Welcome back to the deep dive. Today we're looking at something well a bit surprising. It's from Edward T. Hall's classic book, The Silent Language. He points out that even with billions spent on foreign aid, the US often uh doesn't really win hearts and minds abroad, right? Sometimes it even backfires, creates resentment, and you ask why. Exactly. And Hall's argument, which is fascinating, is that a lot of it comes down to what he calls ethnosentrism. You know that blind spot where we just assume our way of doing things is the only way that and not understanding the non-verbal language precisely. It's more than just hand gestures. It's these deep often unconscious patterns of behavior, how we use space, things like that. And crucially for today, how we handle time. Okay, so that's our mission for this deep dive. We're going to explore just that one aspect. How different cultures see and use time because Hall says time talks. It absolutely does and its message can be much louder than anything we actually you know say out loud. So let's start with us maybe the western view particularly the American one. How do we see time? Well for Americans time tends to be very fixed. Yeah. It's linear right like a road or a ribbon stretching out ahead. Yeah. You think about moving forward in time and it's segmented. Yeah. We like to do one thing at a time. We think of it like money. You can uh earn it, spend it, save it or waste it. Or waste it. Exactly. And being on time, promptness, that's hugely important. Schedules are almost sacred. That makes sense. I mean, think about getting a phone call really late after 11:00 p.m. or super early, right? Your first thought is, "Wow, this must be incredibly urgent or maybe someone's playing a prank, being rude." Mhm. That reaction itself is our time system speaking loud and clear. Okay, so that's one perspective. How does it compare elsewhere? You mentioned Latin America. Yeah. Hall points to a much more let's say flexible approach there. It's quite common to hear people ask American time or Mexican time or Americana meaning are we talking precise time or something else? Something with more give. Yeah. People might have several jobs going at once. Appointments aren't always rigid. Things flow differently. And that leads to those classic culture clashes, right? Like the story of the American agricultural attaches. Oh, that's a great example. He had an appointment with a minister in a Latin American country. He waited 45 minutes and probably felt completely disrespected. Totally. He felt insulted, apparently stormed out. But what he didn't get was that in that specific cultural context, a 45minute wait was uh just barely at the beginning of what might be considered a significant delay. Wow. So it wasn't personal malice. Not at all. It was just two different unconscious time systems bumping into each other. Okay, that's a really clear illustration. What about places where the future itself feels different? Paul mentions the Middle East, right? Specifically Iran and Afghanistan in his examples. He observed that the future there often seems to have little reality or certainty compared to the American focus on planning and future outcomes. And how does that play out? Well, he tells this story about an American trying to teach in Iran. plans for a party just kept dissolving because messages would get passed along but without any real urgency or checking if the person could even act on the information in time or that amazing anecdote from Kabool. A man agrees to meet his brother. It's simple enough, but then he adds neither of them had said what year. What year? That really puts our obsession with schedules into perspective, doesn't it? And you don't even have to go that far. Think about the PBlo Indians in the US Southwest. Their sense of timing for events is completely different. Right. Things begin when the time is right, not by the clock. Exactly. He describes white visitors freezing at a PBLO, waiting for a Christmas dance to start, trying to guess the hour. Expecting a fixed start time like 8:00 p.m. sharp or something. Yeah. But then maybe at 2:00 a.m. suddenly the drums start. It begins when things are ready, internally ready, not when the clock says so. It's a totally different rhythm. And then there are the True Keys people in the Southwest Pacific. Their concept is maybe the most uh mindbending. It really challenges our assumptions. For the true keys, according to Hall, time does not heal. The past doesn't really fade away. And what does that mean exactly? It just stays present. Kind of. Past events stack up. They're treated almost as if they had just occurred. He mentions a murder being reported 17 years later. 17 years. Yeah. or land disputes from the 1890s still being totally current and uh acrimonious in 1946 like no time had passed. That's incredible. And they struggled with simultaneous events, too. Right. The idea of Arty Moses sending a wireless message from Tokyo. His family back home apparently refused to believe he'd said anything. Why? Because he was away. How could he communicate from far away? Now, it breaks our fundamental understanding of time and space working together. It does. So, pulling this all together, what's the takeaway? Paul is really clear. These aren't backward or illogical ways of dealing with time. They're just different systems. Exactly. Different deeply ingrained communication systems. He uses the analogy of music. You need a sort of primer to even begin to understand the cultural score. Yeah. And ignoring this, especially in international relations, is where the problems really start. He calls it a grievous sin. all that wasted effort, the lost goodwill simply because we don't understand these silent languages like the language of time. So, the real lesson isn't just about learning how other people see time, interesting as that is, it's about realizing our own assumptions about time are invisible to us, but very visible and sometimes offensive to others. That's the core of it. We need to question our own normal to actually connect effectively. So, this deep dive really shows how much our behavior, even around something basic like time, is constantly sending messages. