Week 4 Wall
Communication across cultures is tricky. Do you have an experience of how you successfully or unsuccessfully negotiated a cultural boundary? Did you work out a “middle ground”? How?
Lost in translation.
Photo credit: John M. Unsworth, 2009
karinbjorkdahl, 
lsmack, and 16 others are discussing.
tyler5 10:05 pm on September 22, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Cultural boundaries can cause issues in terms of settlement, trading, and cohabitation. As we have learned in lecture, early European settlers, be it the Norse, or the later French settlers, communicated in some respect across the cultural boundary that existed between them and the indigenous people of Canada. However, in an age like today of globalization and massive cultural integration, clearly I have much different experiences crossing cultural borders than the people of early Canada. The most common experience I have crossing cultural borders is international travel. Any travel to foreign countries often requires communication between people speaking two different languages. I have stayed in other family’s homes while traveling in Europe. I find that it is not a difficult task to make small adaptations to respect other’s culture. If you are accepting of them, they will do the same to you; especially when it comes to language. If one is to make an effort to speak the language of the nation in which he is traveling, the people will, from my experience, rather than ridicule him for lack of fluency, actually commend him for trying. Furthermore, food is another example of a cultural barrier. While I was in Europe, I tried many foods that I would have never thought to have eaten in Canada. Again, a middle ground can easily be created between you and the people you are staying with, as long as you make an effort to accommodate their cultural habits.
My roommates are all from the Middle East. This being so, they have a vastly different cultural background than myself. We often find aspects of our cultures that differ. The most striking example is religion. Some of the housemates are Muslim, some atheist, some Christian. Also, none of them eat pork. I eat pork on a fairly regular basis. It doesn’t bother my roommates, and if, for example, we make a meal for all four of us, we just refrain from adding pork. It does not cause tension in the house, because finding a middle ground for cultural interaction really just comes down to tolerance and understanding.
jpellegrino 5:00 pm on September 23, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
When one of my Catholic, Italian cousins was marrying a Muslim woman, tensions between both our families arose. While our side of the family hoped for my cousin to marry in the Catholic Church where we’ve all grown up, her side of the family wanted to celebrate with traditional, Muslim ceremonies. Neither side was willing to attend the opposition’s celebratory tradition. Both families were so angry; they did not speak for quite some time. In fact, they almost called off the wedding until the bride and groom decided to bring their parents together and find a “Middle Ground” to work with. Finally, together they all decided to celebrate both ceremonies. In Italian tradition, we attend the wedding ceremony in the morning around eleven o’clock and then there is a five-hour gap until the reception. This allowed both ceremonies to be held in one day, which is exactly what the bride and groom wanted. During the five-hour gap, the Muslim ceremony was to be held. Both sides of the family were welcomed to attend each other’s celebrations. Some attended, some did not. In the end, the bride and groom were extremely happy with the compromise made. What I find interesting between both my experience of “Middle grounds” and that made by the people of New France is the differences in the way the Middle Ground was established. While my family and the bride’s family met half way and did not need to sacrifice their own cultural traditions, the French completely adopted the ways of the Indigenous peoples by presenting their proposals in the form of wampum belts. I think that the Middle Ground can be looked upon in different lights. Middle Grounds can be found by having one group of people WILLING to sacrifice entirely, or in meeting half way by BOTH parties adopting each other’s cultural traditions.
