Cultural Sensitivity
I have been living in Czech Republic for nearly 4 years now. In these 4 years, I have had an opportunity to know a bit Czech Culture, its relations with other European Nations etc,.
This country has a history of being ruled over than ruling themselves or ruling other countries. Me, who used to hate history before, started to like it after trying to know about communism and Nazism etc. This is because it is a new concept to me after coming from a country which is the largest democracy.
Some Czechs that I have come across do not like foreigners and their presence in Czech Republic at all. I have seen other sorts of Czechs as well who are extremely humble (to a core where they lookdown upon themselves in front of foreigners, especially other Europeans). Czechs also have a reputation of being sarcastic most of the time. Maybe this humbleness I mentioned can also be a sarcastic response to the foreigners. This sarcasm is a complicated issue and foreigners tend to get confused sometimes and maybe Czechs are laughing hard behind foreigners back :).
In this post all I want to convey is about the tolerance levels of the foreigners towards the locals and visa versa, be it anywhere in the world.
Talking about all of these foreigner’s issue, I myself was born and brought up in a so called “multicultural environment”. I am a kannadiga (whose mother tongue is kannada-> this info is for those who are not from India) by birth. I have had known several people from different states, those who spoke different languages and savoured different cultures. I have also seen people from other states settling in Karnataka and not even trying to learn and speak kannada.
The usual logic is, if a person from one culture goes to another state or country with different culture, then they have a tendency to know the local culture and try and mingle with the locals and live the life the locals lead. In my opinion there are two exceptions to this logic:
1) In olden days, the European colonists have influenced their culture to the locals quite a lot than the other way round. This can be by force or also the locals could have volunteered it themselves. This is quite obvious to the fact that I can write English better than my mother tongue Kannada. Brazil, another example speaks Portuguese.
2) The second exception can be the “boon” of internet. Because of internet, foreigners can be in touch with their own culture. Literature, news, music, arts etc., can be accessed easily through internet.
My question is how good is this? How good is that the foreigners are not involving with the local culture? (I am here excluding those foreigners who are interested in the local cultures and I would rather dare say such people are very few in numbers)
I am living here in Czech Republic for the last 4 years and I till now have not made up my mind to learn Czech (can speak only few words). This is because I can speak English and thanks to the internet, I am in touch with my local literature and I even buy kannada books online from India to keep myself occupied and to know more about my culture. Sometimes I feel so proud of myself thinking that I still read kannada literature while residing thousands of miles away from home.
My husband says Czech literature is very unique and has a tinge of sarcasm to it. He can read Czech and understand it. He also says every literature has its own essence to give to the readers. It gets its essence from their culture, heritage, history, language and their slangs etc etc (you can say it applies to any literature and I agree with you if you think so too :)).
I want to put this question to the readers even though if it comes to your mind that this is a time waste question and not worth to think about as you feel you might already have more pressing matters on your minds.
In this era of globalisation, is it good to know only our culture? Or is it good to learn other cultures and adapt to it too??
This country has a history of being ruled over than ruling themselves or ruling other countries. Me, who used to hate history before, started to like it after trying to know about communism and Nazism etc. This is because it is a new concept to me after coming from a country which is the largest democracy.
Some Czechs that I have come across do not like foreigners and their presence in Czech Republic at all. I have seen other sorts of Czechs as well who are extremely humble (to a core where they lookdown upon themselves in front of foreigners, especially other Europeans). Czechs also have a reputation of being sarcastic most of the time. Maybe this humbleness I mentioned can also be a sarcastic response to the foreigners. This sarcasm is a complicated issue and foreigners tend to get confused sometimes and maybe Czechs are laughing hard behind foreigners back :).
In this post all I want to convey is about the tolerance levels of the foreigners towards the locals and visa versa, be it anywhere in the world.
Talking about all of these foreigner’s issue, I myself was born and brought up in a so called “multicultural environment”. I am a kannadiga (whose mother tongue is kannada-> this info is for those who are not from India) by birth. I have had known several people from different states, those who spoke different languages and savoured different cultures. I have also seen people from other states settling in Karnataka and not even trying to learn and speak kannada.
The usual logic is, if a person from one culture goes to another state or country with different culture, then they have a tendency to know the local culture and try and mingle with the locals and live the life the locals lead. In my opinion there are two exceptions to this logic:
1) In olden days, the European colonists have influenced their culture to the locals quite a lot than the other way round. This can be by force or also the locals could have volunteered it themselves. This is quite obvious to the fact that I can write English better than my mother tongue Kannada. Brazil, another example speaks Portuguese.
