{"id":2568,"date":"2017-12-02T13:23:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T13:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2017-12-02T13:23:09","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T13:23:09","slug":"how-are-you-darling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2017\/12\/02\/how-are-you-darling\/","title":{"rendered":"How are you, darling?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m sure that your English is fluent enough for you to study in the UK (if you aren\u2019t confident, take a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2017\/04\/16\/studying-in-english-a-nightmare-or-an-opportunity\/\">my post about studying in English<\/a>). I\u2019m also sure that you\u2019re able to communicate with international students withouth any problems. But do you understand what locals, i.e. English people really mean? It took me a while (and a few awkward situations), so here are a few surprising things Brits say.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>How are you?<\/i> You\u2019ll hear this question dozens of times every day. In the beginning I thought: \u201cwow, these Brits are so nice, they really care about me\u201d. Well, soon I was disillusioned. Don\u2019t even bother replying to this phrase with anything else than \u201cI\u2019m fine, thanks. You?\u201d or \u201cGood, how are you?\u201d. Treat it as a synonym of \u201chi\u201d, not an invitation to tell them about how you\u2019re settling in at Imperial, how\u2019s your research going, how\u2019s your girlfriend treating you etc. Nobody cares.<\/li>\n<li><i>Not too bad. <\/i>That\u2019s one of the most common responses to <i>how are you<\/i> \u2013 and it actually means that they\u2019re superhappy. The happiest they\u2019ve ever been. This is called enthusiasm&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><i>Are you alright?<\/i> When I heard it for the first time, I became seriously worried \u2013 do I look sick? Do I look lost? Don\u2019t worry, it means exactly the same as <i>how are you<\/i>, i.e. \u201chi!\u201d. Again, if you\u2019re really not feeling great, go home and take a nap, don\u2019t complain to your interlocutor about how tired you are. They don&#8217;t care.<\/li>\n<li><i>Darling\u2026 <\/i>Don\u2019t even get me started on this one. In the store: <i>How can I help you, darling?<\/i>\u00a0In a health centre: <i>Are you ok, darling?\u00a0<\/i>At the train station: <i>Could you please move, darling? <\/i>You\u2019ll hear it mostly from British women from our parents\u2019 generation and older, but not only. So don\u2019t get too excited when this good-looking shopping assistant calls you <i>darling<\/i> \u2013 they just want your money.<\/li>\n<li><i>It\u2019s not quite right. <\/i>When I started working with my British supervisor, he kept responding to my unsuccessful attempts of solving problems with this magic phrase. It took me a while to realise that by <i>not quite right<\/i> he actually meant \u201cyou\u2019re completely wrong, not even close to the right solution\u201d. He just didn\u2019t want to discourage me. British politeness can be tricky, so always make sure your supervisor really means what you think they do.<\/li>\n<li><i>By the way\u2026 <\/i>Nope, it usually isn\u2019t some detail they forgot to ask you about or tell you. I learned that many times after a lengthy small talk you\u2019ll hear the key expression <i>by the way<\/i> and finally they\u2019ll get to the point.<\/li>\n<li>And my very favourite. What would you say if someone bumped into you in a crowded street? Well, if you want to behave like a proper Londoner, make sure you say <i>Sorry, excuse me, I apologise<\/i>. Possibly repeat it a few times to sound more dramatic. Than walk away, cursing under your breath. Could someone explain to me why I\u2019m expected to apologise for being bumped into?!?!?! I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever understand that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>London is a very international place, we all bring here our own cultures, customs and languages. This makes life very interesting \u2013 but also calls for miscommunication. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so important to understand locals. So, <i>how are you, darling?<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m sure that your English is fluent enough for you to study in the UK (if you aren\u2019t confident, take a look at my post about studying in English). I\u2019m also sure that you\u2019re able to communicate with international students withouth any problems. But do you understand what locals, i.e. English people really mean? It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1026,"featured_media":2569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[576,268,191443,148187,179710,85172,142,163723,127784],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","category-life","category-life-advice","category-life-at-imperial","category-life-in-london","category-living-in-london","category-london","category-potentially-actually-useful-stuff","category-practical-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2571,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions\/2571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}