Vocabulary

Well mannered (adj.) - behaving in a pleasant and polite way: lịch sự

Fraught (adj.) - causing or having extreme worry or anxiety: cảm thấy lo lắng, sợ
Foul (adj.) - foul speech or other language is offensive, rude, or shocking: thô tục
Maternal (adj.) - related to a mother's side of the family: họ hàng bên mẹ
Paternal (adj) : họ hàng bên cha
Neurotic (adj.) - behaving strangely or in an anxious (= worried and nervous) way, often
because you have a mental illness: ám ảnh
Well behaved (adj.) - behaving in a way that is accepted as correct: cư xử đúng mực
To put off (phrasal verb) - if something puts you off something, it makes you dislike it, or decide
not to do or have it: trì hoãn, dừng
Well brought up (adj.) - people, especially children, who are well brought up are polite and act
in a quiet and pleasant way, because they have been taught this behaviour at home: được dạy
dỗ tốt
Well bred (adj.) - speaking or behaving in a way that is generally considered correct and polite:
cư xử tử tế
To scandalize (verb) - if you are scandalized by someone's behaviour, you disapprove of it and
are shocked by it because you think it is against moral laws: làm ai đó chướng mắt vì làm điều
trái đạo đức
Formal contexts (n) : hoàn cảnh trang trọng ???
Regard:(n) sự quan tâm
Govern (v): lãnh đạo, khống chế
Priority(n): ưu tiên, quan trọng
Window-dressing (adj) : để cho đẹp
Air sb view on sth (v): áp đặt suy nghĩ của … lên ..

Questions and answers

M: Rory, do you think you are a polite person?

R: Well, I certainly try to be well mannered, especially with people I don't know well in formal
contexts. I think it's important for making good person impression, isn't it?

M: Do you think people should be polite?

R: Well, most of the time, yes, people just want to get on, don't they? And being polite helps
with that. It also helps smooth things over in fraught situations.

M: How do people in your culture show good manners towards others?

R: Well, they make eye contact, shake hands, generally avoid swearing and foul language and
they dress for the occasion as well. And there are other things like respecting personal space,
and conversational and social boundaries too.

M: Who taught you to be polite?

R: I think it was my parents and my maternal grandmother in the mean, although teachers and
friends and others, like sort of played supporting roles in that sense. I think in most cultures it
falls to the adults around you to take part in this aspect of socialization, doesn't it?

M: Is it important to be polite in your country?

R: Well, people have this impression that British people are sort of very neurotic about good
manners and being well behaved. But actually, I would argue that we're pretty average in this
regard. So compared to countries like Korea, or Japan, where there are sort of rules that govern
the behavior of everything. And then if you talk about places like America, where people air
their views on everything with little regard for other people's feeling. So we're sort of occupying
the middle ground.

M: How important is politeness for you?

R: Well, I didn't realize it until the other day, that is actually quite a priority for me, especially
when I deal with people I don't know. Like, I'm really put off when people don't have an
opening in their emails and just go straight to whatever request they might have. Pleases and
thank yous are also something that like helps me personally get invested in people and their
problems. I know it seems a bit like window dressing, but at least in my case, it serves a useful
purpose.