PUFS-Culture+Essay

Honestly. I didn't communicate well with my team members. So I don't know well about my team members. But I think that my japanese team members are so interested in my country. They knew lots of things about Korea culture than my thought. They know Korean actors, singers, food and even "soju". So through them, I feel that Korea become more popular than before. And the young in Japan don't care about history between korean and japanese. I also try to think japanese is not my enemy but my friend^^ In my opinion, all of the countries have diffrent history back grounds and cultures. Somethimes thoses differnces could make troubles. But we are all human being, If we treat other country people with sincere heart, they will understand our mind eventhough they have diffrent cultures.

(20050002 Kang Min Ju)

< 20050085 Jang In Kyoung > Like many other friends talked about this, I'd like to say what I have learned and saw about other culture. There are many different cultures. Japanese, they seem to show their gratitude all the time when someone do good things to them, so they don't say 'thank you' once. For example, if someone gives a gift, then Japanese say 'thank you' whenever they see the person who gave a gift. They think that is polite. On the other hand, we, Korean say 'thank you' just once or twice. And Westerners, American and Canadian, don't care about individual things, like age, sex, family, etc. That's not mean they REALLY don't care, they don't like to talk about that. Although they know about that, that's just small thing. But Korean do care how old is she/he, what do they do, what do their family do. American and Canadian like to talk about other cultures, economy, and what is happening on the earth.

It was very interesting to spend time in secondlife, because I can visit everywhere I'd like to go. I can meet a lot of people from all over the world. Also,. in most places, we don't have to pay for enjoying there. Most people are very kind and like to talk each other, I think thery'are not shy when they meet stranger. We don't meet face to face, so most of them speak out and talk to someone openly. They just know other's short profile and shape of avatar. One day, I went to music concert hall. I met an American man there. I approached him first, and talked to him. First of all, I asked him if he likes music and enjoy it, because most of people like to meet someone who has same hobby. Then, he said he loves rock music. He was finding his guitar. I told him I'd like to see his playing the guitar. He invited me to his favorite music concert hall, so I agreed it. He was a baldheaded person, actually, he looked like a gay^^;;;;;. Suddely, he said he enjoys dancing in Nude club!!!! At that time I foud out I was invited to nude club. Opps!!!-_- Finally, I didn't visit his favorite nude club.;;; I hope I meet many people and communicate with them! By enjoying spending time in Secondlife, I'll learn their thingking and characteristic.

Shin yoo jin!!

20050018 Kim-Minhwa As all of you know, we don't have much interaction with our team members, so I think I have to tell about what I got knew and how I feel about other culture. When I worked in kind of an amusement park called "London Carnival", there were lots of British people working there. I got familiar with one of them. One day, he asked me to be a friend. (It was not asking exactly, but it was sort of.) I really surprised because he looks more than 40. I realized that foreigner don't care about age as much as we do. Something similar with it happened when I was in Canada last summer vacation. I was talking with my homestay-kids and I suddenly realized that they treat me like their same-aged friend. At first, I was embarrassed in those situation, but now I am happy to have friends in various age. I thinks it's good thing. Something I knew before but realized this time again is that Westerners are very friendly. Koreans never talk with stranger, like "Hi". If you do that, they will think you are crazy or at least something like that. However, they are really kind after you have small talk with them. Sometimes they become friends with stranger. I think it's good and I hope Korea have this kind of thing. ^-^

