My favorite part about summer is going to Summer Camp. I have been attending/working at an overnight camp for the past seven years. I absolutely love it. One cool thing about camp is that we have counselors from all over the world including: Australia, England, China, Germany, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Mexico and Israel. All of these countries have completely different cultures and see things so differently. One thing that is a huge boundary between all of us is how we speak. Every country has slang words, but America has a lot that we do not really notice, as said in the article "Bemused in America." My first year on staff, I was co-counselors with a girl from Australia. She's been to America before, but with friends so she did not really know our slang terms. She referred to the garbage, as a bin, sunglasses were sunnies, bathing suits were bathers, flip flops were thongs, friend was mate, just to name a few. I thought she talked soo strangely and I could not always understand her because of her accent and I did not understand some of the words she would use. I realized I was being ethnocentric by thinking that she was talking strange because of how she talked and what words she used. I was comparing our slang words to hers. Using our culture as a basis to judge other people's cultures. I ended up being extremely close with this girl, and she is now one of my best friends. Yes, she lives in Australia still, but we keep in touch all the time. I ended up picking up on some of her words, now I ALWAYS use the word sunnies instead of sun glasses. You have to be open to other people's cultures and not be ethnocentric. Or if you realize you're being ethnocentric, don't be because you can create a great bond with that person.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Sunnies?
My favorite part about summer is going to Summer Camp. I have been attending/working at an overnight camp for the past seven years. I absolutely love it. One cool thing about camp is that we have counselors from all over the world including: Australia, England, China, Germany, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Mexico and Israel. All of these countries have completely different cultures and see things so differently. One thing that is a huge boundary between all of us is how we speak. Every country has slang words, but America has a lot that we do not really notice, as said in the article "Bemused in America." My first year on staff, I was co-counselors with a girl from Australia. She's been to America before, but with friends so she did not really know our slang terms. She referred to the garbage, as a bin, sunglasses were sunnies, bathing suits were bathers, flip flops were thongs, friend was mate, just to name a few. I thought she talked soo strangely and I could not always understand her because of her accent and I did not understand some of the words she would use. I realized I was being ethnocentric by thinking that she was talking strange because of how she talked and what words she used. I was comparing our slang words to hers. Using our culture as a basis to judge other people's cultures. I ended up being extremely close with this girl, and she is now one of my best friends. Yes, she lives in Australia still, but we keep in touch all the time. I ended up picking up on some of her words, now I ALWAYS use the word sunnies instead of sun glasses. You have to be open to other people's cultures and not be ethnocentric. Or if you realize you're being ethnocentric, don't be because you can create a great bond with that person.
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