-the-book-in-a-night" person, preferring to dip in and out whenever I get a chance, but I have found myself preferring to pick up the book rather than watch the TV. I've even missed breakfast a few mornings this week, preferring to sit with a cuppa and read so it must be good!

Have you ever wondered:
* Why we talk about the weather so much?
* Why we can't accept compliments without embarrassment?
* Why WE apologise when someone bumps into us?
* How we use humour/irony as a defence mechanism

And did you know, men gossip as much as women? The proof is in here!

The one that has made me laugh the loudest so far was the section on gossiping / bitching.

This is low-brow anthropology but don't get me wrong, it's not for stupid people! There's a lot of academic terminology, which can at times be confusing, but Kate follows this up with clear examples and definitions to clarify her points. The characteristics covered thus far, I have to admit, ring too true. Getting off the phone to realise I have just fulfilled so many "English" stereotypes is shocking but amusing. Kate’s style of writing is conversational, but not patronising. It’s intricate but not complicated. Her accurate observations are alarming, entertaining, and really quite fascinating.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in culture; tribalism; communications; sociology; or simply the English and our eccentricities.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
Must read for everyone who tries to understand the British culture. Some observations are a bit shallow, but overall it's amazing.
Published 28 days ago by Andrey
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
I wish we had known about this book before we moved to England. It gives you lots of practical tips on how to understand English subtleties and how not to make social gaffes. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr Bouy
3.0 out of 5 stars The Cardinal Sin Of Boasting
I thought I was going to really like this book. It started off well, and although I had read some negative reviews on here I know well enough to take them with a pinch of salt. Read more
Published 1 month ago by suggsygirl
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and humourous look at the English
Kate Fox is an accomplished anthropologist who also knows how to make the reader laugh. She presents the fruit of serious research into the quirky behaviour of the English in a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Neil
1.0 out of 5 stars Meh
Started off OK telling me what any English person already knew about themselves, then I got seriously bored and I am now wondering why I paid a whole penny for this boll**ks.
Published 2 months ago by Buzzkillington
5.0 out of 5 stars Book
One of the most interesting and amusing books I have read. I bought this for a friend and she loved it too. prompt delivery, well packaged
Published 2 months ago by LME
5.0 out of 5 stars true observations
have read all or part of this book many times and it still makes me laugh every time so true an insight into what makes us unique
Published 2 months ago by patricia tatman
4.0 out of 5 stars It is ok
This book is ok not well written but it does make you chuckle sometimes. not sure we English like to be looked at quite so closely?
Published 2 months ago by Jonathan Fulford
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, easy read, for everyone who are interested in the English...
I was looking for a book about Englishness but not stereotypical. I received it a couple of days after ordering and read it quite easily. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Thomas A.
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it
Absolutely loved it! Kate Fox is an amazing writer, very funny and entertaining, while at the same time backed with real findings from anthropological and social studies. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dimitrina Tsareva
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&quote;
English weather-speak is a form of code, evolved to help us overcome our natural reserve and actually talk to each other. &quote;
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Formality is embarrassing. But then, informality is embarrassing. Everything is embarrassing. &quote;
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by ‘culture’ I mean the sum of a social group’s patterns of behaviour, customs, way of life, ideas, beliefs and values. &quote;
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