Last November I went to China to visit my grandmother and relatives on my mother's side. One day my older cousin, Hui, or he called himself "Chandler" based on his favorite sitcom character, which I didn't care much about, took me to tour the new hip area of Guangzhou, an old factory converted artist galleries. It was nice to have someone drive me around to experience the city, which has changed so much since I left 20 years ago.
I thanked him for taking me out for lunch and driving me to sight see, and he told me to stop thanking him, because there was no need. He observed: "You thank people a lot." And I was like, why not? That's the right thing to do.
When I first left China to come to the U.S. en-route Hong Kong, my first impression about the people of Hong Kong was on a crowded bus, people say: "excuse me"when they need to get by you on the bus. I still remember what a revelation it was to me, because that was not what we used to do in Guangzhou, though we were brought up to be polite. Let's just say we were not as verbal.
I was pleasantly amused when I heard our friend's 2-year-old daughter enthusiastically said: "more please, more please" after finishing the food in her plate, and said: "all done" when she finished.
We need to learn our magic words such thank you, please, excuse me, pardon. If you ask polite, you'll get what you want.
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