Week 6- Cards and Culture

                   This week in class we started Tuesday off playing a card game, and Sal each gave us directions on how to play. The goal of our game was to put the highest number down, but if you had a diamond, put that one down and you automatically win. Aces were low. As our  We were allowed a few practice rounds and my group and I started getting the hang of it. Then, Sal instructed us to play without talking. For our group, it was pretty easy to do that because we all knew how the game was played and could use motions to communicate. However, when Sal told the winner of the round, which was me, to move to the next table, things changed. Again, we couldn't talk. We could only start the game. We began to play, and I threw down a diamond in order to win. However, when everyone had put down their cards, another kid took the cards and signaled that he had won the round. I was so confused! I was supposed to win that round! Then, during another round, a kid put down an ace, and won, even though I was told that aces were low. I was starting to get a little frustrated, but I couldn't talk and didn't want to argue non-verbally so I just went along with it. After playing for a few minutes or so, Sal told us to stop playing and all of a sudden we all started arguing about who was right and who was wrong and why we should've won that one round, and that aces were low, etc. Sal suddenly interrupted us, saying "Each table was a different culture. And you all were put into a situation of culture shock". Sal also discussed ideas, such as ethnocentrism, which is the  tendency to view other groups or cultures as inferior to your own. In my head, I started to think about how true he was, and realized that I had thought I was right because that's what my "culture" taught me. I was being ethnocentric! It was crazy to think that just in a matter of 15 minutes, we all faced a symbolic brainwashing, in which we each were told what was right and what was wrong, and then grew critical towards people that weren't doing the "right thing".
            Now, from a very small scale, this is not a big deal. But if you think about this globally, this thing happens every second of every day. I would bet that the majority of the American population believe that other countries should change in order to fit our own culture, and vice versa. I am assuming this because I have experienced this first-hand, even if it was on a smaller scale. Freshman year, my advisory and I began to have a debate on whether or not there should be one common language amongst the world's population, and if so, which one. I argued that, no, there should not be one common language, because although it would make things easier in the long run, language is a vital part of culture, and we could also never decide on which language to make the 'official language' be. However, one of my classmates began to say that if it were ever to happen, that we should make everyone speak English, and I asked him why, and he said something along the lines of "Because that is what we know and we are better than the other languages, because America is the best". This is a perfect example of ethnocentrism, for it shows that this guy thought that just because we spoke English, we were obviously better. However, I think that someone speaking Korean, or French, would say the same thing about their own language. It is crazy to think that we have become so assimilated to our own cultures that we want what is best for ourself and would benefit ourself the most, rather than wanting what is right and equal.
This experience in class was  really powerful one that made me take a step back and examine the world from a bigger perspective and realize just because we live in a certain culture doesn't mean our culture is the best.