Language and Culture

The process of learning a language isn't easy. I'm pretty sure everyone who has tried would agree, but I'm wondering if learning culture, even though it is often talked about as the secondary thing, is even harder.

I'm not writing this blog post out of frustration after making a major cultural mistake, but I have heard a few things lately that makes me think culture is, maybe, more important to learn than language.

If you move to a new country, in most cases, you have to learn the language, but in my experience the vast majority of people will easily forgive if you have a hard time speaking, or they will be patient if hey can't understand what you are saying, and politely ask questions to get your point.

Culturally you don't really have those layers of security and understanding.

Even though there is a small degree of "he's a foreigner, he probably didn't mean it" it seems people have to make a conscious decision not to show that you actually offended them when it comes to culture.

Things like when you know the language well enough to a make a funny comment that would have been harmless in your home country, but could literally get you in trouble with the Police, if reported, in your host country.

Or when you have a friend that you feel like you are bothering a lot by often asking for help, so one time you ask someone else, thinking you are being a good friend by giving him a break, just to find out friend #1 is offended because not asking him is a way of saying you don't trust him.

Since I'm Norwegian and my wife is German, two cultures that are quite close, but still different, we have on occasion had strange misunderstandings because we both assumed the other one would understand based on culture. 

Where we live now, in Pacific Asia, the culture is very different, so even though we speak the language at a decent level by now, I sometimes have the feeling that because of that, we are just more likely to get in trouble culturally.

The small, and so far (as far as I know) harmless, cultural blunders we have made, has reminded me of the importance of understanding culture when it comes to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You have to understand how the message you are trying to share is understood by the listener.

We are not in a tribal setting, we just live in a town, but even here I have heard of very small cultural things, that if not explained thoroughly, could make the listener think that you have said something very different from what you wanted to say.

And that is not good when it comes to something as important as the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm not sure if what I'm writing makes a lot of sense, since im just sharing some thoughts,

but something more specific that I want to ask, is that you all would continue to pray for servants of the Lord around the world.

And we will continue to pray for you guys in the sending countries, we are very thankful for each and everyone that prays for us.

God Bless

Just so that the post won't be without pictures; here's one of the beach

It's been a looooong time since we wrote a blog post...

And that is very culturally appropriate to where we live!

So there, that's our excuse.

If you are wondering about the random picture, it is here to help prove the point I just used as an excuse to be very late with our blog update.

To be late, to use a lot of time, or even a lot of someone else's time, is not considered offensive here.

Ok, here's the story;

Mr D (in the picture) and I went to a store to buy a couple of Jerry Cans, we need those here to store fuel for the generators, because of the very high frequency of power cuts).

We went into the store, and could not find Jerry Cans anywhere, and finally asked one of the many people working there to help us.

She showed us that the Jerry Cans were on the shelf with the toothbrush holders (obviously), so Mr D found the size cans he wanted and took them of the shelf, but before he could start walking down to the cashier, the employee that helped us took the cans away from him and said that she'd take them down there in case we wanted to buy something else, when we tried to say that we could carry them, because we weren't going to buy anything else, she still insisted on carrying them for us. She walked slowly down to the cashier, put them on the counter, chatted a bit with the other cashier that was manning the till, and the 5-6 other employees standing behind her not doing anything. After they were done talking, with us waiting right there, they started scanning the items. 

At this point yet another employee came over from the information counter and watched the cashier scanning it and printing our receipt.

After being told the price Mr D paid, but before he could grab the Jerry Cans, the employee from the information counter took them, and the receipt, and walked slowly back to the information counter, put them on the counter, pulled the receipt back out from his pocket and started thoroughly checking if the items we had bought were actually the ones on the receipt...

After that was done, he wrote something on the receipt, and kept a copy in a drawer, and then asked if we wanted to have the cans in plastic bags.

After saying that was really not necessary, Mr D finally got the cans and we could go back to the car.

All of this ended up taking 20 minutes and 3 employees helping us, and 4-5 watching them helping us.

It's the same story if you buy an electrical appliance, except that then they ad another step by unpacking it carefully, rolling out a extension cord, plugging everything in to check if it works, checking every different setting, if they all work and then try to put everything back in the box.

Basically, when we lived in Norway, I'd say to Anne "I'll run to the store, be back in 10 minutes."

Here I have to say "I'm going to the store, see you sometime between 10 and 14 o'clock

Our conclusion is that the people here in AP are very service minded, and we do appreciate that, but being quick is not a part of the service.