Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Why is "no problem" an acceptable replacement for "thank you"?
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March 4, 2011 at 12:17 am #719047
JoBParticipantMarch 4, 2011 at 12:28 am #719048
GinaParticipantdawsonct–I hope you never have the results from playing the showing up the silent cashier game that I experienced with a co-worker.
Co-worker was in the early months of pregnancy. She had to make frequent sudden dashes from her position. She would get very quiet before having to dash. The person that she was serving was telling her she wasn’t very chatty, trying to force a response from her. He lengthened the transaction long enough that the inevitable occurred before someone could relieve her. He went quietly away as the clean up was going on.
Sometimes quiet servants are a good thing.
March 4, 2011 at 12:33 am #719049
austinMemberAlways a new and absurd complaint on the west seattle blog forums.
March 4, 2011 at 12:34 am #719050
me on 28th Ave SWParticipantI have gone back and forth over this. The “no problem” response is what I commonly get from my own teenage daughter and yes, it has consistantly bothered me. I have explained my thinking on it to her, but still get “no problem”. But as you earlier posters pointed out, it is like “de nada”, which I do not have any issue with so now I think I can adapt to it a bit more. Perhaps it’s all those years of her taking French? More likely, all those years of ME saying “you’re welcome” in response to “thank you”.
March 4, 2011 at 12:41 am #719051
dawsonctParticipantGina, I don’t EVEN want to imagine that!
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My preferred reply to gracias is mi gusto!
But then, I LIKE people enthusiastically doing things for me. It doesn’t happen enough.
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We DO talk about a wide range of subjects here, don’t we Austin?
March 4, 2011 at 1:39 am #719052
MBParticipantHonestly, these days I’m just happy to get a response at all. I CAN’T STAND IT when I say thank you to someone (which i always do) and don’t even get a smile in return. I don’t know if it’s that people just don’t care enough to respond or if they are so used to not hearing a “thank you” that they actually don’t hear it…either way, it ticks me off. That’s usually when i say it again, louder and less politely. I didn’t miss that day in preschool, but apparently quite a few people did ;)
March 4, 2011 at 1:55 am #719053
charlabobParticipantAnd then there’s the ubiquitous “no worries” which seems to have replaced “no problem” in some cases. I can’t imagine what question I could possibly ask to which that would be an appropriate answer. :-)
March 4, 2011 at 3:06 am #719054
KenParticipantwelcome
O.E. wilcuma, exclamation of kindly greeting, from earlier wilcuma (n.) “welcome guest,” lit. “one whose coming is in accord with another’s will,” from willa “pleasure, desire, choice” (see will (v.)) + cuma “guest,” related to cuman (see come). Cf. O.H.G. willicomo, M.Du. wellecome. Meaning “entertainment or public reception as a greeting” is recorded from 1530. You’re welcome as a formulaic response to thank you is attested from 1907. Welcome mat first recorded 1951; welcome wagon is attested from 1961. The verb is O.E. wilcumian.
March 4, 2011 at 3:11 am #719055
ZenguyParticipantI guess it is no different than when you say God bless you,
March 4, 2011 at 3:18 am #719056
GenHillOneParticipantI’m guilty of all versions – but I say SOMETHING. “No worries” usually comes when someone is apologizing or thanking apologetically; it happens. Just for you, Zenguy, I will try to work the classic “no problemo” into my repertoire as well ;)
March 4, 2011 at 3:18 am #719057
maplesyrupParticipantI bet old farts in 1907 were complaining about people who said “you’re welcome.”
March 4, 2011 at 3:33 am #719058
ZenguyParticipantMaplesyrup, I am sure you are right. I use no worries, just not in replacemet for your welcome.
March 4, 2011 at 3:36 am #719059
dawsonctParticipantMarch 4, 2011 at 3:44 am #719060
GenHillOneParticipantThanks dawsonct, you’re right! I WAS trying to find the most annoying response, so maybe I should have said “no problemmmo with a wink and a point of the finger” to make the cheese-factor clear. :)
March 4, 2011 at 3:45 am #719061
dawsonctParticipantYo comprende!
March 4, 2011 at 3:51 am #719062
ZenguyParticipantDon’t forget the glasses.
March 4, 2011 at 4:07 am #719063March 4, 2011 at 5:13 am #719064
datamuseParticipant“No worries” is an Australian thing, apparently. At least, I picked it up from Australian friends.
While we’re on the subject, “Good-bye” is a shortening of “God be with you”. :D
March 4, 2011 at 6:04 am #719065
hopeyParticipantI always take “no problem” to mean “it wasn’t a problem for me to do the thing you just thanked me for,” in the same vein as “it was nothing.”
March 4, 2011 at 2:26 pm #719066
redblackParticipantdatamuse: and adios is from “go with god.” or at least it should be, instead of the literal translation, which is “to god” or “go to god.” which sounds like you want the listener to die.
maplesyrup: don’t make me snap my cane off in your keester!
i use “you’re welcome,” because it’s customary, polite, and shows me to be a person of quality to other persons of quality. and i take umbrage at your tone and insinuations, sir!
also, in accordance with my godless ways, if someone sneezes near me, and the right of first refusal is passed to me, i say, “gesundheit.” because it’s also customary.
hey, it’s better than “uff da.”
gdr
March 4, 2011 at 4:27 pm #719067
miwsParticipantWithout reading back through all of the replies, I don’t know if this has really been touched on, but I wonder if it has to to with tone of voice/inflection.
For example, the following scenario:
Just past 6:00 pm, on a Sunday, you go rushing to the store which you at earlier in the day, because you lost your wedding ring, and realize it must have ended up in the restroom trashcan as you dried your hands.
The employee that is locking the door on his way out, as you pull up is dressed in is best fanciest duds, because he’s going out on a first date with this really hot chick.
You frantically explain your situation, and the employee explains that, of course, yesterday’s many garbage filled bags are already in the dumpster. Not only that, there are two wheelbarrow fulls of chupacabra droppings, (unbagged) which another employee had scooped up from the parking lot earlier in the day, scattered across the top of them, and then today’s current many garbage filled bags on the very top.
The employee is about to ask if there’s any way you could come back after the store opens the next morning, then remembers that tomorrow is garbage pick-up day, and the truck comes long before even the earliest store employee arrives.
So, the employee smiles and sez; “Well, let’s just have a look!” He then proceeds to dig through today’s many garbage bags, the (unbagged) chupacabra droppings, until he reaches the many bags from yesterday.
After digging through bag after bag, he finally finds it in the second to last bag! (Who sez it’s always in the last possible place to look?)
So, here he is, 90 minutes later, all out of breath, he and his best fanciest duds coated with (unbagged) chupacabra droppings, and he hands the wedding ring to you, and you profusely and sincerely thank him, he smiles, (while imagining his really hot first date sitting there, in her best, fanciest duds, all P.O.’d, wondering why the hell he’s an hour late?!?!?!!1111), and sez in perhaps a bit of an exasperated tone; “No problem!“
Mike
March 4, 2011 at 8:06 pm #719068
DOCMemberYou’re welcome = No problem
It seems to me that by saying “you’re welcome”, it means the individual is “welcome” to bother you for the item/service at any time and you would have “no problem” in getting it/doing it for the individual.
Aside from a store, think of this in a home environment. A guest is welcome to your house, or you would have no problem hosting them at your abode. Either way, the meaning is essentially the same.
I feel that “you’re welcome” is simply the accepted norm, but the same analyization that was brought upon “no problem” was not wrought on “you’re welcome”
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