We have seen some forms of stereotypes that people have about different people. How do we broaden the perception that people have of different cultures and subcultures?
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Conference English Kasmer 
November 21, 2008 at 3:50 pm |
I think that the thing that injects stereotypes in to many people is the media. Television, Internet, or even some newspapers cartoon. These media, pull a part of characteristic from a group of people, and use that as a description for all of the members in that group. Like, “All Arabs are terrorist”, or “All the people from third-world countries are bad”.
I think that to bring down stereotypes, first we should do is to educate the people. Give them the truth, not just something they see on television for fun.
November 22, 2008 at 3:01 pm |
If we want to broaden our perspective, the most important way I think is to step out from your world. Here, world refers to a country, culture, or group of people that you’re familiar with. As Panya said, if we stay in a same world, we can only receive same kind of information consistently, such as biased, one-way thinking media. Nowadays, we can easily step outside our world by using the Internet so that we can compare some difference of public opinion or media among worlds an then build our own opinion.
Or we can actually communicate with people from the other world and ask their opinion. Asking and exchanging opinions directly is more effewctive than doing it in the virtual world, i think.
In order to step out from the world, I think we have to do things in advance. First is to train your language skill and the Second, is to have firm opinion of yours.
November 22, 2008 at 4:54 pm |
I think the best way to bring down stereotype is to actually step into the culture you have stereotype against. At first, it may be difficult to look through your own eyes, being controled by the information you had accessed untill that point, but I believe as time goes by that will be possible. Also, it may be a good idea to try to look at things from many points of view. Nowadays, internet allows you to access many different perspective of things. Therefore, these may be good to broaden your view.
November 23, 2008 at 12:17 pm |
Yes, I agree with all of them. The Best way to broaden those perceptions is to jump into the real culture by themselves. We can’t understand 100% or even 70% without experience, I think.
The real world and the world seen from TV or another media is sometimes quite different from the reality.
So people should always keep in mind that we should not trust all those cultural happenings from the media 100% as they are showed. It would be good way for people to doubt on them at least once and think about it more.
November 24, 2008 at 1:17 pm |
I agree with above ideas, too. When I use the word “world” as the way ayamo defined, I think it is very good way to get into the world we have not involved before in order to get to know the different people and break your stereotypes. We tend to believe in opinions which is repeatedly said by surrounding people or media. If we can get to know the person in other worlds personally, it would be a great help for us to change both of your conscious and also unconscious stereotypes.
November 25, 2008 at 12:01 pm |
Hi Everybody,
Looks like we have some good ideas. A few questions;
How do we give people ‘the truth’? What is ‘the truth’?
Why do we need a firm opinion of ourselves in order to understand others?
And why are language skills important for understanding other cultures?
How do we really get to know other people?
November 26, 2008 at 12:26 pm |
I think there is no truth regarding culture. Everyone is different within the same culture, let alone people from other cultures. We definately need to understand ourselves and know who we are as a person in order to relate to others or differentiate from others. I remember learning from other class, that the best way to understand other people is through Interactive Constructivism. This means truth is decided both by the interactions with have with the world and with others, and through communication we can construct a bridge between different cultures and broaden our perception about the world.
November 26, 2008 at 1:26 pm |
I think we have to have our own firm idea before interacting with people who have different culture background because without your primary idea, it’s hard for you to criticize or show your sympathy to other’s opinion. Or even you don’t have your firm opinion, at least you should have your own filter to receive information. That filter will be some criteria to decide whether info is biased or not.
December 2, 2008 at 5:54 am |
Bias is a hard thing to distinguish sometimes. Bias according to what standards?
I keeping thinking my truth is different from my students’, but luckliy I don’t let in get the way of having great classes.
It is true, know yourself and you’ll probably understand the world better, or at least a small part of it anyway.