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Post by yeajinchoi on Nov 2, 2012 23:06:22 GMT -5
In the story Fish Cheeks, Amy was ashamed and embarrassed of her culture and she wanted hide it from Robert, her crush. Do you guys have any personal connections with that?
For me, when I lived in the US I invited my friends to my house and when they came, everyone just walked in with their shoes on which really surprised me since I was so used to talking my shoes off before I walked into the house. But I didn't want to be the Korean girl that made her friends take off their shoes (I don't know why but at that time, it was so embarrassing) so I walked in the house with my shoes on all over the place that day.
Mine was pretty weak but what about you? Have you ever felt like that too?
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Post by brandonina on Nov 3, 2012 7:21:55 GMT -5
Wow, I've done the same thing recently. I actually entered someone's house without my shoes when I wasn't supposed to. I think this is one factor of the Korean culture. There are many other things that made me embarrassed just because of my race.
When I visited the U.S quite a while ago, I actually wanted to hide my face and avoid people since I felt like I don't look like one of them. I was jealous of ones who seemed to belong there. This made me want to change my identity like the way how Amy wasn't proud of her Chinese appearance and culture. However, now looking back, I don't understand why I thought that way. I'm quite proud of who I am and I believe everybody is unique in his or her own way even if people have the same cultural background.
Let's go Gangnam Style!
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Post by yeajinchoi on Nov 3, 2012 23:39:47 GMT -5
HaHA that's really cool how we had the same experience. I think things like that happen all the time. We are all so used to the customs of our country that when we go to a new place, everything seems unusual. Even small things like chewing with your mouth closed or just eating however you want is a difference that you can find in two different countries. When every country has a different custom, it's hard to know which one is the normal way. I think that's how Amy had felt. She thought the American way was the right way and so she was embarrassed of her Chinese customs. In our school, since it's an international school, I hope nobody is forced into hiding their culture because they think something else is normal.
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Post by sergeyfen on Nov 4, 2012 3:33:56 GMT -5
hahaha I also had same situation with shoes several years ago. Some of my friends do not take off their shoes, but im used to take off my shoes because its kind of unusual not to do it for me. When my friends that never take off their shoes came over to my house, i was about to tell them to take off their shoes but i did not. After they left i kind of fell ashamed of not telling them to take off shoes.
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Post by KevinW on Nov 4, 2012 4:30:14 GMT -5
I find it hard to imagine a time where someone didn't take off their shoes to walk all over someone's home. In fact; we'd change our clothes and take off our socks AND wash our hands in my family.
Personally, my culture isn't something that often occupies my mind. But there are various parts of Chinese culture that annoys me. For one, there are certain words/phrases you aren't supposed to say or do. For example, you cannot gift someone a clock because in Chinese, "gifting clock" sounds just like "sending someone to his/her death". I'm serious, the words sound EXACTLY the same.
There are a bunch of other things, but they all annoy the hell out of me. I'm taking the opposite stance to Amy here; I don't feel ashamed because I refuse to accept myself with that insanity. Perhaps I'll have an "Amy-ish ending" and accept my culture and be one with superstition and never gift someone clocks, share pears, scream "I want to die", and generally act the antithesis of me.
No.
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Post by woojongpark on Nov 4, 2012 9:21:50 GMT -5
Mine was very similar to Amy's. When I lived in Texas 8 years ago, my friend came over to my house one day. It was lunchtime, and I decided to have lunch together with my friend. So my mother served us Korean dishes, and I felt just what Amy felt. I thought my friend wouldn't like me anymore because I assumed that she didn't like Korean food. So I was in a sullen mood for the rest of the day. When I recall that memory, I feel I was very inconsiderate. I thought my own culture was embarrassing, rather than respecting it.
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Post by linnie on Nov 6, 2012 7:57:44 GMT -5
Oh my god. I have so many connections, I can write them whole night. First, I used to be like Amy. I was embarrassed of my culture when I was in elementary. Whenever I brought Korean food, my friends were like, "Eeww, what is that? That smells." So I couldn't bring Korean food to school to eat. Since than, I was embarrassed to bring Korean food and share it with my friends. The only thing I brought was Kimbab, which is very similar to sushi in Japan. Since they loved Japanese food, I brought it numerous times.
Another connection is that I went to my friend's house. Like Yeajin, I thought I had to take off my shoes. But she didn't and that really surprised me. What was more surprising was that she wore shoes to her bed! That really shocked me. But in Indonesia, I found some house take off their shoes as they go in but some don't. It was really hard to determine if I had to wear the shoes or not. So I just let the others go in first and do whatever they do. I had hard time.
