Africa's Entertainment /Culture differences

CULTURE is where Beauty thrives...

BEAUTY

The perception of beauty, is held in the value of what you are looking at. This page was developed to remind me NEVER to repeat my ignorance...

I have learned to hold value to every person, every living thing and through doing that I have come to love and appreciate who I truly am... "To release your ignorace and value difference is the first step to understanding who you truely are." Vida J Forward.

Stories of Culture shock... lol

The best of others from around the world...

The BUS

My best moment was when I first arrived in Spain for a study abroad. My plane landed in Madrid, then I was to take a train to the city I was going to be living in. I get out of the terminal, and ask an employee what's the best way to get to the train station, bus or subway? This is the conversation I thought we had (note, all this occured in Spanish):

Me: How do I get to Charmartin? Bus or subway?
Employee: $*# the bus.
M: So the subway?
E: No, not the subway. #*#% the bus.
M: I get it, the bus is the wrong choice, but how do I get there?
E: No! The bus is the right choice! #*%& the bus!
M: OK then, I think I'll just take a taxi.

Later I realized that the verb that I had been taught meant #&%, in Spain meant to catch or to take, usually in regards to transportation.

The BAR

From a travel board I belong to. A poster reported his experience buying cigarettes at a bar in the US. He was from the UK, and, at home, often bought "fags" from the bartender who kept a supply tucked away behind the bar.

So, he walked into a bar in the US and asked the (very macho) bartender, "do you do fags behind the bar?"

[In the UK, a "fag" is a cigarette; in the US, it is a very derogative term for a male homosexual.]

The PICTURES

When I first visited my students' homes in China, the first thing they would do (besides bring out food, and I mean food) was bring out photo albums, especially of their wedding and/or their child. I know many people bring pictures into work in this country, but this was something else! The Chinese are world-class picture takers, bar none, except maybe the Japanese.

If the couple has a boy, there he is, the full Monty, page 1. I just learned not to look shocked, and just to say "How nice, next page..." . A girl might get a non-nude picture somewhere in the back, like an afterthought.

The wedding industry was exploding at the time and so was photography. One student had a huge blow-up of her wedding portrait with her DH up on a wall of her apartment. I've never seen a wedding picture that huge; larger than those write-on pictures sometimes seen at receptions.

gui