Rude or just normal?

Every culture has its own idiosyncrasies from the way people converse to the manner by which people communicate. During my two-week hiatus, one of the interesting events that I had attended was that of my former schoolmate who was to get married in a Cantonese/American style wedding in Hong Kong. The wedding was obviously beautiful, but I was struck at the unique way the Cantonese communicated and interacted. From the point of view of an outsider such as an American, the Cantonese may appear to be rude while talking, but in reality, this is the normal way of conversing with each other. While I clearly don’t understand their culture let alone language, I just found it equally amusing to see a commercial – a government sponsored one that encourages their people on how to be courteous and polite in certain situations such as how to best communicate to the driver when getting off a bus. Nevertheless, the city of Hong Kong is a great place for eating and of course, shopping. You get the best deals on clothes and restaurants are open until late at night! Hong Kong is really a great eating and shopping destination.