The cultures of the US and Northern Europe operate on a timer.\u00a0 We expect to know our own futures and then catch up to them without a wrinkle.\u00a0 Changes in expectations are unnerving.\u00a0 Not so in much of the rest of the world.\u00a0 Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n
If you ask an airport employee in Mexico City if a certain flight will arrive on time, you get only a confused look.\u00a0 The employee doesn’t know the future and wouldn’t presume to tell you if a plane will arrive on time or not.\u00a0 If you ask the same employee which gate a plane will come to after it has landed, you’ll get the same strange look.<\/p>\n
When you drop your suits off at a dry cleaner’s place in Santiago, you ask, “When will they be ready?”\u00a0 Odd silence follows.\u00a0 The attendant replies, “Tuesday”.\u00a0 That means, in cultural translation, “I have no idea.\u00a0 They’ll be done when they get done.”\u00a0 If you return on Tuesday expecting to pick up your newly-pressed suits, you are off base.\u00a0 Work gets done when it gets done.\u00a0 If you are a friend of the cleaner, it gets done sooner.\u00a0 If you cause trouble, it gets done later.\u00a0 If you raise a big stink and fuss, it gets done quickly, but they hope to never see you or your clothes again.<\/p>\n
You ask a cobbler in Casablanca to repair the worn soles of your shoes.\u00a0 You then ask what it will cost.\u00a0 He replies, “Five dollars”, or the equivalent in local currency.\u00a0 You come back the following week and learn that the cost will be eight dollars.\u00a0 You ask why.\u00a0 (Wrong move.)\u00a0 He explains that he ran out of sole leather before he got to your shoes and had to buy more at a higher price.\u00a0 What do you do?\u00a0 Report him to the Better Business Bureau?\u00a0 Forget it.\u00a0 Pay the eight dollars and take your shoes.\u00a0 He wants your return business and has given you a fair price.<\/p>\n
These changes in projections are changes in expectations to those outside the culture, thus causing stress.\u00a0 But to those inside the culture, they are the natural truth of life and its wrinkles, and cause no stress.\u00a0 You get to choose.<\/p>\n
The cultures of the US and Northern Europe operate on a timer.\u00a0 We expect to know our own futures and then catch up to them without a wrinkle.\u00a0 Changes in expectations are unnerving.\u00a0 Not so in much of the rest of the world.\u00a0 Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n
If you ask an airport employee in Mexico City if a certain flight will arrive on time, you get only a confused look.\u00a0 The employee doesn’t know the future and wouldn’t presume to tell you if a plane will arrive on time or not.\u00a0 If you ask the same employee which gate a plane will come to after it has landed, you’ll get the same strange look.<\/p>\n
When you drop your suits off at a dry cleaner’s place in Santiago, you ask, “When will they be ready?”\u00a0 Odd silence follows.\u00a0 The attendant replies, “Tuesday”.\u00a0 That means, in cultural translation, “I have no idea.\u00a0 They’ll be done when they get done.”\u00a0 If you return on Tuesday expecting to pick up your newly-pressed suits, you are off base.\u00a0 Work gets done when it gets done.\u00a0 If you are a friend of the cleaner, it gets done sooner.\u00a0 If you cause trouble, it gets done later.\u00a0 If you raise a big stink and fuss, it gets done quickly, but they hope to never see you or your clothes again.<\/p>\n
You ask a cobbler in Casablanca to repair the worn soles of your shoes.\u00a0 You then ask what it will cost.\u00a0 He replies, “Five dollars”, or the equivalent in local currency.\u00a0 You come back the following week and learn that the cost will be eight dollars.\u00a0 You ask why.\u00a0 (Wrong move.)\u00a0 He explains that he ran out of sole leather before he got to your shoes and had to buy more at a higher price.\u00a0 What do you do?\u00a0 Report him to the Better Business Bureau?\u00a0 Forget it.\u00a0 Pay the eight dollars and take your shoes.\u00a0 He wants your return business and has given you a fair price.<\/p>\n
These changes in projections are changes in expectations to those outside the culture, thus causing stress.\u00a0 But to those inside the culture, they are the natural truth of life and its wrinkles, and cause no stress.\u00a0 You get to choose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The cultures of the US and Northern Europe operate on a timer.\u00a0 We expect to know our own futures and then catch up to them without a wrinkle.\u00a0 Changes in expectations are unnerving.\u00a0 Not so in much of the rest of the world.\u00a0 Here are a few examples: If you ask an airport employee in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatfacts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}