Culture and Class
We as humans tend to spend a lot of time comparing ourselves to other people. We think that we are superior, inferior, or equal to other individuals or cultures. Society plays a huge role in how we compare ourselves to others. The society and culture that we are raised in helps determine what things we see as normal, or what we see as “better” or “worse”, both when we are comparing ourselves to other cultures and when we are comparing ourselves to other individuals within our culture.
Long before we begin comparing ourselves to other cultures, we compare ourselves to the people that we see around us. We think that others are more or less respectable, intelligent, or important. Little do we know that the setup of our …show more content…
64), is another thing that we use to compare ourselves to others. Instead of dealing with how we compare people within a culture, ethnocentrism is all about how we compare different cultures. We are apt to consider our culture superior to others simply because it is what we are accustomed to, and we do not like things that are different. Ethnocentrism is good to an extent because it keeps us close to our way of life, but it can also be harmful because it keeps us from understanding other cultures. In reality, no culture is objectively better than another, just different. We have a difficult time seeing that, though, because we often feel proud of our culture and want other cultures to share the things that we enjoy about our …show more content…
The example that pops into my head is something that I personally experienced. I work at a Mexican restaurant, which means that I work with people from a different culture every day. A few days after I started working there, my boss’s nephew from Mexico came to America to stay here for five weeks and work. When we were introduced to one another, he reached out to grab my hand, so I naturally assumed that he was going for a handshake. He, however, went to kiss me on the cheek, which is a very common greeting in Mexico and in many other countries. I was, of course, surprised, because what he had just done was not something that was typical in my culture. He thought that it was strange that I was so flustered until we explained to him that here in America, we usually greet each other with a handshake instead of a kiss on the cheek. I had never really thought about it before, but other countries must find it strange that Americans greet each other with a handshake or a wave instead of a hug or a kiss on the cheek. We as Americans tend to be more formal and impersonal in our interactions, while other cultures are very friendly and see things that we consider intimate as normal parts of
We as humans tend to spend a lot of time comparing ourselves to other people. We think that we are superior, inferior, or equal to other individuals or cultures. Society plays a huge role in how we compare ourselves to others. The society and culture that we are raised in helps determine what things we see as normal, or what we see as “better” or “worse”, both when we are comparing ourselves to other cultures and when we are comparing ourselves to other individuals within our culture.
Long before we begin comparing ourselves to other cultures, we compare ourselves to the people that we see around us. We think that others are more or less respectable, intelligent, or important. Little do we know that the setup of our …show more content…
64), is another thing that we use to compare ourselves to others. Instead of dealing with how we compare people within a culture, ethnocentrism is all about how we compare different cultures. We are apt to consider our culture superior to others simply because it is what we are accustomed to, and we do not like things that are different. Ethnocentrism is good to an extent because it keeps us close to our way of life, but it can also be harmful because it keeps us from understanding other cultures. In reality, no culture is objectively better than another, just different. We have a difficult time seeing that, though, because we often feel proud of our culture and want other cultures to share the things that we enjoy about our …show more content…
The example that pops into my head is something that I personally experienced. I work at a Mexican restaurant, which means that I work with people from a different culture every day. A few days after I started working there, my boss’s nephew from Mexico came to America to stay here for five weeks and work. When we were introduced to one another, he reached out to grab my hand, so I naturally assumed that he was going for a handshake. He, however, went to kiss me on the cheek, which is a very common greeting in Mexico and in many other countries. I was, of course, surprised, because what he had just done was not something that was typical in my culture. He thought that it was strange that I was so flustered until we explained to him that here in America, we usually greet each other with a handshake instead of a kiss on the cheek. I had never really thought about it before, but other countries must find it strange that Americans greet each other with a handshake or a wave instead of a hug or a kiss on the cheek. We as Americans tend to be more formal and impersonal in our interactions, while other cultures are very friendly and see things that we consider intimate as normal parts of