Tuesday, July 20, 2010

AMERICANS ARE POLITE

Well, this is the first time I've been in America and everything is new to me. Despite of the delicious food and beatiful sunshine, I'm surprised at American's politeness and hospitality. American people try to be polite and decent anytime when they communicate with each other. As a matter of fact, it is quite often for you to hear ' Excuse me' or ' Thank you' in USA, even though you are totally not expecting that. Moreover, you are sure to receive a warm ' you're welcome', if you give thanks to an American. Thus, I feel a little bit unaccustomed or even embarrassed when I received so many unexpected greetings, since in China, it is not so easy for us to give thanks unless he or she really helps us a lot. And 'you're welcome' is not that popular either, since we sometimes regard others' offer as a duty or a job.

I try to find out why this happens. According to my understanding, Chinese people are also kind and polite, however when it comes to this part, we seem to be cold. I think this phenomena has something to with the difference of personalities between westerners and easterners. Westerners like Americans are more extroversive than easterners like Chinese, they tend to express their feelings and thoughts right away through their facial expressions and verbal expressions. While Chinese people may keep the feelings deep in heart and not always express their gratefulness in words.

Nevertheless, I don't think the personality thing can entirely explain that. It is always true that the happier they are, the nicer they will be to others. I hold the idea that Americans lead a relatively easier life than Chinese people and they have a higher standard of life. So, no matter you are a shopping assistance or a gate guard, you are happy all the time and more importantly you bring happyness to others. However, in China, people of low status have to struggle for a life, they may worry about food and housing problems, education fees for children, and so on. Such kind of hardness exhausts their passions to transmit happyness to others. I don't want to hide the fact of problems in Chinese society and I strongly support that the welfare of a society can definitely determine its people's level of civilization and happyness.

4 comments:

Kelly said...

Actually I agree with you that the happier you are, the nicer you will be to others.However,on the other hand,I don't think Americans lead a relatively easier life than Chinese people,for the reason that the United States also has all kinds of society priblems,which I got to know from the interviewing activities on campus today.

Vincent said...

I like the point where you stand at.

Mike Lohre said...

Robert, it's funny, but I found the Chinese to be really polite one on one when I was in China, but then when there was a line to stand in, or a eating cart, the rules were different! I think it's the same here too, and you'll see different standards for politeness depending on the situation. Nice post!

lucia said...

Mike, I agree. Politeness depends on the situation.