Rice May Discuss North Korea, Taiwan as Visit to China Begins
North Korean disarmament and worsening China-Taiwan relations are likely to top her agenda in talks with Chinese leaders on her last stop in a six-nation Asian …
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Best Asian Blogs
There are some nominations for 2004 Best Asian Blogs. I’ve been reading through them, and found a few I really liked. You’ll notice that the links on the sidebar are slowly expanding…
Dictionary Personality
Something from a psychology paper I just wrote – it was about effect of culture shock on identity.
There was a passage about a woman who was speaking Portugese, Japanese and English to different groups of people at a dinner party. She reflects on a comment by a guest who noticed that her personality seemed to change depending on the language she spoke. She wonders if she has split-personality, but concludes that all the personalities are hers.
According to the article, people growing up in different cultures acquire multiple sets of behaviours in order to fit in with different cultures. This is an unconscious process and when people first realize what they are doing, they wonder whether they have split-personality.
Interesting thing is, I’ve noticed myself doing the same thing. Languages bring out different personalities because they are so closely related with culture and different cultures call for different sets of behaviours.
The amount of respect accorded to the elderly is reflected in Korean and Japanese (don’t know about Chinsese) through the extensive use of honourific forms. While you can certainly be polite in English and show the same amount of respect in English, with Korean or Japanese, using a whole different form of the language automatically places the other person on a different level.
So if you want to know about the culture of a country, try reading their dictionaries.
Asia Roundup
Simon World has it’s bi-monthly Asian Blog roundup. Some highlights include:
- Truth via Eggs:
The Chinese (and perhaps Asian in general) concept [of truth] depends on a human intent to deceive.
- Happy Corner:
Suddenly, three to four students rush over to you. They lift you up, they split your legs apart and then they slam your sexual organ right into a post or a wall corner.
- Chinese Bloggers Arrive:
I also see what Chinese bloggers’ energy, creativity and ingenuity has achieved over the last two short years to spread blogging from a handful of people to 600,000 and growing under the censorship regime.
- Kim’s Missing Portrait:
A before-and-after photograph shows Kim’s portrait has been removed from its place beside his father’s, whatever that might mean.
