For my course I have to read some extra literature next to the required ones, literature I choose myself. After some search in old patterns (education, virtual reality) I got the idea to search for time, how we experience time and how that influences our behavior. We already had some of this in the lectures and the required literature, about the Indian word कल (kal) which means yesterday as well as tomorrow, about Asian people (sorry for the generalization, I thought they were Thai) after not meeting a deadline saying to the American manager “don’t worry, it doesn’t matter”.
The example of the Indian word kal was soon resolved after talking to the Indian students, the word always has a clear meaning because the verb in the sentence, like ‘I went to the shop kal‘ or ‘I’m going to the shop kal‘.
Further it interests me as I like to live more without the current thinking of time. I don’t use a watch or phone since long to keep track of time, I removed the hands from a clock I had in my room and I like to think about being somewhere in time but rather take enough time. It was really nice talking to Frida, a girl I met at the diner of the Indians, which had similar ideas about getting rid of this time altogether :)
But it is far from easy. Other people continue to expect you to be somewhere in time. For example the trains here run only once per hour even with a few gaps in that schedule, in the weekends in only goes like 3 to 5 times and not until late. You have to catch it. Especially since the Swedes like to be on time, 6 o’clock ís 6 o’clock, also for informal meetings.
So I found a book about time experience and leadership. What I’ve read until now is about different orientations towards time. Which in turn influences the way you experience time lines, time duration and how you manage groups. People have a time orientation towards the past, the present or the future. You’ll recognize the patterns;
- People creating plans for the future, getting people with them on their idea of what the future should become, but also surprised when problems suddenly arise that they didn’t expected.
- Other people like day-to-day activities, always know what is going on, continuously check what people are doing and fix problems instead of investing in new things.
- And there are people who remember good all the things, acknowledge peoples attributions, but also like to skip planning meetings and fail to see changes in other people.
And then people mix these aspects, but in general (the books says) you more like one than the other. Immediately I noticed that I fit in all tree groups, although that might because you always like to be different from John Doe :)
More to come as I learn more..
Tags: anatomy of intcult interact, experience, frida, friends, influence, time, train
Categories: a cultural journey, an academic journey
