by Kate Fox
Even though I am now ‘off duty’ – just waiting for the Oxford train, like a normal person – I realise that I have automatically chosen the best observation-position in the station café, with a particularly good view of the queue at the counter. Just habit, I suppose. The thing about participant-observation research is that it does rather tend to take over your whole life. Every routine train journey, every drink in the pub, every walk to the shops, every house you pass, every fleeting interaction with everyone you meet is a data-gathering or hypothesis-testing opportunity. You can’t even watch television or listen to the radio without constantly making notes on bloody Englishness.
The book is done; I’ve left my notebook at home (I’m writing this on a napkin). But look: in that taxi earlier I couldn’t help scribbling on the back of my hand something the driver said. I peer at the slightly smudged abbreviations. Something about ‘all this rain and now they’ve issued drought warnings for next summer and isn’t it just typical’. Oh, great, that must be my seven-hundred-thousandth recorded instance of English weather-moaning. Really useful information, Kate. Pathetic data-junkie. You’ve cracked the code; you’ve done your little bit towards resolving the English identity crisis. Now leave it alone. Stop all this obsessive queue-watching and pea-counting and recording random bits of weather-speak. Get a life.
Yes. Right. Absolutely. Enough is enough.
Ooh, but hang on a sec. What’s that? A woman with a baby in a pushchair has approached the coffee-shop counter from the wrong end, and there’s a queue of three people already waiting to be served. Is she trying to jump the queue, or just having a look at the doughnuts and sandwiches before deciding whether to join the queue? It’s not clear. But a jump-attempt here would be too blatant, surely? Not enough ambiguity in the situation. The three queuers are doing the paranoid pantomime – suspicious sideways looks, pointed throat-clearing, shuffling forward . . . Ah! Two of them have just exchanged raised eyebrows (but were they in the queue together, or are they strangers? Why wasn’t I paying attention?). One of them sighs noisily – will the pushchair woman notice? Yes! She’s got the message – she’s moving towards the back of the queue, but looking mildly affronted. She’d never intended to jump the queue: she was just looking to see what sandwiches they had. The queuers look down or away, avoiding eye contact. Hah! She was innocent all along – I knew it! Now, I wonder if those two eyebrow-raisers are friends or strangers. This is very important – did that apparent queue-jump threat prompt eye contact between strangers or not? Let’s see if they order together – damn, that’s my train they’ve just announced! Huh! It would be on time for once, just when there’s this fascinating queue-drama going on – typical! Maybe I could get the next one . . .
AFTERWORD TO THE REVISED EDITION
I missed my train, of course. It was worth it: the two eyebrow-raisers turned out to be strangers – they ordered separately and sat at different tables – so the queue-jump threat had indeed prompted very brief eye contact between strangers. I recorded this carefully on my napkin. And I have been compulsively observing queues, collecting examples of weather-speak, counting ‘sorries’ and so on ever since.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In a break with tradition, which for some reason always puts the author’s family ‘last but by no means least’, I want to thank, first and very much foremost, my husband, Henry Marsh, and his children William, Sarah and Katharine. They’ve had to put up with many years of my stressing and obsessing over this book – and along with my mother, Liz, and sister, Anne, they read and commented on each chapter as it emerged. Anne also generously shared all her Ph.D. research data with me. My sister Ellie gave me wonderful holidays with her family in Lebanon and America, which I shamelessly used as opportunities for cross-cultural research. My father, Robin Fox, deserves most of the credit for any skills I may have as a participant-observer. They have all been unfailingly tolerant, helpful and encouraging. My co-director at the Social Issues Research Centre, Peter Marsh, gave me my first field-research job when I was seventeen, and has been my mentor and great friend ever since. I am also grateful to Desmond Morris for his help, advice and insights. Watching the English is based on nearly two decades of research, and it would be impossible to thank everyone who has contributed, but among those who have helped me in various ways, I would particularly like to thank Ranjit and Sara Banerji, Annalisa Barbieri, Don Barton, Krystina Belinska, Simon and Prisca Bradley, Angela Burdick, Brian Cathcart, Roger Chapman, Peter Collett, Karol Colonna-Czosnowski, Joe Connaire, Gina Cowen, James Cumes, Bianca Dahl, Paul Dornan, Alana Fawcett, Vernon and Anne Gibberd, William Glaser, Susan Greenfield, Janet Hodgson, Selwyn and Lisa Jones, Jean-Louis and Voikitza Juery, Kati Karnoven, Paull and Lorraine Khan, Eli Khater, Heidi Kingstone, Mathew Kneale, Sam Knowles, Slava and Masha Kopiev, Meg Kozera, Hester Lacey, Jessaca Leinaweaver, Alistair Maag, Jeremy MacClancy, Laurence Marsh, Tania Mathias, Fiona McIlwham, Roger Miles, Daniel Miller, Paula Milne, Caroline Morrissey and Franz Andres Morrissey, Tony Muller, Simon Nye, Martin Parr, Grayson Perry, Marinella Simioli, Geoffrey Smith, Lindsey Smith, Steve Smith, Richard Stevens, Jamie Stevenson, Gudrun von Tevenar, Lionel Tiger, Patsy Toh, Simon Travis, Silvia Venturini, Jane Whitton and Roman Zoltowski. My thanks to everyone at Hodder & Stoughton, especially Rupert Lancaster, the world’s kindest and most patient editor, and Kerry Hood, the nicest publicity-genius. Thanks also to Hazel Orme, the most quietly brilliant copy editor, and to Julian Alexander, the most hard-working and thoughtful agent.
