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A review by jochem_wessel
Watching the English: The International Bestseller Revised and Updated by Kate Fox
3.0
A truly interesting read! Though unfortunately, the amount of uninteresting information in this book was more than I bargained for. But let's start off with the pro's:
As a non-English person, this book gave me very clear and detailed insights into English culture; not just explaining how they communicate and behave, but also explaining why. As a Dutch person, some of the 'rules' mentioned in the book blew my mind. It's incredible how an entire population manages to get by on awkwardness and embarrassment.
Now the downside. It's important to note that this downside is not due to a lack of, well, anything by Kate Fox, who did an amazing job. The book simply did not align with my expectations. There's a lot of information about class, and how people of different classes behave. Besides this there is a lot of information about oddly specific elements that most foreigners will never get in touch with. This is why the first part of the book (conversation codes) was a lot more interesting to me than the second part (behaviour codes).
If you want to know everything about English behaviour this book is for you.
If you want to read a book as preparation for visiting the UK, this book has everything and (unfortunately) a lot more.
As a non-English person, this book gave me very clear and detailed insights into English culture; not just explaining how they communicate and behave, but also explaining why. As a Dutch person, some of the 'rules' mentioned in the book blew my mind. It's incredible how an entire population manages to get by on awkwardness and embarrassment.
Now the downside. It's important to note that this downside is not due to a lack of, well, anything by Kate Fox, who did an amazing job. The book simply did not align with my expectations. There's a lot of information about class, and how people of different classes behave. Besides this there is a lot of information about oddly specific elements that most foreigners will never get in touch with. This is why the first part of the book (conversation codes) was a lot more interesting to me than the second part (behaviour codes).
If you want to know everything about English behaviour this book is for you.
If you want to read a book as preparation for visiting the UK, this book has everything and (unfortunately) a lot more.