1. In college, I took a course called "Introduction to Minority Cultures". The course is a required course at MLC. The main purpose of the class is to "raise your level of awareness". My personal interpretation of what this phrase means is gain an understanding of what it is like to be a minority culture in America.
My level of enthusiasm for this class was on par with reading a dictionary. It is one of those classes that receives a bad reputation because it's a required course on a specialized topic. Not everyone is interested in the specialized topic and the class tanks because few people have a positive attitude about anything the class offers.
I was of course suckered into doing as little as possible to get a respectable grade. One of the few things that I have retained from this class was a discussion about how different cultures viewed time.
On one hand there is American culture which is as strict about time as possible. If you are suppose to attend a meeting at 7:00, you should be there at 6:45.
On the other hand you have Hispanic culture which is rather lax about time. If you have a meeting at 7:00 its okay to show up at 7:15 or 7:30.
I focused on this discussion because I saw myself as someone who was meant to function in a culture where time was not so strict.
Well in order to be considered responsible and considerate in American culture a person must be on time!
I would like to sincerely apologize to all of the people that I have offended throughout my life. I am chronically tardy. I have been trying to improve in these area for quite some time. I would say that my problem has evolved from completely clueless and always late to apologetic and slightly late.
Recently I took huge steps towards overcoming this problem. I made myself a schedule on Microsoft Outlook! Complete with reminders which appear on my cell phone! I am quickly becoming a fairly timely person.
However, I'd like to tell you that I'm not in America anymore. The Chinese culture is about oblivious to time as a culture could possibly be. 15 minutes late is acceptable and expected. 30 minutes late isn't all that bad.
This should be a shocking picture for anyone who knows me. I show up to an empty apartment room 13 minutes beforehand. I set everything up. I patiently wait for 20 minutes and no one is present. I wait for another 10 minutes and 5 people show up. I wait for 40 minutes and as we are beginning 5 people show up!
I hope this picture of Matt Werner waiting in a room for people to show is satisfying. I know it makes me laugh.
2. I have learned how to write my bike no-hands! I love doing this. It's an obsession. I spend a lot of time on a bike and I spend a lot of time rejoicing in riding a bike with no-hands. It's an amazing thing to learn at age 22 on the busy roads of Beijing.
No comments:
Post a Comment