cultural context

Last spring I took a course called “Foundations of Human Communication.” Among other things, we discussed characteristics of different cultures. One such quality is that of context. America is low-context; we expect reliable road signs, products clearly priced in stores, printed schedules that people actually follow. Not much is left to communal understanding. Many non-western countries, however, are high-context; implicit understanding and group assumptions are more the norm. Jordan is one such locale. There are street signs all over Amman, which might imply low-context tendencies, but they are almost useless because no one knows streets by official names anyway; everything is in relation to major landmarks, traffic circles, or unofficial street names. If you tell a cab driver that you want to go to Abu Bakr as-Saddeeq Street, there’s a good chance that you’ll get a blank look. However, if you request Rainbow Street, he’ll know exactly where to go. If, for example, I wanted to go to the Jordan River Foundation’s showroom and the driver didn’t know it, I would say that I wanted to go to First Circle in Jabal Amman and from there continue straight on Rainbow Street. This method of giving directions took a little while to get used to (especially since in the States many cab drivers have GPS systems), but once you get the hang of it, it works well. There have been some problems with neither my friends and I nor the driver knowing where exactly the destination is, but most drivers are more than willing to stop and ask for directions, so it works in the end.

I was thinking about high-context versus low-context today while running on the treadmill today and staring at the wall ahead of me, Shakira wailing away on my iPod. At home, I was quite comfortable in my low-context culture. I took my planner everywhere and made lists of things to do, groceries to buy, people to email. Whenever I had to drive someplace new (or old- I get lost easily), I invariably put the addresses into Mapquest and printed out the route. Punctuality meant getting to work, to class, to meetings, to wherever, early.

…Returning to that low-context culture might be a bit of an issue come May. I technically bought a planner (after much searching- even the office supply store didn’t have any!), but I don’t really like the format so I’ve barely used it at all. I either write homework assignments on the margin of the day’s notes or I ask someone else for confirmation. Although I don’t drive here (Amman driving is scary. Many, many times worse than DC.), see the above paragraph for how to give directions. Punctuality to class means getting there before the professor (who will probably be a few minutes late).

While I’m discussing this cultural tendency toward fluidity (as opposed to rigid, set structure), I should mention the highly loaded phrase “insha’Allah”. If you go to the book shop and ask when the next packets for class will be ready, you might hear, “Wednesday- insha’Allah [God willing].” This statement does not mean “they’ll be ready on Wednesday.” Insha’Allah gets tacked on to almost anything referring to the future and allows for the reality that things may or may not actually happen. However, fate aside, if it were the U.S. and someone said that something would be ready on Wednesday, it probably would be. Here, insha’Allah is like a disclaimer; the reality is that your packet *might* be ready on Wednesday, but it could be Thursday, or Sunday, or really whenever the employee gets around to preparing it. Insha’Allah is the phrase that you love to say but hate to hear. It allows for wiggle room regarding deadlines, getting together with people (“maybe we’ll get together sometime, insha’Allah” = “we might…but probably not”), and really life in general, since things often don’t go as planned. I still get anxious when I make a request and get the “insha’Allah” response (since I know that very little here is prompt), but I think it’s good to realize that really no one has definitive control over the future.

As I write this, my neighbor is busy trying to get our wireless back up; insha’Allah he’ll get it working soon and I can post this entry today (Tuesday). Yalla bye, asdiqa’.

PS- I had a non-creepy conversation with a cab driver today; it made for a nice ride home. The difference was definitely that the driver didn’t even try to ask me many personal questions. He knew that I was foreigner, and asked me where I was from. I guess surprised at my Arabic, he asked if both of my parents were American. However, beyond that, we just discussed studying Arabic and living in Amman. He remarked that he had driven a couple German students earlier and that their Arabic was pretty good too; I said that we study a lot and our professors are good. At the end of the cab ride, he insisted on giving me my change, which was a nice gesture (I was prepared to give him JD 1.5 for a JD 1.3 fare, since it’s normal to round up). I know that my previous entry made taxi drivers look pretty sketchy (and some of them really are), but there are genuinely pleasant, respectful drivers as well.