Shayne's Crazy Makdo Life

Cross-Cultural Moment of the Week

As I've mentioned, Peace Corps came and filmed my counterpart, Emilija, and I in a class and then interviewed both of us for two different videos they're making to help both future prospective sites and future volunteers. Ever since then, Emilija has been asking me non-stop if anyone from the office has said anything to me about it and how we were. I told her that it was mentioned when I was in the office on Friday and that everyone said that we did a great job. But, this wasn't enough for her. Now, I love Emilija to death and she's by far my closest Macedonian friend here. She's also a lot more open-minded than your average Macedonian. This causes me to forget that she's still Macedonian. So, after about a week of hearing her ask me if anyone's said anything, I finally sorta blew up at her and said, "Emilija! I don't know why you're obsessing over this!! I told you what they said, what else do you want?" She then explained to me that in Macedonian culture, it's really common for people to basically lie to your face and say you did a good job on something and then badmouth you to everyone else. It's sorta a saving face thing- they'd rather lie and make you happy and then tell everyone else how bad you were instead of just telling it to your face. This really clashes with my direct American attitude, which is why I was so bothered by it. But, as soon as Emilija explained it to me like that, I realized that it was a big cultural difference that I forgot to take into account. I then reassured her that I would tell her the truth and that as far as I knew, they thought we did a good jeoarb. It helped too that the next day, in our weekly memo, the filming was mentioned and they once again said we were really great. Emilija was finally satisfied after she saw it in writing. But, I felt really bad for blowing up at her. I also felt foolish for being so blind to that big difference between our cultures. I've been here over a year and half now and I'm still learning things every day...

posted by Shayne @ 7:36 PM