"Chief say no white man been here long time."
"How long?"
"Chief say not since he pay hut tax."
"How long's that?"
"Long long time."
(!!)
It says in the story that Mr Lever had difficulty getting any notion of time from his African companions. I once read in a book describing intercultural relations that if you ask Africans how far you are from any destination, they'll say, "Not far," even if you're miles away because they don't want to discourage you. One of my favorite African phrases: "I give the truth scope!"
Even in their own families, I noticed this tendency to avoid quantifying things. A girl was told by her aunt to prepare lunch for expected guests; the girl wanted to know how much food to prepare. "Just 'enough' food," the girl was told. So she stood over a pot of boiling water, throwing pasta in; she would pause, break off a few noodles, stir the pot, then break off a few more noodles.
"How much are you making?" said one of her friends.
"I don't know; we're to make enough."
"But what is enough?"
"I don't know! Enough!" she repeated, as if that explained everything.
Enough, I mused afterward, to make everyone that much more confused...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great story, Shanxi! Kind of reminds me how this Norwegian guy in Greece explained that we were on GMT, which wasn't Greenwich Mean Time but Greek Maybe Time. If you agree to meet somewhere at 8, all the Greeks magically know that it means sometime way after 8, and all the Western Europeans and Americans believe that it means, well, at 8.
ReplyDeleteOr in the obits we get from Native Americans that don't specify a service time; if you call the funeral home they just say everyone who's going knows when to go!
In Mr. Lever's case, especially because he's in such a hurry, what a bizarre, and surely exasperating, adjustment to have to make — to learn that you can't rely on the face of what's being said to you but that you have to interpret everything through an uncertain cultural lens. No wonder there are so many stories about white people "going native" to greater or lesser degrees in foreign climes. They simply have to change to get along.
Geraldine Brooks has a story about how hospitality is really important in Iran, and Iranians will enthusiastically invite you to their homes, but you're not supposed to accept until like the third or fourth time. Westerners, of course, have no idea about this and are surprised by the awkwardness that ensues when they accept the first invitation.
Strange.
Yes ... I'm glad you mentioned the hospitality "repeat" times! Something similar exists with Asians, too - my grandmother may keep pressing guests to take more food, even after they've said no. If they're Asian guests, they will decline at least two or three times before saying yes.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I loved the "Greek Maybe Time" - I think that will be my next quote of the week!
It's always funny when there's a cultural difference that would seem to make life much more difficult or confusing. How does that sort of thing develop?
ReplyDeleteGood question, Erin. It makes me wonder if foreigners in America encounter a bunch of customs that thoroughly baffle or exasperate them, things that we just take for granted but would find odd if we stopped to consider them objectively.
ReplyDeleteOh, gosh. That mirrors my experience at a church missions trip (in high school) to Mexico. Our hosts were wonderful, but when my youth pastor wanted to be out and evangelizing by 9 a.m., it would take until 3 for the hosts to be ready to get us out the door. In fact, I think that was the last annual trip there ... you know, "today" is sort of a broad window of possibilities for some cultures, whereas Americans are real go-getting clockwatchers.
ReplyDeleteMr. Lever really was a man who landed on the moon, right? The climate, the cultural shifts were all part of a hostile environment that would eventually kill him. Not that the natives were hostile; they were just unwilling to shift with him. (Clearly they were wiser for bowing out to that final trip. THEY knew they might become ill!)
"out and evangelizing by 9 a.m."
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous phrase, cl!