I have a lesson plan about the custom of tipping. I ask my students to tell me their experiences of paying tips in foreign countries.
One student told me today that he was in a luxury hotel in the U.K.. His room was on the fifth floor, so my student got into the elevator to go to his room.
“Which floor, Sir?” asked a uniformed elevator operator.
“Five,” said my student, and then he started to panic.
“Am I supposed to tip this person?” he wondered. “Or will he be terribly offended if I hand him some loose change?”
My student’s hand went into his pocket to fish out a few coins, and he glanced at the elevator operator’s face. The staff member was impassive and unreadable. The elevator doors opened.
“Fifth floor,” said the man.
My student slunk out of the lift without offering a tip, unsure if he had done the right thing.
“And what happened after that?” I asked him.
“Well, I got a lot of exercise,” he
said. “I had to walk up and down five
flights of stairs every day to avoid using the elevator again.”
Vocabulary:
to fish something out – to pull something
out after searching for it
[e.g., He fished a tissue out of his
pocket.]
to slink (out) – to walk (out) quietly, so
that you are not noticed
[e.g., The student tried to slink out of
the lecture hall without the lecturer noticing him.]
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