Cultural Bumps

My perspective:
Once I went to a party held by my local regent. My American guest, Emma, came with me to attend it. Emma wanted to learn how a party held by the first man in my region look like and wanted to mingle with the locals.
As soon as we arrive at the party. All guests were asked to sit in a row of a chair to listen to ‘welcoming speech’ given by the regent himself. I took a seat in the back row. Emma asked me to sit at the front row where the seats were still empty. I said that as a layperson, it was violated unwritten rule practiced in my culture to sit in the first row. The first row of chairs was for important people, high rank administrative, and people with a particular label that she/he is not from laypeople category. Even though people are not categorized by caste, but we should know our position in society.

Emma’s perspective:
In America you can take a sit anywhere, the one who comes earlier may take the first row.