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Personal Manners                                               By Wah You Lee                              Contents

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In social intercourse, everyone shows his personal manner. Some are kid, nice, friendly. Some are cold, indifferent, unconcerned, and cheerless. And some are rough, unfriendly, harsh…

Personal manners have a big effect on society and on the individual. On public occasions, especially in crowded buses or on the subway, if all the passengers would be friendly and polite, we would have peaceful and pleasant travel. Otherwise, we would feel that we were on a battlefield. When you go to some companies to connect with someone for something, if you would ask them politely and they would answer in a friendly way, both of you would feel very agreeable, even if the problem did not get solved. Otherwise, quarrels would occur.

I have had some unhappy experiences. Once I saw someone holding a piece of paper and looking at some addressed, so I went up to him and asked, “ May I help you?” But he gave me no answer, just glared at me and left. One day, on the subway, there was a baby crying loudly. His mother was patting him. I said, “Maybe he wants to drink some water.” The mother answered angrily, “I am his mother. I know it myself.” I was silenced, and some passenger just shook their heads. I can understand her vexation as a mother, but I have a higher regard for person who can control her temper and calm down to deal with something.

Personal manners, good or bad, are based on the individual‘s thoughts and sentiments. For example, if the boss thought, “I pay money to employees and they offer their intelligence and labor to me, so we are equals and I have to respect them,” he would be kind, nice, and friendly to his employees. If he thought, “I am a boss, they are horses,” he would be rough to them.

The nice manner should be showed truly. Some people like to show a nice manner pretentiously on some occasions, in order to get some benefits for themselves. These people should be despised. One day a saw, a salesperson drawing a long face to a customer; just a minute later, he changed his face to smile at another customer. I felt disgust at his manner.

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