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? What silent messages might you be sending without even knowing it? Not just overseas, but maybe even at work or uh at home. Mhm. Maybe it really is time to start tuning into that silent language all around us. Okay, let's unpack this. Today, we're doing a deep dive into something uh really fascinating. It's what some call the silent language of culture. Exactly. How societies communicate in ways we barely even notice. And we're going to use this interesting framework borrowed from linguistics actually thinking about cultural sets isolates and patterns. Mhm. Our goal really is to decode some surprising truths about how we experience the world specifically through well time and space. Seems simple. Anything but simple as we'll see. Before we jump right in, maybe let's quickly touch on that framework. Sets isolates patterns. Good idea. So, think of sets as like the basic building blocks, distinct things a culture recognizes like words or categories, right? Individual pieces, right? Then isolates are the core concepts, the sort of underlying ideas or assumptions, the big picture things. Got it. And patterns. Patterns are the rules, the unspoken grammar, you could say, for how those sets and isolates fit together and how you're supposed to use them. the hidden language itself. Okay, I think I follow. Yeah, together they shape so much of our reality without us thinking about it. So, let's start with time. It feels universal, doesn't it? You know, 24 hours in a day, same for everyone. It feels that way, but culturally it's incredibly varied. What's really interesting in say American culture is how time is often treated almost like a a thing, a commodity, a set in that framework. Exactly. A distinct set. It's something you can buy, sell, save, waste. We talk about spending time, investing time. Precisely. And this reflects our very structured formal time system. Minutes count. Punctuality is huge. Oh yeah. And here's where it gets interesting for you listening. Think about that like five minute rule in the Eastern US. Being just a few minutes late, you feel you have to mutter an apology, right? Absolutely. That's a deeply ingrained informal pattern. It dictates not just schedules, but social judgments. Value. It really does. And if you contrast that, think about parts of the Eastern Mediterranean Arab world. Their informal time sets might be much broader, fewer distinct units. Fewer units like what? Well, maybe just concepts like no time at all. Now, maybe later, and forever, much less granular. Wow. Okay. So, there's that classic story, right? A diplomat arrives maybe 50 minutes late for a meeting with an American ambassador. 50 minutes. The American must have been furious. probably was, but for the diplomat within his cultural pattern, that might have been perfectly acceptable even on time in a relational sense. So, it wasn't meant as disrespect. Not necessarily. No, it's a clash of these underlying informal patterns about what time even means and how relationships fit into. It leads to huge misunderstandings. So, okay, connecting back to the framework, our American cultural isolates for time often include things like monochronism. Yeah. doing one thing at a time, focusing on the schedule and this constant sense of urgency. Things have to happen now, right? Very different from more polychronic cultures where multitasking is common and uh maintaining relationships might take precedence over sticking to a strict schedule. It really sounds like our whole cultural programming shapes not just how we use time, but what we fundamentally think time is. That's the core of it. The aha moment is realizing the very substance of time. Its meaning isn't fixed. It's culturally constructed. Okay, mindine's slightly blown. Let's shift to space. That also speaks volumes, doesn't it? Oh, absolutely. You know that feeling someone sits in your chair or takes over your side of the closet or even just stands a bit too close in a queue? That immediate sometimes quite strong emotional reaction. Yeah, that's usually rooted in territoriality. It's another one of those powerful informal patterns that extends way beyond just property lines. So these spatial cues, the distances, the zones, they trigger unconscious stuff deeply unconscious. Yeah. Our culture teaches a certain comfort distance, a personal bubble, and violations feel wrong. Intrusion. So if someone from another culture crowds you on, say, the subway, it might feel like rudeness to you based on your pattern, right? But for them, for them, their pattern might involve much closer proximity, less emphasis on avoiding casual contact with strangers. Yeah. It's just normal. Yeah. So again, a clash of patterns, not necessarily bad intentions. Okay. So that's personal space, but how else do cultures sort of carve up space differently beyond just that bubble? That's a great question because it goes much deeper. Take Trukis culture for instance. They might define open spaces, areas without clear dividing lines, as distinct sets. They actually have names for these specific types of open spaces. So, not just field or beach, but more specific named categories of open space. Exactly. And even something like say the intricate carving on a canoe prow that might be considered its own set, a distinct entity with its own essence. Wow. How does that play out? Well, it can affect things like land claims, ownership, responsibilities. If a particular named space or even that canoe carving set has significance, it changes how boundaries and ownership are understood. It's not just the physical object, but the conceptual category it falls into. That completely reframes how you'd think about ownership or even just navigating the world. It's not just what our eyes see. No, it's how our culture has taught us to break down reality, to uh cut nature up into meaningful pieces, sets, and then arrange them according to patterns. Our patterns for space, just like time, aren't just about comfort. They literally help define our perceived reality. It seems so obvious once you point it out, but we just don't see it usually. And that's the key takeaway, really. Recognizing these implicit hidden patterns in how we handle time and space. Yeah. It's not just academic. It's crucial for deeper intercultural understanding. Seeing past the surface behavior to the underlying cultural logic. Precisely. It shows just how much our everyday reality, what feels natural or right is shaped by these unwritten, unspoken cultural rules. So, what does this all mean for you listening right now? Maybe the challenge is to keep your eyes and ears open. Start noticing. You might surprise yourself just how much this silent language is shaping your own daily life, your interactions, your feelings, all without you consciously realizing it. And understanding these hidden rules, it gives you a bit more freedom from their automatic grip. And maybe, just maybe, a bit more empathy when you encounter patterns different from your own. A fascinating thought to leave you