The Golden Rule

New Reader's Digest poll points a finger at the rude people of the world. Western European cities fared well, although New York was deemed the most polite city.

According to a new Reader's Digest survey, of numerous major cities in the world, New Yorkers are the most curteous. Zurich, Switzerland came in second with Toronto, Canada and Berlin, Germany third and fourth respectively.

Londoners, the survey says, have now sunk to the level of Parisians in terms of politeness. And that's where I start to feel defensive. Having lived in my adopted homeland for a mere nine months, many will rightfully feel that I haven't spent enough time here to really know the French. That said, I'm pretty sure none of the survey takers spent as much time in any of their designated cities.

And here's where my soapbox starts: The French, in my experience, are not rude. They may tend to be slightly standoffish, but only when you compare them with overzealous, loud, obnoxious, and, did I say loud? Americans. Oh, and generally, those Americans - or Brits, Aussies, whatever - don't speak enough of their language to order a cup of coffee, myself included. What do the French do when encountering such a person? They switch to English. How rude!

But seriously, as a childhood friend once wrote about his mother: "I bes nice to her and she bes nice to me." Grammatical errors aside (we were in the first grade), he has a point. I haven't come across a rude French person because I go out of my way to be courteous, polite and friendly to them. Yes, I'm trying to compensate for not speaking their language, but I also do it because it is how I would hope to be treated had the situations been reversed.

So, the next time you're ranting about how rude a (insert ethnicity here) is, think about how you treated them.