EXCUSE ME?
This may sound hard to believe and I'm not saying it.
Reader's Digest has ranked New Yorkers as the politest people in the world. Yes, you read it right - fast-moving, tough talking, New York is the most polite metropolis, so RD would have us believe.
It has apparently outscored large cities in 35 countries in three tests of courtesy.
Ho hum... and those tests happened to be:
1) A 'Door Test' to see who would hold open a door
2) A 'Document Drop' to see who would help pick up dropped papers
3) And a 'Service Test' to measure if sales clerks said thank you for a purchase.
Four out of five New Yorkers passed the courtesy tests with flying colours.
Coming in a close second was Zurich followed by Toronto, Berlin, Sao Paulo and Zagreb.
Aamchi Mumbai ranks last in the politeness poll.
Not surprisingly, the rudest continent has turned out to be Asia - well the same continent where we greet our neighbours with Salaam Namastes, Sawadee, Sat Sri Akal, Smiles and more.
All because we couldn't pass three silly tests which are in no way a reflection of the Asian spirit.
Why is it that the courtesy test didn't include responses to human disasters? One merely had to look at the Hurricane Katrina aftermath and the way Mumbai wallahs responded to the floods to see where is it that the human spirit truly triumphed.
Sure, we may not be holding the document or the door right. We may forget to let the ladies enter the lift first, we may forget the 'excuse me's' and 'thank you's', we may superficially seem to be lacking in social graces, but when it comes to the crunch, we Asians get it right. The adversities have spoken for themselves in the past and they will in the future too - despite what the seemingly polite surveys have to say.
Reader's Digest has ranked New Yorkers as the politest people in the world. Yes, you read it right - fast-moving, tough talking, New York is the most polite metropolis, so RD would have us believe.
It has apparently outscored large cities in 35 countries in three tests of courtesy.
Ho hum... and those tests happened to be:
1) A 'Door Test' to see who would hold open a door
2) A 'Document Drop' to see who would help pick up dropped papers
3) And a 'Service Test' to measure if sales clerks said thank you for a purchase.
Four out of five New Yorkers passed the courtesy tests with flying colours.
Coming in a close second was Zurich followed by Toronto, Berlin, Sao Paulo and Zagreb.
Aamchi Mumbai ranks last in the politeness poll.
Not surprisingly, the rudest continent has turned out to be Asia - well the same continent where we greet our neighbours with Salaam Namastes, Sawadee, Sat Sri Akal, Smiles and more.
All because we couldn't pass three silly tests which are in no way a reflection of the Asian spirit.
Why is it that the courtesy test didn't include responses to human disasters? One merely had to look at the Hurricane Katrina aftermath and the way Mumbai wallahs responded to the floods to see where is it that the human spirit truly triumphed.
Sure, we may not be holding the document or the door right. We may forget to let the ladies enter the lift first, we may forget the 'excuse me's' and 'thank you's', we may superficially seem to be lacking in social graces, but when it comes to the crunch, we Asians get it right. The adversities have spoken for themselves in the past and they will in the future too - despite what the seemingly polite surveys have to say.
posted by Read@Peace | 9:20 PM
<< Home