In the image above, the different levels of space, or the “personal bubble” are depicted. Usually, the average person spends most of their time within the “social” bubble. For instance, when going to get on a subway in New York City, if the car is completely empty save for one person towards the back, chances are, you’re not going to sit next to them. If you’re in a crowded café, with a longer table and only one or two people sitting at the table, you’re not going to sit at the same table. It’s “normal.”
That norm however does not continue when dealing with people from different countries. When visiting “Chinaya Lojka” (Russian for “tea spoon”) in Russia, a nice place to get an afternoon blini, it was common to sit towards the end of a longer table, and have other people sit with you throughout your meal.
After having a program with many people from Saudi Arabia, some friends of mine couldn’t help but comment on how close they would get to your face when talking to you.
Other cultures aren’t afraid to get up close and personal. To me this helps when you’re in another country to get to know the “locals.”
In congunction with this, it was noticed also a certain type of personality comes with each different culture, which is semi self explainatory. While in Russia, it always seemed at first that sales clerks were intelligent, but would give you hell for help, even though you’d get it in the end. In the U.S. sales staff is taught “the customer is always right,” and thus our society can be based on this sense of false niceness.
The combination of being in somebody’s personal bubble, and lacking the “fakeness” associated with the American culture, many better relationships can be had.
That norm however does not continue when dealing with people from different countries. When visiting “Chinaya Lojka” (Russian for “tea spoon”) in Russia, a nice place to get an afternoon blini, it was common to sit towards the end of a longer table, and have other people sit with you throughout your meal.
After having a program with many people from Saudi Arabia, some friends of mine couldn’t help but comment on how close they would get to your face when talking to you.
Other cultures aren’t afraid to get up close and personal. To me this helps when you’re in another country to get to know the “locals.”
In congunction with this, it was noticed also a certain type of personality comes with each different culture, which is semi self explainatory. While in Russia, it always seemed at first that sales clerks were intelligent, but would give you hell for help, even though you’d get it in the end. In the U.S. sales staff is taught “the customer is always right,” and thus our society can be based on this sense of false niceness.
The combination of being in somebody’s personal bubble, and lacking the “fakeness” associated with the American culture, many better relationships can be had.
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