Go Go Americans (First Part)

Americans believe no one stands still. If you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind. This attitude results in a nation of people committed to researching, experimenting and exploring. Time is one of the two elements that Americans save carefully, the other being labor¹.

这段里

"We are slaves to nothing but the clock," it has been said. Time is treated as if it were something almost tangible². We budget it, save it, waste it, steal it, kill it, cut it, account for it; we also charge for it. It is a precious commodity. Many people have a rather acute sense of the shortness of each lifetime. Once the sands have run out of a person's hourglass, they cannot be replaced. We want every minute to count.A foreigner's first impression of the U.S. is likely to be that everyone is in a rush --- often under pressure. City people appear always to be hurrying to get where they are going, restlessly seeking attention in a store, elbowing others as they try to complete their errands. Racing³ through daytime meals is part of the pace of life in this country. Working time is considered precious. Others in public eating-places are waiting for you to finish so they too can be served and get back to work within the time allowed. Each person hurries to make room for the next person. If you don't waiters will hurry you.

You also find drivers will be abrupt⁵ and that people will push past you. You will miss smiles, brief conversations, small courtesies with strangers. Don't take it personally. This is because people value time highly, and they resent someone else “wasting” it beyond a certain courtesy point.

This view of time affects the importance we attach to patience. In the American system of values, patience is not a high priority. Many of us have what might be called “a short fuse.” We begin to move restlessly about if we feel time is slipping away without some return --- be this in terms of pleasure, work value, or rest. Those coming from lands where time is looked upon differently may find this matter of pace to be one of their most difficult adjustments in both business and daily life.

用重点词组slip away造个句子吧——点这里——我要去论坛造句练练手

Many newcomers to the States will miss the opening courtesies of a business call, for example. They will miss the ritual socializing that goes with a welcoming cup of tea or coffee that may be traditional in their own country. They may miss leisurely⁶ business chats in a café of coffee house. Normally, Americans do not assess their visitors in such relaxed surroundings over prolonged small talk; much less do they take them out for dinner, or around on the golf course while they develop a sense of trust and rapport⁷. Rapport to most of us is less important than performance. We seek out evidence of past performance rather than evaluate a business colleague through social courtesies. Since we generally assess and probe professionally rather than socially, we start talking business very quickly.

[NextPage]

　多数美国人是按照活动日程表所制定的时间段来生活的。为了节省时间，无数电子通讯装置被发明。严格来说，一件工作所用时间和它的重要性并没有太大关系。在美国，很快解决问题或很快胜利完成任务，是一个人有能力的表现。工作中不会有太多客套，美国人会将礼节性的拜访留在社交周末……

Most Americans live according to time segments laid out in engagement calendars. These calendars may be divided intervals⁸ as short as fifteen minutes. We often give a person two or three (or more) segments of our calendar, but in the business world we almost always have other appointments following hard on the heels of whatever we are doing. Time is therefore always ticking in our inner ear.

As a result we work hard at the task of saving time. We produce a steady flow of labor-saving devices; we communicate rapidly through telexes⁹, phone calls or memos¹⁰ rather than through personal contacts, which though pleasant, take longer --- especially given our traffic-filled streets. We therefore save most personal visiting for after work hours or for social weekend gatherings¹¹.To us the impersonality¹² of electronic communication has little no relation to the importance of the matter at hand. In some countries no major business is carried out without eye contact, requiring face-to-face conversation. In America, too, a final agreement will normally be signed in person. However, people are meeting increasingly on television screens, conducting “teleconferences” to settle problems not only in this country but also --- by satellite --- internationally. An increasingly high percentage of normal business is being done these days by voice or electronic device. Mail is slow and uncertain and is growing ever more expensive.The U.S. is definitely a telephone country. Almost everyone uses the telephone to conduct business, to chat with friends, to make or break engagements, to say their "Thank you's," to shop and to obtain all kinds of information. Telephones save your feet and endless amounts of time. This is due partly to the fact that the telephone service is good here, whereas the postal¹³ service is less efficient. Furthermore, the costs of secretarial labor, printing, and stamps are all soaring. The telephone is quick. We like it. We can do our business and get an answer in a matter of moments. Furthermore, several people can confer together without moving from their desks, even in widely scattered¹⁴ locations. In a big country that, too, is important.Some new arrivals will come from cultures where it is considered impolite to work too quickly. Unless a certain amount of time is allowed to elapse, it seems in their eyes as if the task being considered were insignificant¹⁵, not worthy¹⁶ of proper respect. Assignments are thus felt to be given added weight by the passage of time. In the U.S., however, it is taken as a sign of competence¹⁷ to solve a problem, or fulfill¹⁸ a job successfully, with rapidity. Usually, the more important a task is, the more capital, energy, and attention will be poured into it in order to "get it moving."