Most of the times I get to hear how our (read as ASIAN) manners are not quite accepted here and how the English get offended, disgusted, disturbed or all of the aforementioned due to them!! Coughing aloud in office is not done, littering is not done, black leather jackets are soooooo not on, nails with dirt underneath, shirts with creases, no funny noises, no loud conversations…..etc etc…..For the large part of the list its all good manners and nothing to do with English or Asian. What sort of irritates me is the fervour to adopt these good manners while in the company of white skin and not on the whole in your day to day life.
The fervour springs from the need to be accepted and be smiled upon and talked with. Hmm….sometimes we are so into a moment that we tend to forget what is important. Impressing the client is vital and trying to fit in a good strategy, however being all too aware of what is ON and what is NOT is sometimes a little to the extreme!!
Anyways before I get too preachy, shall we move on? I went to Boots yesterday, a famous pharmacy chain in the Europe, to get cough syrup for Shaiwal and inadvertently also stumbled on some meal deals. A sandwich, a drink and a packet of chips all for 2 pounds. One thing that’s lovely here is the number of deals that keep running and that these deals are truly value for money. An interesting tidbit on Boots – started way back in 1846 in UK, it was sold off to an American company sometime in the 1920’s and then history saw it being sold back to UK hands in 1933 presumably an aftermath of the great depression.
Weekends round the corner and I have the task of figuring out what we can do!!! Not that I volunteered for the task, but my better half is stuck in office with no computer or net connectivity and a whole lot of negative energy bundled in him for his plight! :)
Before I sign off – if anyone goes to Starbucks coffee, then beware before putting nutmeg topping into your coffee, it is spicy and sort of kills the taste for those of us who have a sweet tooth, the rest of us black mean coffee drinkers please go right ahead. My vanilla latte was so completely ruined in my enthusiasm to discover new things!!! :(
It has been three weeks since I joined Keane but I dont have a proper office space, laptop or workstation or phone! The final suggestion and solution was Home Office! Ask him to try it!
ReplyDeleteOn good manners, One things that irritates iirespective of who has done it is, touching the washroom door knob know with wet hands, be it Indians or Brits!
Well Shaiwal finally got his system so no home office for him, what about you?
ReplyDeleteAbout touching the washroom door knob with wet hands, thats a pretty yucky one, i agree totally!!! :(