Except from me and my mother and perhaps the queen at the Nobel dinner, nobody covers their mouth anymore when they yawn here in Sweden. I’m quite sure people used to do that when I grew up (I’m around forty years old), but these day everone - at any age, mind you - just gape like baboons at the office, on the train, in the elevator, and so on. Just the other day on the bus there was a middle class women to the left of me, who looked out the windows (to the right of me) and and the same time opened here mouth in a huge yawn like it was the most natural thing to do between two humans sitting very close to each other. Then she went back looking straight ahead again, like nothing. I’m not prudish, but I can’t get used to this new behaviour. Do you have the same problem in America and other parts of the Western world?
Here in the UK, most people that I’ve noticed yawning cover their mouths; basic politeness.
This thread made me yawn. Apparently they can be contagious even through the Internet.
People around here generally cover up their mouths while yawning. Even if their hands are full or occupied, they tend to turn their head and try to yawn into an arm or shoulder so they’re not exposing their tonsils to the world.
I think I’d be a little weirded out by a bus full of people yawning widely and not covering up, but I’d get used to it eventually.
Israel, mostly yes; not covering one’s mouth when yawning is “low brow” if not universally impolite.
I try to make sure I cover my mouth when yawning. even if my hands are full… I think most people I know still do so.
I am not particularly interested in seeing the insides of one’s face cavern.
South Africa, generally yes they do.
Same for Spain. Not everybody does it all the time, but it’s what yo momma taught ya - when people realize they’ve yawned to the world, they usually apologize.
Outside of Chicago.
Everyone I’m around covers their mouths when they yawn.
Well, except for my dog.
The man on the street is proud to show his tonsils. In the office, my Angolan colleagues have adopted the western convention of covering their mouth.
Near Washington, DC Yes, we cover or even suppress a yawm when in public. If one is in any way interacting with others at the time, it’s considered a rude statement of boredom, so we smush it down if at all possible. I certainly would never just gape open and show my dental work to peple around me.
+1
Great. Now I’m yawning too. I covered my mouth.
This has been a 5-yawn thread for me. People here cover their mouths when they yawn, or I never noticed. From now on, I’ll look for gaping maws.
- located in Montreal
- yawn *
Everyone I see covers their mouth when they yawn.
South Louisiana, here. Nobody covers their mouth and I am astonished every time I see it. It’s repulsive.
Something I’ve just remembered; people in South India click or snap their fingers in front of their mouths (to avoid the entry of demons, natch) which also serves the purpose of covering the yawn. Always amused me when my grandfather did that.
Four yawns while reading this thread, and, though I’m home alone, I covered my mouth each time. That was habit, but it’s basic courtesy to do so. I don’t want to see the inner workings of another’s mouth, nor smell them, and assume no one wants to see or smell mine.
Damnit. Seems to be a Swedish and South Louisiana problem, then. I don’t know about South Louisiana but this confirms my suspicion that Swedes don’t care about basic etiquette anymore, and I’ve got a theory for why this is so. I’ve been thinking about this since I wrote my OP, so cover your yawns and listen.
The tyranny of equality has made monkeys of us all. There are three main currents in modern day Sweden that made this possible.
The first is the, in essence, one-party system we had the larger part of the 20th century. Being built on a socialistic foundation, its goal was to make everyone equal. We are not concerned with politics here, but the strive for equality didn’t only concern redistribution of wealth, but also how we behaved towards each other. Since everybody is equal, everyone is addressed equal, for instance. Hence the Du-reform; which in short meant that everyone should be addressed as “you”. So, while it would be impolite to address your friend’s father or your manager or a gentleman at the bus as “you” (du) a couple of decades before the reform, it is today impolite to address your friend’s father or your manager or a gentleman at the bus as, for instance, “Sir” (ni). I settle with this as an example of how the political system changed our Swedes’ behaviour in its strive for equality. The point is that in present day Sweden, you must not acknowledge respect for others; historically because it would imply that we are not equal, and that would be politically incorrect (see below). But today you don’t do it rather because it would either be perceived as a sarcasm or as an hidden insult (like implying that the one addressed is old). To summarize, the political climate of the 20th century Sweden stripped away some of the etiquette from our interpersonal behaviour.
