Monday, February 21, 2011

Intended Purpose

>I was going to do a post about a newly discovered site that I've been loving, but I thought rather than do that every time I discover something, why not just include a list of sites I like on my page. (So that's why every blog has that...) So, viola! In super-original alphabetical order, look to the right for I'm sure what will be an ever-growing list of fashion/photography/music/culture/travel/art sites I love.

But the site I want to talk about is worthy of discussion, so back to the matter at hand. Being faced with something so interesting and complex as another culture on a daily basis makes you want to talk about it all the time, which can be difficult, because people in other cultures talk about culture in different ways. Americans tend to ask direct questions and want direct answers. It turns out, this is not the only way to do things. (All those years of being brow-beaten with topic sentence, body, conclusion has affected my brain!) Individual personalities affect conversations more than culture in my experience, but I notice even the most outspoken of my Korean friends will eventually defer and agree on subjects I know they feel strongly about, in the expectation that I will understand, by body language and other cues that their culture has trained them to pick up, what they're really thinking. Unfortunately, I mostly don't and it can be confusing. So I used the internet for its intended purpose (no, not dirty pictures), instant access to information. I tried to look for insights into Asian culture written by Asians. There's plenty of whining out there written by other expats who are having culture clash problems, but that's not really going to help me. So, I stumbled on Disgrasian. It's great, loads of cultural discussion, written by some feisty Asian-Americans, with a good smattering of humor and bad language. (...and it's even helped me figure out a couple of things!) My thanks to the ladies holding down the fort back Stateside, and keep the good stuff coming.

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