the noisy conversation

A few days ago I had a very stimulating conversation with a group of friends, each one sharing their account of recent travel abroad. While talking about Prague and Budapest evoked great memories, it was the story about cultural shock on a trip to India that had me fascinated. Was it not for the fact that I know the couple that had this experience very well, I could’ve dismissed their approach to Indian culture as narrow-minded. But they were very articulate to explain how even with the best of attitudes participating in a foreign culture successfully can be a though challenge.

When I explained how the imaginary global citizen Phileas Fogg“feels just as comfortable drinking his morning coffee at a Paris bistro as bargaining for the best fruit in a street market in Oaxaca. A true global citizen with knowledge of world affairs”, I was well aware that these activities require certain amount of cultural knowledge and the occasional tourist will always fall into the usual traps. The etiquette for coffee in Paris, according to Phyllis Flick

Know that having an espresso while standing at the bar will cost you considerably less than having it at a table. Sitting on the terrace will cost you the most; think of it as renting a piece of prime real estate for an hour or so. If the table has a placemat and silverware it is designated only for those customers who are eating; if the table is bare you are welcome to sit and have only a drink.

While I’m no expert on bargaining for the best fruit, I remember vividly the experience of walking into the food aisle of Benito Juárez Market in Oaxaca only to be overwhelmed by the loud invitations of every merchant in the area to join their already crowded space for lunch. It took me a while to figure out that the correct protocol was to buy something from each merchant: the tortillas from one, the meat from another, the drinks and the seat at a table from the last one in the aisle. The unbelievable amount of noise soon turned into a purposeful serenade of commands that you had to be attentive to in order to accomplish the simple task of having lunch there. I can see how a tourist, not familiar with the culture or not versed in the language would feel completely abused and manipulated. Walking into that space without warning may shock visitors as it seems to overflow with unnecessary chatter.

A few days ago I had a déjà vu while riding the subway to work. A group of teenagers, likely on a school trip, hopped in and as soon as they did the level of noise quickly raised to a point where most people already there seemed noticeably uncomfortable. Unlike conversations among other groups, theirs tend to happen in many simultaneous threads and their volume raises to compete for the attention of their distracted buddies. There was no structure, but after listening to them I was certain that all individuals within the group had accomplished their communication goal. To the unfortunate man that happened to be standing in the middle of the group during the ride I’m sure the experience was as close to a cultural shock as walking into Oaxaca’s market with no knowledge of Spanish.

At this point I’m reminded of my post a billion spaces in which I link to sources that suggest that teenagers are the most frequent users of such sites as MySpace that have become famous for the incredibly unproductive conversation that takes place within. I can’t help but realize that the noisy conversation taking place within the virtual realm only mimics the seemingly chaotic approach they use in real life when in large groups. And then I wonder if this may be some sort of axiom: any group of people that uses such intense methods of verbal communication will excel at methods put in place by modern tools such as blogs, chat groups and instant messaging. Furthermore, in my role as a global citizen I feel compelled to transfer one cultural mechanism into another context where it may flourish.

This kind of cultural transfer is exactly what Rising Voices attempts to do, as explained by the post Blessed unrest and Rising Voices by my now friend and utmost global citizen David Sasaki. Daring to find ways to transfer the tools of one culture into another. If as William Gibson says “the future is here, is just unevenly distributed”, the Rising Voices team is perhaps one of the very few organizations doing something about this gap.