Saturday, November 20, 2004

Give me 2 seconds!

When I moved to the USA, I always think this is a very strange custom. What is this? People say " give me xxx seconds!! " " give me xxx minutes!! ". This is so weird for me because normally ok.. for example, if people said "give me 5 minutes", but nothing happens after 5 minutes. Today I in CPK this happened again.


Next to us, one lady ordered salad. I think a waitress brought wrong one. I mean salad is ok. However she forgot to add chicken on the top of the salad. She apologized to this lady and told her "Give me 2 seconds. I will bring a new one."

2 seconds?? I was watching them how the lady reacted. But she said "It's ok. Don't worry about that." Then after a while, when this waitress went thru their table, she apologized again and told her " Are you sure about your order? Give me 2 seconds. I can bring new one quickly". But she still accepted her current order... So it settled I guess. The waitress didn't apologize again. Actually that's making me discouraged. 2 seconds! you know? She said 2 seconds! After we walked 3~4steps, it's already 2 seconds. So how can she bring new one within 2 seconds?? As I said in my prior entry, I am twisted personality. So if I heard 2 seconds, I will say "ok... I want new one. Please bring me that within 2 seconds as you said". I expected she will say that kind of answer on the sly... Damn!! She accepted... It's not fun...

I think this kind of answer is publicly accepted lie in the US society. She didn't mean she can bring new one within 2 seconds. She means she can bring new one very quickly like w/i 2 seconds. If I dig into this matter, I think this lie came from a competing society. People have to appeal themselves and give other people an impression. So I guess that's why people do. But 2 seconds. She said 2 seconds intentionally...Then if the other party believed what she said and the person expected she bring new one within 2 seconds, I think this is a fraud. I think she should say "Give me 2 minutes." instead... It sounds more reasonable time for me.

I can't do the same thing like her... I know it's important to appeal... But this is still a lie for me. I prefer trust more than lie. If you weigh Lie against Trust, Trust is heavier than Lie. So how will I do? For example, if somebody request some work and I can expect to finish it within 10 min., I will tell this person " ok. Give me 15 min.". not 10 min. I usually add 5 more min. because somthing unexpected might happen within those 10 min. So just in case, I need to count extra 5 min. for that. If people thought " 15 min.??? take a while to finish it... ". Sorry that's how it is because I gave people exactly how many min. I need. Also this way it will make people happier. Why? If people expected 15 min. after I said and I gave this work to people between 10 min. and 15 min., they are happy, right? because they got one earlier.. I think earlier is better than later. So that's how I do. If people asked me, I will not give them unusual time. I will give them more reasonable and trustable time instead.

Just such a strange custom...