ira

>I can't tell the difference between a Quebecois speaking French vs. a Parisian speaking French;...<

That's because of the worldwide general lessening of standards. The French are no longer as careful about teaching their native toungue to their children.

Soon you won't be able to hear the difference between Parisian and Haitian French.

xyz123

David...

Canadian beer is actually very good...and the US "football" team is ranked #5 by FIFA...

polly229

Sue, one thing I’ve noticed in the last 20 years or so is the “homogenization” of accents. Because I’ve lived most of my life in the south, that’s where I noticed it first. Pretty sure it’s because of TV. I know it’s happening in London, at least, because I could hear a big difference when we visited a few years ago after not having been there for over 20 years. And I could tell a difference in NYC after not having been there for 20 years, also. But not everyone loses the regional accent. In the case of my husband’s large family, all of whom had a strong regional NC accent (and to my ear, “hick sounding”) when we got married, some have lost all or most of it and others still have it. (Mostly the ones who moved from the city of their birth or have traveled more have lost it, not surprisingly.) So maybe that’s the case with one of the two Canadians I have the most interaction with who does the “aboot” and “eh” thing.

I’m not saying everyone has the ability to distinguish between people of various nationalities, but I’d venture to say that people who are immersed in tourists day after day, year after year – and who are observant or have an “ear” – can get pretty good. And I have met some; I assume many others are keeping it to themselves. In fact, I’ve been trying to learn to distinguish people myself on a small scale during my travels in recent years. I can usually tell the Europeans from the Americans and I can also pick out Brits a great deal of the time by appearance. Also, I can tell some colloquial British accents from a typical Australian accent – okay, don’t tell me that’s easy, but my husband can’t do it. In fact, even though I’ve only met one Kiwi to my knowledge, when my husband started telling me about someone in our hotel asking a couple if they were Australian, before he even got to the part about how they were offended, I interjected, “I think they might be from New Zealand.” Have no idea why I thought (knew?) that, but I did. If I can do it a little – without conscious analysis and much practice – I assume plenty of others with more opportunity can do it well. (When we were in Greece last month, most of the time when Greeks asked where we were from and we replied “the US”, they were a bit put out with us. They said, “I knew THAT. Where in the US?”)

BTW, back to the original subject of tipping, after we had a couple of frappes and yogurts at a café in Old Town Rhodes a couple of weeks ago, my husband put a 20 on the table beside the check for 17 Euros. The waiter picked it up and never returned. Raise your hand if you think he would have tried the same stunt on the two Dutch women we’d been talking to at the next table.

xyz123

I'll raise my hand if that's the custom of the country....but I have a way of avoiding the issue completely...I use a credit card and the vast majority of credit card slips I have seen in European countries do not have room for a tip.....

polly229

"...custom of the country ..." Not sure what country you mean - the country you're visiting or the country of the visitor. Okay to take (confiscate) a tip from Americans because they tip and not from Dutch because they don't?

Don't remember the problem in Venice in '03 or the UK several times recently, but Greece is not too credit card friendly. They either don't take and don't want to take credit cards for "small" amounts, which they seem to define as anything under 50 or 100 or 150 Euros, depending on the establishment. Using a credit card when they don't want to take it can be a triffle unpleasant sometimes. Since we tend to eat in moderately-priced restaurants (around 25-40 Euros a meal), we've found it easier to keep cash - and in line with our policy of trying to act in accordance with the customs or desires of the country.

One reason that the credit card statements in Europe don't have a space for the tip is because tips go directly to the waiter. If you put it on a credit card, the waiter will never see it. (Europeans visiting here for the first time are aghast if you suggest putting the tip on the card. Some, depending on the country of origin, insist on handing it directly to the waiter.)

jmisgro

At my last waitressing job in the US we were paid $2 an hour by the company. We were taxed 8% for the tips the government figured we would get. At the end of the night we had to pay 10% of our tips into a kitty for the busboys and the bartenders. We worked 3 table sections. Sometimes the girls left with only $20 at the end of their shift, usually 4-5 hour shifts. In the US servers need the tip money to live. But out of my many many years in the restaurant business the majority of servers are not rude unless a customer is being rude to them or treating them like a slave. Those are the people that never tip.
P.S. Never leave an American server pennies. It is considered a sign of lousy service.

Kate

XYZ...:.."and the US "football" team is ranked #5 by FIFA..."

I'm afraid that says more about the Fifa ranking system than the standard of US football. USA better than Argentina, Spain, France, England, Portugal????

Dave_in_Paris

Just to correct the misunderstanding that the "service charge" that appears on SOME restaurant bills goes to the waiter. There is nothing in French law requiring the restaurant owner to pass all or any of it to the waiting staff. In From Here You Can't see Paris," the author, Michael S. Sanders (great book, by the way, relates a conversation with a restaurant owner and his wife in the Lot, who upon hearing the author opine that most restaurant owners did pass that money on, "laughed heartily." By all means, if you want to economize while in France by not rewarding waiting staff for good service, do. But don't do it on the basis of a feels-good misunderstanding.

david_west

Re the yanks being the 5th Best team in the world – that means you’ll be in the semi finals then? I will bet any colonial five of her majesty’s sterling english pounds that they don’t even get out of their group.

I will also bet that Demarcus, Landon and all the other odd named numpties that you have scuttling around with mad hair look as at home on a world cup pitch as a hamster in a snake’s cage.

Yo should know that the USA’s finest moment was beating the English 1-0 in the 1950 World cup. Care to guess how many American journalists were watching? One, and he happened to be on holiday at the time and wandered in.

