This week's lecture mentioned about intercultural communication, and the definitions of culture. Our culture tells us who we are, what groups we belong to and how we live our lives. The video that I am going to share about today shows how our culture affects our thinking, actions and preferences, in this case, food.
Watch Remy, a regular 8 year old boy from Midwest United States taste food that few adults or kids from where he lives will try. In this clip, Remy will be trying a durian wafer.
Durians are what we, the South East Asians are very familiar with. Durians are easily available in Singapore, we can get them anywhere from the supermarkets to roadside stalls with tables and chairs where we pick and eat durians on the spot. However, this tropical fruit is not widely available in the western countries. When Remy tries the durian wafer, (which is what i will personally describe to be not quite of the same level compared to the king of fruits themselves), he describes it to be a sweet, delicious cookie with the unfortunate odor of rotting onions, which should be a very honest and direct comment given his age and his background.
We can safely assume that a large part of our society is made up of collectivist cultures, where we are heavily influenced by the norms in our own culture. In this case, Remy displays signs of ethnocentrism, by judging the taste of the durian using his own food culture as a yardstick. Though i am unable to imagine how someone can describe a food of such strong and sweet fragrance to be smelly, but I can understand why he feels this way. In the collectivist culture, Beliefs are shared with in-groups, and Remy probably referred to the taste of durians to be unpleasant because his culture has already programmed the thought of durian to be an odd food in his mind.
Being a picky eater myself, I cannot picture myself eating raw oysters, raw sashimi, or any raw food because I was not exposed to them when I was young. I was being influenced by my family that food that goes into your mouth should be cooked. The sight and smell of the wet market with the raw meat and poultry and darting flies that my mother got her groceries from during my childhood days haunted me ever since. The sight of others putting raw meat into their mouth makes me feel quite sick in the stomach as they never fail to remind me of the smell in the wet market.
As for the issue of ethnocentrism, I am sure we all agree that our culture's influence will definitely cause us to not be able to accept other people's culture. However, I feel that we should accept that people around the world have different preferences to food. Even if the thought that others' ideas of delicacy might not be the same as ours, we should see things with an open mind, for many things in culture cannot be compared due to their different contexts.
12 comments:
I guess the food we eat and are exposed to in our own individual food-cultures sort of program our tastebuds and mindsets to be more acceptive of certain types of food while rejecting others. I guess this proves that food is not always in the mouth--its in the mind too. Similarly, other things we take for granted like architecture, fashion trends and even modes of transport are also the way they are because of the way we think and the influences we are exposed to.
I think it is both the mind and the mouth. Take for example spicy food. Some people can take it, some cannot. That would be down to sensitivity issues of the nerves in the mouth and the taste buds.
I agree that most of the time it is what we are exposed to and what we learned when we were young that shapes our likes and dislikes about food. But that does not mean we cannot learn again now that we are young adults.
As for ethnocentrism, it comes down to our reactions to the cultures, not just our mindset toward them. We can tell ourselves that we do appreciate other cultures and that we have an open mind. But the moment we cringe our faces in mild disgust at the sight of a aboriginal man slurping down duck embryos, that gives away our inner prejudices and close mindedness.
When it comes to food, I make it a point to personally try it out, no matter what i have learned or heard about the food in question. Dive in, take a bite, and then decide if I truly like it or not. After all, it was this attitude that made me discover new favorites dishes. If I had not tried it against my better judgment, I would have missed out on some really good food.
hehehe, I believe that culture indeed a crucial role and influencer for us to see things. Thus culture is indeed something that we cannot forget that they help us to see things around. Just dont forget to apply "cultural relativism"
I agree. We should accept that people around the world have different preferences to food. For me, i do not like durians and i find the smell of it revolting. I find that i am in a minority of singaporeans and everytime i let people know my dislike for durians they will gasp in disbelief.
This also supports your point on collectivist culture where beliefs are shared within an in-group. Part of our singaporean culture is our love for durians. Since i differ from this cultural belief, i am often met with disapproval and disbelief by Singaporeans. Therefore, we should prevent ourselves from adopting ethnocentrism and view things with an open mind.
I agree with your point of view, gamemaker. Just like how i was not exposed to western food since young, it is still difficult for me to accept that people put raw vegetables in their mouth and like it, even till today.
Yes Xamuel, it is great that you can overcome barriers and tuck in to the food presented before you and personally try it out before you judge it. I guess that is what we should do too, in other aspects of our life. Like when we meet new aquaintences, this is the mindset that we should also adopt.
we should apply cultural relativism, even if we cannot bring ourselves to do what people of other cultures are used to doing, I guess the most important thing is to accept the fact that they simply are accustomed to it and we are not, and respect them for being different.
hey, i am a fellow durian hater. having watched remy eating the durian cookies i cannot help but feel that a reason why remy enjoyed eating the cookies was because of how gross it seemed to him. He described the smell as like 'onions and garbage'. Something about young american boys love for anything gross.(think Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes)
Hi, I am a serious durian lover. I cannot understand why people will describe this delicious fruit to smell like 'onions and garbage'. I agree with mytake101 that Remy probably tried it because its gross. Just like the other gross foods that he tried on his website.
There are still a number of people who dislike eating durians, but i guess it is just a matter of taste preferences. Like many of us here, i have always met with disapproval when i express dislike of certain dishes. I remembered feeling guilty when i said i don't eat a lot of food that people find delicious, but now I do not think so anymore. So yes, I view things with an open mind and accept people for being different, as long as their actions do not directly affect me negatively.
I feel that food is just things which we consume to give us energy for our daily activities. Therefore as someone who eats almost everything, whatever that comes to my plate, doesn't really makes a difference to me. It will eventually just enter my mouth and down to my stomach. Maybe it is just the way i'm brought up about not choosing my food.
The reason why Westerners hate durians while Singaporeans love them could be due to the different environment we grow up in and the perception instilled in us as a child. As you have mentioned, durians are readily available in Singapore. We grow up eating them, and were told that it is the King of Fruits. The stronger its smell, the more fragrant it is, or so we were taught. In contrary, the westerners found the smell pungent – like that of trash, as Remy said. This could probably be due to the fact that durians are a rare sight in the Western countries. They have always grown up thinking that durians are smelly – a perception instilled in them by their parents. When they smell the unfamiliar scent of durians, they find it rancid, because it is something their brains are attuned to.
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