a new-found love

i have also started reading the op eds and letters to the editor in the daily universe. it can't get much better than this :)

Mind Your Manners

BYU students would be surprised to realize just how annoying they really are.

The well-mannered person attempts to make those around him or her as comfortable as possible in every situation. This extends to any occasion where two or more people occupy the same breathable air and/or are forced to see, hear, smell, feel, or (in rare occasions) taste one another.

Even if I never acknowledge a fellow classmate, I still enter into a social relationship with him or her and am responsible to uphold my end of the social bargain, which we have come to term “etiquette” — pulling our legs in underneath our bodies when we sit in a heavily trafficked hallway, attempting a second time to park between the lines, using words such as “excuse me,” “thank you” and, above all, “please.”

But I am not an altogether accepting and charitable person. I am annoyed to the point of silent screams by some of the most benign actions and events: Vacuum-sealed men’s jeans, faux-hawks, bare feet in class, flat-brimmed sideways hats, girls’ loud laughter, texting during lectures, unsolicited guitar players (especially when accompanied by singing), grading on attendance, phrases like “more simpler,” and peppering every sentence with “like.”

Yes, I am cantankerous, but my own social inadequacies aside, this school has a serious problem with etiquette. Please attempt to think of the others with whom you share this fine institution. If we were all to spend more time looking out for the comfort of others, we might just find a little more comfort for ourselves.

Author name withheld

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and here are the responses:

To the author of “Mind Your Manners” (Oct. 29), BYU is the last place lacking etiquette. I recently returned from the former Soviet Union, where common courtesy generally doesn’t exist — frowning faces, pushing and shoving on buses and constantly being cut in lines.

On BYU’s campus, I have been pleasantly surprised at students’ polite and open nature. I can count on hearing “Thank you” when I hold the door open, and I can count on others holding the door for me. Nowhere else can I make eye contact with a complete stranger and get a smile and a casual “Hi.” If I am bumped in the hall, an instant “Sorry” follows. Students are willing to share notes when I miss class or to study for exams together. BYU is full of people willing to help and make life more pleasant for others.

If someone has a problem with current fashion trends, that is his own problem, having nothing to do with etiquette. As far as things like texting, guitars or laughter go, this is a college campus — you’re going to have to live with it! Perhaps the author would find more “acceptable” peers in a rest home.

So, in defense of the BYU student body, I would like the author of “Manners” to point out a university where the students are more polite than here. As far as I am concerned, there is no greater place to study than BYU and no better student body to be a part of than ours.

Thank you, “Mr. Manners” for giving generalized opinions about the entire student body at BYU and giving us another example of how narrow-minded and biased these letters are.

Just because my friend Akira slurps his soup doesn’t mean he’s socially challenged; he’s showing his love for the food just as he does in hometown, Tokyo. Clearly the way my Australian professor adds funny phonetics to the English language is a social blunder. “Excuse me” never came out when I bumped you rushing out of class today — sorry, I had just heard my brother was in an accident.

I apologize on behalf of all BYU for dressing according to the Honor Code, but still somehow offending you. I’ll give you an extra pair of my tight jeans if it will make you feel comfortable. Don’t wear them with flannel though, you might have “Mr. Hipster Hater” from a couple weeks ago calling you a poser.

I love the cultural and social diversity here at campus. I learn a lot about everything in life from imperfect people who come from distinct backgrounds. So as long as everything is in harmony with the Honor Code and the gospel, let us be us. And quit wasting time trying to stop this — there are much better things to give opinions on, like how Englishmen are clearly manlier than Americans because they like getting hit without pads on.