[Eagles Talon IV]

Teaching students how to stand in line? At last the public education sector has engaged in a task that coincides with its ability to perform.

[BenLurkin]

In their cultures, they do not queue for buses where they live and there is a scrum every time a bus turns up, while in British culture there is a nice orderly queue.

Which is one salient reason why Anglo-American society represents the pinnacle of civilization.

[Red Badger]

I hope that includes not riding on the roof of the bus and leaving the goats and chickens at home.................

[Suzy Quzy]

Civilization 101.

[gridlock]

Foreign students in Britain to be schooled in queuing

"OK, keep your left hand steady and push straight forward with your right..."

[Locomotive Breath]

Lotsa luck. No one’s been able to teach that to the French either.

[blam]

And people wonder why everything seems to be falling apart...all things aren’t equal.

[KarlInOhio]

Orderly queuing - as seen during the recent Northern Rock banking crisis - is seen as a quintessentially British convention.

A nice orderly "walk" on the bank instead of a run.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I say old man!....Would you please bother to get to then end of the queue?

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Foreign students visiting Britain are to be educated in the etiquette of queuing for buses,.....(terrorists with bombs in your shorts please form a single line.)

[NonValueAdded]

Yep, Asians are especially poor when it comes to queuing.

[Armando Guerra]

This is one of those things we take for granted in this country without realizing it is cultural and does not happen in other countries. I realized this when I went to Italy for a term in college. A friend of mine who was a native Italian picked me up at the airport. The first place I wanted to stop was at a bank to change some traveler’s checks to lira. I was patiently waiting behind a little old lady at the teller window when another person started to crowd next to her at the window and then another came in at the other side. Pretty soon there were about five others at the window in front of me. I turned around and looked at my friend with a befuddled and annoyed expression on my face only to see him laughing hysterically. He finally was able to say that they don’t do lines in his country. Since this was southern Italy there was not a person who came up farther than mid-chest to me. When I started physically grabbing people by the shoulder and pulling them away to get behind the little old lady again they looked up at me and quietly moved. It was an eye-opening experience that taught me not to take it for granted when I now see kindergartners in this country line up at the water fountain.

[Peter Libra]

I had to chuckle somewhat in a wry fashion over this post. Coming from England myself, I am well versed in queuing. I would be willing to bet- though I don't know, that there is a reason for queue jumping.

New entrants to my native country, have a number of the usual suspects telling them they are superior to snot nosed Charlie. Odds are they are treated better than the average Englishman. Charlie being the Joe Doakes or Joe Sixpack in America. A couple of guys in Canada fall into the general category. Hosers or something like that. Push em' out of the way, they will say "sorry" when you push em'.

'Cept at the local beer retail store. LOL

[britemp]

As I live on the beautiful Isle of Wight, I can vouch for this story!

One thing the English will not stand for is ‘pushing in’, especially by Johnny Foreigner! :)

I saw a bus driver throw a group of foreign students off a bus here last month because they had barged past a queue of mainly pensioners to get on the bus. He made them wait until everyone else was seated and they they tried to board again. ‘Oh no you don’t’ he said, ‘you can wait for the next bus and think about your manners while you wait.’

You can’t really blame them for not understanding our culture, but you can for not having simple good manners! :)