2016年01月18日
Culture
Hello, all!
Recently, I've been thinking about what "culture" means. Many, many people have thought about this topic before me. Entire sections of bookstores are devoted to Cultural Studies. I studied comparative literature in a university class, which is about how culture shapes stories. In fact, my own mother teaches intercultural communication classes! There are tens of thousands of models of "culture." One of the most common is the "iceberg model." This model describes culture by saying that all cultures have parts you can see, and parts you can't see, like this:
This is very easy to understand! But I think that maybe, just maybe, most people have the wrong way of considering what "culture" really is.
We usually think of culture in a "subtractive" way. We think it's the differences that define culture. For example, in Korea you can eat your rice with a spoon, but it's rude to pick up your rice bowl. In Japan, you always eat rice with chopsticks, but picking up your bowl is okay. That's different! It must be "culture!"
I'm not so sure. If we think of culture this way, we always live in a world where our own culture is "normal," and everyone else's is "different" or even "strange." If we define culture by differences, we can't help dividing the world into "us" and "them"! So long as we have this idea of culture, we will never be able to interact with people from other cultures naturally. We will always see them as "outsiders."
So let's find a more "positive" way of thinking about culture! I've found a way to do this that really helps me get along in other countries. Maybe it will help you, too. (Or maybe not!) This is what I always try to remember:
Culture is daily life. "My life," you might say.
That's it. When Americans think of "Japanese culture," they think of kimono and ikebana and sushi and ninjas. But for Japanese people, those things are just possible parts of daily life, right? Sushi isn't special; it's just a type of food you might or might not eat very often. You might know people who enjoy ikebana as a hobby, or run a kimono shop. You almost definitely never think about ninjas (unless you really like ninja movies). The things that define "Japanese culture" for America, things that are different from American things, do not define "my life" for Japanese people!
So what defines "my life"? It's the things you do every day: waking up, going to school or work, eating, cleaning, hanging out with friends. These things are universal. Everyone shares these experiences! It's just that in different cultures, they look different. For a Korean, "eating dinner" always includes having a bit of kimchi—that's part of daily life. For a Japanese adult, "hanging out with friends" usually means going somewhere together—you don't usually casually invite people over to your house. For an American, inviting friends to their home for dinner (with no kimchi!) is perfectly normal. But for all three places, the basic goal—to eat good food and enjoy time with people you like—is the same.
In short, daily life has the same "shape" everywhere. Everywhere you go, you find the same range of personalities. People in every culture have the same basic problems and desires (making a living, finding love, feeling like a success). And everyone thinks of their own daily life as "normal"! If you remember this, you can see how culture is more positive than subtractive. When you find something new to you in a different culture, don't think, "this is different!" Think, "aha! So, for people here, this is what daily life is like! This is normal!"
Finally, a story: When I was a kid, my family always had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast on Saturday mornings. It was our special treat. All week, I looked forward to my Saturday morning chocolate chip pancake. The first time I stayed over at a friend's house on a Friday night, we had pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. But his family didn't use chocolate chips, and instead of maple syrup, they had butter! I was shocked. Outraged! This was wrong! Saturday morning means chocolate chip pancakes! Of course, my friend's parents thought that chocolate chip pancakes were a terrible idea. The butter was unhealthy enough!
Now that I'm older, I can laugh at this story. Of course chocolate chip pancakes aren't important! But in fact, my friend's house had a slightly different "culture" from mine. The difference between a highly interactive American business meeting and a strictly structured Japanese business meeting is just this chocolate chip pancake discovery on a larger scale. So is the difference between an American CEO asking his staff to call him by his first name and a Japanese manager requiring keigo, or the "difference" between an American directly confronting someone she's irritated with and a Japanese person politely avoiding the conflict! The goal—to resolve a conflict—is the same. It's only the normal way to reach that goal that's not the same. The key, again, is understanding what "normal" is for you, and how "normal" might look to other people.
All right, that's my long post for this year! See you next week!
—Matthew
Recently, I've been thinking about what "culture" means. Many, many people have thought about this topic before me. Entire sections of bookstores are devoted to Cultural Studies. I studied comparative literature in a university class, which is about how culture shapes stories. In fact, my own mother teaches intercultural communication classes! There are tens of thousands of models of "culture." One of the most common is the "iceberg model." This model describes culture by saying that all cultures have parts you can see, and parts you can't see, like this:
This is very easy to understand! But I think that maybe, just maybe, most people have the wrong way of considering what "culture" really is.
