Long time ago, during my restless youth, I remember studying about different types of languages and the connection between mentality and language. I was surprised to find out that, for instance, some African ethnic groups don`t even have a word for ‘waiting’. The reason is quite obvious: their lifestyle does not imply waiting at any moment in their lives.
I had to come to Sweden to find out were the concept of waiting came into being. That`s right, here, in Sweden. Swedes must have invented the idea and also gave it a name ‘vänta’. Every single thing you ask for or want to do here involves a lot of waiting. People are queuing for a visit to the doctor, for talking to a bank clerk (even if there is no other client there you still need to get a queue number), at the drugstore and so on. There are waiting lists for everything.
Almost all my fellow expats seem to be frustrated about all this waiting. I am wondering how Africans can cope with it-or maybe they just belong to some ethic groups that have already accepted waiting in their daily routine.
The most shocking thing was to hear my 2 year old son saying his first word ever: vänta ! Then I was lost for words...
