What happened to "You're welcome?"

I think "you're welcome" means one person gave to the other. In situations where both parties perceive that they are receiving, they both say thank you.


You have it wrong. Nothing has happened to "you're welcome."

While it is certainly reasonable for the interviewer to thank the interviewe, it is not unreasonable for the interviewee to appreciate the opportunity to speak. The interviewee's thank yous should be interpreted as "no, thank you [for letting me speak]," rather than as 'you're welcome."


You guys are making it too complicated. I give you a simple example happening in our daily life. When you are looking for a job, at the end of the interview, the interviewer usually ends it up by saying "Thank you for your time." You wouldn't response "you are welcome" because you are clear that you are both doing each other a favor, instead of only you're doing the favors. So you probably want to say "Thank you for giving me a chance" to acknowledge his effort, too, as a human being with the basic manner. So it's the same scenario in air shows that the host and the guest are actually doing each other the favors, so they should be both thankful to each other.


As Fengyang Wang commented on another answer, "You're welcome" runs the risk of sounding arrogant and implying that the thanks given was expected or deserved. For this reason I don't use it often, and I usually advise English learners not to use it unless they're really comfortable with its usage. There are much clearer and more meaningful/creative ways of responding to thanks such as:

  • Thank you for giving me the opportunity...
  • [It was] no problem
  • I enjoyed getting the chance to [help/whatever]
  • ...

that both avoid this risk and avoid sounding canned and insincere.