Week Two

Wow! So much to think about! First, I want to post up some comments I just made on some of my classmates' blogs. I love reading them because they always make me think about such different things. I find it hard to objectify myself and my opinions and my culture. Reading the thoughts that others have really helps me do that.

Tony's Blog

"Tony, I often ask myself that same question, I think. "Why can't we instantly understand?" The answer I think I've come to is education. Not necessarily classroom education but just our learning over-all. (I'm trying not to delve into my educational views.) However, generally, why aren't we encouraged to act more tactfully in day-to-day life? In other words, we should be more confident when dealing with other cultures because we feel we have the tools (respect, acceptance, tolerance, and tact) to be able to amicably work through trying situations.

So, in answer to instant understanding, I think the solution to the problem lies in early education and continuing education. As such advanced people, why aren't we given the skills and confidence to gracefully survive social situations? (But maybe my thinking is a bit old-fashioned here...)"

Vinny's Blog

"You brought up an interesting point that hadn't occurred to me before, really. A lot of us focus on respecting, accepting, and tolerating other cultures so much that we forget we need to learn how to be respected, accepted, and tolerated ourselves. Much food for thought. Thanks!"

Scott's Blog

"I find it interesting that you highlight the first-name preference. This is something that has almost always plagued me. For example, someone I work with has a culturally traditional name and I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Asking them for guidance about something as simple as a name can be very daunting to many people. Sometimes I feel like we get so hung up over handling a culturally diverse individual that we forget to include them in our own "Western" culture. "Western" being what I would describe as an open, honest, and direct culture. Maybe by thinking of tactful and friendly inquiry as an inclusion into our culture, the task of "handling with care" wouldn't seem so scary."

So, as you can see, I have a lot of thoughts that I want to share with other people! I have a very dominant personality and this often leads to me feeling like I've just trampled all over everyone else's opinions. In our discussion last night I was appreciative of Kim's ability to keep us organized in our feedback. I had a great time in discussion with my classmates. Talking and listening are two of my favorite pass-times! I'm just so thankful that we have a teacher who is willing to let us do that and I'm grateful to all my fellow students who are willing to share their cultures and experiences with me so I can have a greater understanding of different lifestyles.

Well, class started off with me sharing a cultural snack. I brought homemade krumkake for my classmates and I don't think anyone spit it out so that was good! Next we had Anastasiya from the Ukraine come talk with us about her experiences in both Ukrainian and American cultures. She is a fellow student of ours and was very open and personable; I appreciated her candidness with us. She taught us many things about her culture like Ukrainians are often mistaken for Russians and therefore assumed to be part of the Mafia (since that is a false stereotype of Russians.)

There are many differences between traditional Ukrainian culture and my own. For example, Ukrainians' culture is influenced mostly by their religion, which is mainly Catholic (both Eastern Orthodox [I believe she referred to it as "Greek Orthodox"] and Roman Catholic). But they celebrate Christmas according to an older calendar which puts it on January 7th -- AFTER the New Year celebrations. Their wedding celebrations last for a minimum of two days and usually only family is invited. As part of the ceremonial tradition, a specific type of bread is baked and then there is salt to go along with the bread. I would say this is similar, perhaps, to our "western" wedding cake with the bride and groom on top. Also, at Easter there is a traditional bread baked, as well, and maybe us "westerners" incorporated their egg-decorating into our traditional activities around that time!

There are so many things to think about just from the short presentation Anastasiya gave us. Her culture focuses on education, so they don't get to choose classes like we do, they are assigned by their board of education. Politically, the people do get to vote, however, what they vote for isn't necessarily the outcome. Socially, she thinks people are more outspoken about their opinions in the Ukraine, but she definitely views Americans as being much friendlier. Overall the way of life in the Ukraine is much more European than it is here in the states. (My experience with European culture is that it is less modest about issues like sex, sexuality, personal growth, and it is a more "extreme" culture where people are simultaneously more likely to conform to a fanatic movement and less likely to conform to a social contract of appropriate behavior. Again, that's just how I have experienced a European attitude.)

I hope you're beginning to get a clear idea of just how different our nations' cultures are! Two more things to think about and then I will move on. Here's a possible reason for America being the most obese country: in the Ukraine (and I'm going out on a limb with assuming you could reasonably say the same for the rest of Europe) fast food is less prevalent and portion sizes at restaurants are much smaller. Imagine that. Also, imagine driving your car down a street not made for cars. Being one of the youngest and most modern countries in the world, I think sometimes we forget how tailored our world is to technology. In other countries the technology is available, it's just difficult to make it work. --Actually, on a side tangent, we have that happening in our own country! For example I heard about New York having problems getting its citizens at-home access to high speed internet. Why? Because a lot of the "old" city wasn't built to be updated! Anyway, that's something to think about.

