介绍:
20160510ou 一中两外锵锵三人行
今日话题： 大学食堂给有礼貌的学生打折
Brian: Now we are seeing some meal discounts for polite students in China. Tell us more, Yoyo.
Yoyo: So one recent report says that Chinese universities are offering students a 50% discount in the canteen. This is under one condition, of course: if they are polite and show common courtesy to staff. This is from Anhui Normal University.
Nick: This is obviously ridiculous. You shouldn’t have to reward people or incentivize people to say please and thank you to staff in a canteen.
Brian: Admittedly, but let’s look at reality, how many things including our pleases and thank yous should be done but are not done? Furthermore what do we feel about this and how ought we rectify any situation that requires improving? But first, how often does this sort of thing happen, where people do things or they don’t do thing that they ought to?
Nick: All the time. I think obviously there are a lot of things that maybe you just don’t realize you should do, or things are important to different people and you don’t realize how it’s coming across to somebody else, but something as basic as saying please and thank you to another person when they’re serving you food, I don’t think warrants financial reward.
Brian: Well fair, but let’s say that it’s happening a very small amount of the time. What then should we do?
Nick: Very few people are not saying please and thank you?
Brian: No no no, very few people are even saying it. Let’s say out of every 100 students at this cafeteria, or any other cafeteria in the world, […] are saying please and thank you, what should we do?
Nick: I would say that this is probably a sign that we need to, within the education system, address manners and courtesy.
Yoyo: I think Brian, your point is more like, who has this common courtesy to the staff and who has not but what Nick has mentioned is that this is not a thing that a university should be ruling students to do. So both of you have points, but you have different angles. I can totally understand the intention from the university’s side but in this way I think they need a second thought. My question is should the canteen be a place to educate the students?
Brian: Yep, that is a fair point.
yoyo: The teachers can of course mention this. However university students are adults, to tell them about common courtesy, this is what the students’ parents should do. But this news can raise people’s awareness, and this is the good side, but the way to do it is just like rewarding a pet to let them know if you do it right I will give you some food.
Brian: Well, that is the thing there, because again, it goes back to, again, should we really be rewarding people for doing things they ought to be doing, like we had a discussion a while ago I think about rewarding criminals for not committing crimes which is very counter-intuitive.
yoyo: And also some online comments, someone said online that using politeness as a bargaining chip reduces its value.
Brian: Yep, that’s a fair thing to say and it goes back again to why should we even be in this position, it does reduce its value.
Nick: We’ll have to let them give it a try and see how it works out.
Brian: Right, right then perhaps in a couple of weeks we can come back and tell the world of their great success here, hopefully.
