You get what the waiter thinks you deserve.

I    This is The Post, that I didn't know if it was worth posting or not. Well, it all started....before I got to Paris in the first place - by hearing stories about French waiters being arrogant... or were supposed to be... or who knows.

Then, as you, my dearest reader, know, I'm currently working as a waitress. I'm really cool one in fact....BUT! What happened to me was that - on one of those nights there were 4 people sitting in one of my tables for 4 and they were having a pint of beer.

To be clear: 4 people, 1 pint that was half empty (and I'm no pessimist here!).

So I approached politely and asked them if they would like to order anything else to drink or some snacks. Because.... don't you just hate when you feel like having something and it takes forever from the waiter to ask you.... so.... All good. Done! And...their answer was: "No, we're good!"
What did I do: rolled my eyes at them right at this moment, didn't say anything and left! Voilaaa! I have turned into a French waiter stereotype! And I'm not ashamed of it! Because: they were directly messing with my sales - we have personal sales targets on every shift and they were f***ing with that. The table they kept occupied could have made me like 100 eur easy sales if it was taken by someone who were there to eat and drink and have a good time, not those cheap-asses. And, without even thinking about it, I acted as if they should know it! As I was walking away from them, I realized what I had just pulled off... & smiled a little.

And...all this got me thinking if the French restaurant business has gotten to me or not really and I needed to look into the topic about French waiters being arrogant and rude...because, almost noone has been like that directly to me. ...Well, I just needed to find out what that was all about.

II   Did my research and decided that this post was not worth posting.

III   Gave this some more thought and reconsidered the posting - all my sources were american and this is not the same to my cultural background and why  it is even worth posting. Cultural differences between French, USA and Estonia are enormous and somewhat the same. It's just the circumstances that dictate the act, right! I know I am right.

IV So, are the French waiters rude or is that you? (As how many of those research results were titled).
Well. It all comes down to one thing....two things and the first one has something to do with the culture and language. As I have already told you, the French language is very polite language (wild guess - among other things, is this a reason why this is one of the political languages in the world?). For them it is the matter of respect that you said hello to them....while entering a bus, in the post office, in the tabac...and restaurants of course! American approach is "let's get down to business" and therefore there are many articles about French vs American and how they should act in the restaurants. Works both ways, American believe French to be rude if they put on their rude act what they think the customer deserves by simply not saying "Bonjour!" when entering. And french, when going to a American one, they think of them as unpolite if they do not receive any superficial politeness from their waiters and they "go straight to business" or "What can I get you?".

The second thing is the circumstances - as you might know (!), both are countries with more than 1,34 million citizens. Which basically means that there are more people there to feed and give drinks to for money! So, when not buying, then you're no longer an "asset" to hold on to. Simple as that.

What comes to my confusion on this matter is the last thing, my cultural background is mixed with simple people, some are naturally polite and some are not so polite, I think I can not afford to describe the whole nation as polite or not so polite. I mean that I am proud of my nation and my heritage, but to be honest, where I come from, a lot of as*ho*es come from the same place. Sure, there are many in any nation, but it might have something to do with the smallness of Estonia that those stand out better....or who knows... Anyway. Since EST is tiny and there are many restaurants there, there are certain amount of people treating their-selves daily with eating out, but mostly it is considered to be a special day if you went out to eat. Sooooo, that makes the demand! And demand makes the rules! Due to that, in EST, even if you are not spending right now, but you spent some before (doesn't even need to be much), then you can drink your cold coffee and sit there with your friend for another hour or two... No-one comes nervously to your table to make you leave...it's rather to give other people an impression that the place is full and popular and makes other people to come in too...

Get it? That's the difference! :)