Culture Shock
In 2006 I moved far from home; New York to Seattle. This is my story.
Even though Seattle and New York are on the same continent, in the same country, and share the same language, to a native New Yorker, Seattle is another country. There are the obvious differences: New York has distinct seasons with wide temperature variations. Seattle has seasons but the major variation is the amount of rain. New York has over 200 sunny days a year. Seattle, 40. Both cities have about the same rainfall. New York’s comes down in heavy rain storms. Seattle’s drizzles on and on and on. There are many physical differences. Both cities have a lot of wonderful features. They are different. Very different.
New Yorkers get a bad rap for being impatient, aggressive, and demanding. Certainly visitors to the City can get that impression. The thing is that New Yorkers in New York have some behavioral codes that to outsiders looks like bad behavior.
New Yorkers Are Impatient
Sometimes this is stated as “rude” or “pushy”. Ok, in our own city we have high expectations in terms of service. My theory is that since there is so much of everything in New York, competition for our dollars and attention is fierce. One tactic to do more business is to offer good, fast service. So, it isn’t hard to see why over time people would get used to that level of service. There is another side to this contract. If you expect fast service, you need to supply the information the service-provider needs in concise form to facilitate the transaction. That’s no problem for natives. We know that “regular coffee” means a medium sized cup of coffee with milk and two teaspoons of sugar. If anything else is desired, the request is packed tightly. For example, I like my coffee with no sugar and fat-free milk. My order, “Medium coffee with skim”. No need to discuss sugar if you don’t want any. Note that in new york, fat-free milk is still called by its old name, “skim milk”.
Seattle is a totally different story. People don’t expect things to happen quickly. Food and beverage orders are long-form, and people are very content to wait for service. As a new Seattle resident I had to learn that the pace is considerably slower. This can be exasperating. It sure is for me. But since as a good traveler I know that I have to adapt to local customs, I have learned to patiently wait while the person in line (in New York we say “on line”) in front of me does a detailed interview with the server about the nuances of various menu items. One thing that people in Seattle tend to do: they wait until the last possible second to make a decision; any decision. So, before ordering a muffin, there is a mandatory period of greeting, inquiring about health, commenting about the weather (always cloudy), and a careful analysis of the available options. After this process is complete, the order is taken, and filled. Objectvely speaking, the extra two or three minutes this transaction takes probably adds considerable pleasure and humanity to both the customer and server. But to a New Yorker who has to be at the office in ten minutes and is standing on line behind ten people, the thought of waiting nearly a half hour for a cup of coffee and a buttered roll is intolerable.
All this is just a quick taste of what I want to write here. This blog will chronicle my adventures here at the frontier and wil offer my opinions of food, places to eat, entertainment, and hidden gems in both New York and Seattle. I hope that this will stimulate comments that will further enhance the body of knowledge about what makes both places interesting.