"How To Be An Alien" by George Mikes

[yuribedny]

Soul and Understatement

Foreigners have souls; the English haven't.

On the Continent you find any amount of people who sigh deeply for no conspicuous reason, yearn, suffer and look in the air extremely sadly. This is soul.

The worst kind of soul is the great Slav soul. People who suffer from it are usually very deep thinkers. They may say things like

Comments

[mindlina]

спасибо, I had a very good laugh :) Тем более приятно было это читать в самолете Москва-Лондон :)

правда, в переводе имхо не так смешно.

[sleeppie]

Thanks for the link! I rather fancied it;)

[leo_ogrel]

А еще англичане никогда не используют active. Только passive. В редких случаях можно We, но I - никогда!