>
> 4. Does anyone ever tip you?
>
> " The tourists - it's embarrassing."
> " When a cruise liner is in it's awful."
> " Locals never. Foreigners try often."
> " It's weird. I feel quite insulted. but the people who do it think
they're
> being nice."
> " I just start talking in an American accent and try to look as though
they
> haven't given me enough. I couldn't believe the taxi drivers in New York."
> " I'm not sure whether it's more embarrassing to keep it or to give it
> back."
>
This reminds me of the opening to 'Homage to Catalonia' where Orwell, in
revolutionary Barcelona in autumn 1936, is suspected of being a
counter-revolutionary because he offers someone in the place he is staying
(which is under control of its workers) a tip.
It also reminds me of the only time I can remember a British taxi-driver
querying a tip for being too large. It was in Liverpool in the early 80s (a
period of high unemployment as shown in the TV series 'Boys from the
Blackstuff'). I, coming from London where taxi drivers get stroppy if they
don't get a tip of ca 10% of the bill, offered the same to the Liverpudlian
who was taken aback and said something to the effect of 'Are you sure you
want to give me so much?' The so-called 'North-South divide' - now I live in
the North and am still unsure what is or isn't expected!
I would prefer not to have to tip as I often feel it is embarrassing for
giver and recipient. I hate the American system where it is expected as a
matter of course to subsidise wages and where I get the feeling that this
results in a lot of unnecessary, superficial and unwanted (by me, at least -
a typical straight-laced Brit introvert??) social interaction in the course
of the meal.
Bruce
=====================================
Bruce Robinson
Information Systems Research Centre
University of Salford
Salford M5 4WT
UK
Phone / fax: 0161 861 7160
Email: bruce.rob@btinternet.com
=====================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 01 2001 - 01:02:14 PDT