It’s Gett’n Hot in Here
So first things first to lay the premise - I’m one part of a newly married couple. I myself am am an American-born Korean and my wife is a student immigrant from Korea. As we’re both designers of the same age and attended the same graduate school, we very much enjoy similar things and live life to the same rhythm.
Except for one drastic difference.
Each morning, my wife will get out of bed and call for Siri on her iPhone - “Hey Siri, what’s today’s temperature?” Besides the obvious discomfort of having a British-accented and articulate male responding eagerly to my wife in the wee morning, what’s to come is even more distressing. “Today will be about 15 degrees outside.” What, 15?? In April??
Obviously, it’s unlikely that we’ll have sub-freezing temperatures even in New York at this time. Each morning I have to remind myself that it isn’t 15 degrees Farenheit but instead Celcius. I don’t think Americans will ever get used to the fact that the rest of the world holds a different ruler to the world.
This might just be one of the most contentious bits of culture that define the US and the rest of world. American individuality at one point seeped into their rationale and instead of adopting the metric system, decided that Feet and Yards and Miles were a more compelling alternative.
Foreigners (at least 1 in my wife) seem to love poking fun at this every time they get. My wife tells me stories of her time in her landscape architecture program and purposefully using meters when describing her work to colleagues. An attempt to mask confusion always ensues.
The Devil is in the Details
This topic is usually brushed off as “oh you silly Americans”/“oh you silly Europeans,” but I thought it might be interesting to contextualize in a particular situation like my marriage. Interracial and international marriages are becoming increasingly common, less stigmatized, and more readily available as an option as universities and borders become more porous. More progressive-leaning folk have taken up a motto of “love is love” and like to dismiss the real points of friction that might come up between two people of different races, nationalities, religions, etc.
Cultural, social, and even economic differences obviously make up some of the biggest rifts between two partners. But even when ethnicity, demographic, and lifestyle line up in the way me and my wife do, there are still seemingly insignificant yet nonetheless notable things that may cause a point of conflict.
In my case, obviously a simple conversion from C to F is of no cause for distress or any real concern. But the fundamental difference in engrained culture can quickly scale to subsume the way anything is done between two partners.
I thought I’d share this little point of view and maybe get your experiences. Have you noticed noteworthy differences between you and you (life or business) partner?
Let me know in the comments below. Steem on!
