About British people 1 — Small Communication

*Japanese ver

In London
I had only 7 hours of free time

And most of it, I spent in the museum

Yet
3 things I thought about British people;

1 — Small/Micro Communication
2 — Nonchalance (What he said)
3 — Nonchalance (How he said)

All of them must stem from the fact;

"They speak their own language/English"

British people often say "Sorry"

Not just when
we were about to bump into each other on the street

But also when
we were still far apart, and I slightly changed direction to avoid bumping into them,
they still said "Oh sorry"

— An airport staff told me where the bathroom was even before I asked

— A post office worker told me things more than I'd asked

— A man at the bus stop started talking to me after only 10 seconds of waiting together

Cultural factors must play a role here (like a "polite culture")

Also environment factors too (London is multicultural, and nobody can tell if I am local or not solely by my appearance)

But personally, I think the biggest factor is
their language/English

They speak their own language

Therefore
the "mental barrier" to speak & communicate must be very low, or non-existent

Because, again, they speak their own language

.......And this was when I finally realised one fact;

"In Poland, I force people to speak English"

Polish people never assume I'm Polish

I look 100% Asian
I look 100% an outsider

So that
without me asking them,
they speak English to me

Or, to be more precise,
they HAVE TO speak a language that is not their own

And as a result,
there must be so many things I am missing out here

Most Polish people I encounter must think like this without even thinking;

"I want to say this, but he doesn't understand Polish. I don't feel like making the extra effort to translate it into English. Actually, I don't even know how to say it in English. Better not say this!"

By using the foreign language/English here in Poland,
I must've missed countless opportunities every single day

to receive
to appreciate
to contemplate

consideration, kindness and all kind of emotion from Polish people