amrita 7:34 pm on September 23, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’ve been born and brought up in Canada, but despite that I was raised in a South Asian culture in my household. My parents are both from India and were married at a relatively young age, in their early twenties. I’m not currently informed of the present practices that occur in India before a girl marries, but it was the practice that females were not permitted to speak to or associate with men until it was ‘time’ to marry. This is because India is a patriarchal society, as are many other cultures around the world. As such, my parents strongly dislike the thought of me associating with or talking to boys, yet currently want me to get married soon because I am in my early twenties. They fail to understand that, as harsh as this sounds, we are in Canada and these kinds of practices are practically unheard of here. They believe that what matters most in life is being secure and settled down with a husband and a few kids. This is something that I do not desire as of yet and would not be amenable to the future life plans I have for myself. For this reason, I used their own beliefs to help negotiate a middle ground between myself and my parents. I told them that I have a career plan and will become secure in my own right and therefore do not plan to get married anytime soon, but that perhaps in 7-8 years when I have hopefully settled into my career path, I will give marriage a thought. For the other aspect of the boundary present in Indian culture I have let my parents know that what they want is completely unreasonable as it would be impossibly to live life without interacting with only females. But I have also made a sacrifice, and although it has been left unsaid, both my parents understand and know that I refrain from dating because of them. To you, this may sound utterly bizarre, but I do it because I highly respect my parents and if there’s something small I can do for them in return for all they do for me, I will do it. Not dating is my version of a sacrifice for talking and associating with guys as this something parents feel crosses a cultural boundary. In conclusion, I would say that the middle ground I have established with these cultural norms and practices required respect and sacrifices on both sides and that is exactly what the Iroquois and the French did. In order to develop peace between the two cultures, they had to have at the very least a small measure of respect. Barring that, they had to sacrifice a small measure of dignity as shown in the anecdote of an Iroquois attempting to look and behave like a European.
Tina Loo 6:22 pm on September 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I don’t think it’s bizarre at all: and that you’re absolutely right that a middle ground can sometimes involve significant sacrifices on one side or another or both sides.
aviaah 11:06 pm on September 23, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Finding a “middle ground” between different cultural groups in Canada began in New France with the French colonists and First Nations. Both groups adopted the customs and diplomatic procedures of the other in order to successfully negotiate and cement peace treaties with one another. Just as the French and First Nations had, I can personally relate to the process of finding a middle ground. Being a summer camp leader, I meet many children who are from different cultural backgrounds. Since they are typically 5 years in age, summer camp is really an eye-opener for many of them, as they are exposed to others from different cultures and backgrounds for the first time in their lives. There was one particular instance where a Canadian-born child, who was very outgoing and boisterous, met a quiet and reserved Japanese child who had recently moved to Vancouver from Tokyo. Having both laid eyes on the one-person trampoline, a quarrel broke out between the two of them over who would go on first. Not only was there a considerable language barrier, but the Japanese child was rather frighted by the overt expression of anger the Canadian child was displaying at not being able to use the trampoline first. To help find a common ground, I had to step in and mediate between the two of them by calmly talking about the situation. I explained, slowly and easily for both to understand, that they must take turns, and that their fight broke out because it was hard for the two of them to understand each other. Since they were children, I figured the best way to settle the disagreement would be “rock-paper-scissors”, and to my surprise, the Japanese child knew of the game, and was just as willing to play it as the Canadian child was. In the end, the Japanese child won, and the the Canadian was more than content to wait his turn, and by the end of it, they were quite friendly with one another despite their cultural and lingual differences. Their “middle ground’ was their shared love for play, as they both bonded over their appreciation for the trampoline, and the “rock-paper-scissors” game that was simple and known by the both of them. Therefore, because of this middle ground between the children was discovered, their dispute dissolved into a friendship, similar to French and First Nation’s peace treaties after finding a middle ground themselves.
Tina Loo 6:23 pm on September 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Fantastic example!
liorbarel 8:26 pm on September 24, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I spent most of last year, on a gap year program in Israel, dealing with cultural boundaries. Twice a week, I worked in two different schools and then a connected after school program, where I – an American who spoke only very basic Hebrew – had to teach and talk to 4th through 6th grade Jewish Israelis – who spoke even less English. Actually, I would argue that in this situation, there happened to be a triple culture barrier: Israeli vs. American culture, lower vs. middle economic class culture, and child vs. youth culture. Both of these played into the way they acted and reacted to me, and the way I acted and reacted to them. These clashing cultures were especially apparently whenever it came to talking about my views with them, specifically about Israel and about gender identity.
