Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Culture
At my job their are a lot of people from places other than the United States. There are two girls from India, Two girls from Jamaica, and a girl from Poland. That is just where a work. My college as a whole has people from just about anywhere. It is often said that Americans are oblivious to the culture and customs of other places. I thought that, that was just a sterotype of Americans, but I soon came to realize that it may not be that far from the truth. I thought that I was on the up and up on cultures, but right before Thanksgiving I wished Sharon from India a happy Thanksgiving and asked what she was going to do for the holiday. She replied nothing. Then I thought about it "is Thanksgiving even celebrated in India?" Sure enough it isn't. I felt like and idiot. The Dumb American assuming that everyone does what we do. From then on I asked a lot more questions than I usually did. the girls and I would have back and forths about our two respectable cultures. I would ask a question about Indian, Jamaican or Polish culture they in turn ask a question about american culture. I found out many things. In India you pay for school from Kindergarten through 12th grade, and america and her citizens are seen as all being rich. They have a saying in India if you are looking for something and can't find it "If you were in america, you would have found it." Christianity is a major religion there. They assume that all americans are black or white. Sharon has told me she now know these things to be untrue. Those are just some of the things about her culture that she taught me. I taught her things about american culture also. Jamaican Culture is not so strikingly different. They have similar things there. The place just isn't as commercialized as america. the way they cook their food is very different. Nadia told me that she did not know that such a wide variety of food is fried. She says that they rarely fry food. They steam or boil their food. Meeting new people from these various cultures is a wonderful experience that hope to not soon forget.
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20 comments:
That sounds interesting. Rouge gallery eh? Sounds....rouge. My kind of people.
Nice post. I love living in a society that exposes me to many different cultures. Just finished a post about it that you might like.
(and, by the way, I was raised in Jefferson Parish.)
hmmm....wait till you encounter singaporeans...think they are kinda lost...cos theres too many cultures.. lol.
I agree with you c-dell. It's easy to think or suppose that we know other cultures, but the thing is, there is SO MUCH out there to know. When I went to the Philippines (the only "real" foreign travel I have done) I was surprised to discover that they just recently started celebrating Halloween in that country (I was surprised that they celebrated it at all!). They really embraced that holiday- I was there in the weeks leading up to Halloween and it was fun to see all the shops doing Halloween- Philippino style!
A friend of mine told me that when he was a young man living in Jamaica, he would hear stories of how you could find money on the streets in America--as if we were so overburdoned with the stuff that we treated excess amounts of cash like garbage.
Part of what's going on is that non-Americans know far more about Americans than Americans know about non-Americans. The reason for this is what some call "cultural imperialism." Everyone in the world gets our cultural products--music, tv shows, news, movies, etc.--while we get very little in return. We might see something from BBC once in a while, but that's about it.
Nice blog. I came here from Cruel Virgin. I mostly agree with what you say, but I think a lot of non-Americans have misconceptions about us too, mostly caused by the way Hollywood portrays us, and having a vastly different type of economy than a lot of the world. They can't fathom that making, say, $1000 a month = poverty. I love meeting people from different countries too.
Anne
C-Dell, I posted an answer to your quesiton (about posting videos) beneath your comment on my blog. Did you check my post below that about multi-culturalism in Hawaii?
Flowers for Algernon!? We read that book in eighth grade here in cali (lol).
About your post. I don't care what culture or religion you are, if you don't celebrate thanksgiving or the fourth of july then go home! That's not culturally based, that's about nationaly pride! I don't care, you want to be an American, you're celebrating Thanksgiving! If I were in Germany, heck yeah I'd celebrate Oktober Fest (as if no one in america celebrates Cinco De Mayo AND July 4th).
Yes its great to respect other people’s culture "fantastic", but not Multiculturism within an existing society, it leads to separate development the very thing we hated about apartite South Africa. Integration should be the goal.
um yeah but when they go back to their countries what do they say about America? For example I bet they would have some interesting things to say about gangs. Thats what I like to call hip hop culture.
Interesting to find out about another culture. Travels abroad open your eyes to a whole lot more.
If you wish for a crash course on Asian Cultures, Singapore a place to be.
There are so many different religious and cultural practices here, even I have yet to personally experience from the natives as well as from the diverse number of races and ethnic groups that have called Singapore home.
