hey everybody welcome to this a2 english listening practice video you can use this video to practice your listening and comprehension as i speak before we start remember to subscribe to the channel click on the bell and follow us on instagram you ready so today i'm gonna talk about manners what are manners the word manners refers to the way people behave in social situations so i'm going to talk about good manners and bad manners in the us and compare it to other countries specifically we're gonna focus on dining etiquette the word etiquette is another word for
manners dining etiquette is fun to talk about because there are many differences throughout the world when it comes to this topic in the u.s for example it's not polite to make a lot of noise while you're eating it's not polite to chew your food loudly or with your mouth open and it's not polite to sip your drink or soup loudly the word sip refers to the act of drinking or consuming something like this and if you sip something loudly we say that you're slurping to be honest this is pretty hard for me to avoid when
i eat soup i always slurp it my wife always lectures me about this and tells me not to do it especially when we're in public however in places like japan sipping or even slurping your food loudly is not considered rude in fact it's considered rude if you don't slurp your soup if you eat ramen in japan you're supposed to eat it like this so my bad habit wouldn't be a problem in japan interesting huh here's another similar example in the u.s it's considered very rude to burp in public burping is the sound you make with
your throat after you eat or drink something like soda so in america you definitely won't hear people burping in restaurants however in many places in china burping after you eat your meal isn't rude it can actually be a compliment to the chef it tells the chef that you liked the food i think this is a pretty interesting difference between manners in the us and china something else that's considered good etiquette in the u.s is to politely refuse when someone offers you food if someone offers you food in a situation where you didn't plan to eat
together it's polite to refuse at least the first offer for example let's say you're at someone's house and you're not good friends with them and they offer to make you some food you can say something like oh that's okay you don't have to do that then the person often offers again and then maybe you accept the second offer or maybe you don't it's not rude to refuse offers for food i do this a lot even if i do want the food this is seen as polite in the u.s because you don't want to inconvenience other
people however in mexico and in many latin american countries you're supposed to eat the food that you're offered it can be considered rude if you don't eat what's offered to you this is definitely a cultural difference another interesting thing about mexican dining etiquette is the way that people sometimes say no thank you for example if you're at the dinner table and someone offers to give you more bread or something it's common to do this people might do this while saying no thank you or if their mouth is full of food they might just put their
hand up like this without saying anything however in the us and in many other countries it would be rude to do this to someone that's another big difference okay one last example of good dining etiquette in america is keeping your elbows off the table when you're eating you're not supposed to put your elbows on the table like this that being said i think that putting your elbows on the table has become more acceptable in recent years nowadays many parents don't lecture their children for putting their elbows on the table it's seen as normal now alright
now i'm going to ask you some questions about today's video to see how well you understood number one what's another word for manners number two in which country is slurping your soup acceptable and number three in which country or region is it considered rude to refuse food okay remember to subscribe to the channel click on the bell and follow us on instagram for more english tips and lessons i'll see you next time you
