Forums

1. What do you think?
I agree that men and women are treated differently from the moment they are born. Basically, I reckon that every person is treated differently from the moment he or she is born. It has nothing to do with the gender. With the disparity in upbringing, it is not difficult to fathom that men and women have incompatible conversational styles. Much as I am surely not a male chauvinist and can be classified as a typical family man, I don't like being told what to do, especially by my wife. What it all boils down to is due respect to stand on one's dignity. That said, I agree that men should treat women gentlemanly.

2. Questions.
(a) You go to a restaurant with the sole purpose to taste its specific dish. Apart from that specific dish, you have ordered some other dishes. You have reminded the waiter several times but the specific dish still hasn't come. It is not until you have finished all the other dishes and have waited for half an hour more that the waiter comes and tells you that the dish has been sold out. What do you do?
- Simply cancel the order or make another order to replace it.
- Lodge a complaint to the person-in-charge notwithstanding you have accepted an apology.
- Insist that the specific dish must be served, otherwise you would not pay the bill.

(b) You are waiting to be seated at the entrance of a restaurant. Notwithstanding you have been waiting for an hour and should be the next to be seated, the usher has time and again curried favour with the restaurant's usual patrons by jumping your queue to give them seats. What do you do?
- Patiently keep waiting to be seated.
- Try to gently reason with the usher why the restaurant allows such malpractice.
- Bawl out the usher and ask for the person-in-charge to give you back your fair shake.

Hi ccschum,

Thanks for posting these questions to the noticboard. They are very interesting. I'm going to answer them:

a) I would definitely just cancel the order. I'm not too keen on arguing with people!
b) Maybe the second one, although I would never wait to be seated for a whole hour! - I might point out to the usher that it was my turn, but I would do it the first time someone pushed in. If the usher continued to do it then I would just find another restaurant.

What about you? What would you do in each situation?

Dear Lucy,

I'm very grateful to have your reply.

The two scenarios that I have quoted are commonplace in Hong Kong. When I happened to run into such situations, I used to take the second choice as I am quite a person having a strong sense of my rights and will not turn a blind eye to such unfairness. I must admit that I totally agree with the assessment in the Start section that I score 10 and am said to be not afraid to show my temper from time to time.

With best regards,
Henry Shum

Hi Henry,

I think it's great to have a strong sense of your rights and to stand up for yourself, especially if these sorts of situations are commonplace where you live.