Author: hhazony

Different cultures have different expectations, this is obvious. But this reality can be truly inconvenient at times. In the US, most venues have an easily accessible wifi connection, at least outside of major metropolitan areas. In Germany, this is actually quite uncommon. In Frankfurt, there may be only two or three cafes that allow connection to a Wifi — what’s more, sitting at a cafe for hours on end may be considered rude if the venue is busy.

I sat down at a bar-cafe and asked if they have wifi, the waitress confirmed that they do. After I ordered, I looked for their wifi, and there wasn’t any. When I asked the waitress about it, she looked at my phone and shrugged bemusedly. She left and did nothing else.

I felt that she had partially mislead me, and was a bit frustrated, because I had want4e dto get some work done as I sat. Obviously, the culture in Frankfurt is that wifi is not expected as part of sitting at a cafe, and so the waitress did not see it as her problem to help me.

The “sunglasses” view of culture is helpful here. I had always assumed that Cafe’s having easily accessible wifi is part of the Cafe experience. But now I realize that I was useing my “sunglasses” and was missing the cultural elament — that is simply the expectation in the US.

I learned that if you are expecting to spend an extended period of time doing something, it is best to ask locals if that something accepted.

The SLA has been an interesting experience so far. I am an American-Israeli, who has lived on multiple continents. I have always considered myself a fairly open minded person. Discussing the IDI with other SLA students, it appears that “open minded” might mean different things to different people. While some believe being open minded simply amounts to “live and let live,” it seems to me that one must actively try to understand the prespective of others.

This leads to the uncomfortable understanding that we are not, in fact, all the same. Different cultures truly are different, and they don’t have the same social norms and customs. Sometimes, a new social norm can feel completely bizarre. We have to acknowledge our differences before we can start learning from each other.