One Key Cultural Difference, Demonstrated
You often hear about “the importance of culture” when you learn a language (and I recently did a podcast on that very topic), and a lot of attention is given to “cultural differences” as well. And yet, it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t seem very real until you’re deep into it yourself. It’s kind of hard to demonstrate simply, in an impressive way.
Well, no more! This image will do the trick:
Recently I’ve shown this image to quite a few Chinese friends and co-workers, asking them, “what do you notice right away about this image? What do you think it means?“
With very few exceptions, the Chinese people will talk about the cell phone, and then the gun. The skin color of the person is usually entirely overlooked. Obviously, Americans tend to have a very different answer to those questions.
Then, when you explain how most Americans will view the image, expect a very interesting conversation to follow! Try it.
I asked my Chinese wife about what she saw, and was surprised that she also didn’t notice the skin colours. She’s lived in Australia for over a decade now, and although the topic of racism isn’t as charged as in the US, it’s hard to avoid discussion about it.
A was surprised at first too, but that’s a totally typical response.
I still cant understand