"I don't understand any of the other stuff like there being no chords in English music.To me if someone sings a harmony, its a chord, isn't it?" (Big Al)...folks have tried to enlighten me on this before, but my experience is that when the chorus comes around, at a folk club, etc., others simply double the melody, which is not creating chords.

One exception I recall was, when singing "The Drunken Sailor" at a Morpeth Gathering, Benny Graham's choir added some more-sophisticated bits, which probably did involve the creation of chords - similar to classical choirs.