Keira CP #4

Keira CP #4

Date/Time: June 9, 2017 - 1:00 pm
Location: Hecht House (Student Lounge) 

Once again, Seongeun and I met up and did some of the activities that had been emailed to us. This time, we did both the #5 and #3 activities, since we went rather quickly through them, and we had skipped #3 previously when we had to miss meeting one week. 

The more recent activity, #5, had us compare different interactions in our cultures, such as greeting someone, disagreeing with someone, offering something, or accepting or refusing something. A couple of times, Seongeun told me that she thought our two cultures seemed very similar in a number of ways. We talked about one difference that had already come up in my class: accepting compliments. While in America, there are different socially acceptable ways to respond to a compliment, what I had learned was that in Korea, the polite thing to do is to deflect or turn down the compliment. I told Seongeun about the story we had heard in class, about an American teacher in Korea who could not understand why one of his students responded to the compliment "Your daughter is beautiful," with "No, she's not." 

The other activity had us reflect on stereotypes and generalizations, and how they differ from each other, and to think about the ways they affect our own cultures and the people in them. This led to more discussion about our two countries, but it was difficult trying to think of things about our cultures that we wanted to know more about through the other's eyes. 

Seongeun also told me about her upcoming trip to New York, and how excited she is. I expressed my excitement for her, and told her that I wanted to hear all about her trip once we meet up again. I am looking forward to the next time we get together, since I am sure she will have a lot to share with me.