Nodding and Shaking Heads

Have you ever been puzzled by the answers people give by nodding and shaking of heads?

This seems to be a common practice in this country where I live, especially at crowded eating places. What I am talking here is the answers I get from people when I ask the following questions:

Is this seat taken?
May I sit here?

The strange thing about nodding and shaking heads to answer questions while people are in their midst of eating is that the answers are often inaccurate and frequently the opposite of what they intended the answers to be.

When I ask, "Is this seat taken?", I often get a response by people shaking their heads, which to me means 'no, the seat is not taken,' but they mean to say 'yes' the seat has been taken.

When I ask, "May I sit here?", I get a response by people nodding their heads, which to me means 'yes, you can sit here,' but they mean to say 'no, the seat is taken.'

When I ask, "Is this seat taken?" and they nod their heads, I sometimes have to ask again to make sure the seat is taken because often they mean the opposite, as in "Sure, go ahead and sit".

When I ask, "May I sit here?" and they shake their heads, I often have to ask again, because they may mean, "No, nobody is sitting here".

With these kinds of responses frequently taking place, I am often led and misled in getting a seat, and walking around to find a seat to sit down and eat is no easy task, especially when you are eating alone.

The puzzling and confusing gestures people make in answering questions are often unreliable, and if I am asked the same questions and I do not wish to open my mouth to answer, I choose to do none of the abovementioned gesture, but simply use my hands to motion a welcome to tell the asking party, "You're welcome to sit here."

For a study on this subject, please read article, Nodding Or Shaking Your Head May Influence Your Thoughts, by Ohio State University (OSU) Research News.

Toilet Education

Squatting on Toilet Seats

An educational piece of art dedicated to people in Singapore ...
With compliments from the ... National Environment Agency (NEA)

Uniquely Singapore

When you see a caucasian rush into a MRT train just to 'fight' for a seat, you'll know he has stayed in Singapore for too long! This is the way Singapore teaches culture to foreigners!

As I attempt to tie-up my umbrella before getting off the MRT train, I accidentally let the umbrella drip some drops of water on the lady sitting at my left. Her face expressed great annoyance, but she failed to realise that throughout the journey, I have expressed irritation, because she has placed her umbrella on her right, wetting the left side of my pants.

A small build man in his thirties crosses his leg and occupies three seats on the MRT train. To his left, he puts his personal things, and on the right, he lets his leg cross boundaries, as he reads a tabloid sized newspaper. The small man hangs his umbrella at the metal pole in front of him, where he allows the rain water to drip a the train floor. When I take the seat on his right, he remains oblivious and continues to put his leg across. When a big guy stares at him and the seat of the small guy's left, the small guy gives up the left seat and let his leg down. When the crowd starts building up in the cabin, many people has to avoid the umbrella hanging at the pole because of the wet floor, and that is despite the scarcity of space.

This is Singapore, the place where graciousness is built on putting ourselves first before others.