The second current is the Law of Jante, which describes a pattern of behaviour that is dominant in Scandinavia, and in short could be expressed as: “Do not think that you are special, you are just like everyone else.” A person who do not accept this self image or the behaviour that follows it, is despised, and everybody hopes that the person making a fool out of himself will fail and accept that he is a common loser like everybody else. This gives that a person who is polite and says “Yes, sir” and cover his mouth while yawning, is breaking two cardinal rules: On the one hand he does not acknowledge that everyone is equal, and on the other he think he is special covering his mouth like a snob instead of just gaping around like ordinary folks. The gravity of Jante drags the group behaviour down to the lowest common denominator; taking one step further down towards pure monkey level is actually more accepted than taking a step in the opposite direction; because doing so is a confirmation that you accept that you are very un-special and for instance farts “like people do”, and that is expected by this group. However, if someone were to take a step towards a more civilized interpersonal behaviour by considering etiquette, the group would frown at the snob and compensate this unwanted disruption in group dynamics with proud exhibitions of “natural” behaviour to close the ranks.
To summarize the second current, since you must not think that you are special, you are supposed to act like everybody else, or you can establish your place in the group by taking it yet one step further down the road to our “natural behaviour”.
The third current is political correctness (pc), which might be more prevalant in Sweden than in any other country. There are two reasons for this. The first is historical: During the cold war Sweden established itself as The World Conscience (Daghammar, Palme, et al, might represent this) which has grown into a central part of Sweden’s identity. According to its self image Sweden is simply good and knows what is right. Being Swede is being pc, morally speaking of a higher kind. The other reason Sweden is especially prone to pc is the smallness of the country. Only ten million people in the world speak Swedish, it easily becomes an intellectual pond of mutual agreement where everyone is – considering the history above – pc. The smallness makes very little room in the public arena for opposing views, views that is politically incorrect (un-pc); a un-pc person is instantly made persona non grata, so if you want to be part of the discourse you need to agree; there’s only room for one group here. The result of these two conditions is that Sweden is extremely pc, and so Swedes act according to the nation’s pc.
We’ve seen that it is pc to ignore etiquette (the history of equality, Law of Jante, etc.) In the eyes of the Swedes, etiquette has no room in an equal society, and anyone acting like etiquette would matter has no room in this group. As we mentioned earlier, in Sweden pc works like a totalitarian ideology, and whenever people grow up in in a totalitarian nation you go with the flow, you are taught that so-and-so is the right way to to things, and you tell yourself that it is. So, in a nation of monkeys, of course you behave like a monkey.
Today, on my way to work (I’m writing this at work), there was a woman of about 65-70 who looked like a normal old lady. During the thirty minutes we sat facing each other she yawned like a baboon not once, not twice, but five times, showing the full inside of her mouth. Meanwhile, to the left of me, was a woman of about fifty, she only did it once, but on the other hand she was able to open her mouth much wider and keep the yawn last longer.
There is no way out of here. This is what keeps the group together, every gaping yawn is tightening the bond between Swedes, closer and closer together. If you rise above this, cover your mouth when you yawn and teaches your children manners, you are not a role model for others to follow, but rather slightly embarrassing, politically corrupt, someone who think he is “special”, a despicable von Trapp.
But listen: I ain’t no monkey. I can’t climb no trees. Nobody’s gonna make a monkey out of me.
It seems like a heck of a jump from not covering yawms to the downfall of society. Most of what you sad sounds like heaven to me. Well, all but the lack of etiquette.
I am interested to see what would happen if tomorrow morning on the train you faked a yawn and covered it.