Second Entry

What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?

 

I don't think there is a set of given rules for everyone to follow in the confrontations with other cultures. People do things according to their thoughts and everyone have different thoughts. Thusly, each and every person would react differently in a given situation.

However, no matter what they believe in or don’t believe in anything at all, people should always respect the others, in my opinion. It is ironic for me to say this because a lot of times I do the opposite.

I try to be aware of the things that I’m going to say and what the others would think about the things I say.

Back to the point, I learned that being respectful is very important in societies, especially in Korea. An incident back in elementary school where I lied and spread false rumors about a friend to the extreme level taught me the lesson about paying respect to other’s ideas. The whole thing started with an argument over which game is better between Final Fantasy series and The Winning Eleven series. I, of course, was an extremist supporting The Winning Eleven because I liked soccer and the game was entertaining enough to keep me playing the game until my eyes hurt. Back then, I’ve never played any of Final Fantasy and was a fool for referring the Final Fantasy series as a bunch of boring games.

Both are really good games. It would be a lie to say either games suck.

Anyway, my friend never played the Winning Eleven at the time and we started to create fictional stories about each other to bash ourselves. Both my friend and I had a conference with the teacher to settle the issue. In the end, my friend ended up becoming a fan of The Winning Eleven and I ended up semi-worshipping Final Fantasy.

Now, we get together to play games every summer.

My experience doesn’t really relate the confrontations of other cultures and it also doesn’t really answer the question (sorry Mr. Radar) but from the incident I learned that I should control my stubbornness and pay respect to the other cultures because the other perspective might turn out to be good. Of course, I do have integrity with my beliefs and I wouldn’t go accepting all cultures/ideas of this world. 

First Entry

Q: What factors of your native culture have informed your religious world view? Explain the impact of these factors.   

I am a Christian. Yes, I'm a believer of Jesus Christ's teachings. And, my native culture didn't affect my religious belief much at all. In the past, I thought was a Christian because I was born in a Christian family. I've also seen thousands of people who claimed be Christians but they were merely hypocrites who did not know anything about Chrisitianity. Thusly, I didn't call myself as a Christian because I didn't know a lot about it and if I claimed to be a Christian without any understanding, I would also be a hypocrite. However, I didn’t care much about how other people behaved and the external influences regarding the questions of faith. And I still don't care much about other's faith.

I started my musical education back when I was 5 years old. My first piano teacher quit because I never practiced. But my mother kept on getting new teachers to continue my music lessons. As years passed, I eventually quit piano and joined the elementary school band as a clarinetist and an oboist. During the time in middle school band I learned to play the flute, the trombone, the saxophone, and the bassoon. By the time I was an eighth grader I was able to listen to a song to identify almost everything about it such as: the tempo, the key signature, the chord progression, and number of instruments used. I also had the ability to notate a score by listening. But, about a year ago, I started to have blackouts when playing the oboe, my primary instrument. My doctor said I had to stop playing the instrument because it had bad affects on my heart and my lungs. From that day, I had to quit playing the instrument that I’ve played for 5 years. 

Quitting the oboe had a great impact on my life. I lost 5 years of my life when the doctor said: stop playing the oboe. At the time, I didn’t call myself as a Christian but I believed that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But I started to have doubts about Him. I cursed Him for taking away the result of 11 years of all my efforts on music. But then my mom pulled a 20 year old, dusty acoustic guitar from the garage. I started to play the guitar as if I was possessed by something, and I now can proudly say that in less than a year, I have reached a higher understanding about music with the guitar compared to the 11 years I’ve spent playing a variety of instruments. I started to understand what soul power was and other music stuff too. But, most importantly, I learned that if ‘sound’ is God’s breath, music is His language. 

I’m quite passionate about music. I firmly believe God didn’t give me the ability to quickly pick up various instruments for no reason. I don’t believe that He accidentally gave me the ears which Mr. Cho, who has perfect pitch, would like to steal and replace his if he had the chance to do so. I don’t believe that God randomly gave me the ability to make a tune instantaneously. I know that He has certain purpose with my abilities and I will use it to glorify Him. 

I’m a Christian.   

Oh, just in case if you are wondering why I don't care about other's beliefs is because it's really hard to deal with the problems in my life and my faith and I don't wish to run into issues concerning other's beliefs when my faith isn't that stable.