Comment by noobermin

I have a SO in Singapore. Once we were at a (sort of chic actually) cafe and the cashier made eye contact without a smile and said, "ah what you want" and I was instinctively taken aback. It's amusing because I have since figured out that people in sg just act differently, I mean by that point me and her had been dating for years and I've learned that in general Asian cultures tend to be more reserved (in certain respects, they are less reserved in ways Americans aren't, my father in-law tells me straight up when he sees me that I've gotten fatter). That said, it felt odd to be in a situation here where in the US I usually have to shake off the constant pan-american smiles and chiming in to see how the food is etc, etc. I usually rather people back off a little or chill out at least and yet because it's so ingrained in my head that a situation where I actually got customer service that is brutally efficient, my first instinct is to think they didn't like me.