Culture can have great influence on how different people view different aspects of life. Things like shame, success, happiness, womanhood and manhood and competition in the workforce are highly influenced by culture. Even people who are genetically similar and of of the same ethnicity will have wildly diverse reactions to the same situations in life.
Professor Ivers illustrates what was mentioned in the previous paragraph with a story. It is about an iguana hunter who felt ashamed by his failure in not catching an iguana in his first attempt. What to someone from America seems to be a trivial situation, to the man it brought him profound shame. He ended up redeeming himself by going on a second trip and managed to catch an iguana and feel good about himself.
In China, the concept of beauty is significantly different from the US for example. It is not uncommon to find women in China who will put white make up on their faces or use filters on their phones to make them seem whiter than they really are because that is what is considered beautiful. They will carry umbrellas and avoid the sun at all costs to not get a tan. While in the west, a tanned skin can seem beautiful and healthy. The same goes for public displays of affection, you will at the most find couples holding hands, but it is extremely rare to see couples kissing.
To sum up, it is extremely important to know how certain cultures view different events. This way, the teacher can better comprehend and act accordingly for each situation.
Professor Ivers illustrates what was mentioned in the previous paragraph with a story. It is about an iguana hunter who felt ashamed by his failure in not catching an iguana in his first attempt. What to someone from America seems to be a trivial situation, to the man it brought him profound shame. He ended up redeeming himself by going on a second trip and managed to catch an iguana and feel good about himself.
In China, the concept of beauty is significantly different from the US for example. It is not uncommon to find women in China who will put white make up on their faces or use filters on their phones to make them seem whiter than they really are because that is what is considered beautiful. They will carry umbrellas and avoid the sun at all costs to not get a tan. While in the west, a tanned skin can seem beautiful and healthy. The same goes for public displays of affection, you will at the most find couples holding hands, but it is extremely rare to see couples kissing.
To sum up, it is extremely important to know how certain cultures view different events. This way, the teacher can better comprehend and act accordingly for each situation.
Comments
I agree with you that we should know the point of view or the way of seeing certain events in each culture to avoid misunderstandings.