Ceci n'est pas une endive - Tag - culture - Comments

What Is Your Single Story? - Ana

Ana — Sat, 16 May 2015 12:19:17 +0200

Hello there,
thank you for this post.
As part of a European project, we're producing some teaching materials for intercultural education. In one activity, in which we use Adichie's talk, we would like to add your blog post for the students to reflect on and discuss. The materials will be published online as open educational resources with a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence. We would be grateful if you could give us the permission to include the text in the activity. If you wish o tkos more about the project, please contact me directly.

Empathy, Culture and the Words You Use - Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 22:14:53 +0100

Wow, really excellent point. I'd never thought of it that way. Love your blog, btw.

Empathy, Culture and the Words You Use - notafish

notafish — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:15:01 +0100

No, I haven't, but looking it up really quick, this seems interessant, I'll look into it. Thanks :)

Empathy, Culture and the Words You Use - Mark

Mark — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 00:47:49 +0100

Yes. Very good points. Have you seen Simon Baron Cohen's research?

Mark

What Is Your Single Story? - AndreasP

AndreasP — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:58:48 +0200

My favourite American question regarding Europe was "Between which country and Germany is the wall?", asked by an American exchange student in the mid-1980s (and rightfully quoted as especially stupid in our school magazine, along with "Norway? Is that some kind of highway?").

How Intercultural Is Social Media? - notafish

notafish — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 15:23:07 +0200

To tell you the truth, I am not sure I haven't subscribed to someone whose main interest is hockey or the KKK. But what I am saying is that it's somewhat irrelevant. I agree with you, if you want to stay on the same-same, that this same-same is not bijective. You state: You and I share some interest, you and another person share something different, and insasmuch as this different interest does not collide with my main interests that I share with you, it may prove to be an enlargement of my horizon., and I see this as the point I am trying to make. You and I may have absolutely nothing in common except say, haikus. BUt because we have this one thing in common, we'll somehow "get together" and our horizon might be enlarged. The question being here, would I, in a real-life situation where I am meeting you, define myself as "loving haikus"? I am not sure. The lack of background is what I find interesting in the issue of social media and culture. I am getting to know people whom I probably would not have talked to in the first place.

As for the impossibility of conversation under 140 characters, I do not agree completely. If the exchange does not evolve in a real conversation within the restriction of 140 characters, the focus provided by social media interaction definitely gives a good basis for conversation, even if it then ends up to happen outside of the medium that started it.

How Intercultural Is Social Media? - simsa0

simsa0 — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:29:03 +0200

A huge problem in such debates are the big words like 'culture', 'lnguage', etc., sometimes the identification of cultures with languages, sometimes the sheer misreading of phenomena at hand.

Setting the big words aside the phenomena reported in the post you've mentioned seem pretty clear: We tend to talk more to people with whom we share the same interests rather than none. We subscribe to people who are interesting to us due to a direct conversation, their statements on their profile, their interactions with others that we happened to witness. Often we find them only because they are in interaction with someone whom we've subscribed to. Besides the themes, interests, comments the tone, the timbre of their voice proves very important (at least for me). The timbre is a very important 'criterion'. Sometimes it is not what they say but the attitudes, the education, the style that shimmer through the statement that makes a tweet interesting. Timbre or attitude is so important (at least to me) that one even accepts boring content.

I guess neither you nor I have subscribed to someone whose main interest is with ice hockey or who is a convinced supporter of the KuKluxKlan (or the Nazis). So besides the heavy words the observation of the blog post you've cited and the observation you shared about the two groups of subscribers on identica and twitter seem rather in accordance: One stays same-same. The difference is, that same-same is not bijective. You and I share some interest, you and another person share something different, and insasmuch as this different interest does not collide with my main interests that I share with you, it may prove to be an enlargement of my horizon.

