My perspective on cultures that are different from my own are based off experiences that I have read in books, classes that I have taken on different cultures, ideas from people that I know, characters that I have watched in movies or shows, and world news articles that I happen to read online. If I had more time, I believe taking classes on the different cultures that could be found within my classroom would be the best way to better understand my students. I feel that I am more knowledgeable about the cultures that I have taken classes on, because I was able to go more in-depth while learning, rather than the superficial knowledge that can be gained through word of mouth or stereotypes.
The ways in which we experience people, ideas, issues, cultures, etc., can be impacted both positively and negatively. Stereotypes are a major problem when thinking about cultures, because a lot of them are likely to be untrue or not apply to the people we interact with. Humans fear the unknown, or a lack of knowledge. This leads to the reason why it is important to learn more about different cultures, so that we can learn not to fear people or cultures that are different from our own. The experience of a different culture is not always negative. I took four years of Spanish all throughout high school. The classes did not only focus on the language, but also explored the culture. We celebrated holidays that were specific to Spanish culture, which were fun and engaging, explored their cultural ideas on family, and much more.
I believe there are both benefits and drawbacks to the technology that we use today. We have knowledge right at our fingertips; however, we must make sure that what we learn is based on fact rather than opinion. The technology and social media that we have today allows us to connect to others across the world that we would not have been able to connect to in the past. We can also research people’s cultures that are different from our own, as long as we ask the right questions. However, a lot of the news that we read today and the movies we watch have been politicized or opinionated. That is why it is important to read many different articles from different sources about the same topic, so that we can be better informed to come up with our own ideas about something. Social media can also spread false information, because almost anyone can post something that is untrue about a culture or idea.
