No Pressure Little One

7:35AM

Bill (grunts, waking up): "What you're doing?"

Kate: "Reading."

Bill (stretching, taking a deep breath, turning to face Kate): "What you're reading about?"

Kate: "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes."

Bill: "Yeah? Is it interesting?" (reaching out to rub Kate's belly)

Kate: "It's fascinating. Plane crashes, like most industrial accidents, are more likely to be the result of an accumulation of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions. The human factors, especially the communication style and individual's understanding and interpretation of social hierarchy between the flight crew and with the control tower, play a much more crucial role than we think."

Kate went on giving examples from the book to illustrate her point. Bill listened and expressed his opinion whenever appropriate. The conversation went on for about 8 minutes.

Kate: "So anyway, like in the Korean Air crash in Gram, because of the strong emphasis on social hierarchy in Korean society, the first officer and flight engineer did not dare to directly tell the pilot what he was doing was wrong. Did you know that in Korean culture, a pilot, who has the highest social status in the cockpit can slap his inferiors with the back of his hand if they challenge his decisions? I wonder what the situation is like in Taiwan... you know, the airlines and pilots..."

Bill sat up on the side of the bed, rubbing his eyes: "No, Taiwan is not nearly as bad as Korea.... or Japan, for that matter."

Kate: "Yeah, at least we don't have to bow to people. What made it even worse for the Koreans flight crew was that they were communicating with the Control Tower in Gram. In other words, they were talking to native English-speakers who grew up in a society where the idea and structure of social hierarchy and communication style are on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Koreans'. Americans tend to treat others as equals and expect to be treated as such in return."

Bill: "Definitely!" Before he stood up from the bed, Bill gave Kate's belly a quick rub and started walking toward the bedroom door, "Our son is going to be freakin' smart, man."

Kate (chuckling): "Cause I'm reading and talking about this with you while pregnant?"

A few moments later. The toilet flushed. The bedroom door swung open, "President William Blahblah Martin. How does that sound?" said Bill.

(We don't want to give away the name yet. Hence the blahblah)

Kate (rolling her eyes): "Oh boy... " A couple seconds later, Kate said, "You know what though? It actually sounds pretty good."