English Homework

Creciun Mădălina
DEI, master, an I

They say “Flattery will get you everywhere.” How important is it in your
culture to: 
a) pay people personal compliments? 
b) compliment them on their work? 
Does it depend on how well you know each other? Is it different for men and
women?

We found the biggest power from the world. It is the power of the word. I can say that it is
even stronger than the physical strength. But the strength of it depends of the way we express
ourselves.
The art of flattery is a subtle art of playing with words. I like to call it an art. From my
point of view, you need to have talent to be able to flatter a person. It is considered an
inoffensive lie, because with it you get what you want. Yes, it is not the most beautiful thing to
do, but we do it anyways. Perhaps we do it because we are all egoists. Not everybody can handle
it because it takes a lot of time to practice. Reaching a person’s self-esteem in a way that will
make them feel important. And who doesn’t like to feel special and loved? Nobody.
In my culture, flattery is a very popular technique. Sadly, not much of it is real and true. In
Moldova, flattering a person can go 2 ways. One would be to flatter a person into convincing
them do something for you or in getting their attention (flirting).
It seems easy to tell someone a compliment, but in practice, it is not that easy. Or it
depends on the person. Let’s divide this into 2 parts. Male and Female. 
First of all, our culture, as a post-soviet Union culture, has many troubles of expressing
feelings. Moldovan people are considered “tough”. We like to feel in control of the situation and
when we are being complemented we feel the urge to be softer. That being said let’s see how we
react at these things from the Male VS Female perspective.
Let’s start with female. Some scenarios would be: 
1-To make her do something for you. Lend you money or help you with anything.
2-Flirt with her and making her fall in love with you.
Women tend to be more gullible when it comes to number two. Once you get some
attention from a man, the woman tends to be flattered. This makes her desire to do something
that she is not necessarily fond of.
The second category is the Male one.
1-Being flattered by another male means that he needs a favour;
2-Being flattered by a female means that she is: 1-needs a favour;
                                                                             2-is flirting.
Keeping that in mind, our society is a patriarchal one, where we are used to feel the power
of men. Moldovan males are often described as “Man enough, rock, wall”. Women tend to be
attracted more to “Manly” boys that could protect them in any situation. Being a weak male is
considered taboo. Flattering a male in order to get his attention, in Moldova is often considered
inappropriate, because they should be the ones making the first steps.
Of course it depends on how good you know the person. Sometimes this kind of behaviour
is considered funny. But when a person does it out of the blue it always means the need of
“attention or favour”.
I tend to believe that Flattery is an art and we should all know how to use it. It is some kind
of manipulation that makes another person feel special. In the end, these are another category of
words that we, as human beings, need to learn how to use.