Culture is a funny thing

Culture is a funny thing. Growing up in various cultures, I have picked up different mindsets, standards, and ideas from the four various cultures that I lived in. I am as they say "multi-cultural". Now today, when I realize I think a certain way about something I have to stop and assess what culture and country that idea, or thought, or way of thinking came from... and of course, how it is different from the culture I currently am in.

Sometimes it's easy to point out what is cultural, other times it's more difficult and subtle.

Growing up and even now, I often chalk insults and certain rudeness to being cultural. I don't understand why someone said or did something, I just tell myself "oh it's cultural", and some how I'm not as offended. Funny how that works.

Sometimes people would ask me, well what is the culture like in the Philippines, or China, or Albania.. and I shrug my shoulders and say "uh, I don't know".. because often I just lived life, and didn't really think about my surroundings or why people said or did certain things. It was just normal, or they were just from some place else so it didn't matter.

Now as I am an adult and going somewhere that has a very different culture(s) than what I grew up in, I realize I should pay more attention to my surroundings and the culture of the people that I will be with.

South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation (I think another country is called something similar too, but I can't remember what country that is.) because they have so many different groups of people, so many cultures, and acutally 11 national languages! In some ways, I think it will be perfect for me, because everyone is used to different cultured people. On the other hand, it might be hard, because I have to figure out which culture I am going to be most around, and then figure out what that culture looks like. There are of course, geographical sections where more Xhosa and Zulus, or British decent, Dutch decent or Indians live so that might make it a little bit easier.
So once I figure out who I'll be living near, then perhaps I can start to see and understand their culture.

It's funny, I'll be sitting thinking about a certain situation and all of the sudden, I'll have an ephiphany (revelation) of the cultural backbone of the situation. It makes me happy to feel like I am making progress about being more aware of my surroundings.

I have learned two cultural things already about a certain group of people where I will be going. Mind you, I'm not a cultural anthropologist, and I haven't read any books about it, so I'm just saying things I have noticed. Also I don't mean to generalize, but there is always some of that when one talks about cultures anyway.
One thing is because of the structure of this one particular language there it always sounds when they are speaking English like they are commanding or demanding something. When I was there last year, I couldn't figure out why they would say things the way they did. I wasn't offended, I just thought maybe I wasn't doing something right. Then as I began to learn more about their language, and interacted with more people who were talking to me the same way, I realized that it was a cultural/language thing, not that they were mad, or thought I was stupid or anything like that. What a relief!
Another thing is there is a lot of indifference. Even if they don't act excited about something, or you, or what you are talking about or whatever, it doesn't mean that they could care less. I just learned that one today actually. I couldn't figure out why the people (all of 20 people, not very much I suppose for a sample size) I interacted with didn't seem to care too much about what I said or did. Then I realized hey, this is a cultural thing. They do care, it's just they don't express it or something. Kind of strange to wrap my head around, since I grew up with people expressing everything, and that's how you show people that you care is by showing interest in what they are doing or talking about.
I'm starting to wonder if they don't ask questions very much of other people either. I remember when I was in Swaziland, our students would say "you American's ask too many questions". I would think to myself, how are we supposed to get to know your, or how can we interact with you if we aren't asking questions. I guess there is a balance I have yet to learn. To me, asking questions means you care and are interested. This is a bit difficult because when I do all the question asking and no one asks me a single thing about myself, I feel a bit like they don't give a rip about me. But that isn't true. Well, at least that is my hypothesis.. It's a cultural thing perhaps. =) I have yet to find that out, but in the mean time, It helps me feel better about myself. HA!

The world really is amazing. I am so glad that we are all different, and there is so many things to learn about people, places, and cultures. Albeit it can be difficult and sometimes frusterating, it can make things very exciting.

I'm sure there is much more to learn!