Different Cultures
I can't even remember how many times I've been asked "What is the biggest difference between Europe and the US?". By now, I have given this question a lot of thoughts, and I guess I came out with an answer that fits pretty well my personal experience. Many, many, MANY of you have heard me saying this before, but here it goes:
In the US, life is centered on your own personal success. This might mean a lot of different things, but in general it refers back to your job, your career. That's the center of your life, and it happens to dictate the rules that govern the rest of your life. The most blatant example is the schedule of schoolchildren, with a thousand of activities on their day (at 4:00pm dance class, at 5:30pm piano lessons, at 7:00pm homework...), or even the fact that in the evening, during the work week, restaurants close at 9 or 10pm, and there's nothing going on past 11 anyway. It's a great place to be if you want to grow your career, it's extremely rational: it's a cause and effect type of culture: you work a lot, you get a lot of satisfactions, you grow, you get rewarded. But you don't get to see your family much, and when you do is because your had to set time aside to do something quite specific. Everyone is very independent, sitting down for a meal all together is quite unusual.
In Europe, life is centered around your social life, your family and your friends. Your schedule revolves around the time you're with your family and friends, not your time at work. At noon, everything shuts down to give people the chance to go home and eat with their family, after 7pm you won't see a single office open, everybody goes home, and you go out for dinner at 9pm of after dinner, since all bars/ cafe/ whatever and many restaurants are open till at least 1am on any given day. It's a great place where to raise a family, but if you think of the work... well that's a mess, because it's not rationally organized, and very often the effort you put on your job is not "linearly" rewarded or recognized. You would not even dream to sit at a table and prepare your meal without waiting for the rest of your family, or preparing for them as well. Walking around town in the evenings, or during weekends, even without a specific goal in mind, is one of the most popular activity for a group of friends to do.
Culture is a big thing. It affects who we are, how we think, how we do certain things, including living itself. I'm surprised at how so many people questions other cultures' approach to life as flat out wrong, and how other manage to completely abandon their own lifestyle to embrace a different one. For me, I think I get the best of the two worlds. And it's beautiful...
In the US, life is centered on your own personal success. This might mean a lot of different things, but in general it refers back to your job, your career. That's the center of your life, and it happens to dictate the rules that govern the rest of your life. The most blatant example is the schedule of schoolchildren, with a thousand of activities on their day (at 4:00pm dance class, at 5:30pm piano lessons, at 7:00pm homework...), or even the fact that in the evening, during the work week, restaurants close at 9 or 10pm, and there's nothing going on past 11 anyway. It's a great place to be if you want to grow your career, it's extremely rational: it's a cause and effect type of culture: you work a lot, you get a lot of satisfactions, you grow, you get rewarded. But you don't get to see your family much, and when you do is because your had to set time aside to do something quite specific. Everyone is very independent, sitting down for a meal all together is quite unusual.
In Europe, life is centered around your social life, your family and your friends. Your schedule revolves around the time you're with your family and friends, not your time at work. At noon, everything shuts down to give people the chance to go home and eat with their family, after 7pm you won't see a single office open, everybody goes home, and you go out for dinner at 9pm of after dinner, since all bars/ cafe/ whatever and many restaurants are open till at least 1am on any given day. It's a great place where to raise a family, but if you think of the work... well that's a mess, because it's not rationally organized, and very often the effort you put on your job is not "linearly" rewarded or recognized. You would not even dream to sit at a table and prepare your meal without waiting for the rest of your family, or preparing for them as well. Walking around town in the evenings, or during weekends, even without a specific goal in mind, is one of the most popular activity for a group of friends to do.
Culture is a big thing. It affects who we are, how we think, how we do certain things, including living itself. I'm surprised at how so many people questions other cultures' approach to life as flat out wrong, and how other manage to completely abandon their own lifestyle to embrace a different one. For me, I think I get the best of the two worlds. And it's beautiful...
pontificato by Bridging Jones @ 3:18 PM
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