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Cultural Impact on Human Being
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E: Hi! Welcome to 'Let's Talk'. Today we have a very interesting topic for you. And that is that fact that we're the products of our culture.
R: Yes. Today we're doing a little bit of psychology. That's a big word for you look it up if you don't know it. And we're talking about people and how we related to each other in our cultures.
E: If fact the people who study cultures say that 'Cultures give us a set of classes.' They give us a way to look at the world. They give us a set of rules how we do things, what counts as polite, and what counts as impolite comes to us from our culture.
R: And really if you think about it why do we behave the way we behave. Where do we learn these rules? Because every country is not alike and I'm sure that you realize that. Even every family is not alike. We learn to behave and learn and get our glasses mostly from our families and from the institutions that we're around from our neighborhood and from our friends and schools and the countries we lived in. That culture gives you your glasses and it gives you the rules what's right what's wrong.
E: For example, even what you eat and what you say when you greet people. And things like what you can talk about. In some countries you can talk about your salary, and in other countries it's not nice to talk about your salary.
R: Or even whom you can talk to. I know some countries are very careful that women speak to women and men talk to men. Children may not speak to adults they don't know. You know those are very strict rules. And you grow up with some you probably never thought about. You learn how to behave and how to tell a joke and what's funny. That's another one.
E: Yeah. That's a big one because nobody never laughs at other culture's jokes, do they.
R: Humor doesn't translate they say. And those are your set of glass and the other people are wearing them. You know a good example is how close you can stand to someone else.
E: In some cultures you can't stand very close you have to be quite long distance away. And in other cultures you can be here and I can talk to you here and you can feel very comfortable. But in fact it's just depend on what you grown up with. When you were little baby and little child people talk to you that close then that's feel right to you. Or if you stand back and that feels right to you well that was taught to you by your culture.
R: And the interesting thing about that is once you've learned it, you never think about it again. You never think and question it you don't make that decision again. You know it's right. It's right for you. The only time you might consider it wrong is if someone does it wrong to you. If someone comes to close and you think 'go away.' TV is funny that way. In TV we have to be very close.
E: I don't mind Rebecca.
R: And that open your eyes and make you realize 'Oh, this person's culture is closer than mine.'
E: But actually just think what if you have to make these decisions every time you talk to someone. If you tell yourself 'How far should I be standing from this person.' And if every time if you wanna to talk to someone you have to ask yourself that question you'll go crazy.
R: Yeah. Your mind is full of day's work so you can't make these decisions over and over.
E: So our brain is very kind to us. It adjusts to something and it says it is normal and then you don't think about it again. And you don't have to think about 'Oh, am I doing the right things.'
R: And you know it is important what you've just said. Our brain does settle into a pattern, what you think is normal and acceptable. But we can adjust. I know when I came to China I've adjusted to a lot of things that was new to me. My culture was not used to something that I came here. And you can adjust.
E: What have you adjusted?
R: I know one thing that is new for me is my Chinese friends love to have big crowds of people if fact recently I was doing Taiji with friends and trying yoga with friends. And there are Chinese friends and foreign friends and they feel that we should do it with more and more people, more people is better. And at home I go jogging all by myself, one person.
E: Don't you love it here?
R: Yeah. But I got used to many many people doing things together. Because that is Chinese culture, more people together eating, exercising or singing or what ever is better. I was used to just jogging alone, singing alone.
E: Yeah. We also have to get used to Chinese food. Before I came to China I've never eaten a lot of food that I eat here. But I like them all, I mean I try them all, there aren't many things that I don't eat. Just as westerner I never eat dog meat. And I don't like 臭豆腐. But other than that it's ok. So your brain can redo it. And you can get used to a new culture very easily. Well we hope you'll think about this. And we hope that you'll send us a letter. Perhaps you've had a foreign friend. And you've noticed some different about their set of rules and the way that they look at life. Let us know that you think.
