it pays to be polite

heidi

Tue, Aug 02 2016, 5:07 am

I notice this at the cheese/chicken counter in supermarkets here in Israel. I always say can I please have . . . while almost every single Israeli without fail says, "give me two chickens". Is בבקשה such a hard word????

FranticFrummie

Tue, Aug 02 2016, 6:47 am

heidi wrote:

I was told that if I say "please and thank you", then Israelis would always know that I was an olah, and that I'd never assimilate.

Too bad, because being polite in the typical American Midwestern way is programmed into my genes. That, and smiling at people, whether they smile back or not.

watergirl

Tue, Aug 02 2016, 7:07 am

Its not just Jews or Israelis who dont say please and thank you.
I recently needed to have my college transcript sent to Thomas Edison from the local community college. I was told that it would take 10 days for it to send, which was ridiculous and way too long for my needs. So I kindly asked to be transferred to whomever takes care of payment, since I had already paid online for the transcript to be sent - I would like a refund and I would just come in to the office to get the transcript and mail it myself. So I was transferred to the office of the registrar who handles the money - and the woman assured me that my transcript would be sent that day. I asked how can she make such a promise, as I was told it would take 10 days to leave the building. What did she tell me?

"Watergirl, you are the first person that I've spoken to today (it was 3:30pm!) who spoke nicely and said please. I just printed it and put it in the outgoing mail myself". I was dumbfounded. We chit chatted for another minute or two, giggled about the Chewbacca mom (it was the day after her video went viral) and said goodbye.

Saying please and thank you goes a long way. Sadly - it should be automatic, but these days its a rarity.

greenfire

Tue, Aug 02 2016, 7:36 am

good morning, please that clip is Nervous

quite funny ... thanx Wink

now what I noticed is that people are so busy with the new technology aka cell phones that their minds don't even consider being polite - in fact people are becoming the opposite of polite