What You Should Do

Hi everyone, it’s Tuesday, guys, wake up and prepare your thing, it’s time to go to campus again. Anyway, we already talked what you should say (polite English) and now we will be talking about what you should do when you are living or working in an English speaking environment. Let’s get started;

First “SMILE.” Smiling creates a more friendly environment and it’s certainly expected. So try to do that, it doesn’t mean you have to keep smiling, but when you meet someone, give them a smile. If you don’t smile, they might think that you are nervous, they might think you are angry or unhappy about something. Or they might take a little big aggressively. So try to smile, it also gives people the message that everything is okay, not just that you are happy to meet them, but that everything is fine with you. So it says two things: something about you and something about the other person.

Next, “SHAKE HANDS.” Now, that’s usually in more business-like situation; in office or somewhere, and certainly when you meet somebody for the first time. In an English speaking environment, you are expected to shake hands and shake hands rather firmly. Don’t shake hands very weekly or just hold a part of the hand. Hold the entire hand and shake it firmly. All right? That’s again, part of the office expectation and the business norm.

The next one is to remember to “COVER YOUR MOUTH.” What do I mean? Not all the time, but if you need to yawn. What do i mean “to yawn”? It’s what you do when you are sleepy. So when you do that, if it happens and you are in a group or in an office or something like that, remember to cover your mouth. Also, if you are coughing, remember to cough aside. Actually, today, they teach us to cough into the inside of your elbow. Why  is that? Because if you cough into your hand and then you go and shake hands with someone, you are passing your germs on to that person. And people are very aware of that these days, so it’s better not to cough into your hand actually. Okay?

Next, remember to “STAND IN LINE.” In many parts of the world, there are different rules regarding lines and in English speaking countries, generally people expect you stand in line, not to crowd around, not to get in front of somebody, not to look for space and sneak in, but in fact to check who is the last person in line and make sure that you stand behind them. If you are not sure who is the last person in line because it’s a bit of a confusing situation, you can ask: “Who is last?” okay? And stand behind that person. That’s part of the etiquette that is expected of you.

Next one “HOLD THE DOOR”. What do I mean by that? If you are going through a door way, remember to hold the door behind you. Don’t jus go through yourself and then let the door fall back against whoever is behind you. No, hold the door, look back and check if there is someone there, hang on for a second if they are still coming. And whether they say “Thank you” or not, does not matter; it’s your job to hold the door. Try to do that, it makes for a much friendlier society, a much more caring society.

The last one is “KEEP YOUR DISTANCE” it’s something that not a lot of people are aware of because in different parts of the world space has different meaning. In some cultures, it’s perfectly acceptable to stand and quite close to someone and that’s  you know, absolutely fine. In an English speaking environment, that’s not really expected. Personal space is respected more and expected. So when you meet someone, when you are standing for example or when you are talking to someone, try to keep about an arm’s length distance. Okay? Not exactly, and of course, it it’s very crowded you might stand a little closer. But let’s say it’s an empty room, and an arm’s length where you should stand when you are talking to someone. If you stand closer to them than that, they are going to feel uncomfortable and you are probably going to find that they are standing back, they are moving away and that’s because you’ve come into their zone, you’ve crossed their comfort zone. If you get closer, they might think you are trying to, I don’t know-, if it’s a man and a woman, they might think you are trying to get extra friendly or in one way or the other they are going to feel uncomfortable. So remember to respect that space if you are standing.

And now, one last critical point. If you don’t do this last thing, everything else you do here will probably not matter. So this is very important and it has to do with “BODY ODOR”. What do I mean by that? I mean that you need to make sure that you don’t smell bad. Allright? That means everything from your mouth, so make sure you brush your teeth. If you’ve had something to eact which has some spices in it, make sure you use breath freshener. Otherwise, people are going to feel uncomfortable around you. Moving your mouth, down to your underarms; make sure that you use deodorant or an antiperspirant. People are not accustomed to the smell of sweat in Nort American societies or in English speaking societies. And if you sweat and it smells, the people are going to avoid you. And they will not tell you because it’s considered rather rude to speak about those kind of things, however, they will talk about it probably behind your back-which you really don’t want- or you are just not going to have as successful an experience in a social context or a business context. But that’s the reason why. So make sure you use deodorant or antiperspirant. Okay?

Next, considering your entire body: make sure you shower regularly. And the last thing is also the clothes that you wear: make sure you wash them regularly and make sure if you have been somewhere, for example: a restaurant with a lot of smells, make sure that your clothes don’t keep that smell because clothes tend to hang on to certain smells. For example: before you go for a job interview if someone in your house is cooking whether it’s your mom or a roommate or your friend or your wife or someone else, make sure you don’t enter the kitchen, especially if they are cooking onions or something like that because all that smell will stay on your clothes and then people are going to smell that once you are outside of that environment. Right? So make sure that any kind of food, smoke, tobacco; all these substance do cling or stick to our clothing, so make sure that your clothing doesn’t smell of any of that and make sure that you don’t smell anything but good. All right? Now, that doesn’t mean to drench yourself in cologne- no, don’t do that. But make sure you have a neutral smell, especially in an office environment. And if you do that, you are going a very long way to being successful in an English speaking environment.