Worldview and Service

As we rode the train through scenic Austrian countryside between Vienna and Venice we chatted with the fellow who had been seated with us in the train compartment. He was an English teacher from Columbus, Ohio currently serving in Romania and off on a touring trip to Vienna and Venice. He had much more experience in Europe than we have had, and through our conversations he helped to articulate some things that I hadn’t quite got a grip on.

One thing is the cultural attitudes toward service in the United States and Europe.

In the United States we harbour an expectation—and cultivate it in our workplaces—that people fulfilling a professional function do so with a readiness to serve. We also expect that service comes with a positive if not outright bubbly demeanour. (If you’re having trouble accepting this blanket statement, think about the last time you received a cool attitude from your waiter or waitress. Those around the table made comments, didn’t they? “She must be having a bad day.” “He must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” “I guess someone pissed in his cornflakes.”) We expect smiles and cheery service from those whom we are paying for their work.

Another way of putting it is that we live in “a tipping culture.”

This extends past professional settings, of course. We also prefer that when we meet people or interact with them on the street (even if they don’t know us yet) they will be pleasant, even smiling. If folks do not smile in casual encounters, we may wonder if something is wrong. We may feel slighted. We might make comments about urinating in breakfast cereals. We expect pleasantries to be offered, received, and reciprocated.

Not so in Western Europe.

Consummate with the fact that tipping is not regular course in Western Europe, there exists little readiness to serve with a cheerful demeanour. Even between those who do speak the same language (which we certainly do not), exchanges are rarely what we from the United States might call cordial. They are direct, efficient, and effective; but the expectation of friendliness seems to be something truly foreign here.

Perhaps we see it more because we’re generally in cities, where it has been long noted that casual cordiality is lacking in comparison to smaller communities. Perhaps we experience it more sharply because we are foreigners and therefore more sensitive to every nuance, especially the non-verbal nuances of communication. These may accentuate our experience, but they don’t explain away the differences. Italians even give their fellow Italians a cold shoulder as they pass the requested (and paid for) entrée over the counter. Germans and Austrians will be brusque with each other as they press to board a subway.

In the American idiom, Western Europeans are rude. At least that’s what we’d call it if a Western European was plunked down in, say, Western Colorado (or even L.A. for this matter) and sent to go about his business. We’d label him as rude. On the other hand, the Western Europeans would call us superficial: all that smiling and courtesy is certainly insincere in the majority of cases.

Whatever labels we might give the cultures on each side of The Pond, it gives me quite a cultural shock. It’s hard enough to try to navigate the metro, restaurants, and supermarkets of a foreign country when you don’t speak the language; add to the difficulty a culture that really sees no need to be of assistance to you and it makes for a rather daunting time. That’s not to point any fingers at the Western Europeans—I don’t know how an Austrian without a lick of English might experience the States. But the next time I meet one fumbling around in America perhaps I’ll have the grace to serve with good cheer.

By the way, I’ve tried to be explicit about Western Europe as opposed to Central Europe. My experience of Czech Republic and Poland was quite different. There, even when our language barrier and intricate needs (like buying train tickets for three complicated trips at once) frustrated communication, most folks seemed to be quite willing to help. Perhaps we were just blessed with a few gracious servant hearts. In any case, I for one will be glad to get back to Prague. At least there I know how to say Please and Thank you and can count to one hundred.

~emrys