A cultural difference?
In a city as crowded as New York, it’s inevitable that people will bump into, aggravate and annoy each other on the street. When this happens, I personally think an apology and a sincere look of contrition is called for. But sometimes, what I get is an apology and a smile. I hate that!
But today, it occurred to me that the delivery guy who nearly ran me over with his bike because he didn’t look before making a u-turn on the sidewalk might be responding in a culturally appropriate way. Perhaps somewhere in the world — I couldn’t even try to guess where this guy was originally from — the correct way to apologize is to say sorry and smile?
So maybe I shouldn’t immediately assume I’m being patronized by a sexist jerk when he smiles at me like it’s so cute that I yelled because I thought I was going to be run down like Wile E. Coyote?
Thoughts, anyone?
There are definitely parts of the world where a smile is more likely to accompany an apology than a look of contrition. Also, some people smile when they’re nervous, like, say, when a sexy woman is yelling at them…
Comment by Luke Melia — March 10, 2005 @ 1:17 am
Could be he was smiling at the way you yelled… I remember that could be a bit funny when you were exasperated.
Comment by Pam — March 15, 2005 @ 4:37 pm