I spoke to a an old friend of mine on the telephone the other day and she obviously felt that in some way she had to explain what was happening in the country I grew up in. I do not recall her exact words but somewhere along the line the reasoning was that English/British people were different. I am not too sure which category she was referring to but noted a possible lapse of logic should she have been referring to the latter. For arguments sake I shall assume she meant English. ”We are different from the rest!” she said almost apologetically. Hmm, not exactly rocket science but there is of course an undertone. OK English people are different. To begin with they speak correct English without any annoying foreign accents not to mention deplorable colonial spelling. The English are also different because, in contrast to many other Europeans, the man on the street only speaks one language, English. The few that have retained a smattering of French from their schooldays easily make a Frenchman´s toes curl on opening their ”bouches.” There are probably a thousand and one differences between an Englishman and any other nationality on the planet. Rocket science? Hardly. The fact is this applies much else to any one nationality and in my experience there is an awareness of being different from ”the rest” wherever you go. Looking at it from another angle you might ask yourself, what does an Englishman have in common with other nationalities. Well, as I already pointed out the sense of being different is a common national character anywhere in the world and in my experience, and this might come as a surprise to the average inhabitant of Blighty, just like the English most people feel somewhat different to ”foreigners”. Now if being different is the natural state of things amongst the peoples of the globe so why point it out? Welcome to the undertone. Different is politely vague with no finer point to it and goes down well as a euphemism in circles where words like ”better” or ”superior” would be considered impolite and owned by no one. Different, despite its vagueness requires little explanation and easily answers the question ”why?” ”Why are English people different from Swedish people?” ”Because English people make better tea.” No harm in that and generally speaking quite true, in my opinion. Why do you think the English way of life is superior to the Swedish way of life? Only a moron would answer, ”because we´re English and we make better tea.”