h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This has bothered me for some time. The British are supposed to have this reputation for queueing- something other countries apparentaly just don't do...

But I can't work out why we would be unusual in this It seems such a natural thing and the most efficient and tidy thing to do. What else can you do, but stand in a line when you have one point of access you all want to get into? What's the alternative? stand in a random group blocking the whole road or passageway?

Do Americans really not queue anywhere at all? I find it hard to understand, really Honestly, someone, preferably American (since they seem to go on about it the most) enlighten me as to why waiting in a queue is strange. Is it just that there are so many staff in other countries that nobody ever needs to wait? Surely not...

Cheers

American supermarkets, Post Offices etc are efficient enough that there is no need to queue. So they take pride in informing us, least rate.

B

Wow. if true, impressive indeed!

in Germany there's often an undignified scrum in place of a queue. It drives me bonkers.

But I think you'll find that it's not the actual queuing that foreigners marvel at. It is the Queue Mindset.

Lynn Fox covers it in her book Watching the English - but all English people are born with the knowledge that if they try to queue-jump they will get The Frown. Or maybe even The Tut-tutting. Or worse: both!

I wonder if the German 'scrum' harks back to the depression and devaluation in the 1920s, when consumer goods really did have to be fought over.

B

You beat me to it Sho - we marvel at the fact that you just queue without complaining, or trying to cheat, or anything. Germany can get quite aggressive if they have to wait in a queue for long, or if it's a question of who was fist

no, unfortunately it harks back to the not respecting the fact that if someone gets somewhere before you, you should wait for them to be served before elbowing them out of the way to satisfy your own selfish needs.

And, before I get deported, I'd like to add this:

a) it doesn't just apply to queueing

and

b) it doesn't just apply to Germans, it's just that is where I am and that's my experience.

In fact, I have to say, that the Germans these days seem pretty good at forming a queue at the drop of a hat. My work here is nearly done.

See this what we need a British Empire for. To civilise the world.

At my workplace we have a large number of Eastern European workers now (Polish and Lithuanian mostly) and the concept of the queue is certainly new to them.
When they go to collect their jobs they all scrum around the 3 foot hatch, and we're running a book on how many heads they can actually squeeze through the gap.
There can be a queue of 10 vehicles waiting to enter the depot and they will overtake the lot......then realise they can't get in.

To be fair the ones who have been here for more than 6 months seem to be getting the hang of it now, and have started to queue for short periods. When i've asked them about the 'Me First' approach i've been told that; "Back home, second gets nothing"

Go sho!

I can understand folk trying to queue jump when there is a finite resource they're after, or there's a hurry- film starting at a cinema, or best produce at a farmers market.. it's the people who rush to be first on an plane that get me. I fly mostly with Squeezyjet- there is no 'best seat'- they're all either window or not... The plane wont depart until everyone (who's at departure gate) has boarded... so what's the hurry?

On a similar vein.. priority boarding ONTO the aircraft! On the way off- fairy-nuff if you don't have to wait for luggage(unlikely nowadays)- you may get out of the airport fractionally faster... but on the way on?

Sorry i've drifted- think i might post this one on Petty hates

>> American supermarkets, Post Offices etc are efficient enough that there is no need to queue. So they take pride in informing us, least rate. <<

Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

No, Americans are just as bad as everywhere else.

RF

The British may queue in the post office, but we're not good at queueing on the roads. If the road narrows from two lanes to one, then we haven't got into the habit of merging in turn, which continentals are much better at doing (apart from Italians, of course).

I can't remember the last time I went anyplace- post office, grocery store, train station for work commute, etc., where I didn't have to stand in a line for at least a few minutes. The post office? Are you kidding me? I've never waited less than a half hour in line at the post office.

Where are these efficient places where queueing isn't necessary? I'll start packing!

Interesting what has been said about the lack of queing from Poles and Lithuanians.

Back in the old days of the Warsaw Pact and the USSR we were often (in the UK) shown unfeasably large queues in places like Gdansk and Moscow on the news and related shows. I think the stereotype was that they were queuing for potato rations or something.

Have they then lost the art of queuing or was this just an insulting stereotype from the Cold War era?


I recall on a holiday in Corfu when I was a kid, our family, being used to queuing nearly lost my then 6 year old sister getting on a bus in Corfu town as all the gallant Greek men mercilessly piled past her. Bunch of a***holes that they were

In seven years of living here I've noticed little difference in queueing habits between the British and Americans. Americans are generally more impatient than Brits but they're also (generally speaking) just as polite. In fact, even more so in certain circumstances.

Buses are one interesting anomaly in this. There's no such thing as queueing at the bus stop but the buses aren't as well used as those in the UK so a queue often isn't needed and there's a small enough number of people waiting for everyone to know who got there first. When the bus does arrive people will pile on even though there are others trying to get off (about half the buses in Austin have one entrance/exit door), and those trying to get off will actually give way to the people trying to get on, causing a bottleneck at the front of the bus. A big factor in this is that most passengers here don't get out of their seat and start making their way to the exit until the bus has actually come to a halt, by which time the driver has opened the doors.

In shops, banks, post offices etc though, queueing is orderly and (usually) friendly.

In NYC the "Line" is very loosely observed. Yes, banks, the post office, and government offices people line up quite nicely. As to driving, its chaos. One could wait in line to enter one of the bridges or tunnels only to have some idiot in an SUV try to cut you off by horning his way from the left hand lane. Subways its worse as you literally have to elbow your way off the train while people try to push into the car. Cabs? Darwinian if its raining.

Queuing is usually polite here.

Bill Bryson's book Neither Here Nor There says that the Parisians queue in a very orderly fashion at bus stops and then, when a bus actually turns up, they all break file and rush for it. Mad.

TRiG.

Well, they are Parisian

bless

I have experience of queues in Soviet era Russia.

Shops went something like this:

1st: queue at the counter where you chose what you wated and got the bill for it
2nd: queue at the kiosk with the cash desk (several central ones to serve a few counters) to pay and get the receipt
3rd: queue back at the counter to get your goods

However - a queue of 10 people would really be 40 because everyone is saving the place of someone who is in another queue. Buying a book took me nearly 3 hours...

also, if they saw an assistant carrying (unmarked) boxes behind a counter, they'd form a queue even before they knew what was in the boxes.

But now, as far as I know, it's every man for himself in the scrum.

Germans are terrible at letting people off public transport (which is generally very well used and full) before barging on. But they are generally pretty good at using the zipper method when traffic has to merge. (if you don't count BMW drivers who everyone tries to keep out when they try to barge in. I have a lot of success at this as I drive a banger and don't care how many more character-giving dents it gets)

Getting on/off public transport - especially the Tube: I've been known to gently push people back who're trying to board whilst I'm getting off...whilst politely saying "Allow passengers off the train *first*" *.

RF

* This being what is announced over the PA every time a train pulls into the station.