Phone Etiquette

Why is it that some people are not aware of how to use phones in public situations? They don't put their phones on silent at the cinema, they talk loudly on public transport or prefer to communicate on their phone rather than with the person in front of them?

I often see the panic on people's faces to respond to their phone during a lesson even when I am waiting for an answer to a question I have just asked. It seems that we sometimes pay more attention to this little devices than to the people around us as if this type of 'human' contact is more important.

Another things that irritates the hell out of me is when people decide to share their taste in music in public spaces. Headphones? No? If the music was good I wouldn't mind so much but it's always the same type of Euro disco crap. I have often thought about counteracting this by blaring some Neil Young or some Simon and Garfunkle on a bus or train just to see the reaction.

The interesting thing is that mobile phones are still a relatively new piece of technology but can we spend time without them? How did we contact each other in the past? I guess it was more about planning in advance. Perhaps we were more punctual as we had no way to inform someone we were going to be late.

Of course, there are some people who don't use them. Once I heard about a manager of a language school who doesn't have a phone yet somehow she manages. Try going out without one for a day. It's a very liberating experience.

Who Needs a Map?

The stereotype regarding men not using maps is unfortunately true for me. I don't like maps and prefer to get lost and then find my way again (not only in a spiritual sense).

Yesterday is a perfect example. I had a lesson on a street I'd never been to before which was the first warning. Before leaving home I did check the address online and made a mental note of a street beginning with the letter 's' that I had to cross before taking a right at a street name ending with 'eho'.

To my mind I was well-prepared so out I went.

Of course you can imagine what happened. I found one street beginning with the 's' I was looking for but it didn't lead me to the street name ending in 'eho'.

I don't have a smart phone and of course I hadn't taken my map with me. Time was ticking and the last thing I needed was to be late for the first lesson with this student. Thankfully people are quite helpful in Bratislava but unfortunately the street I was looking for didn't seem to be popular. After asking many people, including one who even checked on her smart phone while nervously looking up in anticipation of her bus (mental note -  don't ask people for directions at bus stops), I decided to walk in the direction I instinctively guessed it was.

The problem now is that I may not learn my lesson because I found the street without a map and was even early for the lesson. All the stress soon faded once I spotted the street name which matched to the one on the student's business card. All the anxiety was forgotten replaced by manly pride.

An Unedited Entry

I am not going to go very deep into certain matters but simply give an overview of what I think. This may perhaps be very simple and not very well thought out but it's what I am feeling at this current moment in time having briefly read through some of the events going on in the world today, mainly the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the shooting down of the MH17 plane in Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists.

You might argue that I have not used my words correctly in describing the above and have a lot to argue against this but this but the main point of this blog entry is to express sadness that these things are happening and have happened. I can also count myself very fortunate to be in a position that is very far removed from such events and cannot imagine how it must be to directly be involved or affected by them.

Of course there are a lot of tragic things going on in the world that are not highlighted in the media that I often turn to such as the BBC, The Guardian and other social media. Often I am desensitised to news reports of the loss of life but sometimes it is too hard to ignore the darkness of human nature and the horrific actions this can lead to.

Right now, I appreciate where I am and consider my problems petty in comparison to others. I also contemplate if it is worthwhile to be informed at times. I know it is important to know what is going on in the world even if it makes me feel that my own existence is quite unimportant in the grander scheme of things. However, I do still believe that little gestures count for something and have to hold on to the idea that we all do make a difference.