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文化对人的影响
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E：大家好！欢迎收看‘你说我说’。今天我们要谈一个有趣的话题，这就是文化对人的影响。
R：是的，今天要讲一些与心理学有关的问题。心理学是 psychology，我们要谈谈有关人的问题，以及人们在文化中的相互关系。
E：一些研究文化的人说，文化给了我们一副眼镜，它给了我们观察世界的方式，给了我们一套如何做事的规则，
告诉我们怎样做是有礼貌的，怎样做是不礼貌的。
R：如果你思考一下我们为什么会有这样的行为方式，
我们从哪里学到这些规则。因为每个国家都是不尽相同的，至每个家庭也是不尽相同的，我们大部分的行为方式
是从家庭以及我们周边的事物中学到的。比如，从我们的邻居、朋友、学校，还有我们居住的国家是文化给了你认识事物的‘眼镜‘，以及判断对错的规则。
E：比如，你的饮食和打招呼的用语以及你可以和别人谈的话题。在某些国家，你可以谈你的工资；但在另外一些国家，和别人谈你的工资就不太好。
R：还有你的谈话对象。在一些国家，妇女通常和妇女谈话，男人通常和男人谈话，童不能和陌生成年人谈话。这些规矩有时还很严格。你在成长过程中，可能不会仔细思考这些规矩，甚至如何讲笑话，哪些话是可笑的。这也是个例子。
E：对，是个明显的例子。人们对其它文化的笑话有时不会发笑。
R：幽默是很难翻译的，这就是你的‘文化眼镜’。其他人也都戴着这样的‘眼镜’。一个很好的例子是，你和别人站在一起时彼此的距离。
E：在一些文化中你不能和别人站得很近，要保持很长一段距离；但在另一些文化中，你可以和人在很近距离说话。他们会觉得这样很舒服。事实上，这也和你成长中所受教育有关。当你还是小孩子的时候，人们总和你这样近的谈话，你自然会觉得这样很合适。如果他们总离开一定距离谈话，你会觉得那样很合适。总之，是文化教给了你这一切。
R：而且有趣的是，一旦你学到了这些规则，你一般就不会再思考它们了，也不会对它们有什么疑问。你知道这样做是对的，只有当别人的行为与你不同时，你才会对这些规则有所疑问。如果有人和你靠得很近，你会想‘离我远点儿‘。但在拍节目时，我们得靠得很近。
E：我对此并不在意Rebecca。
R：别人不同的行为会打开你的眼界，使你明白在他们的文化中，人们说话时习惯离得很近。
E：但实际上你不会在每次和别人说话时，都考虑到彼此的距离。如果你每次都这样考虑，都问自己，我该离这个人多远，这就不太对劲了。
R：是啊，你的头脑里想的都是每天的工作，不会重复的做这样的决定。
E：我们的大脑对我们很好，它会对一些事情作出调整。它会告诉你，这很正常，你不用再多想了，你也不用总想。我这样做对吗？一点很重要，我们的大脑会遵从某种模式。告诉你怎样是正常的，可以接受的。但我们还可以进行调整。当我刚到中国时，得对很多新事物作出调整。我所习惯的文化对很多事不适应，但我可以调整。
E：你做了哪些调整呢？
R：其中之一是，我的一些中国朋友喜欢很多人聚在一起。最近我和朋友们学习太极拳，那里既有中国人也有外国人。一些中国朋友希望有很多人一起练习，人越多越好。但我喜欢一个人在家运动。
E：你不喜欢这里吗？
R：不，我很喜欢。但我不习惯很多人一起练习。在中国文化中，可能习惯与很多人一起吃饭，一起做运动，一起唱歌。但我喜欢独自运动，独自唱歌。
E：是的，我们还要习惯中国的食物。在来中国前，这里的很多食物我都没见过。但我很喜欢它们，并且爱吃它们。不吃的东西不多，和很多西方人一样，我不吃狗肉，我也不喜欢臭豆腐，但其它的东西我都很喜欢。所以你的大脑可以重新确立一些规则，你可以很容易适应一种新的文化。我们希望你们会想想这个问题，希望你们来信。也许你也有外国朋友，你也注意到了一些彼此行为方式上的差异，我们想知道你的想法。
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