We might read to much into this problem. Somehow this is a widespread problem pertaining to all media, somehow it is peculiar to the 'social' media. E.g., one has to force oneself to read papers that do not accord with one's political outlook. One doesn't listen to music one doesn't like. One doesn't talk with people one finds offensive. Additional to these proclivities comes the form of the 'social' media. I guess there was never a case in which McLuhan's "The mdeia is massage" was more true than with regard to twitter and identica: 140 characters do force content and conversation. (I leave Facebook aside, firstly because one doesn't have the character-restriction there, and secondly I don't know Facebook that much as I don't have an account.) The restricting power of the 140 cs can easily be seen: It's enough to yell (positively and negativeley), but it doesn't allow for discussion. The urge for brevity leaves subtle shades out of the 'conversation', it all becomes fact-stating. So simply by design, identica and twitter are good for anouncing facts, sharing links, enlisting support, spreading the news (and for haikus too). The witty statement, the apercu is cherished, not the long-winding argument. It's not about conversatons, understanding, about detecting fine differences, shades, nuances.

But for a conversation to get going under the 140 cs-restriction, one has to fimd ways of disambiguation. Misunderstandings are prevalent even in the 'same' 'culture' or 'language'. To get going without always having to clear the semantic mess one has to navigate a field in which one shares the most with the people one talks to. Simply to know how to take one post or reply. And that means that people on 'socal' media 'have' to talk about the same themes and contents, because otherwise they would have to elaborate om all the context needed to make sense of the utterance.

I guess intercultural communication is not so much a problem on the level of bread, salt, and traffic lights. It's in the more abstract, more subtle, more complex, more - well: cultural levels that the differences arise or can be ssen. To talk about the differences between muscic from say the Senegal and France, or wherever, needs more time and space for elaboration than 140-cs-psot can provide. So again: It's about small facts, yelling, point scoring, or hinting to sources. But that is not understanding or a conversation.

So, yes, I agree with the blog you've cited: it's same-same. But always in different colours. And that's nice, isn't it?

Of Language and Thought: Gender Awareness - cilantro

cilantro — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:34:37 +0200

Imagine the trouble when mixing with non indoeuropean languages, for instance Hebrew (has masculine and feminine as a function of the consonant the word ends with, but is full of exceptions)!
Nominally nouns are masculine unless they end in 'Heh' (the fifth letter in the Alef-Bet), or 'Taf' (the last one). Notwithstanding that Heh is silent and most of the time takes the sound of the tacit vowel it accompanies, and that Taf can be confused with 'Tet' (the ninth letter), which used to have a slightly different sound but is now pronounced the same, the language is full of exceptions... for instance fire=esh, clearly ends in 'Shin' (the next to last letter), but is however feminine. Or, as per your example shemesh=sun is feminine also, but iareach=moon is masculine as per the rule.
Go figure

About "Ceci n'est pas une endive" - SCHWECHGO

SCHWECHGO — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:23:22 +0200

There is a difference between a chicon and endives. There both of the same family and it is different from the laitues. But in belgium endives refers to the green leaves for salad, and the chicon refers to the forced culture in the dark to get those yellow white cones. You can see clearly the difference when you buy seeds.

Tell Me How You Eat I Will Tell You Who You Are - Rashunda

Rashunda — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:10:20 +0200

When I moved to Europe from the US, I had to totally refine my dining habits. For example, I've learned to wait to be served at the table rather than reach for the food in the middle of it. I made the mistake of "waiting to be served" at a friend's house back home one time. They joked that I must have servants or something waiting on me in Europe.:-)

Tell Me How You Eat I Will Tell You Who You Are - Brent

Brent — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:22:18 +0100

I think it's up to the generosity and intelligence of the host to recognize (and even enjoy) cultural differences that otherwise would raise eyebrows. The essence of gentility is compassion.

Tell Me How You Eat I Will Tell You Who You Are - punafish

punafish — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:37:49 +0200

Nice blog. Just wanted to stop by and see where all the traffic was coming from. Thanks for referring your readers to my blog post "Glimpses of Culture Through How We Dine".

