p3x.deConfort with silence in different countries
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submitted 2 weeks ago by
Jeena@piefed.jeena.net
So I'm from Germany but I live in Korea. And especially in the beginning when I arrived here as a agile coach for a big automotive supplier company where I was supposed to teach them the new processes and so on it was terrifying.
I would do a presentation of something and then my expectation was that we would talk about parts of it and there would be follow up questions about details, etc. but more often than not there was just silence. And that would eat me up inside to a degree where some times I would complain about it and just cut the meetings short.
Over time I realized that they are comfortable sitting and thinking about what I showed them.
But it's still difficult for me :D
in turkey I could sit on the floor of a subway without issue talking with my friends at a pretty loud tone and no one would mind
I think I would be totally castrated if it was one of the Asian countries though
I'm dumb, wtf is this
Some countries placed by how socially awkward it is to stay silent in a group, from more to less.
A post on the fediverse.
How comfortable with silence are people in different countries.
In the immortal words of Uma Thurman:
That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.
You wanted to divide the countries in 3 groups, and the order within each group is meaningless, right? Because there's no way it's correct.
It's not my picture, it's one from a presentation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Meyer gave some time ago.
Ah So.
Canada isn’t on there because we are too cold to be comfortable at any noise level
...soo, what did you all do for your Thanksgiving?
When was it?
Today! (just "filling the silence" over here)
Look down their feet and don’t elaborate
Not much, you?
Are you sure they are comfortable just sitting? Agile is extreamly dysfunctional in most companies... When I was in agile meetings at some previous jobs, I just zoned out too. Listened to music. :)
Now I'm at a company without any agile practices and it's fucking amazing. It's exactly like when working on projects in university. Don't need any agile coaches. Just work and talk to manager directly about progress. It's just so good.
We have no standups, almost no meetings. Just focused work and lots of funny chats during the day. People are happy and content.
For me, working without agile has been a game changer. I'm never going back to that. Now I'm happy again.
Are y'all hiring over there? That sounds amazing
Haha, touche! They would still follow the new style because their management made them.
UK should be in twice there. Londoners on the tube during the evening rush hour are *extremely* comfortable with silence.
This made me wonder... What "silence" are we talking about here? "Not talking" or "no noise"?
Not talking
If comfortable with noise was also charted, Japan would top that list as well.
I've never experienced such auditory and visual assault as I have there. The busy visitor centre for a national park had a door that chimed when it opened, a little doodad that sung a tinny electronic song every thirty seconds, two televisions with different audio tracks playing about the various peaceful natural wonders you're about to experience, a vending machine that had a little ditty it would chirp out, the toilet spoke to you, saying what I can only assume to be was "Hello! Thank you for choosing me to take care of you today! I hope you had a good shit! Have a good day!".
Oh you're right similar in Korea, Taxis have a navigation which speaks constantly, they have the radio or TV on and they are on the phone at the same time.
relevant
So how was this measured?
with a big gray arrow
Seems about right. But why is Zimbabwe in Red? That's no the same continent as all the other red countries.
Also what's going on with yellow? It has Nigeria + west asia
Actually I just found the picture online, and I have no idea what the coloring is supposed to mean.
This is basically why I moved from New Jersey to Japan.
I'm Brazilian and I often love silence.
Wasn't aware that tolerance to silence can actually be a cultural thing, that's pretty fascinating.
In some countries, being silent is actually an interrogation technique since people tend to be uncomfortable with it and instinctually try to make some noise, be it through universal language or just talking which can make you reveal information you otherwise wouldn't have shared.
So, in Japan they’d complain about how loud and talkative the Finns are?
Those Finns never shut up.
I'm from Sweden, and it varies a lot even inside our country. People from the southern regions are more like Danish people and talk quite a bit. People from the northern most regions though, there uncomfortably comfortable with silence.
from greater stockholm, and although people here are fairly quiet i think i cant wait to see if theres a difference after moving to luleå for uni