Long Listening · Section 5

Manners

What are manners? The word manners refers to the way people behave in social situations.

Level: A2 · 75 sentences

Transcript

1. What are manners?
2. The word manners refers to the way people behave in social situations.
3. So, I'm going to talk about good manners
4. and bad manners in the US and compare it to other countries.
5. Specifically, we're going to focus on dining etiquette.
6. The word etiquette is another word for manners. Dining etiquette is fun
7. to talk about because there are many differences throughout the world
8. when it comes to this topic.
9. In the US, for example, it's not polite
10. to make a lot of noise while you're eating.
11. It's not polite to chew your food loudly or with your mouth open.
12. And it's not polite to sip your drink or soup loudly.
13. The word sip refers to the act of drinking
14. or consuming something like this.
15. And if you sip something loudly, we say that you're slurping.
16. To be honest, this is pretty hard for me to avoid.
17. When I eat soup, I always slurp it.
18. My wife always lectures me about this and tells me not
19. to do it, especially when we're in public.
20. However, in places like Japan, sipping
21. or even slurping your food loudly is not considered rude.
22. In fact, it's considered rude if you don't slurp your soup.
23. If you eat ramen in Japan,
24. you're supposed to eat it like this.
25. So, my bad habit wouldn't be a problem in Japan.
26. Interesting, huh? Here's another similar example.
27. In the US, it's considered very rude to burp in public.
28. Burping is the sound you make with your throat
29. after you eat or drink something like soda.
30. So, in America, you definitely won't hear people burping in restaurants.
31. However, in many places in China,
32. burping after you eat your meal isn't rude.
33. It can actually be a compliment to the chef.
34. It tells the chef that you liked the food.
35. I think this is a pretty
36. interesting difference between manners in the US and China.
37. Something else that's considered good etiquette in the US
38. is to politely refuse when someone offers you food.
39. If someone offers you food in a situation
40. where you didn't plan to eat together,
41. it's polite to refuse at least the first offer.
42. For example, let's say you're at someone's house
43. and you're not good friends with them
44. and they offer to make you some food.
45. You can say something like, oh, that's okay.
46. You don't have to do that.
47. Then the person often offers again,
48. and then maybe you accept the second offer, or maybe you don't.
49. It's not rude to refuse offers for food.
50. I do this a lot, even if I do want the food.
51. This is seen as polite in the US
52. because you don't want to inconvenience other people.
53. However, in Mexico and in many Latin American countries,
54. you're supposed to eat the food that you're offered.
55. It can be considered rude if you don't eat what's offered to you.
56. This is definitely a cultural difference.
57. Another interesting thing about Mexican dining etiquette is the way
58. that people sometimes say no thank you.
59. For example, if you're at the dinner table,
60. and someone offers to give you more bread
61. or something, it's common to do this.
62. People might do this while saying no thank you,
63. or if their mouth is full of food,
64. they might just put their hand up like this without saying anything.
65. However, in the US and in many other countries,
66. it would be rude to do this to someone.
67. That's another big difference.
68. One last example of good dining etiquette in America
69. is keeping your elbows off the table.
70. When you're eating, you're not supposed
71. to put your elbows on the table like this.
72. That being said, I think that putting your elbows on the table
73. has become more acceptable in recent years.
74. Nowadays, many parents don't lecture their children for putting their elbows on the table.
75. It's seen as normal now.