One last one is that my friend tried Kimchi, and I told her you might not like it but she tried anyways. But like after she ate, she said bad things about it like how it is really sour and spicy and smelly. I was annoyed at her so after this incident I never gave her my food.
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Post by |Ruchira| on Nov 6, 2012 11:07:02 GMT -5
I never really felt ashamed of my culture, or the traditions my family had. But since we are talking about how in the Asian culture taking shoes off before entering the house is very important and common, I would like to talk about how I feel about that. When I was little I remember I was watching an episode of Drake and Josh and I noticed that the kids have the same clothes on all day, even after school and they also keep their shoes on. I thought that was part of the Americans culture and I thought I myself that I will do the same when I'm an adult and living abroad. And I thought it would be the same in Korea, but no you guys are just as Asian as us.
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sorn
Full Member
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Post by sorn on Nov 7, 2012 2:00:37 GMT -5
I was never embarrassed about my family and my culture. I think that what we do is good because not a lot of country has a culture like us. But about wearing the shoe thing, in Thailand this is something that YOU CANNOT DO. We think that you are not respecting the place and also stepping on to the ghost that is protecting the house (Thai's beliefs). It's very rude and people might think of you differently by doing this.
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Post by lukejoo1092 on Nov 8, 2012 8:30:11 GMT -5
Well, my case isn't about a time when I was embarrassed of my culture. It's more of like how I wish it was like my culture. When I came into Korea, the things that surprised me most was A, there is no cafeteria, B, I cant wear my sneakers in school, C, we have to wear uniforms starting in middle school, and D, we go to school on saturdays. All of the time I've lived in America, none of these applied to my school life. So I had a hard time understanding why do we need to do this? The answer I found though was it's just like this. It's part of Korean culture. I guess I could say that this is the first event which I came to understand other culture. It was an unpleasant experience for sure though.
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woori
Full Member
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Post by woori on Nov 8, 2012 22:21:18 GMT -5
Well, I lived in Korea when I was 6 years old.In Korea I always rise my hand in a class.It is common style in Korea. Maybe, all over the world too. But almost school in Japan is not. It made my shock.
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jisu25
Junior Member
Posts: 95
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Post by jisu25 on Nov 9, 2012 2:13:24 GMT -5
When I was 4 years old and I was living in America that time, i didn't mind having my friends wear their shoes inside our house, but i am kinda of curious about the issue with wearing and not wearing shoes in home. In America and Europe, many people wear shoes in homes but countries in Asia, people don't wear shoes. Since i was living all my life not wearing shoes in home, I didn't really think it was weird for me at least, but in North America many people wear shoes and that is not weird to them. This is just my personal thought, but i think that it is based on how people are raised in different countries with different customs.
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Post by sazad100 on Nov 9, 2012 22:37:00 GMT -5
One of the cultural acts that I at first was ashamed of was our way of eating. In our culture we are taught to eat with our right hand (It doesn't matter if you are a left handed or right handed).
So one day my parents invited their Korean friends to have Bengali food and they were given chopsticks and spoons to eat and we used it too. But my father decided to use his instead. I looked at the guest reaction, they acted normally and I was having a hard time eating with chopsticks too but was having a hard time so I ate with my hand too. Now I a over it. I am happy of my culture and will be glad to follow it everywhere.
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Post by jungholee on Nov 10, 2012 1:33:53 GMT -5
When i went to USA, i attended George Washington Middle school. That was my first time to go USA school, i wasn't good at english at all, i didn't know about American culture. So when i go in there, i bowed him and said hello politely...(Maybe he was teacher who teaches write a story... It was something about english but not an engilsh teacher because i was in ESL class.) I knew they don't bow to teachers, but i just did it out of habit... And then, until two years, namely until i graduate the school, when he saw me, he always bowed to me with teasing face...
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james
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Posts: 129
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Post by james on Nov 10, 2012 4:03:58 GMT -5
When i was in us, i had a moment that i only spoke in korean even though i was talking with a korean friend. I had a feeling that i dont belong to this place so i would just keep speaking english and that made me better speakin in english although i forgot the most when i came back to korea, anyway i thought that would make me feel better. Another reason is that i was kind of ashamed of my country because back that time, korea wasnt that known for ex. When i introduce myself that im from korea, they would ask me back wheres korea? So i didnt really want to tell people that im from korea. However, now im proud of my culture and yeah..
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