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INDEX
Absolutely Fabulous 393
acculturation 23, 24–7
advertising 285–6, 311
affected-indifference rule 390–1
after-work drinks 305–7, 312
afters 109
aggression 146, 213, 272, 378–83, 426
Albania 228
alcohol 305, 371
Big Brother 326, 327
and celebration 523–6
class and sex differences 377–8
drunkenness 378–83
and flirting 455–6
Freshers’ Week 507
New Year’s Eve 531
round-buying 371–6
Alice Through the Looking Glass 53, 76, 133, 271
Allen, Woody 160
amateurism 276, 359
ambivalence
food 419–20
rites of passage 493–5
work 275–8, 309–10
Americans
baby showers 496
Big Brother 324–5
chips 448
cultural imperialism 20–1
dress 388, 394
earnestness 79–80
electronic cigarettes 228
expectations 427
food 419–20, 423
gardens 207
greetings 58
high-school graduation 509–10
income-talk 291
introductions 52, 60
klutzing out 341
meritocracy 295–6
money-talk 342
personal ads 96–7
pets 347
politeness 233
proms 510, 511
Ps and Qs 239
pushiness 284
queue-jumping 246
Royal Wedding 86
sit-coms 321–2
size-fixation 45–6
soaps 318
Sweet Sixteen parties 503
table manners 443
toast 438
work 275
‘And One for Yourself?’ rule 137–40, 149
Anne, Princess 194
anthropology 12–14
class and race 21–7
culture 16–19
globalisation and tribalisation 20–1
grammar 7–8
participant observation 8–12
rule-making 19
rules 14–16
stereotypes and cultural genomics 29–32
anti-intellectualism 30, 280, 310–11, 504, 559
apology 126
bumping experiments 6, 234–7
complaining 425–6
reflex-apology rule 237–8
shopping 342
Appadurai, Arjun 441
arguments 42, 144–7
aristocracy see upper class
army 169, 170–3
Aslet, Clive 359, 386, 387
assertiveness 249–50
assimilation 23
Audi 260–1
Austen, Jane 55, 294, 539, 543
Australians
dress 388, 394
food 423
soaps 318
Austria 525–6
awkwardness 50–2, 76
back gardens 205–7, 213, 215
Baggini, Julian 332, 556
banter
flirtatious 466–8, 483
pub-arguments 42, 144–7, 150
Barbieri, Annalisa 391–2
bathrooms 191, 192
BBC 87, 106–7
Shipping Forecast 46–8
Thatcher’s death 521
BBC English 103–4
Bennett, Alan 90, 485
Betjeman, John 446, 500
Big Brother 64, 324–8
bikers 7, 175–80, 182, 367, 369, 533
Birmingham 105
birth 495–6
Blair, Tony 114, 490, 491
bling 343
BMWs 257, 259, 261
boasting 89
bonding 70, 72, 73, 77
children 499
homes 190
horse riders 180
racing-talk 154–5
squaddie-talk 173–4
work 284, 286, 310–11
body language 126, 127, 246–7, 248–9
and class 413–14
bogside reading 329–30
bonding 68, 76–7
men 70–3, 468–71
moaning 167
pub-arguments 42, 144–7, 150
pub-talk 140–1, 143–4
squaddies 171–2
weather-talk 36, 43
women 68–70, 72, 73
Bonfire Night 522, 532
Bourdieu, Pierre 22
brag wall 192–3, 214
breakfast 436
breasts 480–2
Britishness 23–4, 28–9
broadsheets 331–5
Brooks, Rebekah 108
Brown, Penelope 139, 233
Bryson, Bill
courtesy 232–3
queuing 250
weather-speak 35–6, 46
bumping experiments 6, 156, 234–7
business see work
calendrical rites 492, 522–3, 526–34
Cameron, David 108
Canadians 235
cannabis 383
Carey, Dr George 486, 487, 489
Carry On films 322–3
cars 256–7
car-care and decoration rules 262–4, 272
and class 258–61
and courtesy 268–9
electronics 264–5
and fair play 269–70
as mobile castle 265
ostrich rule 265–6
road rage and ‘nostalgia isn’t what it used to be’ 266–7
status-indifference 257–8
Casual Friday 387–8
cats 350
Charles, Prince 111
Charlotte, Princess 256
chavs 110–11, 113–14
cheek-kissing 51
children 544–5
birth 495–6
christening 485, 492, 495, 496
kid-talk and one-downmanship 496–9
names for parents 111
puberty 501–3
self-deprecating insult 499–501
see also teenagers
chips 448–9, 450
Chomsky, Noam 160
christenings 485, 492, 495, 496
Christmas 522, 526–8, 545–6
and class 540
moan-fest and bah-humbug 528–30
office parties 307–9, 312
presents 530–1