The practice glasses Erin & I had to wear at the eye doctor
I recently found myself in need of new eyeglasses. Unfortunately, my old pair was a casualty of my trip to Laos (somehow I managed to lose them on the bus). Thankfully, glasses are extremely cheap in China, so Erin and I made a trip to the glasses store.
While in the store, we unintentionally made a huge scene. Not only did we each try on hundreds of pairs of frames, but we ran into major difficulties convincing the eye doctor of our prescription.
The eye doctor was a 75-year-old man who was obviously conservative and old-school. He wore two huge pairs of glasses that covered his entire face and had an "all-business" persona.
First, we looked into a machine that took a digital test of our vision and printed out a little receipt that stated our prescription. Then, to determine the prescription for our glasses, he made us put on the silly glasses we're wearing in the picture above. He would change the number and strength of the lenses in these glasses. We would see the "A" option and try to read the letters. Then he would hunker over his desk and study which new lens to put into the glasses for option "B." Eventually, he would slide an additional lens into the glasses and ask us which one was better....the problem is that he wouldn't listen!!
When I would tell him that option "B" was the most clear, he would say, "Oh no! You will become dizzy if you have this one. It is too strong." I looked at my Chinese friend who was translating and said, "Please tell him that option B is the best." We did this for LITERALLY twenty minutes. The eye doctor repeatedly tried to convince me that I would get headaches from having glasses this strong; he kept saying that it is better to have glasses that are a little weak because otherwise your eyes will hurt. I continued telling him that I want strong glasses; I want to be able to see everything, that's why I have glasses in the first place! It was horrible. Eventually, I was like, "look, I'm the one who is wearing these glasses. I don't have a headache, just don't worry about it." The eye doctor ended up saying that he didn't know if lenses could be cut as thick as I needed them to be, so maybe i should go with the weaker strength (his way of trying to convince me to side with him and not cause me to lose face by admitting I was wrong). I was getting so frustrated, and I felt terrible because my Chinese friend was put in the middle because he was translating.
The whole situation was so confusing because, on the one hand, he is the "expert." He prescribes glasses to people everyday, and perhaps my prescription looks clear now but it would in fact give me a headache later. BUT he is still Chinese! And Chinese people often do things MUCH differently than we do. They would rather have a lesser prescription than risk having a headache. In their minds, there is no need to have perfect vision, as long as you can see good enough to read most things. So as I was sitting there, trying to decide how much of an obstinate American I should be, I kept wondering: should I trust him because he is the expert? or should I never trust him because he is Chinese? There are so many cultural differences that factor into decisions such as this.
At this point, I looked at my friend and said, "I don't care. Just ask them to make me a new pair of glasses and don't tell me the prescription -- maybe I won't even know the difference." .... this was my best effort at a compromise.
And for the record, i'm very happy with my new glasses, even if getting them caused a great deal of frustration (but I still maintain that option B WAS the best option! :)
