Essay 1 Good Tips

Daisi Ye

ESLINTG 100 CE

October 9, 2026

Good Tips

There is an old Chinese saying that describes people should respect and follow the traditions when they arrive in a new place. Before I came to the United States, I had already learned about the “Tips Culture” from social media. Tip culture is one of the important parts of American culture. It really relates to people’s daily life and their wallets. When people take Uber or Lyft, they need to pay tips, and when people eat out, they need to pay tips. Recently, sometimes even when they order food to go, they need to pay tips too. I always assumed that people pay tips for the server who has very great service, because in China, people don’t need to pay extra money except for their bills in China. Servers only earn their basic salaries. What I have learned about American culture is that it’s important to consider various perspectives before I make a decision about a cultural aspect that is new to me and also not to be so afraid of making mistakes in a new culture.

I went to Orlando last year by myself to visit one of my relatives. When I came out of the airport, I called an Uber to get to my hotel. After the driver arrived, I tried to put my heavy suitcase into his car. The driver just stayed in his seat and didn’t even open the back door. Without any other choice, I finally put my suitcase into his car. He drove so fast that I thought he might have some emergency and couldn’t wait until he dropped me off. Having no food for a long time and the car’s fast speed made me feel bad and I got a stomachache. When I got out of the car, I had never thought anything was better than breathing fresh air at that time. For these reasons, I decided not to tip the driver, but I still gave him three stars. As everyone might expect, when I checked my Uber rating a few days later, I found that it had dropped. Going back to that evening, I was so hungry that I went to a restaurant near my hotel. It was a Chinese restaurant and most of the items on the menu were Sichuan food. The server was also a Chinese woman who spoke Mandarin. It was almost nine o’clock in the evening, and they weren’t busy because there were few tables in the store. When I tried to place my order, I found no one was there. I didn’t want to waste time because I was hungry and tired, so I went to the front desk and tried to find someone to help me. To be honest, I regretted the whole experience because the food was horrible. The white rice was tough and hard to chew, and the fried fish with vegetables tasted like they were cooked the day before. When I tried to pay my bill, there was still nobody there. Without hesitating, I went to the front desk again. The total bill was around fifty-five dollars, and I gave her fifty-eight because of the terrible food and service. That woman, the server who only appeared one time during my meal, came out and ask, “Don’t you know you need to pay a tip? We only earn money from tips!” I was so embarrassed because she shouted at me, even though there wasn’t anyone else there. I had no idea what to do at that time, so I just gave her some more money and left. 

After these horrible experiences around tips, I have been leaving at least 18 % even though sometimes I am not satisfied. I was afraid that same conflict and embarrassment would happen again. A year ago, I started to work in a restaurant as well, and I realized that the truth is good service deserves good tips; bad service deserves nothing. In addition, as a customer, I realized that server’s paychecks really depend on the tips. As foreigners, people should respect tip culture and American culture too. I have read some posts about tips culture on Chinese social media sites recently. There were still many comments that said people don’t need to pay tips because they think the owners have the duty to pay their employees. For now, I don’t really agree these opinions. Most servers in the United States are just people trying to make a living, and they don’t have the power to change or break the tip culture.

From all these experiences, I learned that people should think from different perspectives. Even though something may look wrong or weird at first, people might change their mind by looking at the other side. I used to be afraid of doing something wrong or looking weird in public because I didn’t know many rules. Before I did anything new, I had to search online information to make sure I wouldn’t make mistakes, like do I need to pay the tips for the subway? Now, I am brave to try new things and follow my heart, and I am not afraid to make mistakes anymore. These experiences not only taught me about the tip culture but also helped me adapt more to this country.