Having lived in England for such a long time, I often find on visits home that I've forgotten how Israelis behave, I've absorbed so many of the British ways that people have at times answered me in English though I spoke Hebrew - when I asked friends if I have a British accent when speaking Hebrew, they said, 'No, you have a polite accent.'
I remember once sitting in a restaurant with my mum and my niece, we sat outside and the waitress came out to lay the table and take our order. She'd gone back in when we noticed she'd forgotten to bring us napkins. When she returned I asked her politely: Could we have some napkins please? My niece corrected me: We don't say it like that here. Oh, I said, what would you have said? Her answer was one word: Napkins?
The reason this has come to my mind now is that yesterday I caught myself doing this to a guy at the till at my local Co-op. No, not napkins... It's just that at this shop they have the annoying habit of not giving you the till receipt unless you specifically ask for it. I hadn't been to that shop in a very long time, so am not used to this anymore. So there's this guy behind the counter punching my shopping into the till, telling me how much, taking my money and... he's ready to move on to the next customer if I'm not quick. In the heat of the moment I forgot all that I've learned about manners in the nearly two decades of living in this very polite country. I looked at him with a question mark on my face and said: Till receipt?
It worked. But I don't know if he's recovered from the shock yet.
