Modern etiquette: Best of Britain for Olympic visitors

12. Class

Do remember that the British are a class-divided society, where different classes use a different language and, often, vary in customs. Make sure you know who you're talking to. To avoid a faux pas direct approach is usually the best.

Bollocks! I love how non-Britons always harp on about class division. EVERY society has a class divide. Open your eyes and look around you.

@Thunderbird2 Sir, it breaks my heart to have to explain it to you but I wasn't being serious. Had you read closer surely you'd have noticed. Cheerio.

Really useful article! I will send it to my Japanese friends in London.

Tomasz Stasinski... sorry, just getting fed up with the UK being treated like some weird, violent, class-ridden, poverty-stricken Empire-on-its-knees by, I have to say, mostly American posters on here.

just getting fed up with the UK being treated like some weird, violent, class-ridden, poverty-stricken Empire-on-its-knees

As an average Englishman, I'd have to say that's a pretty fair description. But you missed out the crap weather.

This is actually one of the more informative articles on JT at the moment.

Pretty interesting stuff, wot!

Some of it is true - you only have to look at Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg to see how class privilege is alive and well in the UK. Then again, Bush, Hatoyama.....

This list is probably the idealistic view of Britain, such as the shinshi na kuni idea that a lot of Japanese hold. However, this is a Britain of yesteryear. Britain is getting ruder, more dangerous and more violent by the year. Didn't the author of the article see the riots last year? That is today's Britain. That and a stifling necessity for political correctness that ensures the innocent are victims. Funds for necessities like the police have been cut yet again, so you are looking at an increase in crime rate and chav 'culture'.

The Olympics in the UK have been handled so badly. The infrastructure isn't sufficient to handle an influx of thousands; Heathrow is a nightmare. The UK has a very serious terror problem, but hey, at least security is tight. Oh, then again, no it isn't really, is it? The firm contracted to handle it couldn't deliver...two weeks before it all starts.

Or maybe we do all wear pin stripes and bowler hats, and greet one and all with a hearty 'How do you do!' with a flick of our ever-present umbrella - a much-needed implement given that it will probably be raining throughout the games.

@shiofuki The author may have seen the riots of last year and may have also seen the riots of 30 years ago in Brixton and Toxteth - hardly new and hardly symptomatic of the UK getting more violent by the year. It's no coincidence that the riots mentioned took place in the early years of Tory governments ( Thatcher's and Cameron's ) which implemented swingeing cuts - again hardly a sign of a progressive spiral into violence. As for Chav culture, Chav is just the new name for townie, scally ( lots of regional variations ) and so there is nothing new there either. The UK, like all countries, has its problems but I can't see the awful vision of 'today's Britain' you paint. Just a point on tipping. I was a bartender and was often tipped by customers - 'keep the change' and 'and your own' are common pub expressions.

Gee! After reading this article I have cancelled my trip to UK. And it lacks a basic "knowledge" every tourist must know when in somebody else's land: what to do when arrested?