I had an unpleasant dinning encounter this evening at Thomson
Plaza Kopitiam foodcourt which I see the need to raise this matter
on forum page, hoping that the experience can be used as examples
of social grace and courtesy that teenagers and public need to
observe.
The 4-persons table and 2-persons table adjacent to it were
empty when I arrived at the foodcourt to have dinner with my mother
and daughter. Both my mother
and daughter sat at the empty 4-persons table first while
I went to top up my value card. I came back shortly but
was caught by surprise by a teenager (boy about 14-17 years old, in
dark blue colour school polo-tee) who just arrived and sat at the
empty 2-persons table, with his dish of food, staring at my
mother rudely.
I asked my mother what had happened and was shocked to know
that the teenager chased away my mother and my
daughter rudely by raising his voice at them, citing
that the seats were all taken. I was definitely
not happy about his unreasonable act as the 2 tables
were empty in the first place when I arrived with my
family. I approached the teenager and told him
that tables were empty in the first place and that they are
not for reservations.
He, however, gave me an arrogant stare and told me off
rudely that the seats were already taken and that I should not
talk about it anymore. His elder brother (in
polo shirt with a school logo SRJC)arrived then and told
me off that the seats were taken and just placed his dish of
food on the table too. The arrogant teeanager had the cheek
to advise the elder brother not to talk to me anymore and tried to
shame me by telling his brother loudly that I might get people
to beat them up. Concurrently, this teanager's younger
sister (in red dress, about 6-8 years old) walked to the empty
4-persons table and said rudely "Shoo!" to my
daughter who is still sitting on the chair.
I am very taken aback by the teanagers' arrogance, rudeness, and
lack of social grace and the bad example they had
set. I decided to change to another table
first while awaiting to see if the teeanagers were with their
parents. After their parents arrived and sat
down, the teeanager who first chased away my mother and daughter,
stared at me from his table and gave me a deliberate winning grin
with his fingers pushing up his mouth
end-to-end. How absurd can this teenager
be? Why are teeanagers so rude and
insensitive these days?
I decided I should talk to one of their parents after their
dinner as I am concerned that their parents may not be aware what
had actually happen. When they had finished their
dinner and on their way out of foodcourt, I
quickly caught up with them. The elder
brother saw me walking towards his mother and had
deliberately blocked me by walking in between me and his
mother. I stretched out my hand to tap his
mother's shoulder, addressing her 'Madam'. The
mother turned around and I asked her politely if I can have a word
with her.
The arrogant teeanager (the boy who first chased us
away) hurried in front of his mother, and challenged at me
loudly (and accusing me) that "....if I want to quarrel with his
mum, I have to go through him first!" I turned to
his father and said to him that I need to talk to either him or his
madam, of which his father then asked the kids to proceed to buy
bread. The two boys followed but the girl clinged on
the mother, not wanting to allow her mother to stay back to talk to
me. Fortunately, the mother was kind enough
to stay and talk to me and asked her daughter to follow her father
first.
Though it was a good chat I had with the mother and the
conversation ended amicably, I hope that such incident will
not happen on others in the foodcourt again. As long as
the tables and chairs are empty in the first place when customers /
patrons arrive, they can have the seats first.
The "bully" tactic on old people and children or anyone, to
get the seats that one wants cannot be condone. I
hope the above real experience I had can be of help to educate
teeanagers to exercise more control and politeness in their
behaviour.
Who was the one that wrote this story?
