What politeness costs and gains
A very nice day to all of my new friends here.
To begin with my speech, I would like you to think about one question:
What does politeness cost and gain? I am going to set up a situation and
we will see how can politeness make a difference.
Imaging now you are rushing for a very important meeting. On the way,
you suddenly realize that you are actually sandwiched in a busy crowd. So
in this particular situation, you may just rudely push your way through
the people without noticing that you have already stamped on thousands of
shoes. All right, you got the place on time, but rudeness is probably the
only thing you have left to the others.
Supposing this time you just tenderly squeeze the way out, saying:
“Excuse me” to the people around. What kind of effect will it have?
Besides your punctual arrival, you have also left a good impression to the
people you do not even know.
It is just a simple phrase “excuse me” which has turned the whole event.
Now you see how powerful politeness is. It only costs us a “Please” to
gain a promise; It only costs us a “Hello” to gain joyful day; It only
costs us a “Thank you” to gain a reward. Polite costs nothing but gains
everything.
There seems to be only a narrow boundary in between politeness and
impoliteness. But what really count is to realize the significance of this
boundary.
We inherit the virtue of politeness from our ancestors and will add
glory to it. Just do it, do it often, for it will give the lightness to
our hearts and do wonders to our souls.
礼貌的花费与所得
首先，我很荣兴能够与在座的每一位分享这个美好的日子。
在我的演讲开始之前，请大家思考这样一个问题：礼貌需要花费我们什么，同时又能为我们得到什么？即将出现的将是一个小小的情况，那就让我们看看，礼貌将如何将一切变得焕然一新。
设想现在你正匆匆地赶往一个重要的会场，可在行程途中，你突然意识到自己不幸地被形形色色的人群所包围住了。在这样一个窘况下，你便极有可能鲁莽地推开他们，甚至没有留意到自己脚下所踏过的几千双皮鞋。大功告成了！你按时到达了会场，可是在他们眼中的你也许就是那个粗鲁的代名词。
这一次，你只是轻轻地挤开前面的道路，并不忘附带对身边的人说：“劳驾您了！”那我们又会有怎样的收效呢？你也许毫不费力地就按时到场，顺带给一些素昧平生的人留下了好印象。
不过一声简简单单的“劳驾”，便扭转了整个局面。礼貌的力量可见一斑。我们只需花费一个“请”便获得了一个承诺；只需花费一个“你好”便获得了爽朗的一天；只需花费一个“谢谢”便获得一个赏识。礼貌的花费微乎其微，但它的收益却不可斗量。
在礼貌与否之间似乎只存在一条小小的分界线，而我们真正需要做的是要懂得去发现这分界线的重要之处。
我们从祖先那里继承了礼貌——这个传统美德，并要将它发扬下去。所以放手去做吧，时时提醒自己去做吧，因为它会照亮我们的心灵，也会将奇迹带给我们的灵魂。