Dinner is ready

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Dinner is ready

Poll ended at Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:39 am

(A) I sit before "dinner is almost ready"
0
No votes
(A) I sit less than 15 seconds after "dinner is almost ready"
3
9%
(A) I sit more than 15 seconds after "dinner is almost ready"
1
3%
(A) I sit less than 15 seconds after "dinner is now ready"
7
21%
(A) I sit later than that
7
21%
(B) I should sit before "dinner is almost ready"
0
No votes
(B) I should sit less than 15 seconds after "dinner is almost ready"
2
6%
(B) I should sit more than 15 seconds after "dinner is almost ready"
4
12%
(B) I should sit less than 15 seconds after "dinner is now ready"
7
21%
(B) I should sit later than that
3
9%
 
Total votes: 34

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smallwhite
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Dinner is ready

Postby smallwhite » Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:39 am

I'm wondering whether there's any cultural difference. I'm referring to everyday home dinners:

A family member cooks dinner. She announces "dinner is almost ready" and "dinner is now ready" every time. (A) When do you go and sit at the dinner table? (B) When do you believe you're supposed to go and sit there?

Please tick 1 option for (A) and 1 for (B).

Thanks.
Last edited by smallwhite on Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:00 am

Where is the option: She/he says 'Dinner is ready', you fetch your food and then sit in front of your pc/tv :lol:
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby dampingwire » Fri Oct 12, 2018 7:54 pm

smallwhite wrote:I'm wondering whether there's any cultural difference. I'm referring to everyday home dinners:

A family member cooks dinner. She announces "dinner is almost ready" and "dinner is now ready" every time.


You started out well, carefully avoiding making a sexist assumption and then blew it with the pronoun :-)

The first time this scene plays out, you sit down when you hear "dinner's ready". You then use a machine learning algorithm to track how "dinner is actually ready" and the calling of "'Dinner's ready" match up and adjust accordingly. With a reasonably efficient algorithm you can probably fine tune your response in just a decade or so ...
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby smallwhite » Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:57 pm

dampingwire wrote:
smallwhite wrote:I'm wondering whether there's any cultural difference. I'm referring to everyday home dinners:

A family member cooks dinner. She announces "dinner is almost ready" and "dinner is now ready" every time.


You started out well, carefully avoiding making a sexist assumption and then blew it with the pronoun :-)

The "she" was the non-sexist pronoun that was in fashion before the "they". The "family member" bit was to clarify it wasn't a hired helper who was cooking. I did notice the "she" didn't serve its purpose in this case...
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby smallwhite » Sat Oct 13, 2018 12:14 am

In a Cantonese home dinner, all food is served upfront and you don't start eating until everyone is seated and you say enjoy your meal. For answer B "when should you sit", 26% people answered "more than 15 seconds after dinner is now ready". So 26% people are saying one should eat cold food and should make everyone else eat cold food? Either that or a poll like this can't work.
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby Adrianslont » Sat Oct 13, 2018 1:48 am

I say, “dinner is almost ready” and I expect/hope people will come to the table/kitchen and say, “Can I help with anything?” Or seeing a lack of cutlery or drinks will swing into action and put those on the table. If I have been organised enough to have the cutlery and drinks in the table, they can help carry plates or sit waiting. If they straggle in, I don’t mind but everyone else will have already started eating. And if they are really slow to the table, I get annoyed.

Edit: typos
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby Ani » Sat Oct 13, 2018 5:11 am

When I call "dinner is almost ready" I expect everyone to come into the kitchen and make sure everything is ready -- table properly set, condiments that are needed from the fridge are gotten out, water glasses are filled, etc. Sometimes I expect help with the meal like salad being made.

When I say "dinner is ready", I expect everyone to sit immediately. If someone has "one last thing" to do, I get pretty annoyed. We bring all the food to the table & serve from those dishes. Just because we're a little disorganized (imagine that with 5 kids), my husband or I will start filling kids plates immediately and when everyone is finally sitting, we pause, pray, and then the kids can start to eat. DH and I will finish serving the kids and then serve ourselves.

I think 15 seconds is pretty fast for some families. There are a lot of types of meals where the food will be fine in a minute or five after it is technically ready. Also, if family members are expected to fill their own plates from the kitchen, or if they don't have a tradition of waiting for others before starting to eat, I can pretty easily see how they'd say "more than 15 seconds after dinner is now ready".
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby smallwhite » Sat Oct 13, 2018 6:46 am

If the dinner procedure itself requires more than 15 seconds then fine, but if not, there was already an "almost ready" alert for you to start standing by so reacting within 15 seconds of "now ready" should not be a problem. That's partly what my 15 second options refer to - you're standing by.
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby Axon » Sat Oct 13, 2018 10:04 am

As Ani mentioned, lots of people I know just filled their own plates from the kitchen and ate on their own schedule. My parents grew up with family dinners and they do regret that it didn't really take hold when my sister and I were growing up.

When we did have occasions to have dinners together, there were still times when we'd wait for people to do one last thing but it wasn't particularly bothersome. However we'd generally be seated within 30 seconds of "dinner is almost ready."
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Re: Dinner is ready

Postby smallwhite » Sat Oct 13, 2018 10:50 am

Axon wrote:As Ani mentioned, lots of people I know just filled their own plates from the kitchen and ate on their own schedule.

In that case please don't tick anything for question B as it is inapplicable - there's no time one "should" sit.
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