So what’s the convention on holding the door for other people in this part of the world? How far behind you the person has to be in order for you to hold the door open until they get to the door? Or should I just be holding the door until someone passes by and takes care of it?
I’m writing this post while in class, pretending to be taking notes. I needed to write something before the idea cools off. As I was running to class, a Qatari girl was walking behind me. I open the door to enter the building and hold it open for few seconds for her to enter. Guess what happened to me for the 3rd time this week? She did NOT say thank you or even gesture it in anyway! This happened to me several times before. I just don’t understand why is it so hard to thank people who do you a little polite thing.
I read a post on Mimiz Blog a while ago and she mentioned how she felt insulted when a person sat in the library with the bottom of that person’s shoes was pointing to her. We consider this rude, but not saying thank you is not rude in any way.
Where did this habit come from? I’m sure it’s neither culture nor religion. I’m not talking about holding doors. I really couldn’t care less if they thanked me or not. I care about the general courtesy between us. What kind of society is that? I noticed this in restaurants, gas stations, star bucks and other places. And guess what? It’s the Qataris that do this most of the time. And to be more accurate, the girls do it more than the guys.
Again, don’t get me wrong with the generalizations. What i mean is that mong the people who have this ugly habit, Qataris are the majority. It doesn’t mean all Qataris do this.
So what’s the deal about that? I mean did we forget how to live happily with each other? Did we start to think that people are obligated to serve us and we don’t need to thank them? What kind of ugly society we’re turning to if we didn’t have common courtesy.
I’m writing this post while in class, pretending to be taking notes. I needed to write something before the idea cools off. As I was running to class, a Qatari girl was walking behind me. I open the door to enter the building and hold it open for few seconds for her to enter. Guess what happened to me for the 3rd time this week? She did NOT say thank you or even gesture it in anyway! This happened to me several times before. I just don’t understand why is it so hard to thank people who do you a little polite thing.
I read a post on Mimiz Blog a while ago and she mentioned how she felt insulted when a person sat in the library with the bottom of that person’s shoes was pointing to her. We consider this rude, but not saying thank you is not rude in any way.
Where did this habit come from? I’m sure it’s neither culture nor religion. I’m not talking about holding doors. I really couldn’t care less if they thanked me or not. I care about the general courtesy between us. What kind of society is that? I noticed this in restaurants, gas stations, star bucks and other places. And guess what? It’s the Qataris that do this most of the time. And to be more accurate, the girls do it more than the guys.
Again, don’t get me wrong with the generalizations. What i mean is that mong the people who have this ugly habit, Qataris are the majority. It doesn’t mean all Qataris do this.
So what’s the deal about that? I mean did we forget how to live happily with each other? Did we start to think that people are obligated to serve us and we don’t need to thank them? What kind of ugly society we’re turning to if we didn’t have common courtesy.
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