Things Melle Will Never Understand About Americans, #1:

[bubosquared]

Thank you notes. Wuh?

Comments

[absolutelyvile.livejournal.com]

I'm American and I don't understand them!

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

See, I thought it was perhaps because I've almost never had presents mailed to me, so I could thank people in person, but apparently, it's not just that.

This is why I shouldn't read Dear Abby.

[meacoustic.livejournal.com]

Don't read Dear Abby. It's EVIL.

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

It's ADDICTIVE! Argh. And often annoying, too. But mostly not that bad.

[armistice.livejournal.com]

I hate them! With such a passion. I mean, for graduation last year, right? You see these people, they give you the card/gift/whatever to put somewhere. You say thank you. Then you have to write them a note later, after you've opened it, to say thank you again. Foolishness!

[meacoustic.livejournal.com]

You said it. Foolishness foolishness!

[pelicanzed.livejournal.com]

We're supposed to write them over here too, even though if thank the person upon receiving the present over the phone that day.

[darksong.livejournal.com]

I understand them in some circumstances--I got a card and money from a woman who I honestly don't think I ever met (she's a friend of my mother's, and if I have met her, I was tiny tiny tiny at the time), and I wanted to thank her for thinking of me. Mostly, though, I don't want to do them (much to my mother's dismay) and I don't expect them.

I tend to think if I give someone a present, it's because I want to and I don't expect anything in return. If someone wants to write me a thank you note, then hey, that's fun. If they don't, I don't really care.

I appreciate some sort of acknowledgement--like an email that says "hey, the present came! thanks!" but I don't really want any long drawn out message about a gift, and I'm not going to write one, either.

[meacoustic.livejournal.com]

Most Americans don's understand them either. Unless you're my mother or one of her friends. They send freakin' thank-you's for everything. Of course, they also throw away perfectly good porn, so. That should tell you something.

Add me to the list

[coneyislandbaby]

Of people who don't understand them.

I mean, yes, I do think it's polite to let people know that stuff they sent you arrived (which I did by posting in my LJ not long ago to Sibyl, for example) but I don't get thank you notes.

Luckily my mum doesn't believe in them either - I think it's the procrastination trait we share.

[kkscatnip.livejournal.com]

it's an old-fashioned polite type thing.

my mom forces me to write them to my grandmother and aunts.

it's a bitch and a half. be glad you don't have to do them.