I attended the cultural inquiry group tonight. The activity was an interesting one. We were split up into two groups and then separated. Within our group we were given kind of our own little mini-culture that we were supposed to follow. This culture was expressed through a little game that we played in our room, which sadly nobody could seem to win. In the meantime the other group was receiving similar instructions. After getting the games down, the groups were intermixed and had to try and figure out what each other were doing.
I had to leave a little early, so I missed out on the end, but I think the message was clear. Basically, it is confusing and difficult to suddenly find yourself in a different culture. The first and probably hardest barrier to overcome is the language barrier. In our game we were not supposed to talk other than making animal noises and hand signals. Going to a country where your language isn't spoken can make it very difficult to communicate with people, so even when you want to participate, it is hard because you're often not sure of what is going on or why. Luckily for us, many people in McLeod Ganj speak English, but I am sure there will be plenty of moments when we are observing a Tibetan conversation and wishing we could know what they were saying.
Other barriers can include a knowledge of what is and isn't acceptable to a culture. In our game, we were told that we did not like to get within an arms length of any other person, so we were to keep our distance at all times. Others coming into this kind of culture not knowing this would probably cross this border often without knowing, and possibly offend many people (We didn't keep this rule that well in our game because the room was really small). Anyway, again, it's the same thing in real life. It's hard to know what is acceptable and you have to be very careful and observant to make sure you are not accidentally offending people.
At the same time, people, knowing that you are not native to their culture, are often understanding in that you may not know all of their customs and beliefs. So, it was a fun little activity and taught a good lesson.
I love rafa rafa! I am so glad you were able to play. It is a great representation of what cross cultural research looks like, better than other simulations of hypothetical discussions I have participated in. It can be incredibly awkward, frustrating, but really rewarding once you figure out (or try to) see what is going on and what the values are of a location.
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun game, wasn't it? Like Rachel said, it's the best I'm come across for a cross-cultural experience, with-out actually leaving your own culture. I'm planning to play it again with my FHE group, since we have a lot of international students in our ward from all over the world. I'm excited to hear their insights into what they gained. I learned a lot from playing it, but what was even more fascinating was hearing everyone's comments afterward and learning from all of their insights as well as my own.
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