Are British people actually polite?
英國人真的很有禮貌嗎？

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獲得53.8k好評的回答@Jack Fraser：

Well, asking a Brit this is going to get a somewhat biased answer — but I'll do my best.
嗯，問英國人這個(gè)問題，得到的答案會(huì)有失偏頗，但我會(huì)盡量給出最好的答案。

Like any large group (65 million of us), we are not monolithic — some of us are right arseholes. Some of us are lovely. However, we do seem to have an instinctive politeness drilled into us at a basic level.
像任何大型群體一樣（我們有6500萬人口），我們也不盡相同，有些人很蠢，有些人很可愛。然而，我們被灌輸?shù)幕径Y貌已經(jīng)成為了一種本能。

There is a popular myth that British people are so polite, they will apologise to you if you bump into them whilst walking on the street. So a researcher tested this — she travelled all over the world…just deliberately walking into people!
關(guān)于英國人的禮貌有一種很流行的說法：如果你在街上走的時(shí)候無意中撞到了英國人，他們還會(huì)向你道歉。所以一個(gè)研究人員檢測了這件事的真假——她環(huán)游世界，故意去撞別人！

The results of this (hilarious) experiment was indeed that 80% of people in Britain will apologise to you if you walk into them. The only nation who came close was Japan, with something like 60% apologies — though she did note that the Japanese were much better at stepping out of the way and avoiding the collision! So the statistics do seem to indicate that we have a reflexive need to say “oops I'm sorry”, even when we know full well it was your fault!
這個(gè)（滑稽的）實(shí)驗(yàn)發(fā)現(xiàn)在英國如果你撞了別人，的確有80%的人會(huì)向你道歉。唯一研究結(jié)果接近的國家是日本，接近60%的人會(huì)道歉——同時(shí)她也確實(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)日本人更擅長讓路來避免撞上！所以這一數(shù)據(jù)確實(shí)表明我們會(huì)條件反射一樣地說：“哎呀，對不起，”甚至當(dāng)我們很明白錯(cuò)不在自己時(shí)也會(huì)如此。

For what it's worth, I would like to tell you a story, which I think might shed some more light on the matter…
不管怎樣，我想分享一個(gè)故事，我覺得可能能解釋得更明白一點(diǎn)…

Just over a year ago, I was walking out of Trinity College, Oxford — where I lived at the time. I was making my way to the supermarket to buy some milk. It was about 4 in the afternoon. About 100m from my goal, a very drunk man stumbled into me — basically knocking me over. I of course apologised to him (despite him staggering into me, whilst I was minding my own business!)
一年多以前我住在牛津，我從三一學(xué)院出來去超市買牛奶。當(dāng)時(shí)大約是下午4點(diǎn)，離超市還有約100米的時(shí)候一個(gè)醉醺醺的人踉踉蹌蹌地撞到我，差點(diǎn)把我撞倒。我當(dāng)然向他道歉了（雖然是他撞到我的，但當(dāng)時(shí)我只在想自己的事）。

The Britishness complete, I turned to be on my way — at which point this blindingly drunk man, assumed I was starting a fight, so punched? me in the face. So what did I do? I said “I'm sorry” again.
展現(xiàn)了英國人的風(fēng)格之后，我繼續(xù)走——當(dāng)時(shí)那個(gè)醉的不成樣子的人以為我要跟他打架，所以一拳打在我臉上。我是什么反應(yīng)？我又說了一遍“對不起”。

Yep. I apologised to a man, after he punched me in the face.
是，在一個(gè)人打我臉之后我卻向他道歉。

Now, this is mostly because my brain was about 3 seconds behind, and hadn't quite caught up with recent events — and so defaulted to “standard Brit”. But the point stands as an interesting view into how deeply the words “I'm sorry” are drilled into our national psyche!
這主要是因?yàn)槲业拇竽X延遲了3秒，還沒弄明白剛發(fā)生的事——“標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的英國人”模式。但從這件事能看出一個(gè)有趣的事實(shí)，“對不起”深深地烙印在我們民族的心里。

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（翻譯：菲菲）