The majority of us are tired of the politically correct noose that has reduced our language to torturing synonyms, inventing hyphenated labels, and ridiculous expressions like “vertically challenged” for someone who is very short. We think the antidote to all that is to focus on being polite and considerate to everyone we meet.
This post is inspired by an American ex-pat living and working in Paris. Her recent post in “The Expat Blog” was titled “The Power of Bonjour!” Proper greetings are the backbone of French culture, so much so that they have an expression, “Simple comme bonjour”, which translates into simple as hello, or good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Omitting, bonjour is considered by the French as insulting as spitting in someone’s face.
The French consider Americans rude and we think they are too. The majority of us will walk into a store, notice something we like and approach the salesperson with a request: Do you have this item in black? We walk into a restaurant and tell the host, we have a reservation at 7PM for 6 people! Rarely do you hear a sincere greeting, like hello! We expect the salesperson or the host to greet us without the need to respond, we want them to just move on to serve us.
In France and other European countries the proper greeting is a way to pay respect and acknowledge our equality as human beings, not as master and servant. The simple bonjour opens the door to the possibility of a mutually beneficial relationship.
We have recently focused on taking the time to say “hello” and mean it. We have found that this is one of the ways to bring the best version of ourselves to our game. It is as simple as “hello!”
Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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