https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5 Do you have a story to share about any kind of cultural misunderstanding or cross-cultural communication problem? Maybe there is just something that worries you and you would like advice upon? Or maybe you have seen foreigners make mistakes in your own country, and have not known how to respond? Or felt secretly very offended? Remember, cultural differences are not only international, they occur between regions, tribes, institutions and generations too. Please add a post here - long or short. Add a video or a photo too, if you like. Don't forget to make comments on each others' posts and add your class name, in case it does not show up. en-us 2021-06-12 15:16:25 UTC 2026-01-15 14:55:45 UTC hello@padlet.com 687540 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1602594086 In Bali, it is normal to sit in a circle on the floor to eat and drink, and to share traditional palm wine with friends on special occasions.  However, it is very important that when you enter the circle you do so respectfully, making sure to stay low to show respect and never walking upright across the group. 

The Balinese are very friendly and often welcome foreigners into their customary pursuits.  One day, however, a Scandinavian tourist was invited to join a small party who were sitting in the shade, celebrating a special occasion in their village.  Unfortunately, the tourist lady did not think twice about stomping straight across their circle.  Worse, she even jumped right over all the glasses of palm wine which were on the ground in the middle of the circle.  This was horrifying for the Balinese, although they said nothing about it to the tourist.  They only commented in their own language. 

Because the lady had jumped across their palm wine, the Balinese believed it had been contaminated or 'jinxed' - maybe by Black Magic. Consequently, all the specially fermented wine had to be discretely thrown away and their little party had to be delayed until new wine had been acquired.  This was not easy, as the wine needs to be tapped from the top of a high palm tree by a local expert - and only at special times. 

The video below gives an idea of how time-consuming the process of tapping the wine, called 'tuak', is. As you can see, as well as patience and expertise, it also requires an excellent head for heights!

The tourist lady was completely oblivious.  She never noticed the consternation she had caused, or the offence, or all the inconvenience!  In fact, she happily guzzled down the jinxed wine, unaware of the local belief that this would put a spell upon her!  She did not mean to be impolite but, on the other hand, neither did she demonstrate any awareness or sensitivity towards another culture, different from her own. 
 
Luckily the Balinese are extremely tolerant people and long used to the strange ways of international visitors.  It was embarrassing, however, and caused everyone present a lot of discomfiture.

I never found out if the wine was really jinxed or not.  Or whether anything befell the lady later that night...

