案例分析题
How Polite Are Wee It’s lunch time in
Mexico City, and a young man follows a slim woman wearing dark glasses into a
restaurant. Without looking behind her, she lets the heavy glass door swing
dosed, almost smashing him in the face. In a stationery shop in
Seoul, meanwhile, a female customer wants to buy a disposable pen. It’s a minor
purchase, but the store owner takes the time to talk her through a variety of
different models. When she makes her purchase, he says a friendly "Thank
you". Rain and wind are whipping the Nolendorplatz, central
Berlin, as estate agent Nicole, 34, struggles through the morning rush-hour
crowds, her broken arm in plaster after she slipped on ice. Ahead of her, a
young woman drops a yellow folder, scattering papers everywhere. Dozens of
commuters walk on by, but Nicole rushes over and picks up the damp documents,
gently shaking the water off each one. When thanked, she jokes, "Well, I still
have one good arm!" Our Three Tests The
young man risking a broken nose, the customer in Seoul, and the woman with the
scattered documents were no ordinary members of the public. Each was a Reader5
Digest researcher taking part in a unique test to see how polite people are
around the world. From Thailand to Finland, from Buenos Aires to
London, people worry that courtesy (礼貌) is fast becoming a thing of the past.
Service in shops has become lazy, they say, youngsters have lost respect for
their elders. Lynne Truss, in her international bestseller Talk to the Hand,
claims that we live in "an era of lazy moral relativism combined with aggressive
social rudeness" where common courtesies are "practically extinct".
But is such pessimism justified We sent undercover
reporters -- half of them men, half women -- from Reader’s Digest editions in 35
countries to access the citizens of their most populous city. In each location,
we conducted three tests: ·We walked into public buildings 20
times behind people to see if they would hold the door open for us.
·We bought small items from 20 shops and recorded whether the sales
assistants said "Thank you". ·We dropped a folder full of papers
in 20 busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.
To let us compare dries, we awarded one point for each positive outcome
and nothing for negative one, giving each city a maximum score of 60. We did not
attempt a strict scientific survey; it was the world’s biggest real-life test of
common courtesy, with more than 2,000 separate tests of actual behavior. Here’s
what we discovered. Wonderful Town They
have a reputation for being big-headed, but New Yorkers showed they are
big-headed too, by finishing first in our global courtesy ratings.
They placed in the top five in all three tests and were particularly
polite at holding doors open, with only two people failing to do so. Surprised
Not former mayor Ed Koch. Asked to react to our findings, Koch pointed to a rise
in New York niceness since the terror attacks on the city five years ago. "After
9/11, New Yorkers are more caring. They understand the shortness of
life." The second most courteous place: prosperous Zurich,
Switzerland. Zurich shop assistants are friendly to people whether they are
dressed shabbily or wearing an expensive fur coat. Old-fashioned customer
service was very much in evidence. Swiss shop-workers’ good manners were often
inspired by their pride in their work. T for
Tolerance Toronto, Canada, came third among our 35 dries. In
the trendy Queen Street West area we were helped with a dropped folder by a
28-year-old street artist. "I sit out Here doing drawings all day, and I find
people to be really good and cheerful. Toronto is very tolerant, very polite."
Still, two other European dries -- Berlin, Germany and Zagreb, Groatia -- did
well in out tests, tying with Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the fourth place. In Sao
Paulo, even petty criminals were polite. As we bought a pair of cheap sunglasses
from a trader at an illegal market, shouts rang out that the police were coming.
The merchant gathered up his goods to flee -- but not before thanking us for our
$ 2 buy. Doors Wide Shut The region that
most lacked courtesy: Asia. Eight out of nine dries being tested in the region
finished in the bottom 11. In the last place was Mumbai, where courtesy in.
shops was particularly lacking. When asked why he turned his back immediately
after the sale, a rude assistant at a convenience store was unapologetic: "I’m
not an educated guy. I hand goods to the customers and that’s it." In a
government-run supermarket, a female employee lied that she hadn’t seen what had
happened when asked why she didn’t help to pick up papers. Another worker
stepped on them. "That’s nothing," said the store’s security guard. "In Mumbai,
they’ll step over a person who has fallen in the street." What was most striking
is Asia was how few people held doors open for us. Many Asians simply don’t
include door-holding in their notions of courtesy. "How can we measure someone’s
value simply by whether they hold a door open" observed a college student in
Manila. A South Korean businesswoman held open the shop-door in Seoul only
because "I often go overseas on work trips, and it’s basic manners over there.
In South Korea, people don’t pay much attention to such things."
But we found plenty of discourteous behavior outside Asia, too. Moscow,
Russia and Bucharest, Romania, ranked as the least polite European
cities. Not So Poor What can we learn
from our results While two of the world’s most wealthy cities -- Zurich and New
York -- came top of our rankings, we found plenty of courtesy in poorer areas
too. In Johannesburg, South Africa, our researcher concluded: "The better
dressed the person, the less likely he/she is to help." Nonetheless, it was
relatively prosperous cities that appeared at the top of our rankings. A
British editor ventures this explanation: "Wealthier cities aren’t
generally so crowded and competition for resources is less intense." But being
in a hurry isn’t always barrier to helping people. Tests carried out during
morning rush hours produced almost as many positive results as those performed
during off-peak hours. A British government worker, who helped to gather up
papers in the London rush hours, put it down to empathy (同感)。 "Everybody was in
a hurry. So let’s work together and get us both on our way." Gender (性别) and Age Difference Many older people we
encountered complained that courtesy was less prevalent among the young. But we
found that the under-40s were, by a small margin, the most helpful of all age
groups -- and over-60s the least. So no more resentment about the younger
generation not being up to standard! Women were slightly more
courteous than men and, oddly, both groups were significantly more polite
towards their own sex. Some men told us they worried about helping modem
independent females. Perhaps that’s why men over 60, supposedly brought up in a
more polite era, were the least likely of any group to hold a door for our
female researchers. Fear of Crime Many of
those who didn’t hold a door or pick up our papers explained that they were too
busy or couldn’t be bothered, but a significant minority was more scared of
crime -- or being seen as a criminal -- than being rode. "I’ve heard pickpockets
use tricks like that," said a woman in Hong Kong, "One drops something, you help
pick it up, and his accomplice (同伙) robs you while you’re not
looking." So did the world pass our courtesy test Overall our
35 cities showed it 55 percent of the time. Common courtesy is the oil that
keeps the society engine running. So our check suggested that, in most places,
there’s plenty of oil in the engine, but some cities could use a bit of a
top-up. This passage offers a general report about the results of a world-wide courtesy survey conducted by Reader5 Digest researchers in 2006.