Recently a friend told me about an experience a friend of his had had while visiting Sweden for work. While he was there, the company assigned a Swedish colleague to watch out for him. Every day the Swedish colleague would drive him to the office fairly early, while the parking lot was still pretty much empty.
The first day, he was puzzled to notice that in spite of the cold weather, his colleague parked the car at the far end of the parking lot, so that they needed to walk the entire length of the lot to get to the door. This happened day after day. Each day they arrived at a near empty lot, and each day they would park far away from the entrance and walk through the cold to get inside.
Finally my friend’s friend asked why they didn’t just park the car near the entrance. The Swedish colleague explained that some employees, for various reasons, could not arrive early. Those who could generally arrive early would park far away from the entrance. This made it possible for those who came later – who might be in danger of being late for a meeting unless they could get inside quickly – to find a spot close to the door.
I could be wrong, but somehow I suspect that this would never happen in the United States.
That’s an interesting urban myth, which I’ve already heard in 4 languages 🙂
It makes you wonder, though!
I agree. I have another example for you: in Japan, if someone thinks she might be getting a cold, she wears a facemask. They’re stuffy and uncomfortable, and make you look like a bank robber or surgeon, but people do it just to prevent others from getting infected.
Ah, that’s a good point about Japan. I observed that as well when I was there.
Miguel, maybe it’s actually true in all four languages. 🙂