A bit of cultural dissonance

by Karen Skoog
“As soon as you walk in the room, on your right or left, a little below shoulder level you will see a small rectangular plate with knobs coming out of it. To illuminate the room, push the knobs upward.” We cannot imagine having to outline these instructions in such detail to anyone when they entered a room. In the United States the placement and function of light switches is so standard that we can locate and use them in the dark. Recently upon entering a hotel in Italy, though the switches were in their usual place, we could not figure out how to turn on the lights. After much experimenting, we called the front desk and were told to insert the key card for the lights to function. We wondered how we would have figured that out without talking to the concierge and why that was not explained to us. They probably could not imagine having to explain “As soon as you walk into the room, …”.