Is Right of Way Right?

As with any two countries or cultures, there are always irreconcilable differences in social customs, that when visiting a place, are difficult to get used to. The western idea of "right of way" is one of them. In traditional Euro-American culture, we take turns, and make space for others when appropriate.

Many asian cultures, whether by tradition or by density do not have the same space bubble that other cultures have. Even in Vancouver, I am sometimes annoyed when Vancouverites of Asian descent (usually first generation) step out in front of me with out looking, or cut me off. With the hope of not sounding racist, this is a lack of understanding on my part, as I have not experieced this with a group from any other part of the world, and I'm not even sure if its indemic to every Asian coutry or only some.

When I visited China this was apparent, and a friend who visited Korea once, sat down in an empty park with friends to have a picnic, only to have a local group come and sit down right next to them. The Philippines has not noticeably been extreme in this case, except when it comes to driving and in other small ways.

Where as in North America, we wait until the traffic lights change, or when coming onto a main road from a side street, we wait until the other traffic has passed. Here on the other hand a vehicle coming off a side street will push its way into traffic regardless. Other drivers will continually swerve around this person, until they can no longer possibly do so. It is unusual to me (although I have experienced it before) but it seems to work, like most systems, since everyone knows how it operates and acts accordingly.

Another example of this different approach follows. Yesterday I visited baranguay San Jose with a few people from the city Mayor's Office. A few got in the back of the van, and then Melissa jumped in on the front bench and said, " you can sit here or in the front". The front seat had things on it so I decided to sit in the back. When she didn't move, I thought maybe it was her way of suggesting the front seat would be better, but in actuality she expected me to get in passed her, because I guess she likes to sit by the door.

Visiting other countries always does a good job of letting you know exactly how little you know about people. It is somewhat unfair to say "we" or "our culture" when talking about what I'm used to as well, because of course, Canada is made up of a lot of "we's" and many different cultures. So the important lesson to learn is that different ways of doing things, work for different people. There isn't necessarily a best way for anything.