How to be polite in America

Every country comes with rules about how that culture conveys politeness. In America, politeness can be shown in many ways, including the type of vocabulary used, body language, and certain gestures. So, here is an overview of how to be polite in America.
The importance of being polite in American culture
Politeness is woven into the traditions and customs of every culture in the world. So, if you’re travelling there or moving to another country, it’s important to understand how that culture understands politeness in order to lessen the chance of misunderstandings and causing offense. Following that same concept, politeness is an integral part of American culture. We put a heavy weight on first impressions and how we view someone later on if the first impression doesn’t go so well. Furthermore, politeness is an important form of daily communication, whether that be at work, at the doctor’s office, or even walking down the street. How suitably polite you are heavily influences your job prospects, your ability to make friends, and how comfortable you’ll be while in America when interacting with others.5 Ways to Convey Politeness in America
1. Use adverbs
When I taught English to Germans, one of the first concepts that I conveyed if they were focused on learning American English is the use of adverbs. Adverbs are descriptive words that add strength to or lessen the strength of another word. For example: His room was extremely dirty. Here “extremely” is the adverb. It emphasises that it’s not just dirty, it’s “extremely” dirty. vs. That photo needs a slight touch up. Here the adverb is “slight”. It emphasises that the photo doesn’t need so much touching up, but just a “slight” amount. So, you can combine this concept when speaking or writing American English to convey politeness. Here’s a concrete example: Without adverb: This document needs improvements. It’s terrible and you need to fix it. vs. With adverbs: This document isn’t quite correct. It needs a bit of fixing and that will improve it. Here you’ll notice the adverbs “quite” and “a bit” are used to make the sentence come as much more polite in comparison to the second one. Learning this concept is an absolute must for anyone who plans to study or work in America, because Americans do not respond well to straightforwardness.2. Use the conditional tense
Another way to convey politeness in American English (or really English in any country) is to use the conditional tense. In a traditional sense, the conditional tense is used to talk about imaginary situations, such as “If it was raining, I would use an umbrella” (here “would” is the conditional verb). It suggests that it’s not raining at the moment, and what respective action you would take if it were. This concept can be applied to politeness in a similar manner. For example: I need your help now. vs. If you could help me with this, I would be very grateful. Or even better would be to phrase it as a question: Could you please help me with this? I would be very grateful. With sentences and questions that use the conditional tenses, you can easily convey politeness that is sure to get a much better response from others.3. Greet with a hug or a handshake, not a kiss
The same as with other cultures, greetings can also be used to convey politeness in America. The important thing to remember here is which gestures are appropriate. Most often greetings involve a hug or handshake, so I’ve outlined some example situations to clarify: When to hug:- When you’re a guest at someone’s home
- Meeting friends for dinner or another informal activity
- Meeting colleagues (that you know) outside of work and sometimes even at work
- Job interviews
- Meetings with supervisors
- Formal appointments (such as with a doctor, professor, lawyer, or executive)
- When greeting a stranger outside of home in public