Stick to baseball – you always win the world championship at that.

Americans and football is one of the few things that REALLY gets me annoyed (along with French pop music and German comedy)

AnthonyGA

Waiters and waitresses are "rewarded" for their service by their continuing employment. If they don't provide good service, they get fired. If they don't get fired, they must be providing adequate service. If they feel that they aren't being paid enough, they can find a different job.

Most of us in the working world receive only what our employers pay us. We don't expect or receive tips to make us do the jobs we are already being paid to do.

I don't understand what makes waiters so deserving of money over and above their salaries just for doing their job. Do you tip your doctor? Do you tip your accountant?

Tips are associated with the lowest and most worthless jobs in society, jobs that pay so poorly that people must beg for additional money in order to get by. But tipping creates a vicious circle, in which employees are paid less and less and must depend more and more on direct handouts from customers. The price for customers goes up, the net for employees remains stable (usually), and the employer keeps the difference. Tipping is an inherently unethical and counterproductive practice.

Intrepid1

Anthony, I really think you should run for office...I'm sure your soulmate Mary Cheney could find you a spot. Your attitude about those people you think are "worthless" will resound with all the other folks who think food appears on restaurant tables by magic.

AnthonyGA

Or maybe I should put a note on my CV explaining that I expect to be tipped by customers if I do a good job, as merely being paid a salary isn't likely to motivate me.

If you ever have to visit an emergency room, be sure to tip all the nurses on staff before you leave. They aren't paid very much, and they might not be inspired to do a good job of taking care of you if you don't tip.

PrincessOfPenguins

Heh. When I was in Vienna recently, I was at one place where the waiter emphasized that service was not included on the bill. Needless to say, he did not get a tip (the service there really sucked). When I returned home, I wrote an e-mail to the management and cc'ed it to a trade union in Austria.

I find it unfortunate that the un-culture of tipping is seeping its way into Europe. It makes employers think that they can give a worker crap wages - "well they're going to get a tip anyway".

If a service worker feels that there's something so wrong with his or her wages that they have to demand tips, then this worker should take it up with their union. If they're not in a union, or working under the table, or working for their family, then they have to take the consequences of their actions. It's not the customer's job to pay the salary the employer can't be bothered to pay.

valtor

We always give tips, and we would not feel well not to tip when we know that we have to.

However, theoretical, I think that Anthony is right. You receive a salary, and you have to work well. Regarding the tips for waiter,it is 10-20 % of meal cost. Why? If two person eat, each of them a three courses meal, but one have to pay for instance 50 $, and the second 100 $, the tip paid by the second person will be double than the tip the first give. And the waiter did the same job for both of them. Is this correct?

Or, if you like what you eat, you will give maybe a bigger tip, because you enjoyed more. But the waiter did not cook !!

logos999

There are posts like the above and then there's life. Life is like it is! An individual can try to start a revolution, unlikely to suceed. However he/she can't make a decent living out of 900€ a month in downtown Munich. (There are people who make far less than that) And some food on the own table would be a nice thing too.

logos999

>tip all the nurses on staff before you leave
Yes, do so! At least in Germany, nurses get tips too! This is common, it would be impolite not to tip them for their service.

kerouac

This would make a good philosophy subject for the French baccalauréat exams that are starting this week. Here are some of the subjects from last year:
1. Can one reason well when one's objective is to be right at any cost?
2. Can freedom be defined as encountering no obstacle?
3. Is the concept of justice and injustice merely a convention?

(I absolutely love these subjects every year and try to imagine how I [and the other kids] would have reacted if we had been obliged to write essays on such subjects to get a diploma from my U.S. high school.)

logos999

Wisdom may not always come with age, but insight into the realities and obstacles of life, that food always wins over philosophy, comes with growing up. ;-)

BTilke

Actually, PoP, most guidebooks (including those in German and the Vienna tourist office's guide with the intro by the city's vice mayor) will tell you that the norm to tip in Austria is around 10%. That doesn't mean the waiter should have bugged you about the service charge not included (perhaps you were a more than usually demanding customer), but the no-tip rule isn't applied the same across ALL of Europe.

Wikipedia: Austria
In Austria, waiters receive sufficient wages, although this has not always been the case. Tipping is however very common and although legally not mandatory it is often considered as socially obligatory. Giving 5% to 10% of the total amount is common, more signals exceptionally good service. Paying a multiple of a Euro is usual, for low sums the amount paid is often a multiple of 50 Cents (i.e. a bill of Euro 7.80 can be paid as Euro 8 or Euro 8.50).

Giving no tip at all is considered impolite and is only done when the service is bad. Tipping is common in any bar and restaurant, but not when the goods are exchanged over the counter (i.e. in fast-food restaurants or at street stalls). Traditionally, the owner of a restaurant (known as "Wirt" in German) does not receive a tip. However, this tradition is less common nowadays.

http://info.wien.at/article.asp?IDArticle=14403

http://europeforvisitors.com/switzau...s/tipping2.htm

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.p...08/000073.html

Neil_Oz

"I can tell some colloquial British accents from a typical Australian accent – okay, don’t tell me that’s easy..." polly, confusing a Londoner and an Australian, that I can understand. But not being able to distinguish an Australian from a denizen of Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne or Somerset surely requires a tin ear of heroic proportions.

Kiwis are easy to identify by their five vowel sounds: eh, eh, eh, eh and uh.

Back on topic - Anthony, well said!