What tiny social rule in the UK did you only realise existed after accidentally breaking it?

Posted by thirdaccountttt@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 91 comments

I mean the really small stuff nobody teaches you, but everyone somehow acts like you should already know.

The thing that made me think of it was accidentally standing slightly wrong near a queue. I wasn’t trying to skip. I wasn’t even ready to buy anything yet. I was just hovering too close to the end while looking at something, and within about ten seconds I could feel three people silently deciding I was a threat to civilisation.

Nobody said anything, obviously. That would be too direct. They just adjusted themselves into a more defensive queue formation until I moved away.

There are loads of these tiny rules where nobody explains them, but if you get them wrong you can feel the whole room quietly marking you down as unstable.

What’s one you learned the awkward way?