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Hi All,
Sometimes I re-read my e-mail and wonder where my
brain was when I wrote it. My e-mail from yesterday
about "The Power of Culture" certainly provokes that
question. I was so excited that someone new had
finally posted here, that I had to say the most
inane things imaginable so that they will probably
never want to post here again.
It's probably unneccesary to apologize for my
ignorance about Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
That can be changed over time, and hopefully will
change as I have more opportunities to encounter
"Indonesians," "Malaysians," and "Singaporeans."
Hopefully there will be occasions at future PSi
conferences, or non-conference events such as
performances and festivals.
But deep apologies for my tendency to try to replace
awkwardness with words: a proliferation of babble
that tries to say what I don't know. Apologies to
anyone from Singapore who might feel slighted or
annoyed by my remark that several Malaysians at the
conference said Malaysia was less regimented and
more outspoken that Singapore. I've never been to
Malaysia, have no idea if this is true, and should
have kept such comparisons to myself. I loved
Singapore for what I saw of it, found it to be one
of the most exciting and multi-faceted cities I've
ever visited, and truly didn't encounter anyone who
acted "regimented" or "reserved." People were
friendly, outspoken, considerate but not overly
formal, and just plain nice.
Apologies for trying to "map" the complexities of
Indonesia's multi-ethnic and multi-religious society
with the help of Rand McNally's atlas, and for
taking you on that silly journey with me. But thank
you to Helly for pointing out how important
complexities and differences between geographical
and/or ethnic regions are being flattened out across
the globe, as countries and peoples become tourist
commodities or conflict zones that the media must be
able to summarize in five words or less.
Finally, apologies for my dopey website idea. I
totally mis-phrased that idea. The website should
not be called THINGS THAT ARE WEIRD ABOUT YOUR
CULTURE, and identifying "weird" phenomena about the
countries that one visits should not be the point.
What I meant to say was that it might be useful to
have an on-line forum where people can go to ask
"natives" of certain countries questions that they
might normally be too embarrassed to ask. The
"natives" of those countries could then write back
and try to answer the questions to the best of their
ability, but of course their ability would be
limited by regional specificity, and other factors.
So others from different regions, ethnic groups,
religious groups, etc... could ALSO write in and
elaborate on the question from their perspectives,
offering a more nuanced and layered answer to
answer-seekers.
For example, People often ask me, "Is it true that
all Canadians say 'Eh' at the end of their
sentences?" I don't really know how to answer this
fully, since I do not say 'Eh' at all. But my sister
says it constantly, and I don't know where she
picked it up. I think it is a Southern Ontario sort
of dialect or speech habit, but it has spread
throughout parts of Canada, and some people say 'Eh'
all the time, while others do not. It would be
curious if the responses of many Canadians from many
parts of Canada could help solve the mystery of the
ubiquitous 'Eh' in our culture.
But anyhow, this is just a general apology for being
hasty to continue a conversation that I was not
really informed enough to have in the first place.
Sorry. Please post whenever you all have things to
share, and whenever you just want to tell me that I
am an idiot who should not send so much e-mail!
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