So, if you were ever in town, give me a tinker and I will load you with Singlish... Singapore-English spoken language and the cultures here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Bro.
wow isn't there one thing you and I agree on? Come on if you're going to come over here at least do two things:
Learn the language, and celebrate Thanksgiving and the 4th of July!
If they just got here and didn't know how, that's something else, but c'mon I get mad when people from different cultures turn down invitations to 4th of July parties because "they don't celebrate that in their culture." WTF!! And then they have the nerve to celebrate their own holidays, go home!
Keep your culture by all means, but come over here to be an American not to stay Indian or whatever. Like I said, celebrate both.
This is so interesting for me. I've just spent 3 months in your America and tried very hard to immerse myself into what is your culture. What have I learned? That it is possible to generalise. Americans are universally the same, the individual States make the differences. I fell in love with ya'll, i really did. That said, I only saw a fraction of your United States.(See my blog)I was happy to embrace your traditions and customs, as I am wherever I travel. Thanksgiving was a new custom for me, I learnt about the settlers receiving food from the indiginous peoples lest they die and the celebration of that gesture. Just explain to me why these same people who saved the settlers were then forced out of their lands etc. Didn't find out whether the Native American Indian celebrate Thanksgiving.
A picture in Kabul shows a cow hung on a tree being butchered in the open air, women in burkas surround the scene, we butcher our meat under cover but our women go unclothed, culture clash.
160 years ago Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the most perceptive French historians travelled round the United States of America and wrote two volumes about the society he saw and analyzed. Among other matters he praised the liberty in the new country and, especially, the high level of individual involvement in public matters.
As we know, nobody in France (well, not in the French cultural and journalistic establishment) believes that there is any culture in the United States, despite the astonishing number of first class theatre companies, orchestras and serious periodicals per head of population.
Now Martel, 39, a former French cultural attaché in Boston, has set out to change this. In "Culture in America," a 622-page tome weighty with information, he challenges the conventional view in Paris that (French) culture financed and organized by the government is entirely good and that (American) culture shaped by market forces is necessarily bad.
Martel then tracks the so-called culture wars, beginning with the cancellation of a Robert Mapplethorpe photography exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington in 1989 over concerns about its explicit content, which led to congressional campaigning against the National Endowment for the Arts. Even today the endowment's budget is far below mid-1980s levels and, at just under $125 million for 2006, is roughly what the French government gave the Paris National Opera this year.
Still, what really intrigues Martel is how American culture flourishes despite the indifference or hostility of major government institutions. Well, Well, a decent Frenchman I believe..
Oh who cares, its France, they don't know anything (hehe jk).
hey C, you know you're gonna do it anyway. Write something about Saddam's execution so that I don't have to..... too lazy ;)
I'll conceed to that.
A little bit of History lesson for you on thanksgiving: In 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving." The date was moved around a couple of times until Congress sanctioned Thanksgiving as a national holiday, always to occur on the fourth Thursday in November. So remember a lot of Holidays that we have such as the 4th of July is also reconized by us as Americans, foreigners that enter our country are lost for a few years till they can figre out how to blend in for example I know of a Japanesee family who has been hear for 6 yrs and this is the first year they celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts as well they even tried to decorate their house to fit in with us and Santa claus was a home scarecrow likeness with lights around him, even though they are christians themselves they didnot understand the gift exchnage as being a representation of the Kings visiting Jesus at birth...we have alot to offer here in our own country to everybody and when they become an American (Citizen of the USA) and learn and use our language I feel every effort has been made by them to give something back as you did and taking the time to learn about their culture.
It's good to invite people over if you have Thanksgiving at your home. I was invited elsewhere and we had Mexicans, Indians, Irish--it was fun!
Happy New Year to you, my new friend.
sounds like a great life experience... seeing and understanding that we are very USA focuses here but we are not alone! lol.. I stumble over that a lot in my business/life.
I spoke with a British guy today here in FL and he told me that they celebrated Thanksgiving there in England. I said, no way you all do not! I know for a fact that they dont... he said... yes, just in a different manner than we do... they celebrate 'getting rid of US'!!! hehehehehehe omg we were loling! He then went on to tell me that they shipped the criminals in black and white here to the us and the pilgrims to Australia! hehehe
Anyway, happy 2007! Nice to connect in 2006! Cheers! Kate
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