oh wow, I can't imagine someone thinking that was a good thing to do.

Using a toothpick at the table is bad manners, so flossing is way, way over the top.

Thanks for the vivid pictorial of the food flying Kath! LOL

This post was edited by jasdip on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 7:25

I guess I might give this fellow a pass on tipping by giving him the benefit of the doubt that he is a poor student. However, the flossing at the table is unacceptable.
Management should step in, in a nice way and say that here in this country, we floss in private at the bathroom sink!
A positive teaching lesson.

Some foreigners just don't know about all our customs. My daughter teaches at a language school.

Most of her students are between 18 and 24, and most come from Saudi Arabia.

They hang out with young people, including blacks. It is very normal for them to hear the word n*gger.

One of my daughters boarders just got expelled for using the word n*gger. Of course, he didn't know, it wasn't a word he could use... but he had heard it all over the place from young black people.

There are lessons foreign students need to be taught.

Moni

Yea, I was sort of thinking like Moni, it's a culture thing. Especially the tipping portion. There is no tipping in China, Japan (it's actually an insult there, as well as mainland China, but moreso in Japan), or Korea... or many places. I'm not so certain the person was Chinese, and I'm covering the Asian bases.

This post was edited by rob333 on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 9:09

Moni ,I don't understand why a young black can use the word ngger and a foreigner can't .. The word means the same no matter who uses it. Double standard and encourages bad manners among the young black. If the media is going to crucify an old lady for using the word, they have a whole group of offenders to go after on the sirus comedy channel too.

Kath, that floss stuff at the table is gross.

Edit to say, gross.

This post was edited by amyfiddler on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 11:13

I don't think most of the Chinese students are poor. I picked up a few of them two years ago from the airport and took them to their apartments near campus. Their parents are paying a lot for them to go to school in a foreign country, pay for their apartments and food, etc....plus they are eating out at a sushi restaurant, which is expensive. One of the kids I picked up couldn't check into his apartment right away, it wasn't ready so we sat and waited with him for 2 or 3 hours to make sure he had a place to sleep that night. He pulled out his laptop and Ipad for my kids to play games on in the dayroom.

I used to work with someone who would stroll through the work area with one of those floss-on-a-stick things. No cultural issue there... Ugh!

Please, let me not get started on that inappropriate language/double standard thing. That's a whole other rant!

Believe me, I'm in total agreement that it was a gross thing to do.

But is this really the first time you've encountered this? It's everywhere these days. And you can't walk across a parking lot without seeing dozens of those little plastic floss things tossed around.

I was raised in a time when it was unacceptable to put on lipstick or fix your hair in public--today's lack of consideration for others astounds me sometimes.

One time I was at a table where we had corn on the cob for dinner. You know how that gets caught in your teeth and annoys you. One guy got some floss, started flossing at the table and his temporary cap went flying across the table! Talk about gross!

Last year I was in the teachers's lounge having lunch when one of the new teachers started flossing her teeth. I was sitting right across from her! I wish now that I would have said something to her.

DH flosses all over the house, it totally grosses me out. I will find used pieces of floss everywhere. He also brushes his teeth at the kitchen sink and then will put his used toothbrush in the dish container or leave it in the sink. He doesn't understand why this bugs me. Trust me, I've really tried to stop this habit, and I think it's getting better but not perfect.

Boy, if Robert tried something like that he'd hear from me loud and clear!

I read, "I was in the teachers's lounge having lunch" as heaving. I guess so!

Sleeperblues....how do you put up with that? Do you ever have guests??????

I am beginning to understand why most schools do not allow bake sales anymore...they have no idea what the kitchens are like where the baking is taking place.

Just YUCK....

Not something we find socially acceptable here, but if I'm not mistaken toothpicks on the table for use during (not just after) the meal are common in many parts of Asia. Someone mentioned tipping as being cultural, but food in one's teeth being removed is too :)

So, I wouldn't do it at the table myself, but I have a couple of places in my teeth that are just food magnets, enough so I'll only eat ribs and corn from the cob at home, but that doesn't help when it's cilantro or something wrecking my smiling dinner conversation. I carry the little dentist sized samples of floss in a pocket sometimes, & always in my purse, but I do excuse myself and leave the table :)

funny you should mention the n word with the big brouhaha with paula deen...