While I was cursing Yahoo for being totally unable to log into anything over there, YIM, mail, etc., I came across this article about the most polite major city in the whole wide world. Wouldn't you know that NYC won hands down!!
Some people will be surprised at this, but I'm not. I didn't realize just how polite NYers are until I moved away from there some years ago. People talk to their neighbors, they look out for each other, all that sort of thing. The study in the article looked at opening doors, helping to pick up something dropped and salespeople saying thank you to customers. I suppose what does NYC in in terms of image is the fast pace. If you're not accustomed to that, it can come across as being blown off or brusqueness. But in my experience, once the local person becomes aware that they are dealing with a visitor, they will try to help out. There's also the tendency to being direct and straightforward in conversation, which can come across as rudeness. Think about it though, would you rather be told the bald truth, as they see it, or have someone lead you down the garden path? If you have no time for me, tell me so I can move on. anything else is passive agressive and no one wants that.
But that's not to say that people elsewhere are jerks, and my time living upstate has been hellish or whatever. Because that's not the case at all, I'm just saying that NYC has a tendency to be labled as rude and that is just not so. What does surprise me is that Toronto came in a distant third (behind Zurich.) I would have expected TO to be a lot higher than that because I have yet to meet a rude Canadian. I'm also surprised that no other major US city made even the top 20.. Yes, it's a world-wide poll, but you'd think that at least ONE other would get mentioned... Particularly those cities in regions frequently thought of as politeness personified. I suppose this is an area where one would have to dig into the research criteria and all that sort of thing. I also wonder if it really is a level playing field to have this be a world wide study and not take into considerations cultural differences and social norms.
Anyway, this was nice to see. And blogging about it certainly distracted me from my frustration at not being able to login to my Yahoo email.....
1 comment:
That survey came out on precisely the WRONG day- I arrived at work that day to see police cars, an employee in handcuffs. After many hours there, the cops found that she had an accomplice (they stole checks from our very wealthy residents- this is an assisted living facility,) and each had many identities and several social security numbers- which proves that criminal background checks can be a waste of money. My point: the guy (I didn't know the girl,)was THE most charming, polite, attentive, helpful, caring guy I've even known in working with the elderly. The residents loved him. He was also a poet. He'd left the job 2 weeks ago, after graduating with an MBA. Was ANYTHING he ever said true? Turns out that each had been fired from assisted living facilities right in the neighborhood for...stealing. The police are looking for him. Yes, he's a bad apple in the Big Apple, leaving a real bad taste. Timing is everything. I will continue to like politeness, but am I wary now! Rootietoot
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