The French have been the weakest...

We need Limey here, she's a cunning linguist as she demonstrated for both Dana & me.

Re Americans saying please & thank-you, I noticed it in films too.
Someone walks into a bar, sits down and beckons the bartender over. "I'll have a beer."
That is appalling manners in England! Firstly, you say "Excuse me" if you want to get someone's attention. More likely you will stand/ sit politely until you are noticed. Then you ask for a beer, in the same way you would ask a friend (even though you are going to pay for it). "Can I have a beer, please?" When given it you thank the bartender, and thank him again when he gives you your change. And maybe even add something like, "Lovely, thanks!" as if he has given you a prize rather than doing his job.

The above is mostly tongue in cheek. But true.
No, just kidding. Even though it is true.

I am well aware that Americans have good manners. I think there is a bit of a cultural difference though. I think you'd find our customer service quite surly for example.

most of the English pubs I go into the landlord or bartender will just look up and say

"same again Greg?"



and I go into a lot of pubs !!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.legaljuice.com/drunk%20ma...inebriated.gif

That's pretty much the way it is here Sundae, except once you get really drunk, then the bar staff just hope you can stay standing without assistance.

Ugh. At my now defunct club, I hated when people would say to the bartender: give me 10 eyes, eyes being a type of gambling ticket.

Give me? How about "Can you get me" or "May I have"?

But, I hated being called 'barmaid' when I bartended. No one called the male bartender 'barbutler.'

There are a lot of people with bad manners. I doubt Americans, rude as we are, have the corner on the market. ;)

Movie conversations match real conversations about as well as pigs get fitted with wings.
I'm not even sure whether British pub scenes reflect reality. I know on Coronation Street, people often leave drinks undrunk (when everyone I know knocks them back prior to leaving). But the truth is a SCENE CAN BE SHOT so many times thata apart from being a continuity nightmare it can actually make an actor sick. James Marsters was called on to down a bottle of "spirits" (ie coloured water) to establish his character in Torchwood. He vomited between takes. Commitment.

So, no.
I don't judge teh Merkins on film and TV, really.
And as I said, my experience was positive as I understood rudeness was not intended.
I hope to get to America at some point. And say, "Please! Oh please! Oh oh oh! Please, more!"

"Oh God! Thank you!"

And that's only when being served a burger ;)

ETA - barmaid is still okay here.
I have no probs with it, and it is still in general use.
Check back with me in a couple of yers time, I might have changed my mind.
I grew up with authoress, murderess, poetess etc
(and those were just my friends)

:lol:

Barmaid is still in usage here too. I just never liked it. It seems like I should have my boobs hanging out and a really short skirt on, and be really ditzy.

I know, that's my hang-up and it's not a horrible word, I just couldn't stand to be called that. But I'd always get a laugh with "Hey, you don't call Dane 'barbutler' do you?" My customers loved to get me fired up. ;)

Tick, tick, oops!
I rarely wore a short skirt (far too impractical) but my "girls" haven't been easily contained since I was 17.

I don't think I'm really ditzy, but when I was in my early twenties I could very much play it :) Over/ under charged you? Oh I'm sorry, I have big tits. Got your drinks wrong? Sorry - tits. I can't hear you? Sorry, my fault, great big tits.

I was pretty good actually.
The owner of the pub had a speech he gave to all new barmaids, about no customer wanting to come in and see a miserable face. Every time that door opened we looked up and smiled. And if there was no-one needed serveing we kept an eye on them until they were ready to order. And if the pub was already full we kept a list in our head as to who came in first. And we remembered their drinks.

I was a foxy 19 year old at the time, and could have got a job posily sulkily in any of the toewn centre bars. Instead I learned my trade under a dictatorial Spaniard (called Benito!) and I'm so glad I did.

As a cow orker at the Country Club once said, bartending requires 'acute awareness.' To be good at it, you do know who was there first, what people typically drink, when they need a refill, if they like to re-use their ice or start fresh...

Oh honey, I was a cutie in my 20s too, but what really wowed them was my winning personality and quick wit. ;)

My ex and I (we got together from working at the bar together) would be talking about a person from the bar, couldn't remember their name, and would say "what's he drink?" "Oh, gin and tonic with a twist" (unusual in that lemon twist isn't usually favored over lime) and then go "OH, HIM! Yeah, I remember him!)

The owner also taught me to slip the regulars a free drink from time to time: they pay the utility bills, he said.

Wow! Ben would have seen a free drink as the ultimate betrayal!
He said more than once that none of his customers gave him anything for free (actually, not 100% true, but many worked in insurance or accountancy) so why would he give them something free in return?!

He gave them looks at the barmaids!

He was a hands-on employer as well. In that he put his hands on all of us!
But he co-owned the pub with his wife (as well as another rarely seen business partner) and had five daughters. So he might squeeze us from time to time, but he was as protective as any Spanish father if he thought anyone was taking advantage of ut.

He twice lent me A LOT of money, no questions asked. Once was when my bf left me with a horrendous electricity bill, after promising he would sort anything outstanding after he dumped me and left our shared flat. I was still in love with him and too ashamed to ask, despite his salary being 3x mine.

The next was when my deadbeat bf ran up £150 bar bill and I felt it a matter of honour to pay it back. Weeks of wages pissed away. Yeah - I left him.

Myself and the student nurses that made up the majority of the other evening bar staff recognised customers by their drinks too. I made a habit of befriending the ones that no-one else liked. The impolite ones, if you will. I hated to be inactive, so would rush towards an unpopular customer, rather than hold back.

I also ended up being known as easy to work with. I've worked with some real mardy arses in my time, but have made out that they are real charmers for 4 hours. It was a good move all told, and got me more shifts.

They would probably think you were mocking them, and give you bad service. :) I liked the people who were nice, but quick about it--if you sit there and try to chat with me like I'm a human being, that just means you're holding up the line and going to get me in trouble.

That's a bar wench!

And since then you've both improved like fine wine.

That was supposed to be a sexor joke.
Didn't work....

Awww, shucks, thanks Spexx. ;)

Now that the thread has strayed, my post will seem boring and off topic. Just to add to the original question of the thread, I learned French and Chinese but lost most of it from years and years of lack of use. I now can only speak English and Vietnamese fluently.