6 Minute English from BBC LearningEnglish.com.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Beth. In this programme, we're talking about politeness.

Britain has a reputation for being a polite place where children are told to say please and thank you.

But in real life, that isn't always true.

You, give me that pen.

I'm sorry, that was a bit rude.

Well, what should I have said?

How about Neil, please, could you pass me the pen?

Fine, Neil, could you please pass me the pen? There you go,

that's much better. Now listen as BBC Radio 4 presenter Michael Rosen, who is a well-known poet

and children's author in Britain, describes what happened to him one day. Recently, this is how it

went. A boy was walking past me in the street, stopped and said,

Hey, you're a thingy, in it? Now, that one seems to break all the rules. And because it broke the

rules, it gave me a problem. How do I answer it?

A boy saw Michael Rosen and said, hey, you're thingy, in it. He used the word thingy,

because although he recognised Michael, he thingy, in it. He used the word thingy because, although he recognised Michael,

he couldn't remember his name. He also said, in it, which is short for isn't it, to emphasise

what he'd said. So was the boy being impolite, or was he just happy meeting a famous person in

the street? And why do we teach kids to be polite in the first place?

That's what we'll be discussing in this programme using some useful new vocabulary.

But first, I have a question for you, Neil.

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