The iceberg metaphor & logos and mythos

The iceberg metaphor for culture show a cruise ship sailing close to the iceberg for a look at this foreign territory. Part of the iceberg is immediately visible; part of it emerges and submerges with the tides, and its foundations go deep beneath the surface.

I would like to talk about the area at the water line and the area below the water line.

The cultural observer has to be more alert says the textbook. It’s so true. We may not judge to fast! It’s important that we learn about the things below the water line. It’s also very important that everybody understands the fact that we can not and may not judge to fast! As a teacher, I will give attention to that.

Below the water line is very interesting. I want to discover this area when I hopefully get accepted to do my internship abroad. It will be an enrichment. But I also think it is a shame that because of those judgments are under-the-waterline, it will not be questioned. I think you need to question that at least once in our life. You do not need to accept everything! Then you’ll become a machine. A machine made by the society. But then again, I’ll hope that I can discover a lot of those habits, understandings and values. This helps me to question ours. This will be a good thing for me.

The East wants to become more logos.

I can understand that but I also have a lot of respect for mythos. I think it’s beautiful that someone can believe that for example trees have eyes. Believing in something is gorgeous and may not disappear!

High and low context

When you look at the high and low context, you realize you need both of them.

You can’t choose between those two contexts.

Why not? Well for example I’ll take the high context. Almost everybody has a facebook-accout. We “need” this because we like to talk about our lives in a familiar way.

You only talk about your live with people you know. Off course, this is relative. There are so many people who have 1000 or more “friends” on facebook. But does this means they are true friends? Off course not. But this is not the right place to discuss that. I only say this to give an example for the high context.

In general, nobody can miss these contact on facebook.

In some way, it’s a sad fact. I suppose that for some people their live turned into facebook. That’s really sad. You need your real life.

That takes me to the low context.

The low context is rule oriented. Using codes and signs is a typical thing for the low context.

We need this too! For example: the Justitiepaleis in Antwerp.

There are rules here for being there. You need to live for those rules.

If you don’t, you will be denied access or you will be asked to leave the building.

This is a good thing. This is a place where just can’t do whatever you want.

There are convicts and victims here. It’s normal that the Justitiepaleis wants to protect both parties.

Off course there are a lot of ‘other’ persons here. For example: a divorce. This also is a jurisdiction of the Justitiepaleis. If everybody does whatever they want to do, it will be a chaos. A chaos that can’t be fixed. There is a lot of disappointment and happiness in this building. Disappointment for the person who ‘lost’ and happiness for the person who ‘won’.

This is a situation that leads into chaos. This has to be prevented. They do that by those rules.

Conclusion: if they don’t have those rules, it will turn into a large chaos and that will give those persons a lot of more problems they already have.

So by this said: you need both contexts!

You can’t live without one of those two contexts.

CSET: lesson 1

Albert Einstein once said: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
And sadly, he knew already that humanity sometimes doesn’t know what they are doing.

You can link the human stupidity with a lot of things.
For this class, I want to link the stupidity with racism and discrimination.

You have a lot of cultures in this world.
Nowadays, those cultures get mixed up.

When you are walking around in a large city, you’ll see a lot of different cultures. Sadly, those cultures don’t always get along with each other.
I’m sure that we can learn a lot from other cultures. And those other cultures can learn a lot from ours.

Well, to link this with the quote of A. Einstein, I want to say that we (people in general) are not ready to listen to others and to be open for others. That’s dumb. I’m sure that there is so much wisdom in each culture. I think it’s important that everybody knows those wisdoms. Maybe then there will be space to open up to others and to respect each other.

I know, this is something that will never happen.

Do you want to know why? Well because we live in a society that is based on results and achievements. Why would we take some time to get to know each other? The saying: “time is money” is true in this society. We just don’t believe that it is important to get to know other cultures.

But off course, there is an other way around. Most of the other cultures are very closed.

That’s not a good mix. A society that is based on results and achievements versus a culture that is very closed. I don’t think that’s a good mix.

For me, that’s the base of racism for a lot of persons.

They see those other cultures as invaders and want to protect what is theirs.

But what belongs to that property? Not their land, not their cars, but their way of living.

And they want to protect that as hard as they possibly can. I can understand this, because that’s very important. But I’m so convinced that we may not forget that there are other ways of living. And it is not that it is different, that it is wrong.

I’m convinced that cultural appropriation is a good thing. Off course, we can’t take over every element of another culture. But some elements are good to take over.

What I think is very good for our society is the linguistic imperialism. Spread out the language is a good thing. This can only make our knowledge better.

That is one of the greatest lessons we need to learn. We have a great life, we live a life with not many worries, we can really have a different life. We need to learn from other cultures. We need to learn from their successes and their failures. We need to open up to them and they need to open up to us. This would make things so much easier. And perhaps, we can live better with each other. Not just next to each other, but WITH each other. If we can achieve that, that will be a beautiful thing. But still, I don’t think that the society of now is ready for that.

Introduction

For the course: Communicative Skills as a European Teacher, we need to make a blog.

This blog is a translation of our thoughts and ideas that pops into our mind, after the classes.

I’ll hope you will enjoy reading this blog.

If you’ll have any questions or comments, just post a reaction. I will answer to it.

Enjoy!

Mieke Van den Eynde
2 BaLSO Handel-Burotica - Informatica