People from different parts of the world have various behaviors. It should be noted that even people who belong to the same cultural group might exhibit different behavioral traits depending on their work. As a matter of fact, it is not obvious that when a person is at a given place, he or she will behave as expected.
More often than not, people depict unexpected characters when they are in a certain place. It is supposed, for example, that when people are in a given restaurant, they will go there to eat. However, that is far from the truth. If one listens to the conversation that people have while in a restaurant, then the reality of what really happens will be brought to the surface. In this regard, I conducted an observation survey in a restaurant and documented what I saw.
It was on a Thursday during lunch hour and at that time it was expected that people would be rushing to have their lunch and make it back to their offices. Moreover, it was drizzling outside as such most people were rushing into various restaurants to avoid being wet. The restaurant I chose is situated at the center of the town, a place that is surrounded by many offices.
Being at this strategic place, the restaurant usually receives a lot of people during lunch hour. This reason, the unwelcoming weather conditions outside ensured that many people came to the restaurant that particular day. Consequently, I was assured of variety of people to choose from for my observation.
The restaurant is a high end place designed to take into consideration the needs of the working class people who usually visit it. It prepares high quality foods hence the aroma in the restaurant is very inviting.
However, being located in the middle of working class people, the restaurant is relatively expensive. On the same note, the tone of service in the restaurant was formal given the fact that most of the people came from the nearby offices. Services were also quick, which really impressed me. It took roughly three minutes for a person to get his or her meal ready after ordering.
People came in groups, which I assumed had been composed of workmates from the way they were talking, mostly about how a certain duty should have been executed. Additionally, most people were dressed in official clothes and looked well mannered. While taking their meals, most of the people were careful and ate systematically.
The conversations revolved around issues to do with work and work environment. Nonetheless, in very few cases, people talked about their personal issues. It is important to note that there were few people who came in twos and they seemed to delve much into their personal issues. Nonetheless, most of these people seemed to be working in the nearby offices judging from their dressing and code of conduct.
There was this one couple, which seemed to be slightly different. The man was in casual wear while the lady was in official attire. According to my judgment, one of them, the man to be exact, could not be from the nearby offices.
Moreover, the two seemed to be cautious on their talk and they looked around from time to time in what seemed to me as ensuring that nobody was peering into their conversation. Given the fact that they were to my right, I decided to listen to what they were talking because I could do so without arousing their attention.
Their facial expressions indicated that they were not very happy people. However, from the conversation, I was able to determine that they were in a relationship. They were talking mostly without direct eye contact, which is a sign that is usually associated with a disagreement. The voice of the conversation was low and one could not be able to get every word of their conversation clearly. Nevertheless, in certain instances, they could raise their voices at each other to enable a nearby person to get what they were saying.
They had a disagreement concerning the conduct of the lady while being at work. The man was complaining that most of the times when he called the work place of the lady, she avoided lovely words that she was never afraid of using even in public. This and other behavioral changes had raised concern to the man and he was demanding for explanation. Their tone was variant, sometimes low and soft while other times, it was harsh. Body language was also suggesting that they were having an argument.
There were instances where the man was vigorously shaking his head in disagreement. These were also the same periods of time when he spoke in a relatively loud voice and harsh tone. On the part of the lady, she was mostly calm with minimal body movements suggesting that she was explaining something.
There was only one instance when she stood up and threatened to walk out depicting that she was fed up with the direction of their argument. From the minimal part of the conversation that I managed to overhear, the lady kept on repeating the same explanation again and again. She was explaining that she was not cheating on the man.
From the beginning, I had become angry with the way the man was not giving the lady time to explain her side of the story. He kept on insisting that something was going wrong and did not listen to what the lady tried to say. However, after getting the story of how the lady had changed since she got employed, I started to understand why the man could get angry. That reminded me of my ex-girlfriend whom I had disagreed regarding the issue of not picking my calls.
My girlfriend was never apologetic because she thought it was her right to accept or decline my calls. However, their case was different from my situation. In the end, they reached an agreement and walked out of the restaurant holding each other’s hand. For my case, we had to break up. The end of their argument made me feel some sense of satisfaction because the lady was able to carry the day.
It is expected that people will go into a restaurant because they want to eat. Notably, most people will not want to discuss personal issues during lunch hour break. Nonetheless, as it is depicted from the above observation, people do not just go to lunch and eat silently. Much is discussed over lunch. People may want to talk about their issues at work and discuss what annoys them about their work and what exhilarates them. Moreover, there are those who may wish to solve their personal issues.