Next, we moved on to watching videos! Despite terrible fashion and a (I think it was 80's) super-progressive approach, a lot of its messages are still very applicable 30 years later. Here's a run-down of what I got out of the first video:

The Mosaic Workplace

This video mainly focused on the conduction of focus groups containing culturally diverse individuals to answer some difficult questions that we have as a majority attempting to help them feel comfortable and welcome in our society.

What should we call members of different minority groups? How can we refer to you?

• Treat them as individuals, call them by name, refer to their profession
• Anxiety diffuses when you get to know someone personally
• Ask directly for a nationality or culture (don't guess)
• Labels are used to organize and manage, but they can also be uniting

The video also mentioned briefly that in reference to individuals with disabilities the acceptable reference is "people with disabilities". They also said it is important to remember the "people" part, just because they have a disability doesn't mean everything about them is different from us.

Next, the video delved into general concepts regarding different cultures.

Overcoming fallacies about cultures:

• Not every member of a minority fits a stereotype
• If you don't want to see the true culture, they won't show it to you
• They feel uncomfortable if you feel uncomfortable
• Difficulty communicating with the majority does not mean intellectual deficiency
• People with disabilities are PEOPLE
• People of minorities often fight to combat the negative image that others from their culture portray
• People of minorities are often very loyal to those who treat them as individuals
• Understanding the historical culture can give a different perspective

Kim then stopped the video and we discussed the art of tact and the concepts of Respect, Acceptance, and Tolerance.

Second Video

This video was pretty short but it had a few clear points.

• Communication is how we exchange information necessary to survival.
• Even members of different animal species communicate differently with each other.
• Language is a highly sophisticated communication system.

At this point, Kim began lecture and discussion. We were meant to discuss our assigned reading but we were caught up in discussing our lecture (which was fine with Kim, thankfully, because I had been so preoccupied thinking about my intercultural snack that I completely spaced out the reading!) I have already touched on our class discussion so I won't return to the topic. I look forward to reading what more of my classmates have to say about it in their blogs, though.

I see in Kim's Blog that she has a short list of things she would like us to think about so I will try to wrap up my blog with respect to those topics. Some of them are regarding next week's class (which I'm not allowed to start blogging about yet) and some we covered last night so I will just take the ones from last night (since I've skimmed through the assigned reading now).

"What do you think of the classification of Indian Young people that the Coconuts and Cappuccinos article discussed?"

I think that it is difficult to break stereotypical and judgmental barriers between other cultures and your own if you are so willing to begin placing labels on yourself. However, that isn't to say that these kinds of observations are irrelevant! Culture needs to be held accountable for its development. As was mentioned earlier, labels are used for organizing and managing, but also for uniting.

Another approach I take to this article is one that I have mentioned earlier. It is difficult to objectively assess your culture. I once wrote about walking the fine line between social tradition and social growth in subjective development. As a Christian living in America I occasionally find it difficult to agree with certain laws being passed when my faith tells me the opposite. However, my faith also tells me that I cannot serve two masters (which I would see as the divine laws of Christian scripture and the secular laws of the American nation) but then turns around and says I should obey my government. So I find it hard to draw conclusions about other cultures and their struggles to choose paths as individuals when I'm aware that I struggle within my own cultures.

One more thought and then I'm moving on! I brought up at some point the question of why a culture or individual would desire "westernization" AND why a culture or individual would cling to its traditions AND why both happen simultaneously. ...I'll just leave that there as food for thought.

"Which do you think is more accurate? Melting Pot or Tossed Salad"

Well, the idea of a "melting pot of society", as I have heard it referred to in previous educational experiences, has always sort of grossed me out. I think of this huge cast-iron kettle set over flames with every ingredient in the universe thrown in there and then I see it bubbling and boiling over and spilling all over the place and I just go "Yuck, no wonder we all have issues!" It just seems somewhat unnatural to me.

So, my vote is for Tossed Salad. You can put anything in a salad and mix it up and it's delicious. Different people like different things. Ingredients range from all-natural to just-processed-yesterday-fresh! And now I'm hungry. See? The thought is more appetizing.

"What defines "American"?"

I stated in class that I believe anyone who is a legal citizen of the USA can call themselves an American. I stand by that.

"What skills are most important to I.C.?"

What we discussed in class: Respect, Acceptance, and Tolerance. But I would suggest throwing in a liberal education in the art of tact.

Finally, we also received a short hand-out Kim made for us with some basic concepts of "culture" explained. We didn't have time to get to it in class, but we are capable of going over it on our own. Very informative.

Since I am just now realizing I have been reading my classmates' blogs and working on my own blog post for over two hours now I am going to call it a night.

Until next week,
Kara