Welcome to the Campaign To Restore “You’re Welcome” To Ordinary Conversation (CTRYWTOC).
Yesterday at the bank, I overheard a teller and customer say “Thank you” to each other twice each. The teller started to say “Thank you” a third time, then realised how stupid it would sound and kind of petered out.
Our entire society has forgotten that the correct response to “Thank you” is “You’re welcome”. Think of the benefit. If you do something for me, and I say “Thank you” and you respond, “You’re welcome”, then we’re done! We have no conversation termination ambiguity.
What if you decide to respond “(No,) thank you“? Not only are we stuck in an endless gratitude loop, you are doing yourself a disservice – you imply that whatever you did for me is in fact worthless, no thanks needed. On top of it, you confuse me as to what really happen.
So do your part – the next time someone says “Thank you” to you, respond with “You’re welcome”. Do this as often as necessary to make it second nature. You’ll be making the world a better place.
Thank you. ;^) My personal pet peeve while living in NZ was the common use of the word “ta” to indicate both “Thank you” and “You’re welcome”. Kind of like “Aloha” but annoying.
This has been bugging me like crazy lately. Funny thing: recently saw someone being interviewed on one of the 24/7 news networks reply, to the interviewer’s thanks, with a simple “You’re welcome.” The interviewer looked completely non-plussed, so accustomed was s/he to the thank you loop. Ha!
Radio interviews drove me to it – “Congressman, thank you for speaking with us today.” “Thank you, Terry.” “Thank you, Congressman.” And these are presumably pretty well educated grownups!
Argh.
Patricia #2 has joined the Campaign, and adds her own excellent comments about “That’s OK” as a response to “Thank you”.