I wonder what you think? Do you think she was affected by the jinx or not? Please comment below...]]> 2021-06-12 15:25:20 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1602594086 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1605064568 2021-06-14 13:25:25 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1605064568 st2029 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1607118735 I went to Nepal as an international volunteer and made some Chinese language lessons for children in an orphanage. What impressed me most was that both the children and the owner of the orphanage sat on the floor to eat without chopsticks,  without  forks,  without  spoons, but just hands.They seem to be used to that way. However, the hostess noticed my discomfort and sweetly offered me a spoon, and  I naturally sat down on the floor  to eat with them in a circle.]]> 2021-06-15 08:57:42 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1607118735 rw2006 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1609601378 I saw a story about cultural differences on the internet. I want to share this story with you. A Chinese girl went to the United States to study. On her first day at school, she asked an American girl if she wanted to go to the toilet with her. When the American girl agreed to her request, the Chinese girl took her hand directly. As a result, the American girl refused to hold hands with the Chinese girl and asked why she wanted to hold hands with a girl. This American girl told this Chinese girl that only those who are in love will hold hands. If girls hold hands with girls, they will be misunderstood as falling in love. The Chinese girl thinks that this is really a very big cultural difference, because in China, holding hands is just a way to express friendship.
by Linda]]> 2021-06-16 09:16:29 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1609601378 yw2024 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1609620569 I want to share the cultural differences between the north and the south of China. What I want to say is that there are many different customs in the south and the north when they celebrate traditional Chinese festivals.
For example, the Spring Festival is the grandest and most important festival in China. In the north of China, we will make dumplings and put coins in them. The person who gets the coins, we think he will be lucky in this year.
But in the south, they eat glutinous rice balls during the Spring Festival, and the ones we eat in the north are sweet, and the ones in the south are salty, and there is pork inside, which is horrible to the taste of the northern people, and we don't understand why we eat it like this.]]> 2021-06-16 09:33:22 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1609620569 zc2014 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1620205111 I have a chance to study in Japan for half year.And i have found a lot of different cultural between Chinese and Japanese.
I am a GYM rat, so i got a membership card in Japanese GYM. I lived in Tokyo and the GYM in that city is really small.So when the high peak of GYM is coming ,the GYM do not have enough equipment for the members to use.The members choose to wait in the line. But the situation is really different in China, to be specific, when the equipment is not enough or there are billion people in the GYM, members choose to use the equipment together, and it will increase the efficiency of use of equipment.All in all , there are many people told me that the Japanese have always been told not to bother others.So then enjoy the time themself.But Chinese are more outgoing , they enjoy the time of sharing.That is really different in culture.
By Scott.]]> 2021-06-22 18:44:08 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1620205111 zr2004 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1623314116 This reminds me of a story that happened during a trip. I was at Town God's Temple of Shanghai. It's a famous scenic spot in Shanghai, so the temple is packed with people. Everyone can get three sticks of incense for free at the ticket office at the entrance before entering. When I went in with the incense, I prayed to the statue of Buddha and put the incense in the incense burner in front of it, as I usually do at the temple.Just then, I saw three foreigners, holding incense sticks, standing in front of the incense burner with a smile on their faces. A foreigner was taking pictures for them！I was surprised and amused at the same time and other Chinese at the temple were shocked, some even frowned.The reason why we were so surprised was that in Chinese culture, incense is used to worship the gods and the dead, and no one would ever be so happy to hold it. The other thing is that it's very impolite to take pictures in the temple, and in traditional culture people think that taking pictures in the temple or taking pictures of people who are worshiping will cause bad luck and bad things happen.But when I was in Australia, no one would stop you from taking pictures inside the church. I guess that's the cultural difference between different countries.]]> 2021-06-24 09:14:19 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1623314116 bl2011 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1625233476 It reminds me of something. I like some science fiction. Many of the western scientific fantasy works have an unspeakable religious complex. For example, the movie "knowing" starring Nicolas Cage. It tells the story of an extremely violent solar storm, which is about to destroy everything on the surface of the earth, and then an advanced civilized alien in the universe comes to save the next part of the earth. Among them, aliens have the ability of prophet, which is not rare in science fiction, such as the prophet in the matrix. This ability is known in science fiction as Blick Winkel. In theory, if we have enough data, predicting the future is actually a solvable mathematical problem. So when I saw the plot, I still thought the movie was more reasonable. Until I saw the end, after the destruction of mankind, the rescued boy and girl ran to a towering tree together. Here is a very obvious metaphor for the plot in religion. Boys and girls are Eve and Adam, and the towering tree is the tree of life in the Bible. The religious color of science fiction films is very abrupt. The story that ends with religious metaphor is quite impressive in Asimov's the last question, which makes me feel extremely happy, because he is completely understandable from a scientific point of view. There are also many sci-fi works about science and religion, such as Carl Edward Sagan's contact. In a word, Western science fiction works always have more or less religious complex. And this is very rare in Chinese science fiction. I think there are some cultural differences in it.]]> 2021-06-25 11:32:14 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1625233476 rz2006 https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1629575607 JK uniform is a niche clothing hobby in China, however, it is a status symbol in Japan as it represents the high school age group of girls. And there are actually certain restrictions on age in Japan, and there are many things that you cannot do in a particular age class. By the same token, with such strict rules, there are many occasions where girls high school students are actually not allowed to go.
There are many schools in Japan that are also quite strict about what students can wear in school uniform. Therefore, students generally do not wear JK uniforms on weekends anymore. In tourist and shopping places, there is even no way to see schoolgirls wearing JK uniforms to shop. Moreover, one thing you need to know is that adults wearing JK school uniforms without a school badge, in the eyes of some Japanese people, also means that they are engaged in the sex industry.]]> 2021-06-29 05:22:17 UTC https://padlet.com/687540/r67j7ixy2jklkcv5/wish/1629575607