So lately I have been having a lot of conversations with a friend of mine (who is from Korea) and the other day we were talking about the differences between our cultures etc. So I have a question that came up from our most recent discussion.
When someone offers us something (for free), whether it be food or a beverage or something else, why do we often turn it down and say "No thank you?"
What are your thoughts?
3 comments:
I think that in our culture it is often thought that those gestures are just to be polite and so the polite thing to do would be to say no thank you, either that or people don't always actually like or want what is offered and they don't feel it rude to say no to it
We had a sacrament mtg. a while back on being generous in what we give to others but at the same time being gracious if you are on the receiving end. We are asked to serve others and at the same time we need to let others serve us. It is hard though if you really don't like whats being offered. I don't know if that makes any sense :)
I think in some sense it is pride. We don't want to seem in need, or poor. We want to appear to be self reliant and of a certain wealth. So in general it is because we care what people think of us and we want to be thought of more highly.
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