What is the most obvious thing that an Indian fresh-off the plane to US notices? In my opinion, it is the fact that everyone greets and everyone is greeted with the most humble expressions - "Thank you" and " Hi, How are you doing today, Sir/Madam". It is ubiquitous - in the grocery stores at the cashier's counters, in the buses, at movie theaters - in fact at any place where there is a possibility of human encounter. Some may take it as a mere mindless activity people engage in as a matter of habit. But I feel that most of the time people ask genuinely. This is because the general sense of respecting the other person is generally high in the US than in India. In India, nobody would care to ask you "How are you doing today" out of the blue, or nobody would even care to say "Thank you" to the bus conductor/driver while boarding off the bus.
It is also this sense of respect for human beings that makes labor very expensive in US, which is why we wouldn't have maid-servants , cooks, laundry-men coming to our homes everyday. This is precisely why people learn to take care of their chores by themselves without any sulk. Most of the Indians opine that they would love to go back to India to enjoy these services. But for me, that would mean not bothering to respect the maids as human beings.
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December 9, 2007 at 4:07 AM
While agreeing very much the difference in both the countries as far as respecting others is concerned,its not the case that if people in india are getting the services (normally the one who is not geting tha smae in US )they are not respecting others.
Reason being 1)huge population2)lack of skilled education3)most importantly employement for such category of people.
If all this is taken care while respecting the people and treating these people as your family members, there is absolutely no problem .
December 20, 2007 at 7:22 PM
Hmm now you are making me think!! hehe :) Is it a question of respect? I never care to think about it. However, from my end (that is the Venezuelan culture end) we think that people here in the U.S. do not greet enough. It's actually considered rude to a certain degree. When you live in Venezuela you have to greet people every where. I would say the rule of thumb is that if somebody sees you on the eye, then you have to greet them, you have to acknowledge their presence. For instance, if you go to a dentist or doctor appointment and there is many people already waiting for the doctor you have to say good afternoon to everybody and everybody will reply to you back. I noticed it more last year when I went to visit. I was waiting to get a tomography done and I had to say good afternoon to every single person that came in; it ended up been around 10 times in 15 minutes. It was kind of funny actually. It brought me back to my days living in Venezuela. Muy buenas tardes, buenas tardes. Buenas, buenas, and so on. It was quite a chorus.
I think it might have to do with the degree that people are social with each other. In Venezuela, if you see a person eye to eye, you have to acknowledge them. You cannot ignore that you saw them, and when I think about it, it is very common for us to start conversations with anybody on the street. I remember talking to custodial, old people, secretaries, just any random person. So is it a question of respect? In a way it is. I would say that Venezuelans are respectful to each other. However, I think it might have to do more with how social...got to run, baby niece is here!
December 30, 2007 at 1:53 AM
Respect comes from within, the attitude, the self-composure and not with the countries,places or anything of that sort.
It all depends on our self developed concepts which get cultivated from our experiences, people, situations and our own belief system than the external sources.
If we have the natural altrusitic ethical value system an individual knows how to repespct people from all the strata of the society.
Respect needs to be given which comes with acknowledgement than ignorance and appearing overtly busy in humdrum lifestyle or to overlook with the basic need of RESPECT THY PEOPLE -generally. :)
Its easy to sit on the couch and comment such intellectual curry but the reality is how far do we go to introspect this quality within ourselves and implement it?