Random dictionary

[liv]

A total stranger just gave me a dictionary and thesaurus. I walked out of my front door to buy bread, when this guy I've never spoken to in my life, I'd guess about 50 with a broad Dundonian accent and not very many teeth, accosted me.

Random stranger: Excuse me, pal!
Me: Yes, what can I do for you?
RS: Wude ye like a dictionary?
Me: Um...
RS: Ye see, it's my mother's, and it's jus gettin damaged around the house.
Me: Er, well, if you're trying to get rid of it...
RS: It's jus that ye're studious, like.
[He pushes the Oxford Concise Dictionary and Oxford Thesaurus into my hands.]
Me: Ah, gosh, thank you very much, that's very kind of you, thank you.

(Excuse my poor attempt at a local accent.)

Did I mention I like living here?

Comments

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Are you in New York? New Yorkers are like this. I got given a free sample frozen pizza, included in a delivery of food from online supermarket, and I couldn't eat it, so I tried to find someone to give it away to, and I had to go all the way up to the seventh floor before anyone would accept it. It was just a freaking pizza.

[shreena.livejournal.com]

Awww. I think it's that people instinctively say "no" to strangers before they've even quite realised what they're saying. It's because 90% of the strangers who come up to you are either crazy or trying to sell you something and talking to them tends to encourage them.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

There's an advert here for Coke where a cheery woman walks along the street singing a song about how she loves to make people happy, and she pulls multiple bottles of Coke from her bag and hands them to strangers as she passes. The strangers accept with surprised, pleased looks.

That would SO never happen here.

[liv]

I think it's that people instinctively say "no" to strangers
This is a very good point, and I think it's a pity. It's a vicious circle because this expectation means that a lot of times, 'normal' people won't just greet strangers to be friendly. That's one of the things I really like about Dundee; on the whole, people tend to interact rather than avoid making eye contact, and lots of them are genuinely friendly.

I've been burnt once when a woman started making friendly conversation and was actually trying to distract me so she could nick my purse. I'm more annoyed by her giving me a reason to be less friendly than by the financial loss. In spite of her, though, I do tend to respond when people talk to me.

talking to them tends to encourage them
It does. But I'm a compulsive chatterbox; I mean, I attempt to have conversations with ATMs, so I'm a complete sucker for people talking to me. Unless I'm in a real hurry I'll be polite to crazies and sales people and evangelists and even beggars who actually engage me personally rather than just mechanically whining 'spare any change'.

I basically like people, and I count it a grave shame that I can't be as open with strangers as I'd like, because I'm potentially endangering my personal safety. I work on the basis that talking to someone in the middle of a crowded public place probably doesn't carry too big a risk.

[liv]

Also, when I was in Norwich, a woman came up behind me and tapped me on the head (!) and said, "I've never seen a girl wearing one of those before," (I was wearing my skullcap). And I turned round a bit surprised by this, and she was horribly embarrassed when she realized how 'rude' she was being. She said she was a market researcher by trade and had completely overcome her inhibitions about speaking to strangers. But she hadn't intended to make that comment out loud, at least not without introducing herself first!

Of course, she was a perfectly sweet woman and I'm rather pleased she talked to me than otherwise. I was only a little flummoxed because it's kind of difficult to explain the reasoning behind wearing a skullcap when you have no idea where the person is coming from.

[khalidz0r.livejournal.com]

Nah, I live in Saudi Arabia. But I think this attitude is normal; I wouldn't take food from someone I don't trust, it could be poisoned!

I don't know, I'm probably being a wuss, but yeah; I wouldn't take pizza from someone in the street either. :P

[liv]

I wouldn't take food from someone I don't trust, it could be poisoned!
I wouldn't take random food either, but mainly because I think it's likely not to be kosher, rather than because I think it would be poisoned. It's good to be cautious, but I just can't imagine anyone handing out poisoned food to total strangers. Most murders have some kind of plausible motive!

[liv]

That reminds me of purim, when we were trying to give sholoch mones to random strangers in the street. We had a heap of normal commercial chocolate (in sealed packets!) in case people thought hamentashen were too weird, and we were very drunk and in costume. We got more people hastily getting out of our way than people willing to help us eat our goodies. Silly people.