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.
5 comments:
Hey Brian,
That blog dovetailed a little bit, but I'll forgive you because I'm a huge Winning 11 Fan!!! Best game ever period. I hate when people try to compare it to FIFA on the computer or playstation. Not even close. As for FF I have never been able to get into Role Playing games. I was a big gamer at one point in my life and then I realized that I probably wasted about 2 months of my life in Pc Bang wasting away drinking cheap coffee and ramyun. Oh yeah, back to culture! I'm glad you are learning to be more sensitive to others opinions and views. That is so crucial in today's world, especially being a Korean-American. You'll face conflicts and ignorance in the states that are going to drive you crazy, but you will learn how to deal with the problems in a healthy way and learn from those instances.
Brian,
A very interesting post! You did an excellent job of metaphorically expressing your perspective on how we should confront different cultures by subtly developing an analogy between video games and human culture.
I think that intractability on our part to openly accept new cultures is one of the major flaws we make when we are confronted with cultures different from ours. This is probably caused by mankind's internal instincts to want security - acceptance of new cultures inevitably lead to change, and this change, in turn, can lead to a state of confusion and insecurity.
Thus, open-mindedness is very essential when we meet new cultures. Only flexibility and mutual respect can stop tension and violent cultural clashes from occurring.
However, I also think that this open-mindedness is very limited by our past experiences and beliefs. For example, older generations of Koreans still regard Japanese people with contempt because of the traumatic experiences that they have once faced. Another, consider our initial reaction to the Sawi custom of cannibalism - we reacted with disgust and rejection.
Therefore, even though it may be difficult to balance out our prejudices when confronting new cultures, we should try to be as flexible and respectful as possible, even if we are not in complete accordance with the traditions of other cultures.
-Peter
P.S. I really enjoy reading your posts because your voice is vividly imprinted in your writing. Good work! (But next time, try not to talk about Winning 11 too much because it's obvious that WE11 is much better than FF.)
P.S.S. I apologize for the length of my comment. In order to retaliate for the wrong I have inflicted on you (making you read a ridiculously long comment), you should make an equally long comment on my posts!
Brian, I think You reveal some very relvent points. The way you have analyzed your ideas with comparing the games seems to show a more realistic side of religion and faith. As we all live in a world not perfected and full of bugs and have glitches we can someday find a way to set our selves free from these "games" and see the real light.
Brian,
I agree with you that there arn't any given set of rules for everyone to follow when confronting with different cultures. I think it is really important that we be very much aware of the "other side" and understand in what way we approach them. But each person has a plan from God to persue him in different ways...
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