Charlie Baxter

And in British cultural standards, sounding rude by accident is one of the worst things you could ever do.

Now, you might have a slightly similar necessity in your culture.

I'm not imagining that if you're Spanish, you're allowed to just passionately stand up mid conversation and run away.

Nor a German can just press their finger up against your lips because they might have a meeting to go to.

But these specific phrases we use are worth your attention because getting them right is the difference between sounding like a textbook and sounding like an actual person.

So yes, here's the formula I've made up for you that I think works brilliantly.

Step one, the softener.

Every natural British exit starts with a little signal word and I'm calling it a softener because it softens the blow of you saying that you are going to leave.

It tells the other person, get ready, we're about to wind this conversation down.

And your options for these softeners are the following.

We have, right.

Well, right then.

Look, those are your five options.

OK, that's basically it.

So pick one, stick it on the front of your sentence and you're already a third of the way through your exit strategy.

Or as I'm coining it, your Brexit strategy.

It's good, isn't it?

But whatever you do, and I'm serious about this, do not skip this softener.

Otherwise your exit sounds like you're slamming a door in their face.

So yeah, that's step one, the softener.