Foreign cultures are mirrors

June 9, 2008 by gbrown 

Shared by Graham

I lived in Japan in 1996, at the beginning of the lost decade. It was an interesting time for myself in terms of discovery - I learned more about my own self and culture than about Japan as reflected through the eyes of an observer. I read the other day that only 18% of Americans own passports and wonder what our world is missing out on by not being able to step out of their culturally constructed “self” and see behaviours, customs and ideas through an objective lens. As Jonathan Guthrie points out in this article in the FT - “Foreign cultures are mirrors. Peer into them and we see a reflection of ourselves, peering back.”

Britons do not value business cards greatly – a prospect may scratch his ear with the one you have carefully presented, writes Jonathan Guthrie

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