Reflect upon what you learned from the culture project presentations--both your own and those of your fellow learners.
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Reflect upon what you learned from the culture project presentations--both your own and those of your fellow learners.
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I really enjoyed the presentation on the game of Brazil. I think it opened a really intriguing window into the culture, customs, and history of the country.
The Korean presentations were also impressive and the wide range of topics covered were not only interconnected (upholding the idea that every topic was essential to the society), but the topics were interesting for reasons that gave insight into the ideals, morals, and values of the Korean people.
The other Turkish presentation was a great way for me to round out my studies, as it touched on a topic that I was eager to learn more about - especially with regard to wedding rituals. I really enjoyed learning about my topic, religion in Turkey, because it is a very important aspect of life, in my opinion.
On my own cultural presentation, I learned a lot about Czech higher education system, but I also found myself reflecting on my own experiences there. Last week, I gave a tour to a representative of UPCES, the Czech program that I was a part of. She told me about doing a graduate program back abroad and I thought about my cultural presentation. I think my presentation gave the students insight on education abroad system, especially in Central Europe.
In regards to other presentations, I really enjoyed the ones about Korean culture and food. I was able to relate to some of the culture, but I realised just how much Korea has changed. I have not visited in Korea in over 9 years and hearing the presentations reminded me of that fact. The heavily emphasis on beauty especially in the application was especially surprising. I think if countries such as Korea wants to continue to thrive, they need to have a good balance between being competitive and cultivating good virtues such as creativity and collaboration. Finally, I think the Turkish presentations made me interested in learning more about Turkish culture.
I learned many different interesting cultures from the cultural projects. I think the most interesting one was the Afro-Brazilian culture, Capoeira. It’s interesting how Capoeira emerged in a subtle way as an anti-slavery movement. It may seem like a dance; however, Capoeira is a self-defense technique. And now it is Brazil’s traditional dance/martial art technique, which resembles a lot of history and meaning in it. Another interesting cultural presentation was about the Turkish wedding system. In a lot of ways, it was similar to the Chinese wedding system where the groom has to first come to the bride’s family and ask for permission and blessings. Then they would have an engagement party prior to the actual wedding. And right before the wedding, they would have another ceremony where they all drink tea (instead of coffee in Turkey).
As for my own cultural project, it’s interesting to understand the Korean culture and the roots of its competitive nature. It is definitely an important issue to talk about as it leads to suicides among teens. As foreigners, we are lucky enough to not experience the extent of its competitive nature, but we can learn some positive aspects from their culture. Their extreme education revolution has helped the country to achieve tremendous economic growth and technology boom over the past decade. Thus, its high investments on education translate to high rate of return.
Listening to my classmates' cultural presentations really highlighted the unique differences between each of the cultures and languages that we are each studying. Particularly, I found it interesting how much of the information that was presented on Korea seemed to overlap and really emphasize the extent to which education and competitiveness is valued in Korean culture. Young students are overwhelmed with the pressure to do well on standardized tests in order to get into the very few, selective universities in the country. Without acceptance into these top institutions, students increase their chances of unemployment after college significantly. Additionally, I found it surprising that job applications require pictures of applicants in order for consideration. This phenomenon stresses the importance of physical attractiveness in Korea and causes Koreans to feel as though plastic surgery is a necessity if one wishes to be successful. However, one major problem I see with this idea is that it perpetuates the cycle of keeping the poor people at the bottom and the rich people, who may be able to better afford the surgeries, at the top.
From my own presentation on the traditions of marriage in Turkey, I learned about the value that Turks place on the family. From the beginning of the marriage process, whether an arranged or love marriage, Turkish couples typically require the consent of their parents and family members before ultimately deciding to officially get married. After acquiring this consent, the process leading up to the marriage itself is all about uniting the families of the bride and groom through intimate gatherings and lavish celebrations. In this way, the family is at the center of a Turkish individual's life and their hugest decisions in life reflect the opinions and thoughts of their closest relatives and friends.
I learned from my cultural presentation that there are still huge gender gap in Korea. Women get more than 30% less pay than men in average and have less opportunities at work. However, the situation is changing as more women get higher education. People also get married later as they put more focus on work and become more individualist. For the presentation on Turkey's gender equality issue, even though women's status is still low, it has progressed a lot and the percentage of women holding leadership positions are even higher than many developed nations.
I learned from Yuchi's cultural presentation about the trainee system in Korea. The entertainment industry is one of the largest industry in Korea and its popular culture spreads around the world. It has a very systemic way of training future k-pop stars. I learned that trainees start at a very young age, sometimes from 7, and they are trained every day in the entertainment company while attending school. Many trained fore many years but only a few have the opportunity to debut. Their daily lives are controlled by their companies and they are usually not allow to rest during their promotion period even if they are sick. It is a cruel system but still very competitive.
I learned that the tourism in Turkey is declining because of terrorism. It was once one of top 10 countries that attract the most foreign tourists. However, the number of tourists has decreased dramatically since 2015. I did not know about thie until I researched on the topic. I thought it is very important to know if I am learning a language and thinking about visiting the targeted country. From presentations of other Turkish learners, I learned how the wedding is like in Turkey. It was interesting that there are still lots of people who marry through arranged marriage.
