Learning English

What would you like to order?

Imagine you are in a café. How would you:

• …ask for a menu?
• ...get the server's attention?
• …ask to borrow a pen?

Think about the questions and write them down.

Were your questions direct or indirect? That may depend on the situation. When we ask the server in a café to come to our table or to bring a menu, we would most likely ask direct questions, like these:

• Can I have a menu, please?
• Excuse me. Can we order, please?

This is because we expect the person who works in the café to do these things. We are not asking for a favour. However, we might ask to borrow a pen like this:

• Would you mind lending me a pen?

Here we are asking for something extra so an indirect question is better.

Notice the word ‘please’. It is a simple but very important word when we are asking for things! Customers and staff can forget to use it, especially when they are in a rush.

Now, read an article about a café in France that wants customers to be polite. Here are some questions that the reporter asked. Can you find the answers to them?

• Could you tell us how the idea started?
• Can you explain what message you are trying to send with these 'polite prices'?
• We wondered whether or not you knew how popular this sign has become online.

Read the text and try the activity

French cafe causes a stir by rewarding 'polite' clients

A French Riviera cafe has created a stir on social media by rewarding its customers for good manners.

At the Petite Syrah in Nice on the Cote d'Azur a cup of coffee becomes cheaper by adding a simple "Hello" and "please" when ordering.

A blackboard outside the cafe advertises "Un cafe" for seven euros (£5.90; $9.6) - but "Bonjour, un cafe, s'il vous plait" costs just 1.40 euros.

Owner Fabrice Pepino says it started as joke but his clients now smile more.

A picture of the menu tweeted by a local journalist has gone viral.

So far, the story on the Facebook page of Nice-Matin newspaper has received more than 60,000 "likes".

Former government minister Christine Boutin responded that it was an excellent idea, the local newspaper reports.

Mr Pepino and his wife Renee opened the restaurant three years ago.

"It started as a joke because at lunchtime people would come in very stressed and were sometimes rude to us when they ordered a coffee," Mr Pepino told the English-language website The Local.

"It's our way of saying 'keep calm and carry on'. I know people say that French service can be rude but it's also true that customers can be rude when they're busy," he said.

"We live in a funny old world," he told Nice-Matin.

"For three years we have put all our passion into what we do, which is trying to provide quality food, and good wines, and what causes a buzz? A few words scribbled on a blackboard."

Mr Pepino says he came across the idea while surfing the internet and liked it, and admits he nearly erased the sign a few months ago.

This article was orignally published on BBC News.

So did you find the answers to the questions? Here they are:

• Could you tell us how the idea started?

"It started as a joke because at lunchtime people would come in very stressed and were sometimes rude to us when they ordered a coffee."

• Can you explain what message you are trying to send with these 'polite prices'?

"It's our way of saying 'keep calm and carry on'. I know people say that French service can be rude but it's also true that customers can be rude when they're busy."

• We wondered whether or not you knew how popular this sign has become online.

"For three years we have put all our passion into what we do, which is trying to provide quality food, and good wines, and what causes a buzz? A few words scribbled on a blackboard."

To do

What did you learn about Mr Pepino and his café? Try our true or false quiz to find out.

Next

So being polite may save you some money on your coffee! Maybe this doesn't happen everywhere, but it is important to remember to be more polite and less rude.

Now it's over to you in the next activity! We want to hear about how people are polite and formal in your country. Would you mind letting us know? Thank you kindly.