I’ve been in England for about two weeks now, and unfortunately have not had the best experience with the British from the start. I had been warned that the British generally are not as outwardly friendly as Americans, and I’ve heard that British complain about the insincerity of American chipperness. But I didn’t expect to encounter just plain rudeness.

I’ll provide below a few snapshots of the people I have encountered. A caveat: these are only my observations after a very limited exposure to Britain. I’m sure that I will be able to meet lots of nice people here that will turn my view of the Brits around.

Restaurant service: One of my favorite hobbies is restaurant and cafe hopping, so even though I’ve only been in England a short time, I’ve visited quite a fair number of the eateries in Oxford. In general, the service is sub-par, probably because there is no tip. While I don’t mind lackadaisical service, I must say that I’ve encountered a much higher frequency of rude service in the UK than in the US. The service is mostly marked by impatience; the waiters hurry you through the entire process (ordering, paying) so that they can get new customers seated. Last night a large group of us went out for a birthday and the waiter asked us whether we wanted the food all together or starters first. While we had some internal table discussion (that admittedly might’ve taken longer than usual), the waiter told us, “please make up your mind”. There was only one other table in the otherwise empty restaurant. But I can’t make a completely negative judgment against them, because the Indian food was delicious and they gave us free desert.

Customs and Immigration (from an earlier post): I arrived in England to the warm welcome of the customs agent lecturing me:

- Why are you coming to the UK?

- I’m studying here

- When did you start to study here?

- I am just starting now

- Then you don’t say ‘I am studying here. That means that you already started and are continuing. You should say, ‘I will be studying here’

I didn’t realize this was immigration and grammar control.

Hospital volunteer services: I mentioned before that I contacted doctors at the hospital to see if I could shadow them. A received a fair number of responses inviting me to join them, but saying that they would first have to file paperwork.  I received this email from volunteer services:

Dear Crystal
I have now received 10 emails form departments and doctors that you have asked for a placement
CAN YOU PLEASE STOP SENDING EMAILS TO DOCTORS

You have a placement with Dr. T__

If I receive any further emails from doctors regarding a placement I am sorry they will be ignored
I do not have an inordinate amount of time to keep emailing one person about work shadowing

Here is the response I would like to give:

Dear Obviously Professionally Frustrated,

I contacted many people at once because doctors actually are busy people and I know some of them would just ignore my email. Perhaps it’s not standard procedure at your hospital for people to approach doctors themselves (I guess you’re used to people coming through you first). But that does not excuse your rudeness and disrespect; everybody deserves some courtesy. Can we think back to first grade when we learned how to communicate? I don’t think yelling via email was one of the suggested methods.

Is this how you get a power kick, by asserting your authority in angry emails to lowly students? Or maybe you just like playing with the capslock. I would love to see you say this to my face. Volunteer services is supposed to be the face of the hospital to the public. I hope, for the sake of the hospital and the community, that you learn to improve your attitude (and to stop complaining about your very difficult and demanding job).

My actual response:

Dear Ms.,

I’m sorry if there is a protocol for arranging shadowing that I was not aware of. The hospital I work at asks us to contact doctors individually. I  contacted multiple people because I was hoping to have the opportunity to visit many different departments for one day/short term placements. I had contacted all the doctors before I received a response from Dr. T_.

I have not contacted and will not contact any more doctors. Please go ahead and ignore any new emails you receive concerning my placement. I appreciate your help with the arrangements and will return the paperwork to you as soon as I can.

Sincerely,

Crystal

Does anyone have experience in the UK and can offer some advice about interacting with the British? My sour view of British social interaction has completely ruined my mood and set the tone for the remainder of this trip. I desperately want to be able to write a post by the end of the term with three portraits of great people I’ve met here.