Cultural Emotional Expressivity
I recently learned about a term called a TCK. It means Third Culture Kid. Although my parents are both British, I spent a lot of my childhood in the US. I know what it means to live in a culture different culture. Although there isn't a HUGE difference between the US and UK culture it still does exist. Although I think the gap is getting smaller.
This talk explains exactly what a TCK is - in case you like me hadn't heard the term before. Alice Fernades talks about her experiences. She talks about how she answers the question 'Where are you from?"
I get asked this question quite often, living as an adult in a country where my accent makes me different. I probably get asked that very same question every time I leave my house. Similarly to Alice in the above video I have to go back quite a bit to give people the answer they want to hear which is 'England' whereas if truth be told that's the place that I have lived for the least amount of time and I don't really think of when asked the question "Where are you from?"
One thing I have found is that people act differently no matter where they live. Even moving across the United States will show you some cultural differences. So to think about Cultural Emotional Expressivity makes sense.
Expressions are the same no matter where you live. People can be happy, sad, angry, excited, and scared. However, depending on our culture we might show those emotions in different ways. I recently watched a video from my course that talked about differences in emotional expressivity. He talks about how most cultures are somewhere on a sliding scale. Low tolerant expressivity and high tolerant expressivity are the extreme sides of the scale. Now, this is talking about public expressivity rather than private. How a culture shows their emotions publicly and how other countries or people can judge them because of the difference. I think this cultural show of expression is what leads to stereotypes of people from different cultures - when we assume that all people from one culture act and think the same way.
We have all heard them right... let's think of a few -
People from A are loud.
People from B are less educated.
People from C are very friendly.
People from D hate people from A.
The list can go on and on.
There's a scripture I love in 1 Samuel 16:7 that says "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for a man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart".
We need to make sure that we don't judge people unrighteously. This means we need to get to know someone and learn what makes them tick. Not judge them from stereotypes or our personal culture's emotional expressivity. Give people the chance to show you who they are, you never know you might like them ♥
It is interesting how our paradigms work. When I started listening to her, I was sure she was British. When she declared she was American, it felt as if something was misplaced. How can an American person sound like an English one, I thought. She describes so beautifully the perks of being a TCK. I assume it must have taken her a while to realize all that, but thanks to all those experiences, she can see the world more broadly and openheartedly.
ReplyDeleteHello Lisa!
ReplyDeleteI know we need to learn about each other's cultures to better understand them. Even living in the same country, the culture and paradigms are very different from one place to another. I can't imagine the experiences you had, altough England and the United States share the same language, England and the United States are very different, and as you say, we have to give ourselves the opportunity to get to know each other without judging others.