GIVING TIPS

Hello again. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin.

It's Friday the 13th again, but we won't be speaking about bad luck today. Instead, we are going to finish our week of restaurant vocabulary by talking about the concept of tipping in different English-speaking cultures.

Today's word is: to tip (or to leave a tip (propina) for someone; to give a tip to someone)

It means: to give a small amount of money to someone for a service in addition to the money that you owe for that service

Example 1: You paid for the meal, so I'll leave the tip.

Example 2: David was very surprised when the taxi driver told him that he hadn't given a big enough tip.

Example 1 demonstrates an important cultural difference between North America and Europe. In North American restaurants, customers are expected to leave a tip (propina) of between 15% and 28% of the total bill. For other services, such as deliveries, taxis or hairdressers, you are expected to leave a nominal tip. This is because many service jobs are paid minimum wage, so workers depend on the tips to make a decent salary.

Europeans are often surprised and consider this amount to be excessive. They are even more surprised when a waiter or a taxi driver tells them that their tip wasn't big enough, which happened to me in New York once! In England, the tips that you leave are not usually as high (around 10% in a restaurant). You are not expected to leave a tip in a pub. Tipping is often a confusing affair and it can lead to many cultural misunderstandings. It's best to ask a native what is appropriate for the situation that you find yourself in.

We've only looked at a few basic phrases this week, but hopefully you found it helpful.

Have a good rest of the day and an excellent weekend! 

We'll be back on Monday with more lessons.