this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
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Americans are explaining why they don't say 'you're welcome' in customer service settings after foreigners complained that 'mmhmm' comes off as rude (www.insider.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I was watching a video from two years ago about different social norms and this showed up. Found someone questioning the same eight years ago on reddit (when it seemed less normalized). It feels so weird not being aware of this shift, even as a foreigner.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Depending on context I tend to respond with:

  • No problem (they seem to think it will in fact be a problem like if someone at work asks for help on something nobody wants to do)
  • All good (they're exasperated after the fact and worried I might be too and am judging them)
  • Any time (some simple thing they're just saying thanks out of habit)
  • Of course (usually said in a softer tone, empathetic/reassuring response to let them know I'm here for them)
  • Yep (fuck you don't ask me for anything again)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I quite like

no worries

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Almost every time I say it, it means "Actually nothing but worries, but it's socially unacceptable to talk about our declining mental health and I have shit I need to get back to in order to distract myself from this hell that was created to squeeze maximum productivity out of me with minimum investment in life support, so I'm going to end this exchange by pretending everything's okay."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah like they all mean something and mmhmm is just the Yep variant nothing else