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Have you noticed that we don’t say, “you’re welcome” anymore? Go ahead, check it out. Next time you say “thank you” to someone, listen to his or her response. Listen to your own response when someone thanks you. I bet that it won’t be “you’re welcome”. What happened to “you’re welcome”? Why don’t we use it anymore? I like it. It is warm and civilized. It is humble, yet inviting. It is just plain appropriate. “You’re welcome” is like peanut butter and honey. It works. The thank you/you’re welcome exchange produces smiles, promotes peace, and maintains harmony.
So, what is used instead of “you’re welcome”? The three most comment responses I hear are, “no problem”, “no worries”, and the one I understand the least, “thank you”. The intention of using “no problem” is not good. It says, “It’s cool that you are thanking me, but don’t think anything of it, you don’t have to thank me, be gone, it was no problem”. But where’s the warmth and civility? How is it humble or inviting to make the person who just thanked you feel inferior? It’s inappropriate, does not produce smiles, promote peace, nor maintain harmony. Instead, it leaves you dumbfounded and thinking, “No problem? Who said it was supposed to be a problem?” It is like peanut butter and mayonnaise. It doesn’t work. I feel the same away about the “no worries” response, but it gets a pass because it came over from Australia so it’s still kind of hip to use it. The strangest one to me is the “Thank You” response. What? Thank someone for thanking you? Are you supposed to then thank him or her back? Then what? More thanking? This is not as condescending and evil as “no problem” and not as hip as “no worries”, but it can’t be the smile, peace, and harmony machine that “you’re welcome” is because it is confusing and causes people to focus too much on how to end a conversation.
So, it’s simple really. If you like to smile and are peaceful and harmonious, you’ll use “you’re welcome”. If you aspire to smile more and long to be peaceful and harmonious, you’ll use “you’re welcome”. If you like peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches, think it’s cool to speak Australian, or like to confuse people, you will use one of the unacceptable responses. Don’t do that!
Bring back “You’re Welcome” and help to make the world a better place.
Thank you!
November 13th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Boy I tell ya, nothing makes me giggle more than an American attempting to critique other people’s use of the English language, particularly when they are pointing the finger at Australians. Really? No, really? Have you watched American television lately, or talked to a teenage product of the American school system for that matter? You would be better giving up and declaring it to be a new “American” language instead of still trying to call it English.
November 21st, 2009 at 12:36 am
Kevin — Love it! I prefer You’re Welcome as well. I do, however, understand the “Thank YOU” reseponse. If I may? When I go out to lunch with a friend, and I pick up the tab, and she says, “Thank you for lunch.” I might say, “Thank YOU for joining me.” The “for joining me” might be left unsaid and therefore implied, leaving a simple, “Thank YOU.”
I do agree with you — that a far better response might be, “You are so welcome! I had a lovely time, and thank you for joining me.”
I love that you wrote this blog and brought it to my attention. Thank you, Kevin
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:35 am
Craig,
Great points on American’s usage and education of the English language. It sounds as if you took offense to my post. That’s cool, except that my intention was not to make fun of Australian’s English language skills as much as it was to make fun of American’s use of the term, “no worries”. Kind of like drinking Foster’s beer or eating at Outback steakhouse to feel more “Australian”. That was the point I was really intending to make, but did not make well enough. This whole post was more to my opinion on the response to “Thank you” and not about grammatical validity. “No problem” bugs me a little, “no worries” sounds odd to me coming from a non-Australian, as strange as that may seem, and I just happen to like the “you’re welcome” response for the reasons mentioned in the original post. I don’t mind offending someone if that was my intent, but that was not the case here. My apologies if I offended you.
Thank for reading and responding to the post.
Kevin.