Today I went to an Arabic restaurant. It was not a fancy restaurant at all. I had Kabsa Laham, fatoush and a coke, which cost me US$9 only. (You can see how unpretentious the place is.) While I was enjoying my lunch with my husband, a very young Arab couple came into the restaurant. The lady looked very pretty and stylish with a pink hijab, tight jeans and a nice shirt on, while the man (I assume he was her husband) was very tall and handsome, and the couple seemed match-made-in-heaven to me in appearance. They took a seat at the table right next to us.
The man and his wife were cheerfully talking to each other (sometimes laughing loudly) while waiting for their lunch. When I almost finished my lunch, the man dropped his fork on the floor that had been nicely placed on the table by a waiter. Dropping a fork is not a problem here. I'm now going to tell you what was a problem today. I understand if it was a fine dining, he could have expected to get the royal treatment from waiters and waited for a waiter to come and pick up the fork but as I said, it was the restaurant where you can have full meal with US$9. Some children were running around and others enjoying shisha. There was even no non-smoking section. we could smoke wherever we liked. If I were this Arab man, I would pick up the fork right away and ask a waiter to change it with a new one. You know what happened? This is the real problem today. He looked down the fork on the floor for a second but ignored it and kept talking to his wife. The attentive waiter who was standing at the entrance area came to pick it up right away. Here is what I couldn't believe. Neither the man nor the lady said "Thank you" to the waiter.
After we left the restaurant, I said to my husband, "Did you see that? Unbelievable!!" He understood what I meant though I didn't say anything. Saying "Thank you" is not something we force ourselves to say but we must say it unconditionally when someone does a favor for you. In today's situation, the waiter surely deserved being said "Thank you" by the Arab man. Just for your information, apparently the waiter looked much older than the Arab man or his wife. Back home, they might not need to do anything like picking up things from the floor, cleaning a room, doing laundry...etc., which are taken care of by their housekeepers maybe. They maybe follow the table etiquette they were taught; if you drop a utensil, leave it where it fell on the floor and ask the waiter to bring you a new one. They simply followed the table manners they had been taught scrupulously. If so, it was fine. What bothered me so much was that neither of them said "Thank you" to the waiter who bent down to pick up the fork. They kept talking as if the waiter wasn't there.
The couple looked no longer handsome/beautiful. It is none of my business but if young Arab people are like this, I can't help thinking what will be the fate of Arab in the future.
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3 comments:
I'm a "young Arab" and I'm anything but an impolite person like the couple you saw at the restaurant. I cringe whenever I see such Arabs, though, and I've seen surprising examples of polite Arabs lately.
I thought I'd share the joy. I hope we'll have more self-conscious Arabs in the future.
I don't think it's more of an Arab thing, than a matter of "class". We can see that behavior on any spot on the global map.
Because, y'see, unkindness knows no nationality or race.
And just as many nasty Arabs as you see, you might see just as many like Mochness and Soumz, who seem to have hearts big enough not only to fit their nationalities and countries, but the rest of the world too.
Hning, what you wrote was very sweet. Thank you so much for your kind words!
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