Personal Space Differences
By Angélica Conde
Our perspectives on personal space are often heavily influenced by the norms of the places we inhabit.
I like a story Dr. John J. Ivers tells.
"When I was a little kid, I lived in a neighborhood in Philadelphia that was occupied by a lot of German Jewish people who had fled the Holocaust. There was a lady that lived near my house right across the street, and her name was Mrs. Osher. And Mrs. Osher didn't speak any English, and I hated Mrs. Osher. Because every time I got near Mrs. Osher's yard, she would come out yelling and screaming, every time. I didn't know what she was saying, but I knew it wasn't good.
And so, you know, my buddy used to say, "Oh, that's just Mrs. Ochsner. She doesn't want you near her yard." I wouldn't even be in her yard—I'd get close to her yard! And all of a sudden that lady would be out of that house, yelling and screaming at me in German. And now I kind of know what was going on, because again their personal space is sacred and their living space is sacred, and I was intruding upon her living space".
I live in South America and the norms here are really different than in Germany.
There is a graphic that can help you to better understand.
Even though this graphic shows you the idea of personal space in my culture, there is a very controversial practice, especially in my country, and maybe it also happens in other Latin American countries.
I'm talking about public transport, lines in supermarkets, etc.
Public transport is a place where personal space is not respected at all.
At peak times it's a competition of who gets on the bus first, sometimes without respecting the lines a crowd approaches to try to get on the bus as soon as possible and sometimes there is not even space to move. The funny thing is when someone arrives at their destination stop, to get off they push everyone or sometimes the people near the door of the bus get off to facilitate transit and then get back on.
Covid-19 redefines personal space world over:
But hey, Covid-19 brought with it many changes in the lives of people worldwide, and one of the most important practices to protect ourselves from Covid-19 is to maintain a social distance of no less than 6 feet. Then the personal space was respected much more, we saw the changes in public and private transport, the famous supermarket lines, the capacity allowed in public places, education changed
The pandemic influenced every culture around the world, even keeping us distanced from our family members who live in another house, those who belong to our closest circle.
I know that the situation is very different in each country at the moment. In some countries the majority of their population has already been vaccinated, in others, they are still making progress in this task, and we still continue to take care of ourselves and we continue to maintain the respective social distance.
Face-to-face education could no longer be carried out and we went on to study virtually. As a teacher, I have always liked to respect the personal space of each of my students, despite belonging to the same culture, some of my students have considered me in their closest space as friends, they have hugged me regularly and others have not. And it is something that I respect a lot, I respect each one individually. And with that, I would like to be very emphatic because I have seen teachers who hug their students without their wanting it and make them feel very uncomfortable and ashamed.
But again, as I indicated at the beginning, Covid-19 brought education to the screens as in many other countries, and something that I miss so much is that personal interaction with my students, and the many hugs that I received.
👀What is your experience about the different ways personal space takes place in your country?
References:
Personal space differences - Dr. John J. Ivers
NPR Code switch - How different cultures handle personal space.
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