Coming from a Korean background, I have to say that there wasn't anything that stood out for me during the presentations since a lot of the presentations were focused around the Korean culture. However, the other cultures that were presented: Basque, Turkey, and India, were all extremely interesting and new. The idea that Basque words, albeit a language I had never had knowledge of before, was so diverse in such a small piece of land was surprising. However, I do see some connections in that to the Korean language because despite Korea being a small piece of land, it has a lot of different accents and different uses of words throughout the country. But it was still very interesting to see how the Basque language was so heavily affected by the surrounding countries. Although she gave a simple example, it represented a much bigger idea that despite the size of the country, Basque is a language of a culture that is extremely diverse and reflective of surrounding countries yet unique in its own way.
The turkish culture was also interesting as well as I had never thought that coffee would play such a big role in a country's culture. Seeing how heavily coffee was incorporated in the daily lives of the Turkish, I was surprised to see just to what extent they involved coffee. The most surprising fact to me was how coffee was involved in the relationships of the people in Turkey and how it had a role in marriage. I had never thought of coffee holding such a great value that people would not marry over how their roasted coffee tasted or what kind of snacks they ate with coffee. It was an idea that I had never been introduced to, and so it was fascinating to see such different practices in different cultures. It really widened my perspective on the world.
Comments