ENGLISH AND AMERICAN “SHYNESS.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 302, 19 November 1935, Page 12

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN “SHYNESS.”

BRIDGES TO UNDERSTANDING. “Anglo-American misunderstanding” was the subject of an address by Mr Harold Nicolson at the monthly luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce in London in September. Mr Nicolson said that provided the people of the two countries understood the difficulties under which each laboured he did not think that major differences between them' would ever prove vital. But there were minor differences relating to a large extent to physical matters, and they were concerned curiously enough with temperature. Friendships between Englishmen and Americans had been broken by the question of whether a room was too hot or too cold. (Laughter.) He had met Americans who had assured him that during a visit to Great Britain the only warm thing they ever met was a whisky and soda. They were both a shy people, hut shy in different ways. The Englishman’s shyness took the form of reserve, and the American’s took the shape of uncertainty. Suffering from reserve the Englishman said less and less, and uncertainty made the American say more and more. (Laughter.) Those different forms of shyness were, ho thought, a cause of misunderstanding. He believed that physically English people were slower than Americans, but lie thought that mentally, if they pulled themselves together in this country, they could just keep up. (Laughter.) But all these differences, if they understood them, were going to he more bridges to understanding than any similarities that might exist. (Cheers.)