Hi all,
Forgive me for the self-reflective nature of this post. I hope it's valuable. Yesterday I was preparing for class reading in the chapter by Galloway about cultural "perspectives" things like sequential vs. synchronic ways of viewing time which vary across cultures and an Internalistic vs. Externalistic view of nature, I felt a strange kind of release or freedom. Perhaps I felt that way because I feel the pressure of time constraints that are inherent in the North American worldview and realized that a different way of viewing the world is possible. I've started to wonder if our students consciously or unconsciously recognize the need for that kind of experience and thus are drawn to the study of languages, as if on some level we realize that the way that we view the world is distorted or at least wanting or extreme in some area. That might be an explanation for why cultural "diversity" is valuable, in the sense that each culture or the world view of each culture, has benefits, not the least of which are psychological or emotional. I believe that's why some people struggle in the gospel, the untruths of a particular culture crowd out or distort the light of the gospel.
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Hmm...interesting thought. I think that could be a subconscious reason for wanting to study another language. I also can identify with the freedom that can be gained by looking at the world in a different way--especially the idea of time.
Another aspect of perspective that I really found interesting was achievement vs ascription. We are so bound to the idea that status, respect, etc. must be earned, when in truth (at least, in a gospel sense) our worth is inherent and unconditional. I think it would be very liberating to really understand, accept and adopt the perspective that status is "born", as the book states.
I have nothing better to do on a Friday night. Sad, huh?
I think you may be onto something, Dr. Martinsen. There is something intoxicating about realizing that our culture distorts the way we see the world. It's nice to realize that running a red light at 3:00 AM is not a sin in the strictest sense of the world, but a rebellion against the limitations of my culture. It's not civil rebellion, but culture rebellion! It's the same reason I drink caffeine, I believe.
I think that--going back to the Bennett Model--this can connect to what Dr. Martinsen discussed in class on Thursday. From what I recall (I'll admit I didn't take the best notes) we were going over the process between the stage of "Defense" and that of "Minimization"--in which some of may turn against their own cultural practices, "interpreting" from their own perspective. With this they may come to say, "Man! We Americans are so cold!"
This transfer of ethnocentrism from the original culture to the adopted culture could be an extreme result of that yearning to rebel.
Years ago my friend and I used to say to each other, as undergraduates weighed down by paper-shuffling and deadlines, that we would escape to Argentina. We didn't really know much about Argentina, but our feeling was conscious: we knew our culture was distorted and that there must be a different way of viewing the world. It's funny that I got called to go to Argentina after all, and there I did find a different way of viewing the world. Even though I don't live there now, it is liberating to know that I am choosing to live here and am choosing to take part in this culture's perception of time.
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