Carol said, "a phenomenon does not exist if there is not a word for it."
So as I sit here nervous, with butterflies and bucking horses in my stomach I come across the word "ethnocentrism" in our syllabus information for the seminar. So I "googled" it and "wikied" it and based on information learned I have been suffering from this phenomenon of a tendency of looking at the world primarily from the perspective of my own culture.
I was at one of my jobs and a woman asked me a general question in reference to gas prices and my response to her was, "I'm sort of grateful about our gas, other countries have been paying exorbent amounts of money for gas for years, we have been getting over for some time now."
In her instantaneous defense she stated, "I don't like to be compared to other countries, they are nothing like us. Americans should be better than this."
There is was, if I had no knowledge of the word ethnocentrism and it's meaning, would her comment even appeal to me?
There is even a special name that they give "us" Americans that suffer from this, it's called American Exceptionalism. Which basically means that we as Americans think that we differ on a higher degree of subjectivity from other developed nations, because of our national credo, historical evolution, or distinctive political and religious institutions. Generally we Americans think that we are superior based on a rationalization or explanation that may vary greatly depending on the historical period and the political context, essentially our rationalizations could change tomorrow, depending on the situation. The term can also be used in a very negative way referring to a willful nationalistic ignorance of faults committed by the American government.
So how do I convince other people from other cultures other than my own that I am not like this? Conflict Styles? If you examine our government and political ideals we are earnestly "forcers" not necessarily taking into consideration other people or cultures. Take for instance "Manifest Destiny" our idea that in a sense the American government was "destined" to establish uninterrupted political authority across the entire North American continent, from one ocean to the other. Not that we should bond with the existing cultures but, we should take over and conquer.
So using my conflict styles, I'll listen more trying to accommodate and collaborate during discussions. It might even be necessary to even compromise sometimes, yes, I the classroom "shark" is considering compromising. Compromising is a characteristic that benefits everybody and allows both parties to see the perspective of the others and still be respected for your own values.
Auf Wiedersehen. Ich werde sehen, jeden Mittwoch.
(Good bye. I will see everyone Wednesday.)
Audrey