As privileged American (and Canadian) youth, we are at least made aware of the idea of defining our gender identity. In many countries (especially countries with languages like Hebrew that have specific words for males and specific words for females), many things about gender identity are assumed that are not assumed (in some circles) in Canada. Male and female stereotypes about ability (and disability) are common everywhere, but even more so in Israel (and of course even more so with young children who have never thought of things any other way).
Also, as an American Jew, my views about Israel were pretty different from my childrens’ views.
Which brings me to the actual story: one time, when I was playing basketball (with a boy, because he didn’t want any girls to play), he told me that Arabs were bad people. In my excellent Hebrew, I asked him why, and he told me “I don’t know, they just are.” So asked him “but, do you really think they are?” and he said yes, and I said “really?” and he said “sort of”, and I said “really?” and he said “a little…” and that was as far as I could take him before he stuck with that answer. So I explained to him how Arabs were people, were individuals, just like he and I, and that it doesn’t make sense to hate a whole group of people that you don’t even know. And, you know, because I’m old and wise, he said “oh, yeah. I guess you’re right.” It didn’t even cross his mind, this idea that other groups of people were made up of individuals with identities and thoughts and feelings, just like him. But we were able to overcome the lingual and cultural barrier, as well as the age and economic barrier, to create at least a basic understanding of the concept of the value of a person.
karinbjorkdahl 1:44 pm on September 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
During class we have discussed some inds of way of comunicating between cultures. But as I have interpreted the question, I should write about a personal experience relating to communications between cultures.
I have lived in Kenya for a couple of years. And the way we were taught to “access” this culture was mostly to embrace and respect their ways. I was a visitor in their country. And there were a lot of significant differencies in couminication. From the fact that you bargained when you were shopping to not dress in a certain way in certain places. All of this includes some way of communicating. However, communication between cultures isn’t much different from communicating in general. To reach a good coummunication both parts have to respect the other part as well as have an understaning for differencies. For example if I, as a stranger to a culture would do something that in an other culture would be a really bad thing, I would be forgiven.
But in a way you have to regard the consequenses of globalization as well as multiculturalism. Cultury is costantly changing and the borders between cultures are slowly erased. Therefore english has become an international language and an International Law is beginning to establish throughout the world.
Tina Loo 6:26 pm on September 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hmm…good point about globalization. Do you think if you went to Kenya now there would be less of a cultural gap because of increased globalization? In other words, does the process of globalization mean we might not have to negotiate middle grounds in the future because we will all be one big culture?
karinbjorkdahl 11:24 am on October 3, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I do believe that the gap would have decreased, mostly due to globalization. The western culture, from manners to different kind of products, has become something that a lot of people seems to strive for. A long with the globalization, the availibility of these thing increases. In the same sence, the espression “exotic” will soon be out of meaning. And
around the world today we see people who really have to fight in order to preserve their culture. Personally, I don’t believe this to be a good thing. But yes, due to globalization a universal new culture will form. In time.
tazizi 3:32 pm on September 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In 2011 I traveled to Nicaragua for volunteer work. When I first read the topic of this week’s blog, I didn’t automatically know if this experience would work. However, after reading another classmate’s response about how they believe middle ground can be achieved by a group willingly adopting the practices of another, I think it ca. While traveling, it was much easier my my group to adapt to ways of the locals simply because of the economic barrier. Also, we were totally immersed in their culture, so it was a lot easier for us to learn about and adopt their culture. For example, we change the way we dressed, made a sincere effort to learn Spanish, and participated in local events such as festivals. I do believe we achieved middle ground, even though we were taking on more of their practices, as it allowed us to build relationships with the people of Nicaragua. Our middle ground consisted of us making an effort to fit in and the locals accepting us and our efforts.
lindswong 9:57 pm on September 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
All my life I have been come into contact with many different cultures. I have grown up in a household where my father is a born and raised Nicaraguan and my mother is a born and raised Austrian. The fact that my two very culturally different parents fell in love and married each other proves, to me, that a middle ground can be reached. However, where I faced the struggles of attempting to create a middle ground came from the many travels we did.
Every few years my family and I go to visit my mom’s family in Austria. My mom did not grow up in the city but in a small town farther away from the cities. The towns are generally very traditional and hold onto old customs, traditions, etc. much more strongly than those people who live in Vienna for example.
Since I was visiting their place, it was expected that I would attempt to find a middle ground by adopting a lot of the German customs. In a sense Austrian people are very much like Canadians in terms of culture, but when factors such the language barrier and religion come into play it makes adapting to their lifestyle much more difficult. My oma (grandmother) is very tied up in the past and in particular she is a very strong catholic. My family and I are christians but of a different kind. Furthermore, I can only understand German, but my speaking abilities are poor. Thus in order to please my mom’s relatives I would do my best to speak what German I could and acknowledge their prayers, despite differences in religion, as opposed to have them accustom to my own lifestyle. In the end I would say that yes I have successfully negotiated a cultural boundary and created a middle ground between my relatives and I.
lindswong 9:58 pm on September 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Lindsay (Ruth) Wong
madden34 11:14 pm on September 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Communication is defined as the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else. It is not the easiest thing to do in general every day when even talking to your best friend. Imagine how hard it is across culture to be able to carry through ideas and exchange such information. Unsuccessfully I have experienced a cultural boundary in my life time. In grade 12 a foreign exchange from student from Asia visited my school for a semester. He played on the basketball team with me, and struggled immensely in speaking the English Language. Of course, myself and the other English speaking kids on the team and even Coach were not sure what to exactly do. We finally came up with an idea to overcome this problem, on how to communicate to him by getting a Cantonese speaking student who could translate to English for us. The idea worked and he was now able to understand the plays being called from the bench and understood how to maneuver around drills etc. Using our friend (the translator) to communicate to the non-speaking kid (that will remain unnamed) is how we established a middle ground. I believe we accomplished something remarkable here as obviously we wanted the student to play with us and enjoy basketball with us, but also we knew this language barrier would be a huge speed bump in the process. It was a success and I’m glad we carried through with this middle ground.
ecopeland 12:27 am on September 26, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
During a six-month stay in the Czech Republic where I lived and worked I found that I did reach a ‘middle ground’ between my home country’s culture and the local culture. Whilst the difference was not too great to begin with, the longer I spent in the country the more I came to realise that small behaviours clearly set me apart from the locals.
The way one behaves, speaks to and treats strangers was very different, as was the way one behaves in public and treats a client or customer. A more formal approach is the best way to explain those differences. This is not to suggest that the culture did not encourage warmth because respectfulness to both stranger and customer was strikingly a stronger practice there. How one treats friends and family in the C.R. was in my opinion better than in my home country, with greater expectations for loyalty and thoughtfulness.
Through learning their language and following their behaviours, and being open to learn about the country’s history, traditions and citizens I feel that I reached a ‘middle ground’. As well as through the proud representation of my country and helping people learn more about my home and traditions.
amandawoodland 12:11 pm on September 26, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Cultural boundaries can be thought of as differences in language, religion, and/or values between two or more cultures that may create tension or some kind of obstacle to be overcome. Examples of cultural boundaries and how such boundaries have been addressed and (possibly) resolved by both/all parties throughout history is an interesting and important area of study. It is worthwhile to recognize that not all examples of cultural boundaries have large-scale implications; smaller, less significant examples occur all the time, likely all over the world – or at least wherever there is the possibility of people from different cultures interacting with one another.
I personally have experienced what it is like to deal with cultural boundaries. Unfortunately my experience was not a positive one. Last year, during my second year at UBC, I lived in residence housing with roommates that I had never met before; our rooming assignment had been randomized. Two of these roommates came from Japan. A great number of issues arose during the year, many of which can be attributed to our cultural differences. Following are some examples of cultural boundaries that caused tension and conflict between the three of us.
The first cultural boundary that we attempted to overcome related to time zones. Japan is approximately fifteen hours ahead of Canada. Because of this, neither of my roommates were adjusted to my version of a typical day (waking up in the morning and going to sleep before midnight). Instead, they would emerge from their bedrooms as I was preparing dinner, and would begin their day by attending night classes. They did their cooking in the latest hours of the night and into the earliest hours of the next morning, sometimes keeping me awake by cooking together or even inviting company over to join them for dinner. Unfortunately, instead of gradually adjusting to Canadian time, my roommates continued to operate on their own schedules for the entire year.
The second example relates to our different attitudes towards cleanliness. After confronting them several times about the state in which they would leave the kitchen, bathroom, and living area, the Residence Advisor had to be called in for a meeting to diffuse the situation. We came to find out that both of my roommates’ families had employed maids to clean up after them for their entire lives previous to moving to Canada for school. In the area that they were from, this was a common practice, and so these girls had never had the experience of cleaning their own homes, let alone cleaning a common space shared by others.
The reason that these cultural boundaries caused conflict was likely due to the third example: the language barrier. Being exchange students, these roommates of mine had had very limited exposure to English-speaking people. It seems that they did not retain a high level of whatever English they were taught in school, either. Whenever we tried to address an issue arising from one of our other cultural differences, it was very difficult to communicate our feelings. For this reason, we all ended up “giving up” in a way. Instead of working harder to find compromises and a middle ground, we eventually began to spend more time in our own bedrooms and considerably less time in the common areas of the residence apartment we shared. The closest that we came to a middle around was to avoid each other and ignore the issues as best we could.
Tina Loo 6:30 pm on September 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
These are all great examples Amanda, and they make an important point: sometimes efforts to make a middle ground fail! You need people to WANT to accommodate…. The French and British and First Nations all wanted peace and trade and were open to compromise.
chliane 12:52 am on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Cultural boundaries spring up in all kinds of places, often in unexpected places. My personal experience comes from the cultural divide between China and Taiwan. Many people who consider themselves native to Taiwan actually come from immigrants that arrived from China several centuries ago, but do not identify with many things in Chinese culture anymore. They have built their own identity and culture and do not consider Taiwan a part of China, though in official Chinese records Taiwan is only a province. I was never much affected by this major political issue growing up in Canada. I also come from the second wave of immigrants to Taiwan, as my grandparents had escaped during the Cultural Revolution, which meant they still considered China to be their homeland. This meant that although my parents lived their whole lives in Taiwan, they were never strongly part of the separatist movement. To me Taiwan was my native home country; a country that was sort of part of another country.
People often ask me “Where are you from?” and “What are you, exactly?” to which I say, “I’m Chinese, and I’m from Taiwan.” Not Taiwanese, that is a language which I do not speak. But I would soon find out that other people had different, and very strong opinions.
In the eighth grade I was introducing myself to a new classmate, and went through the customary background questions, and I gave my usual answer. The boy across from me suddenly piped up “No, you’re Taiwanese!” and gave a whole speech about why that was. Which attracted the attention of another classmate, this time from China, with the complete opposite point of view.
That argument was never completely resolved, and it most likely never will be. The classroom squabble ended after the room full of freshmen found something else to yell about. But the Taiwan-is-a-Country versus Taiwan-is-a-Province was never resolved, and came up time and time again. I learned something very important after going home that day: that people are very touchy about where they’re from, and how they identify themselves. I realized not everyone was like us, neutral and indifferent. To those living in their native land, it mattered very much what country they belonged to. Now I understand how to better phrase my words, which makes history so fascinating when studying the path others took to bridge the divide between cultures.
dallasyassinsky 11:27 am on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Living in Canada we see Cultural boundaries very often since Canada is a very diverse place. I grew up here and where i grew up in Abbotsford I was always around different cultures in school, either East Indian or often Korean. Personally in the area I grew up there was a lot of East Indian people and often was faced with cultural boundaries along with communication issues. Middle ground was established in Abbotsford in the last few years in a substantial way. There are often signs with both languages in important places like banks and in most of the public places there are both english speaking Candians and punjabi speaking people that can provide translation for both cultures. Growing up in school often my East indian friends parents could not speak english well so another way that we established common ground was having the kids translate for us. Besides establishing middle ground in the communication there was also cultural events that helped us understand the east indian cultural, this event is called diwali. Growing up with that different type of culture allowed me to see how different it is in other parts of the world and establishing that middle ground between the two cultures was an essential part of growing up. Establishing middle ground between two cultures should always be a successful experience that allows you to learn about another culture and grow as a community.
ronendlin 12:15 pm on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Honestly I have spent most of my life trying to bridge a major cultural divide between myself and the peoples of my surroundings. My brothers and I are all Israeli born citizens who spent most of our lives in conservative Texas. The measure of how different these two cultures could be is no were near surprising, given the geographical, political, and major religious differences between the two nations. Growing up in Texas is a very interesting experience for a Jewish Israeli born American. I have plenty of examples of my search for equilibrium and a middle ground going poorly and well. For instance I was able to bond with many of my friends over our shared passion for hockey (surprising for both groups, I know). A successful middle ground there is the primal urge to compete and interact with peers. Very unsuccessful cultural bridge examples would be the common experiences of “boys being boys” in a grading school system that focus more on illegal substance control than deterring violence among its students. When all negotiations go badly, violence is the unifying force in understanding the motives of another person or peoples. I found that finding a common bonding force is much easier in peoples who wish to assimilate with others of heritages foreign to them, although many people wish to remain isolated and autonomous.
mwaldron 4:12 pm on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I grew up in the Cowichan Valley (funnily enough, very close to Salt Spring Island & Chemainus, both mentioned in our William Robinson Research), and as the court document and newspaper articles sort of alluded to, there is a very high First Nations population in the Valley. My elementary and middle school (Queen of Angels) found a middle ground between the Cowichan First Nations people & the school system we happened to be a part of. As a private school, we learned languages from kindergarten- mostly French, but we also studied Hul’qumi’num (hall-ka-mee-num), the language of the First Nations people who lived in the area. Queen of Angels was also a Catholic school, no naturally we had masses and celebrations according to the Catholic church. We also, however, celebrated First Nations holidays and once a year had a Cultural Day where we learned about traditional stories, food, games & ceremonies in the First Nations culture. No other schools in the area had such a day, and the Native Band in the area was 100% on board with the programs and very excited that the school was able to present them to us.
This middle ground reached by the practicing of both traditional Catholicism and facets of traditional Cowichan First Nations practices was not only very important to my community but taught all of us as students a lot about the culture and gave us a great amount of respect for it. Without those lessons, I’d probably still be ignorant of a major culture that I grew up in. I mean, the word Cowichan itself is a Hu’qumi’num word meaning “the warm land.”
Vinciane Boisson 4:31 pm on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Although Canada and its culture are new to me, I do not have much examples of negociated cultural boundary in that regard. The only one I would have is when I find myself not understanding what someone tells me. When that happens, either the person is nice, polite, and somehow tries to rephrase and slows their utterance, or I get the feeling the person is getting annoyed or is downright rude about it. In the second case, I usually end up answering yes, even if I did not understand one word of what has been said – this can probably be labelled as an unsuccessfully negociated cultural boundary.
The second example of negociated cultural boundary concerns religion. I grew up in with a (very) atheistic mother. My understanding until fairly recently was that religion brought the worse into people, instead of the contrary. And that only intellectually dim people could possibly believes such things. While I was first influenced by my mother, this stance was reinforced by what I would see at school.
During my first year in University, I met a girl who is now a close friend. She was and still is very much dedicated to religion. At first, I was very rude to her and would not hide my opinions regarding religion. However, with time, as I would see that religion helped her be a good person (though, it could be argued that without religion, her personality would stay the same and she is just a good person at heart), I began being more respectful of her beliefs and listenning to her talk about it when she needed to. I also learnt from it not to flaunt my political and religious stances to people who might not think the same, as we sometimes both knew we would disagree on certain topics.
I think a middle ground was reached by both of us accepting we had different opinions and beliefs, accepting and respecting them, and not trying to impose or convince at all costs the other of them.
jenniferbishop 4:46 pm on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In lecture this week we have been learning about how the French colonists and Indigenous people found a middle ground in order to end the fighting. They found the middle ground through understanding and adopting each other’s customs. An example of this from my own life is a few years an ago my sister went on a two-week exchange to Japan. Then the following month a Japanese exchange student around our age came and stayed with our family for two weeks. Although I did not have the full culture experience that my sister had by going to Japan, I definitely still think I saw a successful middle ground between our two cultures. Aki learned more about the American culture because she was an exchange student she but also shared hers with my family and me. A key element to finding a middle ground is sharing cultural customs with each other. I know things we shared typical American customs with her, like her first cheeseburger, went tubing down the lake, built a bear at Build-A-Bear, Pike Place. In return Aki shared a bit of her favorite activities, and Japanese food. Aki brought over lots of Japanese candy and even prepackaged food, which she was able to add the necessary ingredients to, to made dinner one night. Overall, my family and Aki were able to find a great middle ground and to share our different customs. However, one key element to a successful middle ground is communication and that is something, which was sometimes a problem. This is because Aki spoke Japanese and a little English while my whole family only English which caused a language barrier. Luckily, Aki had a portable translator, which allowed her to type a sentence, and it would translate into English and visa versa so we were still able to communicate.
lsmack 4:48 pm on September 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
One year, I participated in a Canoe Journey that paddled from Port Hardy down to Lummi, Washington. All through out the trip, we would stop at host communities for songs, dances and a meal. Each time we landed on a beach, we would follow protocol by stating where we are from then ask for permission to spend the night on their land. After each meal, the skippers (captains) of the canoes would hold skippers meetings to discuss the next day while we’re on the water and what to expect.
In my family’s canoe, we had a paddle with a white feather tied on by a string of leather. We took it as a momento for our fallen family members and friends that had passed on. We wanted to have a symbol to show that we were paddling and participating in honour of our friends and family and not only for ourselves. So, one day, when we landed on a beach, we had the paddle sitting at the bow of the canoe with the feather hanging over board. As per custom, we did our protocol and were granted permission to spend the night.
After the meal, we went to the ‘skippers meeting’ and there, the skippers would ask questions and share concerns. During the meeting, one of the cultural leaders of the host community stood up and made a reference of our feather. He didn’t call us out but he mentioned that, when a canoe came to their land with a feather hanging out of the canoe, their intentions were to start a war or a battle. Upon hearing this, I slumped in my chair knowing they were talking about my family canoe. They continued on to talk about other issues and ended soon after. After awhile, I picked up my pride and embarrassment, walked over to the leader and apologized about the feather and that we meant no harm. He said he was alright, knowing that we didn’t know but wanted us to respect their culture. With this, I made sure the feather of the paddle stayed into our canoe during the following protocols.
Our common ground was built with the reaction of the cultural leader. He understood that we were a different nation, and therefor, didn’t react by being hostile and disrespect my canoe family. I believed I helped by not overreacting to him during the meeting and by owning up to my mistake. If we had both reacted differently, our canoe journey’s would have ended with one of our families being sent home or ended early.
Tina Loo 6:36 pm on September 28, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Some general comments on Week 4 :
Many people in the class brought up the fact that UBC is a very multicultural campus in a culturally diverse city, so that learning how to accommodate oneself to differences is something we have to do all the time. There were some great examples of how people react to differences – everything ranging from reacting with unease, frustration, and sometimes with aggression and bullying to making an effort to learn and adapt, whether through trying new foods, learning new words, figuring out new customs, or sharing (whether it be food or a love of football). But, as some of you pointed out, sometimes efforts to make a middle ground fail!
Your stories led me to think that the key to making a middle ground is a mutual interest and commitment in doing so. The French and Indigenous nations that met at Montreal really wanted the same thing – trade and above all, peace – to the extent they were willing to be hostages in the “enemy’s” camp. Most of us don’t engaged in treaty negotiations, but we do have to find a way to get along in the midst of different cultures, and doing so successfully seems to be premised on an ability to get beyond our fears and to be open to new experiences, to let go, to a certain extent, of some of the ways we do things. This begins by recognizing that the way we do things, the things we think are “normal” aren’t necessarily seen that way by everyone!