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

Re formal letters

If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to then begin Dear Sir or Dear Madam and finish Yours sincerely
If you have their name then begin Dear Mr (name) or Dear Mrs / Miss /Ms and finish Yours faithfully
To actually talk to an Englishman. Go up to him and say Hello my name is (name), what's yours
Don not talk about the weather!

I sure did! Helpful, informative, odd and cool. Just like most h2g2 conversations.

Good-oh.
Duncan is very near getting married to Christina. I'll let you know whether he refers to her parents as himself and herself in his speech
This thread is particularly interesting to me as it seems to have been practically a private conversation between me and him. This sort of thing doesn't happen so much nowadays.

Wow - so that's where memory lane is - I had forgotten ...

you want to speak to a real englishman?
just go up to him and say "alright mate, hows it going?"
or "alright bloke, hows you?"

normally works for starters as an introduction.