Driving culture

 

[Man behind the wheel*]

It is said that our first 18 years have a lifetime impact. Our childhood affects the foods we enjoy, our approaches to life, the way we raise our children and even our career choices, to name a few. Granted, each of us over time accepts or rejects this heritage at any given time but it is present and impacts our life one way or another.

I recently became aware that it also influences how we drive. Simply put, I am a much better driver in the United States than in Israel. By better, I mean more natural and relaxed. In the United States, I sense the kind of stupidity to expect from the drivers around me. I know the expected pattern of speeding up and slowing down (except on Sunday when the “Sunday drivers” come out). I am confident in my ability to identify early and react to any situation. As a result, I am relaxed when I drive in the United States, especially on the West Coast, and find the driving experience neutral, i.e., neither pleasant nor unpleasant. By contrast, in Israel, I actively monitor all cars around me, expecting them to try to risk their life to reach the same red light 30 seconds before me. I am rarely disappointed. Although I still often sense what a given driver will do, I am less confident and more stressed. For me, a 45 minutes’ drive in Israel is not fun, to put it mildly.

Logically, that should not be so as I have driven in Israel for many more years than I did in the United States. I drove in the States for some 12 years regularly, getting my driver’s license at the age of 17 until I immigrated at the age of 28. Adding annuals trips over many years, I have driven on US roads for some 15 years at most. By contrast, I have lived in Israel some 32+ years, driving on a regular basis for a good part of that period. I am quite familiar with the roads and the drivers. They should be second-nature.

Of course, driving in the Mediterranean is Mediterranean is highly entertaining, at least for those that enjoy action. Whether in Spain, Italy, Tunisia or Israel, Mediterranean drivers own the road, literally. Other drivers are mere trespassers and really should not be there. Not only that, as elsewhere, phone calls and personal arguments are of greater priority than keeping with the flow. Still, the traffic flow around this middle sea does have a specific tempo that can be learned.

Clearly, high temperatures affect driver attitudes but only so much. As the mercury goes up, driver patience tends to go down and tempers rise. It does not take much to begin an argument between two drivers here. A sudden stop will suffice to create some interesting street action. The fact that all cars in Israel have had air conditioning since 1995 has not significantly mitigated the slaughter on the roads based on the annual numbers. Not only that, drivers from many other countries also suffer from high temperatures but still exhibit patience. The weather itself does not explain the difference.

It is possible that my driving culture was formed not only by actually time behind the wheel but in the surrounding seats. For some 16 years, I watched my parents and other people drive and the interaction between them. In a passive but embedding way, I “learned” how to drive, which I applied when I became an adult. As I came here at the age of 28, I did not receive that education. Thus, my comprehension of Israeli drivers is not instinctive. On the other hand, it may be just me. Other immigrants may have gone native with no problem. I confess to have done no research on this subject.

So, in my opinion, driving patterns are a cultural phenomenon. They are affected, as in all such matters, by both childhood and later life experience. I strongly affect that the former has more of an influence than people suspect.

* Caption pictures to help the blind access the Internet. Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1149997">Free-Photos</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1149997">Pixabay</a>

Presence – the sign of a teacher

 

[Man with serious look*]

As part of the tenured staff of the English department at the Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel for almost 30 years, I have observed scores of lessons given by prospective teachers as part of the selection process of new teachers. The nature and quality of the lessons have varied as has the background of the candidates. I can say that my main criteria for recommendation are pedagogical order and, much more importantly, teacher presence.

Clearly, experienced teachers are expected to know how to organize a lesson in accordance with the goals of the lesson and levels of the students. Most prospective teachers focus on a text or specific words from it and demonstrate how they would teach them. In many cases, their teaching technique hits all the bases and demonstrates great creativity. If they can do this, they have shown that they are pedagogically knowledgeable.

However, I personally do not find this skill decisive in its own right. First, as physicists know, the presence of an observer distorts the results. The vast majority of teachers, knowing in advance that they will be observed, can prepare an organized lesson to one degree or another. As a result, the demonstration lesson is less than a perfect representation of the teacher’s ability. Secondly, in our case, the material presented is more often than not irrelevant to our needs. Specifically, while most English departments in Israel primarily still teach reading comprehension and vocabulary to a heterogenous population of students, whether at the high school or college level, our college applies the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference, don’t ask) guidelines for English skills involving four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening), which is famous for nomenclature for English proficiency level from A1 (absolute beginner) to C2 (almost native). In other words, we actually do not spend much time on reading texts and teaching vocabulary because our students generally do not require much reinforcement in those areas as compared to the other skills. Moreover, our students are all engineering students, which means that that they are successful, intelligent students, albeit often with substandard language skills, i.e., not a heterogenous population. Finally, the theory and reality of pedagogy clash in the real (or zoom) classroom. Specifically, we have 13 weeks, 52 hours, to get the students to a B1 or B2 level in all four skills from an A2 level at most. It strictly limits the time spent on any single activity and, consequently, the time available for any specific teaching sequence. Therefore, however technically proficient a teacher may be, it may be not enough.

