Hi, all. Hoje eu falo sobre vocabulário relacionado a algo muito importante na Inglaterra: fila.


Transcrição
Hi, all. You're listening to the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast, and today I'm talking about the importance of queueing in the United Kingdom, where I live.

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So... anyone who comes to England for the first time will notice a lot of queueing around them. A queue is the same as a line. We say line in the US, and queue in the UK. Queue, by the way, is how you pronounce the letter... Q.

English people are very organised when it comes to queueing. If there are lots of people waiting to get served and they're supposed to stand in a queue, then they will patiently stand in a queue - it'll be a long queue but it doesn't matter. You will not see the English elbowing one another in a disorganised mass of people trying to get the attention of the person behind the counter. Well, unless you're in a pub, that is.

Other than that, though, I can tell you that the system works and everyone here is used to it and they expect newcomers to know their place - that is, at the back of the queue. A couple of times, someone has cut in front of me while I was queueing. Yes, I just conjugated a verb - that's how important queues are out here. I was queueing and someone cut in front of me. Now, both times, it was someone from some other country where queueing isn't that... important, let's put it that way. English people wouldn't be caught dead jumping the queue.

I have to say I quite like orderly queues. I think they make our lives easier!  Who's with me? If you jump the queue, or - another way of saying that is, 'cut in line' - so if you jump the queue here in the UK, someone might call you on it. I've seen it happen more than once - people will say "Um, excuse me, there's the back of the queue over there."

It has actually sort of happened to me. One day I went to this street market and spotted a stall selling bread. I was really in the mood for bread so I immediately headed over to the stall and I just went ahead and told the person there which bread I wanted. So the guy very politely explained to me that there was a queue of people waiting to be served and they might get a bit angry if I got served first. I turned my head and saw a line of about five or six people, all silent. Oh, oh... I didn't really notice there was a queue. I was kind of embarrassed so I apologised and told the guy I would come back later.

So that was my story. Has anything similar happened to you? What do you do when someone cuts in front of you?  Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

Key expressions

jump the queue
cut in line
the back of the queue
queueing

Vocabulary

wouldn't be caught dead jumping the queue = não furariam fila nem mortos

Who's with me? = Quem concorda comigo?

call you on it = chamar sua atenção por ter feito isso