quisquose Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 I actually think it's one of our most endearing characteristics. It shows that we have empathy, and I like it.
espadrille Posted May 21, 2009 Author Posted May 21, 2009 or that we put up with too much without complaining about it?
espadrille Posted May 21, 2009 Author Posted May 21, 2009 I don't understand the point. Does he expect us just to walk to a counter (or whatever) in front of everyone else? I guess they must have enough staff on for them not to have to wait long.
tab1 Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 I actually think it's one of our most endearing characteristics. It shows that we have empathy, and I like it. Quite, and it's a matter of upbringing to respect others, and not all do.
timcobbold Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 I remember trying to get a train ticket from a small train station in Italy after a music festival there. It was more violent than a punk mosh-pit! Endless barging, shouting and swearing.....a nice orderly queue would've been great!
daisy2 Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 Do you think it shows a certain amount of respect and equality? I know I always dread the language students (usually Spanish) at the bus stops to get back to the uni halls of residence in the summer, they just crowd round the front.
Digsy Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 Oh woe be to the queue jumpers. When I was a lad, my mate had queue jumped and invited me to join him, I unknowingly must have overtipped the balance of sanity in this dear old lady. We were whacked out of the shop with an old crocodile skin handbag that she probably wrestled off some crocodile during her younger days down under. Oh oh and don't expect help from the rest of the queue, no they were too busy laughing at us. Them were the days.
daftlad Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 I have met the most ignorant group of people ever when going abroad and they were German. I a shop waiting to be served and they just brushed past us and went to the front. Me being a big lad shouted out "Oy there is a queue her you ignorant kraut, get to the back" i had seen them the night before in a bar when we were cheering on Man United in the european cup final in 1999 , they had their german footy shirts on cheering bayern munich
quisquose Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 I was in a queue for a ride at Alton Towers recently when a young lad in front of me and the kids waved to his mate at the back to come and join him. As he did I probably fumed quietly to myself. But when these two waved to their other two friends to come and join them that was too much, so I said "look, if you all want to get on the ride together don't you think it would be polite for you to join your friends at the back rather than encourage them to jump the queue?" To my suprise, these two lads looked at each other, and then me and said "Yeah sorry", and then walked back twenty places to join their friends. My faith in humanity was restored. Compare this to one year earlier when me and the kids "queued" for the most popular ride in Portaventura in Spain. We thought we were in a queue, but we soon realised that we were stood at the back of a line that was getting progressively longer as wave after wave of Spanish kids came jumping over the barriers in front. My Spanish was not good enough to swear at them unfortunately!
Phanerothyme Posted May 21, 2009 Posted May 21, 2009 My uncle is over from Sweden staying in Oxford. He was visiting and made a lot of the fact that the British queue in a very orderly and fair fashion, and was impressed by it. The concept of queue jumping simply doesn't exist in Sweden. Everywhere there would be a queue in Sweden, there is a numbered ticketing system, otherwise there is a semi-polite round of shoving and barging. He thought it very civilized. But the British queueing reflex abroad often ends in rage (as in quisquose's post). I remember a queue snaking around Corfu's hideously crowded airport hall, that was clearly going nowhere, and quite possibly had circled back on itself. In the end we decided we would rather jump the queue than miss the plane, so we did and just cut past about 200 people without looking back. If tuts were bullets, we'd have died in a hail of lead.
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