The basis of life around the world is the
same for every one. We all want freedom. Everyone is seeking love, belonging
and self-esteem along side the physical means of survival. The thing that makes
everyone so different is the way we go about finding all of these things.
People of different cultures than your own have their own specific ways of
doing things just as you do. People can’t seem to wrap their heads around the
fact that something normal and everyday to one person can be completely strange
and unnatural to another culture. These thoughts and feelings are our cultural
lens we wear. Everyone wears cultural lenses and sometimes are unaware of the
perceptions we have of others harms relationships and how their cultural lenses
can cause a great deal of misunderstandings cross-culturally. Cultural lenses’ are
how we perceive and interpret the way people do things around the world, and
most of the time it’s in a very negative or incorrect way than they really are.
The crazy thing is that its not just you that wears the cultural lenses’. People of all cultures around the world are
guilty of wearing these lenses’. One thing I found very interesting in ‘‘What
is Lens Shifting’’ was when it talked about the Western tourist and the teapot.
The fact that the host was so humble and interested in showing the tourist the
magic teapot was very kind and inviting. The Western tourist just jumped to the
conclusion that the man was being so interested in showing them his teapot
because he needed the business and money. But that was not the reason at all.
The host just wanted to share a piece of his culture and tradition with the
tourist, which is an awesome kind thing to do. The tourist jumped to
conclusions because we live in a very money oriented culture and that’s what we
are used to. Their cultural lenses got in the way of the situation so they
couldn’t see that is was just an act of kindness and being nice. I enjoyed the
fact that the one young man took the time to meet the host of the shop and work
up a conversation with him. Relationship bonding is a very important thing, and
you can really learn about people from other cultures if you just listen and open
your eyes to new things. Also in the article ‘’Why Americans Don’t Travel
Overseas” I understand that the United States has every type of terrain that
you can think of but I think that exploring the rest of the world is an awesome
thing. Yeah, it might be scary to go outside of your comfort zone and explore
unknown places but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I don’t want to be ignorant
anymore, I absolutely cant wait to go outside of the country to a new and
exciting place and experience a new culture other than our own first hand!
