Country or region Netherlands. It is because it is the way it is sadly Ghim idk if its ignorance or as you said just a part of the culture becausenof how busy it is I guess they would find it anoying to aplogize or say excuse me every few seconds.
Country or region Australia. She may not have known what to say to you because you're a foreigner but also, it's just what's done here. You learn to just accept it and live accordingly. This is something I don't even notice anymore and I too just push my way through crowds etc. Even if you were to apologise chances are that person has already gone and it was too crowded for them to notice you let alone hear your apology.
WhitneyChakara haha Keep an open mind and there are just some 'special cases'. Try to lose the 'us' and 'them' mentality and it is easier if you don't compare and contrast. You'll have an easier, more enjoyable experience if you do :. I have [a bell] — but I don't know how to use it. I either ring it too close, and the victim jumps three feet into the air and presses themselves against the wall with an expression that clearly says "Holy crap, a cyclist passing me in a blur", even when I've slowed down to my customary 4mph.
Personally, when I'm on foot, I don't like bells. I can never get past the undertone of reprimand. The Highway Code says car horns should only be used "to warn other road users of your presence"; and bells are to "let [road users] know you are there when necessary". Yeah yeah. The fact is that car horns don't say "Ahem If you're driving a vehicle and a pedestrian is about to step backwards into the road and be run over by you then it is permissible for you to toot your horn, but expect them to be annoyed at your rudeness rather than grateful that you've saved their life.
I spent several amusing afternoons in busy, crowded public places train stations, tube stations, bus stations, shopping centres, street corners, etc. My bumping got off to a rather poor start. The first few bumps were technically successful, in that I managed to make them seem convincingly accidental, but I kept messing up the experiment by blurting out an apology before the other person had a chance to speak.
After several of these false starts, I finally managed to control my knee-jerk apologies by biting my lip — firmly and rather painfully — as I did the bumps. Having perfected the technique, I tried to make my experiments as scientific as possible by bumping into a representative cross-section of the English population, in a representative sample of locations.
There were some minor variations in the response: I found that older people were slightly more likely to apologize than younger people late-teenage males were the least apologetic, particularly when in groups , and British Asians seemed to have a somewhat stronger sorry-reflex than British Afro-Caribbeans possibly a reflection of the negative-politeness tendency in Indian culture — such apologies being a clear example of politeness that is primarily concerned with the avoidance of imposition or intrusion.
Recognising that this would not constitute a representative international sample, I also bumped into tourists of different nationalities American, German, Japanese, Spanish, Australian, Scandinavian at tourist-trap locations in London and Oxford. Only the Japanese surprise, surprise seemed to have anything even approaching the English sorry-reflex, and they were frustratingly difficult to experiment on, as they appeared to be remarkably adept at sidestepping my attempted collisions.
However, the 'you've just bumped into me' "sorry! They have a copious vocabulary of suave aversion and strategic self-effacement. Of course none of these shenanigans are necessary or desirable in other parts of the British Isles, or even in the North of England, where all this ritualised politeness is often perceived as an affectation of effete middle-class Southerners.
It is generic enough that nobody need feel insulted by any suggestion that they are a stupid obstacle. I am not sure this would be useful to those on foot, since there is, in that context, no convention as to which side would be more suitable.
That said, it might be effective since it is likely to mildly perplex the listener, causing them to slow and turn to look. The phrase "Behind you" seems appropriate. It is most commonly used in places like restaurants where waiters end up in situations that one could bump the other by taking a step back sending dishes flying.
For instance, a person walking with his head down in heavy foot traffic, concentrating on his phone, is about to walk into you. You can say it gently or not-so-gently depending on whether you want to warn or scold. Although in this case heads up! It's not the most polite expression but in New York City, where I do a lot of walking, succinctness is a virtue. Where I live there are public paths through parks which can get quite busy with equestrian, pedestrian, and bike traffic.
This both announces that you are behind them with the intention of passing, and that you're going to do it to the person's left side toards the center of the trail, since people stay to the right.
To a driver backing up, "STOP!! Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Setting your Language Level helps other users provide you with answers that aren't too complex or too simple. Sign up Sign in. English US. Spanish Spain. Question about English US.
I always thought its a way of asking "can you please move aside or make room for me so I can pass by? See a translation. Report copyright infringement. The owner of it will not be notified. Only the user who asked this question will see who disagreed with this answer.
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