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Hi everyone and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

Let me propose a topic today.

Okay.

You know, all my time dealing with you.

Thank you.

And other British people in general.

Yeah.

Again, I’m not trying to stereotype. And with all due respect.

Okay.

I do feel like British people have this tendency to be quite sarcastic in their speech. Emm, would you agree?

I would say yes, to a certain extent.

对。就是，英国人说话的时候很喜欢反讽,就很喜欢说一些反话。安澜，你知道中文里管这个叫什么吗？

不是阴阳吗？

对，就是，你还知道阴阳啊，这个不错。我们有时候开玩笑就说：“老阴阳人了”。

Really.

See， there we go.

Okay.

You can't even control it. So, I thought in today's episode, let us do a few phrases that British people would usually say, but they don't mean what they seem to mean.
Okay.

I think we did something quite similar in one of our live streaming episodes.

Yeah. We actually did an entire life streaming like a pop quiz thing of you quizzing me on all these read between the lines, the hidden meaning of British sarcasm.

Ok.

So, today we give this quiz to you.

So, see if you can understand the hidden meaning behind the sarcasm.

So, let's begin.

Okay.

Well. Let's start, first of all, with requests. Now we all know that British people they tend to make requests very very overly polite. So, …

Like this “could you…I was wondering if you could…”

Would you most awfully be able, you know, that type of thing, really really exaggerated. So, if your boss says to you “could you do this for me when you have a minute?”

What does that mean？

Could you do this for me when you have a minute？Although it sounds polite, what do you think it means？Three, two, one? I think it actually means “Do it now.”

Yes.

When someone says to you in English, when you have a minute, the implication is that it's only gonna take you a minute you need to do it now.

Emm, I see. The request is a bit of a tricky one. Because sometimes people might actually be very polite in this situation or they're being polite. But it could also be they are just trying to hide what they truly mean behind the politeness.

Exactly.

We would also use it if we try to make a point that this person is probably not the best at time management.

Mhm. I remember there's also a lot of sarcasm around, not sarcasm, but hidden meaning about good or bad when you say is good or quite good, it's not good or what was that about？

For example, what does it mean if I say “ it's quite good”?

It's quite good. I think when you say it's quite good, that means it's not really that good?

Actually, means very good.

Then why can't you just say it's very good？

Well. We just don't like to say something is very, we don't like to use the word very. Because it's, it's a bit too strong.

Okay. So, if you hear very from a British person, chances are they are being sarcastic.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. You also say “not bad”, right？

Yeah, that film’s not bad, that's generally means also good.

嗯，跟中文的“不错”差不多

Yeah, a little bit, but “不错” normally means it's very good, while in English is normally means it's good. It's not too exaggerated.

I keep hearing you say things like not too bad actually.

So, if I ask “how was your day, 安澜, and you say "not too bad actually". What does that mean？