Cross-cultural awareness narrative

1. When the behavior in culture A is identified by an observer from

culture B as being the same as in his/her own culture, but
actually has a very different meaning.
A behavior I have noticed as an observer from the American
culture is the physical relationship between two males. In the
beginning I assumed when two males were holding hands or
being physically affectionate with one another that they were
in a romantic relationship. In America if two males are being
physically affectionate towards one another they are usually
perceived to be in a homosexual relationship. This behavior in
both cultures is widely accepted, but has a different meaning.
2. When different behaviors in culture A and B actually have the
same meaning.
One of the first cultural mishaps I accidentally encountered
was the polite way to call someone over to you using your
hand. In America it is appropriate to call someone over to you
while holding your palm facing upward and using your fingers
to call them towards you. In South Korea this gesture is used
for animals, not people. The correct gesture to call over
someone towards you is to hold your palm facing downward
and use your fingers to call someone towards you. These two
different hand gestures in separate cultures have the same
meaning.
3. When the behaviors in cultures A and B have the same
meaning, but are distributed differently in time and space.
South Korea puts more of an emphasis on academic pressure
during the high school years while America puts more
academic pressure on students during the university years.
Both cultures have an emphasis on academic achievement
and overcoming academic challenges, but the distribution in
time is different. In South Korea there is high competition and
a low rate of college acceptance rates while having high levels
of graduation once accepted, but in America there is a high
rate of college/university acceptance, but not as many
students graduate that are accepted. This further
demonstrates the different distribution in time of academic
achievement.
4. When members of one culture assume the way they do things
is the correct way (ethnocentrism).
An example of ethnocentrism in America is the belief that the
best educational technique is to focus on developing
individual creative strengths while having less emphasis on
core subject growth. In Korea there is more of an emphasis on
strengthening core subject knowledge in high school before

focusing on individual creative subjects in the classroom at

the university level. For example, high school students in
America are offered a wide range of extracurricular classes to
take in high school that interest them while mostly core
subjects are taken in Korea, at least this is the observation I
have made while talking to Kyunghwa students and
witnessing the class schedules for the students. Both
countries believe their strategy of academic development is
the correct way.
5. When members of culture A assume that culture B is uniform
(stereotyping).
One stereotype that I incorrectly had before coming to Korea
was assuming that all Asians would be relatively short with a
few exceptions. I was very wrong in assuming this idea. The
students here are of similar height to those of American
female high school students. Many students are actually as
tall, if not taller, than I am. This was a very silly stereotype to
have, but it is a common stereotype that has not been
correctly addressed in America.