Learning Not to Be An American

Maybe more specifically, learning not to be a Type A Personality American! For those of you who know me, I am about as Type A as you get . There are some of you, the serious laid back type B personalities, that would fit in fine here. In fact I recommend you move here because you bother us type A personalities in the States!  I have yet to meet a Type A Personality here, but I am sure there are some. I know this because I am always walking faster than everyone else!

Everyone here is quick to say that this is not America. The people are different, the communities are different, and the culture is different. I have been told this by several people here, but am just now starting to realize that you have to drop your American expectations here if you are going to survive. I think this is part of embracing another culture that I need to learn. I can’t bring my prebuilt expectations and transfer them over. The whole schema here has been changed. It’s obvious being in another country that there are many things here that are extremely different, but even things that you believe should operate the same simply don’t.

I personally have seen my need for change when my mental response to “This does not operate like a ____ in America” is “Well why not, that’s the right way”. It is in those mental moments that I catch myself and laugh. Most of these right way ideas are largely built into my gratification mentality. Instant gratification here is redefined as somewhere between 3-5 days, maybe a week, maybe longer.

For example, I have learned that the idea of timeliness is very relative here. I was told today that within the culture people try to observe appointment times, but they don’t bind themselves to them. For example, if someone here has a 10 o’clock appointment but on the way run into a friend or acquaintance, they will not hesitate to spend whatever time necessary with that person in disregard to the 10 o’clock appointment.

On the extremely positive side, this is just reflective of the personal nature of the people here. As an American in the States, my day was often planned around activities and appointments not people. I also had tendencies to plan way ahead, that is something you don’t see to the same extent in this culture. I have been told and have seen that Mexicans do a much better job of living in the present. They aren’t always looking ahead to something in the future. I think this is a lesson I need to learn from them. Those Americans who have been here for a handful of years love it here and I think this is one of the reasons. Most people here never lack time for you and are not in a hurry to get somewhere else. They just seem to enjoy one another and they seem to enjoy daily life.