I have to get used to American politeness again

I’ve noticed since arriving home that I haven’t really missed anything except the people I know here. I’ve only missed my family and friends. I’ve only missed the people that I used to see on a daily basis or the people I had grown accustomed to.

Some I’ve missed without even knowing them in the past. The people that hold open doors for me at stores or the cars that always let me get into their lane on the highway. I missed the “Thank you’s” and “You’re welcome’s” and all the minute politeness’ that are native to the United States.

You can keep all the super markets and bars and landscape.  I’ve simply missed the American persona.

Granted I may not have had these observations in New York or New Jersey where people take pride in their rudeness, but in the Midwest, politeness is king. We don’t really notice it until we’re outside of it.

This attitude was hard for me to let go of in Israel. Israeli’s are honest. VERY honest. Honest almost to a fault. To an American, this translates to rudeness. In reality it’s simply being open. Chivalry doesn’t really exist in Israel either when talking about opening doors or moving out of the way on the sidewalk when a woman passes. To a feminist, this seemed ideal. Because why should a woman be given special treatment over a man? But the reality is that it grated on my nerves more than anything. It got tiresome getting run into by men on the streets or getting ignored when a door shut in my face. I realized that chivalry wasn’t just a male thing in the United States, it was a people thing. We all did it for each other. Period.

But there’s a problem with this. Sometimes chivalry and excessive politeness comes off as fake. Very fake. At least in Israel I knew exactly what someone thought of me.  Everything felt straight to the point.

At first the language even felt brusque.  It’s customary simply to say sharply, “ma?” (what), in Hebrew when you need someone to repeat something.  In English, if you said “what?” in a sharp tone, people would get offended.  Especially in a customer service setting.  We prefer to hear, “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get what you were saying.  Do you mind repeating that?”.  In Hebrew, “What?!”.  Simple as that.  I think in the end I’ve decided that Americans make it more complicated than it needs to be and the brusquness was starting to grow on me.

Regardless, both cultures have positives and negatives to their customs.  I’m lucky enough to have a nice inbetween view of them both.  I’ll decide which one I prefer another time.

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The Olympics In A Foreign Land

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing have me entranced. One of the many perks of being in Israel during an Olympic year is that I can see it live. Relative to other countries, the United States is in a geographical position that places it far from other time zones and makes live events from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East painful to watch. (Thank you Atlantic and Pacific oceans.) Who wants to stay awake until 3am to see the women’s 400 meter butterfly competition?

Of course, under normal circumstances, we Americans pay little (or no) attention to international television programs unless they involve Americans directly, like the Olympics, anyway. Of course, this post isn’t intended to argue America’s egotistic seclusion from the international community. (sigh) I’ll save that for next time.

Instead, I simply want to brag that I can turn the t.v. on at 7am and see the Olympics live. They’re live at noon too. And also at 4pm. No editing. No special highlights. Simply raw Olympic goodness. Go Michael Phelps!

Speaking of bragging, it’s never been clearer to me how dominant the United States is in the Olympics until now. In fact, we’re almost embarrassingly dominant. After the first few days of watching the Americans consistently win one of the top three positions in any given event, I started to get bored with our success.

It didn’t take me long to notice that smaller countries were receiving a lot more fervor from their fans and from the announcers. Take, for example, Israel.

They have quite a few athletes competing in the Olympics. 39 athletes to be precise. It’s a good sized number especially for a country about the size of New Jersey. And whenever one of their athletes win (even if it’s just a qualification round), I can’t help but yell and screem and high-five with E or S. It’s hands-down much more thrilling to see one of the 39 Israeli athletes compete.

The United States on the other hand has sent 596 athletes. (!!!) It’s a small army.

It’s been hard watching the U.S. athletes win a medal in nearly every event while sitting next to non-Americans. I have to bite my tongue from being overly enthusiastic with nationalistic pride because if the tables were turned, it would be a little irritating to me also.

Instead of following all of the BILLIONS of American athletes, I find myself getting really excited over watching the Israeli athletes. (Besides Phelps of course. You gotta love that guy.) It’s not simply because they’re members of my host nation, but also because they’re underdogs. It’s much more thrilling to watch them.

Just another eye opening experience for yours truely, I suppose.

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