Londoners are often criticised for not talking to their neighbours and for the silent commute where no eye contact is made and no conversation is heard, possibly except for the two women talking about the unacceptable boyfriend their friend has and how crazy she is to move in with him because he will always be a cheat and won’t change but they don’t know how to tell her or even if they should especially as she works with him.
However back to my point, as someone who finds it reasonably easy to chat to strangers, I too have largely given up trying to chat in London. There are twomain reasons for this, both I suspect connected.
Casual remarks and simple comments, like “have you been waiting long for the bus” are more often than not met with a strange stare and the silent reply of someone who either doesn’t speak even conversational English or who wants to pretend not to.
Also it seems this extends to what should be simple good manners, and so “Please”, “Thank you” and “Excuse me” are also forgotten and I can’t abide that.
So whilst I largely welcome the large numbers of different cultures and the diversity of languages, please please why can’t you all learn a little more English so tha you can at least not seem so rude and so not part of our culture, because by living here you should become part of our culture, surely?