Aloha,

Tim

Job Hunting: How Culturally Unconventional Can You Be? - notafish

notafish — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:47:14 +0200

Yeah, I get that sometimes. I actually wrote the first recommendation right. Funny thing is, I usually do that mistake the other way around!

Job Hunting: How Culturally Unconventional Can You Be? - Dedalus

Dedalus — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:35:33 +0200

Recommandations? You're definitely francophone. Try to get some more recommendations.

Holy shit! The Church got me. - Moya

Moya — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:34 +0100

This is a dreadful situation for the unsuspecting foreigner in Germany. There should be some kind of obligation on the authorities in Germany to explain to every foreigner employed in Germany that being Catholic or Protestant has nothing to do with religious faith but with finance.

The scandal is that opting out of paying Church Tax requires the person to renounce his/her faith. In the case of a baptized Catholic, from the point the 'church leaver' signs the formal declaration at the Local Court, he is excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Germany is the only country in the world heaving with apostates! Leaving the Catholic Church in Germany incurs severe penalties. As an excommunicated Catholic you cannot then be married in a Catholic Church. Your children cannot be baptized. You cannot be buried in a Catholic cemetery, your children cannot go to a state-funded Catholic school and so on.

The Catholic institutions, schools, hospitals, kindergartens, retirement homes are funded by Church Tax, which is collected by the state on behalf of the Church. Thousands are employed by these institutions and remunerated from the income from Church Tax. The problem is, the price paid to keep these insitutions going by the richest Church in the world is the highest that could be paid: excommunication if you don't want to pay this troubling tax.

Catholics have been leaving the Church in droves in recent years. The question is whether the German Catholic bishops are willing to ditch Church Tax for ways of financing its services which other countries around the world have been using for ever. It will of course mean than German Parish Priests will no longer be paid the high salaries they have accusomed to, or cruise around their parishes in Mercedes, but maybe, just maybe, they will then start remembering that the founder of the Church wanted to bring people to God, not drive them away.

Wikimedia Fundraiser: Donating Close to Home - James Michael DuPont

James Michael DuPont — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:40:24 +0100

Hallo aus 63069 OF.
Suche verzweifelt die "RSS Fütterung" von deinem Netztagebuch! Wo ist der versteckt?

mfg,

mike

Holy shit! The Church got me. - notafish

notafish — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:41:35 +0100

@ann the fee is not exactly steep, it's around 20 euros, depending on your local administration. This said, I do find it "steep" that you're asked to pay to "get out of the church". I still have to blog about the fact also that I received a very nice but firm letter from the Catholic Church in France, a few weeks after having "gotten out" of the church in Germany which read that they were sorry to see me go. So this has a long tail.

Holy shit! The Church got me. - ann

ann — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:24:25 +0200

hi!

I am in exactly the same situation. I said 'yes' , I am a catholic and only later I realised I need to pay high 9 % taxes on income for that!!! And I do not even go to church. You mentioned 'steep' fee...how much was it if I may ask?

thanks a lot!

Trick Question: Where Do You Come From? - Hzaphry

Hzaphry — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:33:38 +0200

"Well I born in this hole and I'll die in this hole" Ice age 2

I think this question is a very nice one cause it gives you much free space of answering so u don't have to answer what you don't want to, you can only answer any of those real available answers and you are not lying.

My Very First Culture Shock - digitalfemme

digitalfemme — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:26:02 +0200

I hugged a few Germans the first time we met. Now they hate me. :o( Oh well. First impressions are first impressions.

What can you expect from a nurse who enjoyed caring for her patients? What can you expect from a nurse who was practically the only nurse who massaged her patients feet? My fingers have been inside body crevices - so hugging a stranger is nothing new to me.

It's been one culture shock after the other, ever since I landed here in Frankfurt.