Residents and workers in Northwest Washington D.C. talked this month about their experiences with foreign cultures and discussed their interactions with world cultures.
Taylor Dewey, an American University student majoring in international relations, spent 4 months in Spain and England. She thinks that Spanish people know a lot about the U.S, but she thinks some in Europe dislike a lot about American culture.
“I think the people here are more naive about other people’s cultures whereas other people are always looking at the U.S. culture,” said Dewey, who like to see more knowledge and understanding of foreign cultures in the U.S.
Meghan Howie, a rising high school senior from Pennsylvania, has taken four years of Spanish plus a World Cultures class, but she thinks it’s not comprehensive of what cultures are. She has some experience visiting an uncle in Germany, but wishes she knew more.
“I feel like I’m not able to understand everyone from different countries,” Howie said.
Joanna Harris is a children’s librarian in Tenleytown and she spent two months in Japan. She was first exposed to Japanese culture by her half-Japanese friend and by watching Japanese anime as a kid.
“When I first watched it, I realized it was different from American cartoons, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it,” said Harris, who also was surprised to see Japanese children wearing uniforms after school and taking classes at other facilities in the late afternoon time.
But Harris questioned how much one culture could legitimately learn about another.
“I think media is really reflective of a culture, but always keep in mind who is telling this story and from which perspective,” Harris said.
Radhika Puri is a 20-year-old student at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee who was born in India. Puri, who speaks fluent Hindi, majors in biology and minors in business and is spending the summer interning for a public policy group. She thinks the world does a better job knowing about U.S. culture than the U.S. knows about the rest of the world.
“You go to India and you go to China, they know how to speak their language and English,” Puri said noting many in the U.S. don’t need to learn a second or third language.