6 Jul 2005 roozbeh   » (Master)

Cultural differences: In a recent meeting, someone (the person who first told me about Unicode in 1997 or so) was telling me that how his western customers could not understand our social situation. He was telling me about a colleague's father's funeral, and how it was not understandable for the contact person in the western customer organization that the colleague would need two weeks off for that, because of things that Iranian people expect when someone dies, which includes five ceremonies (one as soon as possible, one on the third night of death, one on the seventh, one on the fortieth, and one the next year) which usually have a mosque version open for all and then sometimes a limited one after the mosque usually in the dead person's home. That is apart from the burial ceremony, when people nearer to the dead person are expected to be present during the whole process, which included washing the body. It's also apart from what is called The First Eid, which is the first public celebration (about ten in a year for Shia Iranians) after the fortieth day of one's death, where the family is supposed to take out the black clothes, and everyone comes and visits them.

But it also happens the other way: I remember the first time I read the LaTeX manual, and how it used gnus, etc. all over the xamples. I didn't know there was a GNU project then, and didn't get the jokes that talked about "a big animal". But that could have happened to everyone. The best examples are references to The Lord of the Rings or, worse than that, the Discworld series, or the worst of all, The Monty Python. How is a reader of an English technical books outside the western mindset is supposed to have heard about Monty Python or be able to understand its jokes (it was sometimes very hard for me the get the jokes when we were watching them at Michael's home in Dublin, which resulted in Michael pausing the movie several times and explaining the cultural background), let alone having seen the movies a few times and recalling the jokes when one is reading a technical book. (Update: I didn't mean that the references to LoTR, Discworld, and Monty Python were in the LaTeX manual. They were spread in several different books. I don't necessary remember all the cases, but since I have only recently read Discworld, I was recently attracted to mentions of "Rincewind" and "Unseen University" in The LaTeX Graphics Companion.)

The basic effect is that when one (in the third world, or the east) reads those technical books, he doesn't get any of the niceties. He misses the psychological hints that helps him learn about the technical matter and remember them later.

You know the number of Iranians (living in Iran) I know who have read any of the Discworld books? One, myself. (I've read about seven of them, I guess.) I don't think I am not well connected to the science fiction and fantasy community in Iran, but I don't even know many people in that community who have even heard of Pratchett. They're probably ten or so. As a hardcore Iranian SFF fan, do you know how much I knew about any Tolkien thing when I borrowed The Hobbit (in English) about six or seven years ago? I had never heard his name. Do you know when I could finally get my hand on The Fellowship of the Ring? In 2001, when I first travelled outside Iran independently.

But let's get back to the main thread. I really have no clue how we can overcome these cultural burdens. But believe me, learing the language is not enough. People like me are forced to live the culture. And that's too high a price to pay for simply being efficient in today's world and be able to work outside borders.

I really hope I will not be forced to live more than the two that I'm currently living. My short contacts with the Indians and the Chinese were shocking, but well, I guess I can understand Brazilians to some degree.

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