Living abroad, you come to learn that many concepts and attributes you'd always assumed were universal among all humans are anything but. As an American, I've learned that not all people around the world crave personal glory. Many cultures don't see humor in people's shortcomings. It is only in certain cultures where people aren't compelled to assert their opinions.
But after 12 years of living abroad, I'm convinced that geeks are geeks, universally.
I'll cite examples from my experience in Japan, the most different of any culture. If you think of any from others, let me know.
Japanese are very guarded and private. They have no inclination to spontaneously share their personal details with anyone. The exception is geekdomn. I've been coaching one man with outstanding English skills for years. It's not until years into our relationship that he reveals a passion for marathon running, high fluency in Viet Namese, and a first-name relationship with former president Jimmy Carter. But when I mention I saw the latest Spiderman movie, he doesn't hesitate to divulge his lifelong fascination with the X-Men and how he used to be a manga artist.
Japanese are loath to show-off, but on mention of my five text blogs, my neighbor whose name I still don't know tells me all about her 11 media blogs and here monthly stats.
Japanese staff NEVER make idle conversation with customers, or talk about their own personal lives. At PC Depot, buying a keyboard and checking that it's XP compliant, I quip that I'm not ready to switch to Vista and the clerk ringing me up laughs that he uses XP, too and goes on about why.
In Japan, such behavior would be unusual out side the geek-verse, but within our private coven we're all the same in more ways you'd ever imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment