Your Culture.. Say What?!

Oftentimes we are very much straight forward in our day to day lives. Everything we do revolves around us and our culture. Culture in this sense means the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.

Tonight I met three other expats for dinner at the local Bar-B-Que restaurant. This grouping was not planned at all! I had only planned to meet one of my coworkers for dinner. As we were sitting and talking the French teacher was walking her dog through the neightborhood and stopped to chat. Not long after she arrived, her husband arrived. Although they did not expect to stay it was a rather exciting evening.

At our table we had a gathering of four different cultures: French, English, Southern United States (Mississippi), and Southern United States (Texas). This was one of the most interesting conversations I have had since being in Chengdu.

To get back to the original intent of the article, there was a time where we spoke of club/ drinking cultures in our respective corners of the globe. According to our local British expert the British mostly drink beer starting around 6pm then on into the night. He said this originates from World Wars when the government was attempting to boost the output of the factories. In France is it much more common to see someone out at the club until the early hours of the morning (this statement meaning about 5 or 6am!). Our French teacher was recounting when they would head home from the club many of the bakeries would just be turning out their first batch of bread for the day, and they would be given fresh bread form the oven!

Between the forks of food and mouth full of drink, the conversation drifted through many different topics. Sometimes it's good for us to speak to someone of a different culture and see life through their eyes. It's amazing how much we learn by looking form a different point of view. Each one of us are humans with different beliefs. Instead of being drawn apart, that should make us more attracted to each other. In our discomfort is when we grow and learn the most!

This is one of the things I find most intriguing being an international educator. Here I am in a country I have only studied about a few times in scattered world history courses, and I get to immerse myself in the surrounding culture. Our school staff is a diverse group of educators from all over the world. We each can learn from each other. We can all learn something from each other. Never let a moment to quench the thirst of knowledge escape.