In the culture project presentations, I have learned about the woman rights in both of Turkey and Korea. I think in Turkey, women still don't have many rights, but we can see some of the progressions which is a very good sign. For the women rights in Korea, I think they definitely have more rights compared with the women in Turkey. However, the salaries paid for the Korean females are really too slow compared with the Korean males. Also, the promotion systems in the working places are very unfair to the females. Thus, I really hope Korean government can set some regulations to avoid this kind of discrimination, and let the females who really have the talents of running a company receive the salaries they deserved.
For my presentation, which talks about the Kpop trainees, I also think the governments should set some rules to avoid some entertainment companies treat their trainees in bad ways. Although I didn't put some materials in the presentation because of the time limitation, but the entertainment companies in Korea will treat their trainees unfairly or unhumanality. Some entertainment will use bad ways to punish their trainees for being late or gaining weights, and bullies in the companies among the trainees can often be heard as well. Thus, I think the Korean government should really consider about this part.
I learned many different interesting cultures from the cultural projects. I think the most interesting one was the Afro-Brazilian culture, Capoeira. It’s interesting how Capoeira emerged in a subtle way as an anti-slavery movement. It may seem like a dance; however, Capoeira is a self-defense technique. And now it is Brazil’s traditional dance/martial art technique, which resembles a lot of history and meaning in it. Another interesting cultural presentation was about the Turkish wedding system. In a lot of ways, it was similar to the Chinese wedding system where the groom has to first come to the bride’s family and ask for permission and blessings. Then they would have an engagement party prior to the actual wedding. And right before the wedding, they would have another ceremony where they all drink tea (instead of coffee in Turkey).
As for my own cultural project, it’s interesting to understand the Korean culture and the roots of its competitive nature. It is definitely an important issue to talk about as it leads to suicides among teens. As foreigners, we are lucky enough to not experience the extent of its competitive nature, but we can learn some positive aspects from their culture. Their extreme education revolution has helped the country to achieve tremendous economic growth and technology boom over the past decade. Thus, its high investments on education translate to high rate of return.
From watching other peoples cultural presentation's I have learned the alot about Korean culture. I have learned about the very competitive Korean culture. Seeing that they have to take essentially a sat on steroids to get into college makes me feel quite fortunate. Also I learned that their job culture is very intimidating and is not very fair in my opinion. Seeing that alot of their jobs are just based on looks is rather disappointing, and is not something I feel is very just. Especially in a first world country such as South Korea. I also learned about internships in Korea. To see that every single person has endure an unpaid internship in Korea was surprising. Especially since it is done for multiple years before actually receiving a paid offer I found very interesting. The idea that people would probably have to hold part time jobs while having an internship is rather disappointing, as it would make it tough to be focus on a single job while holding an internship and a part time job. I also learned about the incredibly tedious process of applying for a job from outside of Korea, as Dalila explained her process of applying as a foreigner.
In Turkey I learned about the political issues, bath houses, and arranged marriage. I was unaware that arranged marriage existed outside of Hinduism, and even then I thought that the practice was relatively extinct. I found the bath houses particularly interesting as I was aware of Korean bath houses, but to see the differences between the Korean and Turkish bath houses was quite interesting. The most apparent difference I could tell was that in Korean bathhouse it is seen a disrespectful to still be clothed, but in Turkish bath houses they keep their private areas covered. Finally I learned about current Turkish politics. I had already known the EU is currently experiencing difficulty, but I was unaware of the paritcular issues the EU was having with turkey.
From my own presentation I learned the reasoning behind Brazil's diverse population. Learning about why there is such a large African America population in Brazil was very interesting to me has it pertained to soccer. Brazil is the only other country besides the US with a multiracial national soccer team. I also liked the fact that the Afro-Brazilian culture is connected Capoiera which I am learning in another class.
I really enjoyed everyone's presentations! I found the presentations on Turkey, the Czech Republic, and Brazil the most interesting, mainly because I have never experienced those cultures. My favorite presentation was Emily's on Turkey's government because it is so timely and she did a great job of discussing some very difficult and confusing topics. It was really interesting to learn how Turkey's far history has impacted their current situation. Turkey plays a very important role in bridging Western Europe with Eastern powers in places like the Middle East and Russia. I thought her presentation was really impactful and the result of her topic will greatly shape the future of Turkey and its role in relation to Western Europe. Currently, Turkey is playing a big role in managing the Syrian refugee crisis so I worry about what will happen next after they change their governmental structure.
From my own presentation, I was really happy to see that people were interested in it. I was worried before that my topic was too narrow and too personal so I was relieved to see some positive reactions. I really enjoyed being able to research my topic as well. I felt like I could understand my Korean friends better after being able to understand the pressures that impact their daily lives. Also, South Korea is facing a tough presidential election now so I think this topic is especially important when considering political platforms.
Overall, I found it great to hear about other people’s passions and learn about new cultures.
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