2) The second exception can be the “boon” of internet. Because of internet, foreigners can be in touch with their own culture. Literature, news, music, arts etc., can be accessed easily through internet.
My question is how good is this? How good is that the foreigners are not involving with the local culture? (I am here excluding those foreigners who are interested in the local cultures and I would rather dare say such people are very few in numbers)
I am living here in Czech Republic for the last 4 years and I till now have not made up my mind to learn Czech (can speak only few words). This is because I can speak English and thanks to the internet, I am in touch with my local literature and I even buy kannada books online from India to keep myself occupied and to know more about my culture. Sometimes I feel so proud of myself thinking that I still read kannada literature while residing thousands of miles away from home.
My husband says Czech literature is very unique and has a tinge of sarcasm to it. He can read Czech and understand it. He also says every literature has its own essence to give to the readers. It gets its essence from their culture, heritage, history, language and their slangs etc etc (you can say it applies to any literature and I agree with you if you think so too :)).
I want to put this question to the readers even though if it comes to your mind that this is a time waste question and not worth to think about as you feel you might already have more pressing matters on your minds.
In this era of globalisation, is it good to know only our culture? Or is it good to learn other cultures and adapt to it too??
i see that after 4 years you ve understood czechs quite well. i live here 15(!!!) years and i have more less same opinion. They are sarcastic and funny, but very conservative. And xenofobic (i hope this is the right word for being afraid of foreigners). Because yes, the complicated relation between locals and foreigners is mostly always based on fear. As you mentioned very correctly, in history Czechs mostly felt being ruled by other nations and countries. So now they are afraid seeing how many foreigners are moving in, afraid of being ruled again, also afraid to lose their own culture (because imigrants always bring a piece of their own culture in the country). Think about that they are a small nation and they are in a centre of Europe. Their culture, their language, economy and customs always were, are and will always be influenced by other countries. And even if they accept this influence, somewhere deep in souls they are scared. Thats why they are conservative, settled and hate changes and have a cold relationships with foreigners - especially with the ones who are many here (Romanians, Ukrainians, in last years also Portuguesse and Indians). I have many good friends who are very intelligent people but i cannot believe my ears when they say to me - why are you still so much friend with all these strangers from all places in the world??? And usually they dont want to be friends with my foreign friends - forgetting btw, that me i am a foreigner too!!! For their defence, i must say that many foreigners who moved here, are not so much involved in adapting Czech culture either. You mentioned that in the times of internet they have many options to be in touch with their own culture - you are so right. Today, they dont need to adapt and they have feeling, their life is still good and they dont need locals to live it. As an example i can say a big Brno Romanian community - people who almost all of them know each other, they are mostly friends only between each other, and they are not adapted at all - they dont know language, they dont know what is happening in the country, they dont have almost any czech friends and when they are together, they are critisizing Czechs, how xenofobic they are. But they dont do ANYTHING to get to know them and their culture and they dont try to understand. They are just angry. The same is with Russian community in Prague, or for example in Ceska Lipa. Personally me i think its very good to keep your own culture but the more cultures you know and understand, the better person you are, and the easier life you can have somewhere else, cause if you understand people (even if you dont like in general how they behave) they will also accept you. I am proud to be Russian, i try not to forget our culture, language, i read russian books, sometimes also russian newspapers and as all Russians in the world i think that we are the best )))))) but currently i live here in Czech republic and even if i am not a big fan of this country and i wanna move out, i still have some good friends here who i will miss for sure. And everywhere i ll move, i am sure i ll be able to accept the culture and customs of the country and to learn the language, even if from the beginning i ll hate it all. Even may be after 10 or 15 years i ll have some issues with locals, like i have many issues with Czech culture, but everywhere you can find people who are good and think a little bit out-of-box.
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ReplyDelete@ witty, thanks for the comment..
ReplyDeleteAn Indian settles in the US, gets an an American twang on the plane ride itself,starts following baseball avidly and derides everything Indian - how do we react to him??
ReplyDeleteIt's good to be open to other cultures, it helps us widen our horizons. But why should we let go of our roots?
An Indian settles in the US of A, acquires an American twang on the plane-ride itself, becomes a baseball follower, shuns anything remotely India. In other words a well adapted Desi.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to have an open mind, to be able to adapt, to learn, to evolve. But why should we let go of our roots??
Very good read. DhanyavadagaLu
ReplyDeleteHi bhavana, thanks for your comments on my blog.
ReplyDeletethis is an interesting post. surely you get an edge if you know other cultures. see i got so interested to read ur post! one should be open to learn new things, but never be shy of being what one is, say indian here.
keep blogging
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