[SLURP]
There's a subreddit dedicated to shower thoughts
and it's relatively interesting to have a
little read through and the basic idea is
you have random little thoughts when you're
in the shower because you're a bit more relaxed,
it's warm, it's wet and it's generally quite
soothing if you like being in the shower.
One of these shower thoughts for me was why
we say please and thank-you, and thank-you
made more sense as a word than please did
because it's an acknowledgement that someone
has done something for you so there's a reason
for saying it. Whereas please, seems to be
just a, kind of a polite habit that everyone
expects to hear, at least in England, so it's
kind of like, lost it's original meaning for
me I'm not sure how you'd describe it. So
I did a little bit of digging and I found
out that England and America use it in slightly
different ways. In England it is the way that
I've described it, it's something that we
say automatically when asking people for things
or a good example of kind of how it comes
out and how polite we are as a country, at
least surface level polite in some areas.
Namely, the south. OOOOOOOO. But that banters
a different topic, back on track we were talking
about that example. Is if somebody says, 'Oh
do you want, this', you'll go 'Ooo, please'
as a shortened version of you know, yes please.
That kind of thing. I'm horrible for remembering
to say please most of the time but I do always
remember to say thank-you because, I guess
it's sort of means more to me but anyway.
In America apparently please is mostly used
when there is a power imbalance such as asking
for something, well, from your boss or a superior
or when you clearly recognise that somebody
is more wealthy than you, more famous than
you, that sort of thing and this brought me
along to do a bit more research on to it and
I found a book by David Graeber called 'Debt:
The First 5,000 Years' than Brain Pickings
have wrote a lovely little article on. What
they said about the matter is that in English
the original meaning is, it's just a shortened
version of 'if you please' the way that we
use it. The actual definition of the word
please, is cause to feel happy and satisfied,
take ones own wishes into consideration in
deciding how to act or proceed and well, used
in polite requests or questions and this is
kind of interesting at least the first and
second one because it talks about happiness
and somebodies own interests. So when it's
used in a phrase of 'if you please' it's basically,
if you take yourself in consideration and
are happy with doing that. Like, I kinda had
come to the conclusion in my that it was just
a shorthand way of saying 'Could you hand
me that please, I respect you' but this brings
it into a better light and kind of formulates
the thought more and makes it make more sense.
Because it is basically acknowledging that
somebody doesn't have to do the thing for
you but they don't mind doing it for you and
it's a way of acknowledging that when you
ask for someone or request something. Doesn't
really explain the 'yes please' thing but
I think that's just y'know, the way that language
has filtered down. We've associated that with
a, polite sort of phrase when we're receiving
something from someone in the same way that
we say thank-you. But yea, in a sentence why
we use please is a way of acknowledging that
somebody isn't forced to do something for
you but they are willing to do it for you
and I would say that thank-you and please
are kind of important in modern society because
it is a form of politeness and it is a way
of showing respect to each other and respect
is very important when dealing with, other
sentient creatures y'know. I'd say it's more
egregious if you forget to say thank-you than
please but that's just me personally. And
let's politely promote myself! Thank-you very
much for watching and would you please subscribe
to my YouTube channel if you want to watch
more of my content. This month, videos are
gonna be more shower-thoughts style just because
of my schedule, more than anything else.
[BEATBOXING]
I can't beatbox.
