Manners and Custom (1)

    I remember the first time I came to The United States of America; I was very excited to live in a powerful country. Even though I had to change some of my customs of daily living, I was really anxious to start a new job and make new friends.
    Two months after I noticed that some people’s behavior is in common, some are in different ways. I realized that I got a huge demanding to learn a new language and custom barrier.
    My husband said that problems have a solution, and I believed him. I should exert an effort to learn American English and I should give all my best to learn American manners and custom. I had to learn lots of polite things to say and do in many interactions. I never forgot my lunch at the restaurant. A young lady passed me a salt. I said “Thank you very, very much, I really appreciate this so much”. She answered back “You’re welcome.” but she was looking at me in a very strange way as if saying.
    Three months later, while I was looking for jobs, luckily I had a chance to interview. As the manager began to question me, I was depressed and did not answer him. I was afraid to reply because I did not know how to answer in English. I could not say any words that call into question my intelligence or judgment. I felt terrible of the embarrassing experience I had.
    From that day, I understood my situation. Not only I spent more time to study English but also I learned to understand American manners and custom. After that, my knowledge of American culture began to expand as I went to church, joined community activities, took reading class at the library, studied ESL class at community college, watched TV, listened to radio, read newspaper, visited tourist sites, and celebrated some festival events.
    Now, I know when people have good manners, it means they think about the need of others and the feelings of others. Good manners are important for many reasons. The main reason is that make life easy. Someone may think that manners are about forcing people to behave in unnatural ways. In fact, manners create a framework that will be less confused in communication, and with clear expectations for what will happen. Good manners are about being at ease in a social situation, and helping people avoid awkward moment and embarrassing them.
    Moving to America was completely changed my lifestyle and I became familiar with the language better than if I was at my hometown. The more I got an experience of the culture, the more language became exciting. I am pretty sure a lot of foreigners as me are also striving very hard to learn new etiquette although it really hard and complicated. So, I would like to share my experiences about American manners and customs to Thais and friends.
    I would really appreciate if you guys can help me revise my understanding. Any input would be truly being helpful. Please do not hesitate to criticize, I will not be offended. Thank you in advance!

First, I would like to share when to say “Thank You” and how much to say.
The size of the “thank you” depends on the size of the gift or favor:
Thanks.                                When someone lent you a pen, or held a door for you.
Thanks a lot.                        When someone gave you a pen, or held a very heavy door for you.
Thank you.                          When someone paid you praise, or gave you a seat on a bus.
Thank you very, very much. When someone did you a favor that was very helpful or someone found your keys and returned them.
Thank you so much.             When someone did a favor that surprised you and made your life easier.
I really appreciate this so much. How can I ever thank you enough? When someone drove you to the hospital.
Don’t overdo it. For a small favor one “thank you” is enough.

When someone says “Thank you” the normal response is “You’re welcome.”

That enough for today. Next time, I will write about how to say "Please".