One of the most fascinating effects of moving to a new place is that for a few days and weeks nothing is obvious and everything requires attention. The same happens when migrating into a new language, but right now I’m thinking of my interaction with physical surroundings – something Goffman would think about, if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with micro-interactions with humans. I have to admit that I am a bit of a Latourian, after all.
I grappled with this sensation a bit here, but today I want to be a legislator (or a car mechanic) instead of a poet. Here is a blunt list of the minutiae of my new, non-automatised life, quoted from my internal conversation – think of these as citations from an ongoing interview with myself which I record in my memory in lieu of a voice-recorder. In fact, you don’t need to read the list.
- How far is work? How far is home? How on earth do I cycle in the middle of the road? Ah, that’s a bike lane and everybody does it. OK then…
- When are national holidays? What happens when there is one? (one happened to be on the very next day, 3 October and I was dying to find out).
- What kind of stuff can you buy in a pharmacy? What does it mean when someone tells you that “private healthcare in Germany is very cheap”? (I did ask. It turned out that a “simple consultation costs no more than 70 Euro”. I was so shocked I almost choked on my tea).
- What time do shops close in the evening?
- How do I ask the shop assistant, well, anything?
- Are bags free in the supermarket?
- How cold does it get in the evenings?
- What does the S-Bahn ticket say – I mean, I understand the words, but somehow the meaning doesn’t quite make sense. Can I really take any type of transport within 2 hours? Let me read the instructions again…
- Which way is the exit from the metro? Yes, I see the arrow. But it is ambiguous. Everything is ambiguous. I feel stupid and slow.
- How many bikers are likely to overtake me on the bike lane at 8 pm on a weekday? How fast and how impatiently are they likely to be? Will they honk or will they just whizz past?
- How much pressure do I need to apply on the bike lock in order to lock or unlock it?
- The key in the front gate doesn’t turn. A moment of panic as I turn it again and again in the dark, my hands full of shopping bags and a bike.
- I’m in. How long do I have before the light in the staircase goes off?
- Ah, the light has now really gone off and I’m already up the stairs. How many steps are there between floor 1 and 2? How high is each steps? Where is the banister?
- Where are the light switches located?
- Is this thing my fingers have just found on the wall in the dark the light switch or the neighbour’s doorbell?
- Which of the two keylocks should I unlock first, the top or the bottom one? Which way to turn the key? And which of the two round keys belongs to which lock?
- How fast will the water evaporate from the pot with boiling potatoes on this cooker?
- In which drawer are the tea spoons?
- When I get up at night, do I turn left or right to get to the kitchen?
See also:
T. Wheatley and D. M. Wegner (2001) Automaticity of Action, Psychology of (online pdf, very informative entry in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences)
Russell J ed. 1997 Autism as an Executie Disorder. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Bargh J A 1994 The four horsemen of automaticity: Awareness, intention, efficiency, andcontrolinsocialcognition. In:Wyer Jr.
R S, Srull T K (eds.) Handbook of Social Cognition, 2nd edn. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, Vol. 1, pp.1-40
Categories: The Idle Ethnographer