Sunday, February 07, 2010

Cultural relativity vs. ethnocentrism

After being in the US for a couple of weeks, I have started noticing that a lot of people over here, have no clue how it is, and what is going on outside of their borders. One girl, said she was from the Phillipines, but when I asked her where it was on the map, she pointed at the Western coast of the US.  I have commonly had questions like "Is English the main language in Norway?" and "Whaaat, you don't have Taco Bell in Norway?", that clearly shows that some Americans think that the American culture, is the "right" culture. I believe this has to do with both the school system over here, and that a lot of people have not traveled much outside of the US. What really helps for getting your eyes open for new cultures is going abroad for a semester or two. So while I work here at the International Office, I will try to encourage as many students as possible to study abroad, especially to Norway.

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