Signatures.

Do you ever spend time thinking about other cultures and how they work? I have had little to no time engulfed in any culture other then American and don't often realize the differences. I am extremely interested in them and the different ways that they do things. At work I tend to see a bit of a range since I work at the bank and people from all over the world use banks.

My first observation is that I can not even pretend to speak a different language though I am very compassionate to those who don't speak my language. I do my best to be very friendly as spending only a week at time in Mexico I can only get a glimpse at how frustrating language barriers can be. Secondly I realize that there are differences in how we write our language. I don't really understand it entirely but I wonder about the signatures in other cultures. People who have been here for quite sometime usually understand that to endorse a check you write your signature (aka often sloppy name in something that can appear as cursive, scribbles and many other forms of signing). If you have not been here for long or just do not understand you will often simply print your name on the line. I see this a lot in the Hispanics that I talk with daily. How do I say "will you please write your name in cursive on the line"? That would seem stupid on my part.

Then I began to wonder about how other cultures write. Do they actually have many ways to write their language like we do? I know grammatically speaking our language can be very difficult for other cultures as apparently we make little sense sometimes. And what about some of the phrases we use? I realize how funny basic expressions are when trying to explain what I just said or asked to the person standing in front of me. So do they have cursive, and shorthand, and calligraphy and the hundreds of scripts it seems we have to write with?

It also made me think about family set-ups and that led me to a discussion with a co-worker. She is from the middle east and often sounds silly trying to offer a customer a credit card as she understands what we say but breaks it down in a much different way when offering it to customers. I just laugh with her but there is so much to try and understand. She is Muslim and so is her family and so I try to find out more about her when time allows. She is married to a man that was arranged by her family. I know that things are different where she lives but I always tease her and tell her I would much rather be single then ever have my real family choose anyone for me. She is also extremely quiet...not anything like me and so I asked her if that was expected of women in her culture or if that was just her. She smiled and said it was just her. I tease her now because she says she is that way at home as well and I never seem to know she is at work. She is so darn quiet she sneaks up and frightens us without meaning to. She told me often her husband does not know she is home. (that will never be one of my problems : )

I guess I am just getting glimpses to other cultures and it is actually very cool. I would much rather learn it this way then through a class. I guess it makes my love for people just that much deeper. I am excited to finally be at a place where I am starting to notice these things and I will see what happens. Now I just hope I can find more time to share at work. God can use anyone at anytime and even if I can't flat out lay out the gospel I hope He is evident in my life and actions. I want to find ways to bring Him up and so still I am still seeking to deepen these relationships. That is all for my late night ponderings tonight.