Well, actually, the English are much more enigmatic than they appear. Similar to the Japanese and their
who bows lower nonsense, there is a subtext to English social intercourse incomprehensible to other cultures. Remarkably, whilst in school their children are not taught about the American Revolution. Can you imagine? Their children are taught that some colonists were sent to an new land and wanted to stay there.
How lovely! Go forth and make a nice country - watch out for the French though...
Not having to learn all that drivel about founding fathers, declarations, rights, constitutions, statehoods and whatnot, leaves more time to perfect the arts of subtle condescension and witty passive-aggression. They learn about posture; they learn how to properly look down one's nose and sniff; they learn how express extreme irritation by simply enunciating emphatically revealing the accent of a higher class. It's no wonder their language is so rich in insultives, they've been speaking it longer than we have:
Shakespeare's Insult Generator
And then, there's the fish...