No hay problema
This, having nothing to do with Spanish, is just something I was wondering if anyone else had noticed. There seems to be a trend, here in New England anyway, towards the use of no problem instead of you're welcome. My wife pointed this out to me months ago and we have been paying closer attention to this change ever since. It is most prevalent in restaurants but also at checkout counters and other places where way back in the old days when you said thank you to a person the reply was you're welcome. Now I can understand there may not be anything of this type happening in Spanish speaking countries where de nada is used instead of you're welcome, since de nada itself means it was nothing and that really isn't much different than no problema anyway but here it seems almost rude to me. Well maybe rude is extreme but still it just lacks sincerety. This morning at breakfast our waitress used no problem at least 5 times with us and it took all we had not a laugh since it is now one of those inside jokes that my wife and I now have. So tell me what you think or if you have even noticed this new trend. Thank you!
PS It was Lovely's thread about "How do you do?" that prompted this.
