Fast America

As Americans there are quite a few things that our culture is obsessed with.  For one, we love everything fast- our cars, our food, our conversations, our information, our lifestyle, etc.  Most of the time we don’t even realize this because we are trying to absorb everything as fast as possible that we don’t have time to stop and think about it.  Therefore, we expect answers to questions to be clear, simple and of course FAST- yes or no, this or that, here or there.  However, in China as I am quickly finding out, there is a different take on this.  They are not so concerned with the time it takes to do things; they are more concerned about negotiating the answer to the question.  This negotiating that takes place could take a good 10 to 30 minutes for an answer depending on what you are trying to do.  From trying to figure out where a store is, to negotiating on the price of a cell phone to buy or perhaps when ordering food.  Every instance where you communicate and are trying to make a decision, the process is quite drawn out.  For example, a group of us got into two cabs this weekend to drive to the Purple Mountain and it took the cab drivers about 10 minutes to decide which way they should take us.  To me it just sounded like a shouting match that seemed to have no purpose or no end.  But sure enough as quickly as this so called conversation started, it ended and we were on our way.  This way of conversing is very strange to me because there seems to be no ‘one’ answer, only a series of more questions, which therefore delays the answer to my original question.  I think as Americans we are so used to receiving the sought after information quickly, that we become annoyed and impatient when we don’t get it right away.  So let’s just say that my patients is being tested everyday!