Culture

In East and West culture there are many differences, this photo shows the differences in everyday greetings between America and India. In America it is common to greet someone with a handshake, while in India greeting someone with a bow and pressed palms, a symbol called "Namaste" is respected.

Section 1:
Culture is the collective practices of an area's people. It may be difficult to define one's culture due to the fact that it is a generalization of the people and not every person may behave that way.

 In the East vs. West ppt there were a couple slides that I did not agree with. In one of the slides the photo depicts that Americans eat more cold foods than warm foods and another one that said we all shower at night. I feel that these are incorrect because these statements are obviously generalized and vary due to personal preferences, schedules, and location. My opinion differs from the authors because she in basing her views on Germany, not all of west culture or specifically American.

In U.S. culture we are very self centered people and focus mainly on our own daily life and issues, confining in ourselves rather than others. We primarily practice Christianity, a religion that mainly focus's on self reflection. Americans put more emphasize on business rather the relationships. To have money is the main goal for the average american. Obviously these descriptions aren't true for everyone because we are all different people with different goals and personalities.

Section 2:
We may use memory to make sense of a place foreign to us by remembering other cultural differences that you've seen and understood and connecting those to you're experience.

The use of memory is limited to how much you know about that specific culture because you cannot understand a culture or practice fully without communicating with someone who does.

Section 3:
Using our intimation to understand and appreciate other cultures can be done through an understanding of their religion or beliefs.