Cultural differences

Here are some more cultural differences, numbered because my German year did give me some sense of order.

1- I was speaking with some freshly arrived indigene (coming from Korea), and he was surprised to learn that, in Europe, stores were closed on Sunday. The comment was then “Oh. Europe is boring. What can you do on a Sunday if the shops are closed?”

2- A teacher making a comparison biological methods today and a hundred years ago found it interesting to state that it was like artisans and factories. Which, in my point of view, is appropriate. Where it became even more interesting was when he said that, thanks to chain labor, “workers were doing only what they were good at”.

3- By the way Pierre, I at last saw the Chinese stereotypical behavior that you were telling me about. This Chinese guy was living in the same apartment as me (even though the door of his room was always closed and that he hardly said hello), and on the first day of the workshop, he sat next to me in the computer room. So we had this exercise sheet, with different biological models we were supposed to simulate using some new software during the whole afternoon. Apparently he was a bit lost, and saw that I was progressing in the questions, so asked me “how do you do the first question?”. Well I explained him, or rather he copied what I had on my screen but I think without really understanding. Then I see him struggling with the 2nd question. And he asks me, “how do you do the 2nd question?”. I explain, he says “yes yes yes” and nods, copies my computer screen, and goes on to the next question. Well, what do you know, the 3rd question also wasn’t exactly clear for him. So same thing happens. And this repeats until the point that I stop in the exercise sheet because I want to see some other feature of the software that the teacher didn’t tell us about, and that's not part of the exercise sheet. So, he turns to me and asks me
- How do you do this question?
- Well you know I haven’t done it yet
- You haven’t done it???
- No, I mean, this other feature in the software looked interesting and I wanted to see more of it.
He looks puzzled:
- Oh.
And he immediately left the computer room and didn’t come back for the rest of the afternoon.