Actually, I want to say that it's not easy to talk about other country's culture because so far, we didn't have much time to communicate with each other, especially most of American, Canadian, and French students, or other groups of people through Second Life. I and our team members usually leave a message and talk through wiki, so it is very hard for me to recognize another culture. Because of that, whenever I log in to SL, I have tried to visit some popular places such as Japan Resort, Freebie Island, or Cafe to meet many foreigners. While talking with them for some time, I could think of foreign cultures which is similar to or a little bit different from ours. First of all, I think Japanese and Americans are very kind and open to foreigners. I met some Americans and Japanese who helped me very kindly when I first used the program. It seemed that they didn't hesitate to talk to foreigners. At that time, I wasn't accustomed to operating SL and didn't know how to use it well, but some of them who saw my avatar, which looked very strange, came to me and explained about the problem in detail. Some of Japanese told me they didn't speak English very well, but they really tried to help for me. I thanked for their kindness and after that, we could talk naturally for a long time. And, another thing is that I felt Americans usually keep and respect one's privacy. When they talk with foreigners or some people who first meet, I saw that they usually say 'Oh, your avatar looks good', 'Your dress or suit is so nice' and start to talk with them. I thought it is different from Koreans or Japanese. I saw many of them who ask some questions like 'Where are you from?', 'How old are you?', 'What's your job?' when they first saw foreigners. But, I thought most Americans liked to talk about hobbies or things they like rather than ask personal questions when they meet for the first time. Like this, I wrote my thinking about American and Japanese culture. It's very sad that I couldn't talk much with French students and didn't have enough time to think about their culture as well. It was hard for me to meet them in virtual world. If I have a chance to use it again, I'd like to talk with many foreigners as possible.

By Heejung Indigo

(It's very cautious to write about other cultures in individual view especially in this kind of open space.)

1. Introduction to other cultures in personal communication Approaching cultural issue and topic in personal communication needs accompanying several factors and conditions which may interrupt clear understanding of culture itself, which are personality, communication language proficiency, background and experience and so forth. We should keep in mind that superficial expression is not always showing what the culture has virtually, and need to figure out the base and historical facts from which those kind of cultural surfaces and expression, custom have been derived. Otherwise we can't help but hang on valueless prejudice and biased opinion that might be manipulated for some reasons.

1.1 Interaction with team members in other cultures Actually there's not enough communication with other members in Second Life and Wikispace to write about other cultures that I collect personal experiences and knowledge as I had in those countries and from books and media.

1.2 Some constraints need to be considered in identifying cultural features in individual view Being about to think over other cultures individuals face undesirable traps he/she has made for several years, which have been formed from personal emotion that may be influenced by the mass he/she belongs, and political issues in the countries which culture he/she want to write about, and foreign policy between two countries, and statue and reputation in international society, and many other factors that individuals can not exclude from his/her cognitive mechanism.

1.3 Different view points between home and foreign cultures Natives have tendency to give credits to home cultures but are easily defensive to foreign cultures, which can be found on news often relating with ethnic and religious issues. There seem a phenomenon that dominant countries over international competition would provide undesirable prejudice that current civilization is a representative of its culture, which contributes to the country in short term if it's purposely or not. This sort of concept might be causing some problems and issues in cross-cultural communication also.

1.4 Appropriate standpoint to culture Culture should not be in court. Toward culture right and wrong, correct or incorrect, and any other evaluating points should be extracted from the view. All the cultures are equal because human being is same and not discriminated. Human being is culture. Probably we can have a certain statement that there are some strengths and weakness in it.

2. Some pieces of cultural reflection in Second Life and personal experiences 2.1 Americans 1) Americans are very practical in time management. ex) when they find nothing to achieve they don't spend time in social relation. 2) Americans try to keep relationship in safe while they think it's worth. ex) they tend to show kindness to everyone including foreigners.

2.2 Japanese 1) Japanese individuals are very kind to everyone. ex) they seem positive to personal relationship. 2) Japanese are easy to open their privacy for friendship. ex) when I approach to their personal life they are not hesitant to respond them. 3) Japanese behaviors have lots of patterns based on oriental culture. ex) In communication they don't care time spent but concern relationship.

2.3 Canadians (French) 1) The French has a strong cultural identity. ex) they don't want to expose their weakness. 2) The French seems thoughtful and their behaviors are careful. ex) they are polite and keep a distance to foreigners.

Some writings about other culture are just my personal findings, which are not considered as representatives of each cultures. I hope anyone not to get emotional offense from them. Actually I verify that I don't have any intention to evaluate any culture in my view.

Thanks for reading, Taejin Davies Nov. 1st 2007