Pardon Me

My adventure here is flying by at the speed of light but I've still taken the time to stop and smell the roses along the way. In the brief moments that I've had to sit back and observe things, I've noticed different quirks about the Greeks and how they do things. One obvious one is how often people here use 'polite' phrases like "Please", "Thank you", or "Excuse me". As Americans, we generally thank people to death. Servers at restaurants get spammed with a please or thank you by us every five seconds. In Greece, it is much more rare to hear these phrases. My theory on why has a few different dimensions and may not be accurate, but I'll explain anyway. Firstly, Greeks are very direct people. They say "I want" rather than "Can I please have..." while ordering. In America that might sound rude or come off as snobbish, but here it is perfectly acceptable. They also might view thanking somebody for doing their job as offensive. Of course they are serving you your food, why should you have to thank them or ask them to do their job? It is a different mindset but a logical one. I also believe it has something to do with how Greeks view each other. We have talked to several Greeks who talk about "in-groups" and "out-groups". If somebody is in your in-group, they are family, a friend, or a friend of a friend. The out-group is anybody outside those select categories, and while strangers are still treated kindly Greeks would never act toward them in the same way as their in-group. Greeks are still respectful to outsiders, but they don't act polite in the way that Americans consider politeness. That doesn't mean Greeks are less polite, it just means that they are polite in different ways. I think it makes perfect sense and can respect how and why they act the way they do.