We usually think of culture in a "subtractive" way. We think it's the differences that define culture. For example, in Korea you can eat your rice with a spoon, but it's rude to pick up your rice bowl. In Japan, you always eat rice with chopsticks, but picking up your bowl is okay. That's different! It must be "culture!"
I'm not so sure. If we think of culture this way, we always live in a world where our own culture is "normal," and everyone else's is "different" or even "strange." If we define culture by differences, we can't help dividing the world into "us" and "them"! So long as we have this idea of culture, we will never be able to interact with people from other cultures naturally. We will always see them as "outsiders."
So let's find a more "positive" way of thinking about culture! I've found a way to do this that really helps me get along in other countries. Maybe it will help you, too. (Or maybe not!) This is what I always try to remember:
Culture is daily life. "My life," you might say.
That's it. When Americans think of "Japanese culture," they think of kimono and ikebana and sushi and ninjas. But for Japanese people, those things are just possible parts of daily life, right? Sushi isn't special; it's just a type of food you might or might not eat very often. You might know people who enjoy ikebana as a hobby, or run a kimono shop. You almost definitely never think about ninjas (unless you really like ninja movies). The things that define "Japanese culture" for America, things that are different from American things, do not define "my life" for Japanese people!
So what defines "my life"? It's the things you do every day: waking up, going to school or work, eating, cleaning, hanging out with friends. These things are universal. Everyone shares these experiences! It's just that in different cultures, they look different. For a Korean, "eating dinner" always includes having a bit of kimchi—that's part of daily life. For a Japanese adult, "hanging out with friends" usually means going somewhere together—you don't usually casually invite people over to your house. For an American, inviting friends to their home for dinner (with no kimchi!) is perfectly normal. But for all three places, the basic goal—to eat good food and enjoy time with people you like—is the same.
In short, daily life has the same "shape" everywhere. Everywhere you go, you find the same range of personalities. People in every culture have the same basic problems and desires (making a living, finding love, feeling like a success). And everyone thinks of their own daily life as "normal"! If you remember this, you can see how culture is more positive than subtractive. When you find something new to you in a different culture, don't think, "this is different!" Think, "aha! So, for people here, this is what daily life is like! This is normal!"
Finally, a story: When I was a kid, my family always had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast on Saturday mornings. It was our special treat. All week, I looked forward to my Saturday morning chocolate chip pancake. The first time I stayed over at a friend's house on a Friday night, we had pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. But his family didn't use chocolate chips, and instead of maple syrup, they had butter! I was shocked. Outraged! This was wrong! Saturday morning means chocolate chip pancakes! Of course, my friend's parents thought that chocolate chip pancakes were a terrible idea. The butter was unhealthy enough!
Now that I'm older, I can laugh at this story. Of course chocolate chip pancakes aren't important! But in fact, my friend's house had a slightly different "culture" from mine. The difference between a highly interactive American business meeting and a strictly structured Japanese business meeting is just this chocolate chip pancake discovery on a larger scale. So is the difference between an American CEO asking his staff to call him by his first name and a Japanese manager requiring keigo, or the "difference" between an American directly confronting someone she's irritated with and a Japanese person politely avoiding the conflict! The goal—to resolve a conflict—is the same. It's only the normal way to reach that goal that's not the same. The key, again, is understanding what "normal" is for you, and how "normal" might look to other people.
All right, that's my long post for this year! See you next week!
—Matthew
2016年01月18日
A friend came to visit me :)
Hello!
So last weekend one of my friends from my high school came to visit me in Takamatsu. She is currently living in South Korea (teaching English). I haven't seen her in 2 years! I took her around Takamatsu. First we visited the garden/castle.
Then I introduced her to purikura....she loved it!
I love face masks...a lot! They are not very common in the United States..so every time I'm in Asia...I buy a lot of them :). Japan has the crazy printed ones...which I love~~. I got a dog and a cat mask..and we decided to have one with them
We had so much fun :0
<3 Leslie
So last weekend one of my friends from my high school came to visit me in Takamatsu. She is currently living in South Korea (teaching English). I haven't seen her in 2 years! I took her around Takamatsu. First we visited the garden/castle.
Then I introduced her to purikura....she loved it!
I love face masks...a lot! They are not very common in the United States..so every time I'm in Asia...I buy a lot of them :). Japan has the crazy printed ones...which I love~~. I got a dog and a cat mask..and we decided to have one with them
We had so much fun :0
<3 Leslie
