If I ask you how often do you smile, or do you smile to strangers? Well to be honest I also sometimes have problems deciding whether to smile or not to smile when passing someone on the hallway. Ya tough, and rough.
If I were to give a blatant difference that I saw in the culture between the Malaysian and the Irish, one of them would be in 'greeting people'. Somehow the Irish are by and large very approachable and friendly when it comes to dealing with strangers [I might have made an over-generalization here, I hope not]. So fellow Malaysians, let's work on this!
As far as the 3 years that I've been living here in Ireland I've been exchanging countless hellos and his with old Irish chaps or young Irish damsels that I bumped into. Good afternoons that I often came across between the pages of my English textbooks, which were only used when addressing an English teacher as she entered the class are now uttered readily in the community that I sometimes startled to respond :P. Anyhow 'good afternoon' is not my main concern here though but rather the essence of it i.e. creating good relationships with the people around us.
Having said that, oddly these days I noticed that the 'friendly' Irish that I used to meet up with have lessened in number for unknown reasons. Sometimes even my acquaintance just hesitates to throw in a cheap smile yet pretends busy doing something or staring at something else whenever we chance on. Where's the affable Irish that I used to know? This seriously got me puzzled 'cause I know it isn't their real attitude to behave in such a way [or have I been disguised? Lol :P] I'm not complaining though as I know that different people have different 'threshold' of smile. Different parameters. I presume that must be a symptom of the summer syndrome probably ;)
To contemplate, how we look and how we react more or less depict who we are. I believe that the part and parcel of making ourselves seem cordial to everyone is to begin anything with a simple SMILE :). Modest and honest smile will do, no need that superfluous or feigned smile till people start thinking, there's something fishy with this girl/guy! Lol I know you know my context here.
Anyhow to highlight the importance of smile even in Islam the famous quote of "Smile is sadaqah [charitable act]" has been through the ears of all Muslims at least once I must say.
So let's together all of us, brothers and sisters in Islam especially let's together spread our smiles to the whole wide world- as smile confuses an approaching frown, smile is the universal welcome and more importantly smile is charity.
If I were to give a blatant difference that I saw in the culture between the Malaysian and the Irish, one of them would be in 'greeting people'. Somehow the Irish are by and large very approachable and friendly when it comes to dealing with strangers [I might have made an over-generalization here, I hope not]. So fellow Malaysians, let's work on this!
As far as the 3 years that I've been living here in Ireland I've been exchanging countless hellos and his with old Irish chaps or young Irish damsels that I bumped into. Good afternoons that I often came across between the pages of my English textbooks, which were only used when addressing an English teacher as she entered the class are now uttered readily in the community that I sometimes startled to respond :P. Anyhow 'good afternoon' is not my main concern here though but rather the essence of it i.e. creating good relationships with the people around us.
Having said that, oddly these days I noticed that the 'friendly' Irish that I used to meet up with have lessened in number for unknown reasons. Sometimes even my acquaintance just hesitates to throw in a cheap smile yet pretends busy doing something or staring at something else whenever we chance on. Where's the affable Irish that I used to know? This seriously got me puzzled 'cause I know it isn't their real attitude to behave in such a way [or have I been disguised? Lol :P] I'm not complaining though as I know that different people have different 'threshold' of smile. Different parameters. I presume that must be a symptom of the summer syndrome probably ;)
To contemplate, how we look and how we react more or less depict who we are. I believe that the part and parcel of making ourselves seem cordial to everyone is to begin anything with a simple SMILE :). Modest and honest smile will do, no need that superfluous or feigned smile till people start thinking, there's something fishy with this girl/guy! Lol I know you know my context here.
Anyhow to highlight the importance of smile even in Islam the famous quote of "Smile is sadaqah [charitable act]" has been through the ears of all Muslims at least once I must say.
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) has said: ‘Your smile for your brother is Sadaqah. Your removal of stones, thorns or bones from the paths of people is Sadaqah. Your guidance of a person who is lost is Sadaqah.’ (Bukhari)
So let's together all of us, brothers and sisters in Islam especially let's together spread our smiles to the whole wide world- as smile confuses an approaching frown, smile is the universal welcome and more importantly smile is charity.
Smiling is infectious
You can catch it like the flu
Someone smiled at me today
And I started smiling too
-Anonymous-