The factor that determines my assessment is the elusive “teacher presence”. I would define it as the feeling created that the teacher is in control of the material, the lesson and the learning situation. In other words, there is no vacuum in the classroom. It does not mean shutting the students up or discouraging creativity but the sense that the teacher has identified and is striving to reach a worthy goal. There is no single style or form to this presence. Effective teachers can be male or female, petite or physically imposing, native or immigrants, frontal lecturers or facilitators, or controlling or free flowing. The key is that the educator creates an environment of clarity and security.

The challenge for assessing is not determining its existence but whether the type of presence is appropriate for the specific student audience. To explain, any student knows which teachers are “serious” and which can be manipulated. The difficulty in evaluating prospective teachers is deciding whether the specific style is appropriate to our student population. For example, highly effective elementary school teachers often cannot teach adults not only because of the difference in age but also in specific knowledge and experience of the students. Furthermore, in Israel, students come from widely varying cultures, from ultra-orthodox and Arab to democratic and home teaching. Consequently, their attitude to authority and self-expression as well as skills and knowledge background may vary significantly. An approach that is successful for one group may not work for another group. Finally, as the students are Israeli adults ranging from the ages of 18 to 30, while teachers may start the course with respect, they must earn it afterwards. Thus, a specific form of teacher presence may seem inappropriate for teaching adult engineering students.

At the end of each teacher interview, the coordinator asks for our opinion. Initially, there is a discussion of the teaching method applied. However, to twist the words from one of Cher’s songs, for me it is all in his (or her) presence.

* Captions are an important tool for Internet access for the blind. Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/pexels-2286921/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1283235">Pexels</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1283235">Pixabay</a>

Customer Satisfaction – for people and by people

 

[Abraham Lincoln*]

Customer retention is one of the key goals of companies regardless of their size because it is much simpler and less expensive to keep a customer than it is to attract a new one. As a result, many corporations use rewards programs to encourage their existing base to continue to use their services. Unfortunately, many of these same companies forget that a prime motivator in customer loyalty is the level of confidence in the ability and willingness of the company to fix errors. A service provider that swiftly resolves issues is one step above any of its competitors. As I experienced on my recently-completed trip to Los Angeles, a company not only needs to have consumer-driven attitude but allow customers access to its personnel.

On this trip, unavoidably complicated by Covid, I required transportation, banking and medical testing purposes. The issues ranged from contacting representatives, sorting out confusion and receiving timely answers. The results ranged from absolutely atrocious to excellent with the key predictor being the ease of accessing a flesh-and-blood person. Where I was able to reach human beings, they easily resolved all issues while where no contact was possible, no solution was possible.

On the negative side, both Lyft and Uber use applications that do function well when all elements are in alignment but do not provide any access to a human operator when the application fails. In the former case, I was eventually able to “chat” online with a representative, who was able to explain why I needed to enter an additional credit card. In any case, the second time I tried to order a cab from their service, it was again unavailable. As for Uber, it somehow knew that I translated Russian and kept on sending me error messages in Russian, without any solutions or ways of contacting a representative. The medical testing lab situation was a greater disaster. I took a Covid test almost three full days before my flight via Walgreen’s pharmacy, which uses LabCorp to conduct the test. In practice, I had to postpone the flight because the results arrived four days after I provided the sample. What exasperated the situation was the fact that Walgreen had no knowledge of the results once it passed on the sample to the lab while LabCorp provided no contact phone number, only allowing email contact, to which it did not respond.  I was thus unable to attain any update. I felt like an insignificant number. All these negative experiences involve the complete lack of ability to reach a human representative.

By contrast, I had excellent interactions and results with those companies whose systems allowed for direct conversation. After making an appointment with Chase Bank, I managed to solve several complicated banking and credit issues that had seemed deadlocked in my long-distance conversations. When I called L.A. Cab, to my great surprise and their credit, I talked with a scheduler, who immediately told me when the cab would arrive. While the response staff of United Airlines is understaffed, as are many of the airlines, I was able to talk with representatives, both in person and via the telephone, and twice reschedule my flight at no extra cost. Finally, at LAX, the young staff of the Corona testing guided me through the complicated process (for people over 50) of signing up for the Covid test, with the negative result arriving in a few hours. Thanks to these people and the companies that allowed them to talk to the customers, I know that that I can count on them in the future.

The lesson to all service providers, great and small, is that while customers may or may not remember their loyalty bonuses, they never forget the treatment they received when they did request services. As omnipresent and omnipotent digital services may seem, most customers want and require human responses when problems occur. If a company provides them, they have won the heart of the customer. After all, as Abraham Lincoln probably would not say, good service is for and by people.

* Pictures labels are important to the blind. Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/arttower-5337/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=55480">Brigitte makes custom works from your photos, thanks a lot</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=55480">Pixabay</a>