After teaching English in Asia for more than four years, I've come to see that human communication is filled with an emotional language that cannot be contained in words. Words and languages are merely the clumsy tools that we all try to use to indicate specific facts among us. An individual cannot be understood, and language cannot be translated, without having a full understanding of the cultural values and norms that affect the transaction, in addition to having a working intimacy with the personality of the speaker. People are so different, and our cultures make us even more different.
Nevertheless, a cultural exchange can become a powerful event for this very reason. When we are ignorant of another's cultural background, we are free to interpret words and behavior according to our own interpretation, which casts a different light on our understanding of things. We are also able to loosen our minds from the respective constraints imposed on us by our own culture. This light can be a welcome breath of fresh air to some, like myself. For others, it's an awkward and irritating experience sought to be avoided in the future. These kinds of reactions, positive and negative, also bring an additional differentiation among persons. We are all so different.
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