From Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of restaurant is a place where meals are prepared and served to customers. However, I think a restaurant is not only a place to serve meals but an intense social interaction spot. People do not go to restaurants only for hungry stomachs, but sometimes for social interactions between couples, friends, coworkers and families. Therefore, it comes to me that it might be very interesting if I do my social observation in a restaurant.
             I did my observation in Texas Roadhouse near Schnucks in Champaign. Part of personal reasons is that Texas Roadhouse serves up the freshest cut steaks this side of the Rio Grande plus mouth-watering ribs, and famous, hot fresh-baked bread. Another reason is that I think I might be able to find lots of interesting social behaviors or regulations in restaurants.
             I did my observation on Friday and Saturday night, and both are around 7:30pm, dinner time. Texas Roadhouse is a very busy restaurant during Friday nights and weekends. It is always packed and we often have to wait for thirty minutes at least. There are few significant things I found during these two days of observations:
             First, why do people greet with each other? ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up!¡± or ¡°How are you doing today?¡± People working in the restaurants greet with you, and acquaintances also greet with each other. In our society, greetings occur between individuals at the point where they find themselves about to enjoy a period of heightened access to each other (Goffman Erving, P78, 1971). We expect the small behaviors such as people¡¯s faces light up, smiles are exchanged, eyes are addressed and handshakes. It seems like the ritual between people.
             Second, being an international student, I can somehow sense some differences lines between international students who is not native English speaker especially from Asia and Americans. According to Goffman Erving, a line-that is, a pattern...