Deep respect for others’ cultures is just one of the pillars of my soul. I’ve loved learning about other cultures my entire life. I remember watching a Japanese Hello Kitty video with my friend when I was very little and being fascinated by it even though I didn’t understand a word of it at the time. I live for finding anthropological details in foreign shows. What kinds of beds are people sleeping on? What are they eating for breakfast? How are they addressing each other? How much physical contact do people have with family members, friends, and lovers?
I’ve generally thought of myself as being culturally aware. I’ve been aware from a very young age that outside factors, both macro and micro, shape the way we act and interact. The readings for my TESOL class this week showed me how little of the details of cultures I actually know, though. I’m still lacking greatly even with the cultures I’m more familiar with, like South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. In one video showing a series of culture-based commercials for HSBC bank, a foreigner was visiting China and eating a meal with a bunch of Chinese businessmen. He cleaned his very full bowl and was brought another one. After polishing off that one, he got yet another bowl!
Here's where that part starts:
I had to laugh! It reminded me of when I was at a friend’s house and her mother kept pouring me more and more chrysanthemum tea as I finished each cup. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful so I kept drinking. My daughter didn’t really like it so I drank some of hers and got more refills there, too! I had known enough to eat while she was looking during the meal (which is polite in Chinese culture) but not enough to get out of there with fewer shots of flower tea!
The details for cultural interactions are extremely helpful. Teaching my students about things like eye contact, personal space, and how to address people and present oneself are so important. Digging deeper, though, will help carry students beyond whatever details I can cram into a lesson. It’s impossible to teach every single cultural difference, partially because we’re blind to our own culture sometimes. I should help my students learn about the “whys” of American culture. That way they’ll have a good framework for situations that will come up that we might not have covered.
The different details of a culture’s interactions really come from the priorities of the culture itself. Japanese culture is a collective kind of culture, so many individual manners are really about groups. Latin-American cultures are about social relationships, which is why they’re less worried about time and demonstrate more physical affection. American culture is very individualistic and a bit self-centered, which is why Americans can be direct and assertive when interacting with people who would be considered of a more respectful status in other cultures. Learning more about a culture’s priorities can help an outsider feel more comfortable and even more charitable towards others when cultural misunderstandings arise.
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