Saying Thanks

By Andress Hamenda
I found this story is interesting.I found this story at http://www.kangguru.org/kgredifferentponddifferentfish.htm written by Yanti.
However, as an Indonesian, I also find that people in my hometown say thanks frequently. That's why in my previous posting I wrote that even in Indonesia we do have different cultures. Furthermore, I have different story regarding saying thanks in Australian National University (ANU) with a lecturer which has different meaning in Academic life. I will post it later after my final exams. So just have a look this story first.

Track #15 – Asking for Help and Saying Thank You
The thing about Australia that surprised me, when I learned about it in CC study, is the way Australians ask for help. I thought before that Westerners were very informal in their manners and language, as I'd always seen in Hollywood movies. But I was wrong; I didn't realize that although they are very informal in daily speaking they have to use special words when asking for help. For example: ‘Would you please’, ‘Could you please’, ‘Would you mind’, and so on. The word ‘please’ is a very common word in asking for help, and if we don’t use it, Australians will think that we’re being very rude. And after we receive what we asked for, we must say ‘thank you’ or ‘thanks’. This is quite different in Indonesia, people do not say ‘thank you’ as often as Australians do. Moreover, Australians speak like this to all people, whether they are children or elderly people, a taxi driver or the prime minister.
(Yanti)