I come from a very small rural town, a place where everybody knows each other and I can count the number of different ethnic children in our public school on my two hands, save for the foreign exchange students. I will tell you flat out that racism is extremely high in our school and the way our town views “outsiders” (culturally different people) is absurd and harsh. It was an eye opener to come to Mankato, a very diverse school, and interact with so many different students from all over the world. Some of my greatest friends now are of different color, religion, sexuality, etc. Coming to MSU and seeing such great diversity, along with studying a different language, has developed my self-awareness and knowledge and understanding of differences between cultures.
To develop my definition of a culture, I first had to figure out what I considered to be different aspects of a culture. I consider culture to be a way of life for a group of people. This mainly includes their behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Cultures can also be lumped together into one common name, but with smaller subunits to differentiate between the smaller groups within the culture. For example, Americans is a name to describe a large number of people, however, not all Americans celebrate holidays, or practice traditions the same due to small differences in religion, the way they speak, and just by the climate of where they live. Yet they all share the same aspect that they are all legal citizens of the U.S.
Everyone has a culture, they cannot deny it, as it is who we are as a person. I consider myself to be an American, a farmer, musician, sister, Christian and so much more, but since coming to MSU, I also consider myself to be “culturally aware”. I pushed myself to get out of my comfort box and find different ways to expand my knowledge on culture, such as becoming a tutor in the ESL Program, attending various cultural events on campus, and joining a Honors Greek History class. It was through these experiences that I began to confirm my own identity and understand incorrect stereotypes I had made against others. Such as I had been told that people from other countries never bothered to try and learn English because then they would have to get a job, lose welfare, etc. and I found this not to be true at all, English is extremely hard to learn, especially for students who speak a language with different grammar and writing. I also realized that not all immigrants or students were here to escape war/poverty, that Muslims aren’t all bad, and racism/sexism is still prevalent in areas of the world.
I wrote critical incidence journals about experiences I had on campus, such as American Indian Night and Worlds Got Talent. Observations I made from these experiences were that I value relationship interactions differently, such as I like holding hands and sharing quality time with my significant other. Culture is also varied in food and dress, something I wish the U.S. had more of. I don’t own a piece of clothing that stands out and says, “This is my American Dress”. However, I did realize that wearing white for a wedding or baptism was part of my own culture and isn’t shared by all. Such as some people wear red on their wedding day and how the vows said at a wedding even more greatly vary. Every language and culture hold its own definitions of words and body language. Students just want to be accepted and still be unique to who they really are.
In the middle of first semester at MSU, I was offered an opportunity to join a section of a Honors History class for one credit of Individual Study. In order to receive credit, I had to join in a role-playing game that the class had been discussing up to that point and they were also learning background history that pertained to the game. I was given a neutral character and had to write the "history" of the game from a moral standpoint. I researched my character, Thucydides, to the point that I understood that his own identity and culture revolved around that moral are important, wars are necessary, and democracy was a horrible government. This viewpoints why outstandingly different than mine own, aligned with the Athens culture. I was able to learn this through Thucydides writings and teaching to others and used it to make choices in the game based on how he would think. It was hard to pull my own sterotypes and thoughts away from how I wanted the game to go compared to how it should go based on history. Slaves were a normal part of Athenian day to day society, my character himself had slaves to help him write his history of the Peloponnesian War, so it would not make sense that my character would go against slavery when he participated in its benefits. Since my character was wealthy, it also didn’t make as much of a difference to him if when attending assembly in the game if he got paid, because the amount of money wasn’t attractive enough for him.
Having an open mind and the willingness to learn about another’s culture are key to developing a global citizenship mindset. Tutoring students of different ethnic and cultural background has pulled me out of my small-town thinking to a broader and deeper understanding of what the world is really like. I developed a deeper understanding of my own culture and now have a higher understanding of complex elements of other cultures or at least how to interpret them. Although we may vary in communication and traditions, underneath the skin, we are all still human.