Open Mindedness

Perhaps one of the most common phrases I encounter is that of “American’s are so open minded.”  While the rest of the world is comfortable viewing this as true as a fact, I hold different opinions as to what it means to be open minded.

I think, to say Americans are open minded is a mistaken notion. I won’t throw the argument that, “Oh, everyone is different so you can’t make generalizations about people…blah…blah.” But I would like to approach this from my type of angle.   When I meet people from other countries that say Americans it usually comes from the idea that our society’s norms are different. Whereas sex before marriage is not uncommon in some cultures, it is in America – or moving in with you bf/gf – or because we are able to talk to people we do not know.  Granted, there are some free spirits in America who love trying new things, traveling, or trying to keep an unbias judgment of right and wrong when they come in contact with other cultures.

One of the things I learned through my studies, though perhaps not masters, is that to keep an “Open mind” requires you as a person to forget any notions of what is right or wrong before interpreting a situation you might encounter in another culture.

It is much harder than you might think. Very. Take for example, vaginal mutilation. Of course the mere words of choice I made already have a judgment and connotation of being “bad and wrong.” What if I said, vaginal circumcision? While woman’s rights will jump to the cause right away of other countries which have this as a practice, you won’t think twice about male circumcision, which is considered normal here.

Now, lets consider the idea of being “Open Minded.” Are Americans open minded? I think the majority is not, if people aren’t so tolerable of a language besides English, why would they be of anything else? People here have the idea that we have to go to other countries to make them better by introducing them to our way of thinking, is our way of thinking right? No one can tell for sure.

Take issues like whale hunting, eating dogs, woman’s rights, democracy, etc. These clash on an international scale. Take food for example, as for myself I love trying new foods and no doubt that there is a good handful of American’s who do. But lets talk about the majority, aside from “sushi,” how many Americans can you think of who would try for example, kimchi? Kimchi not pushing it enough? How about horse or whale meat, raw.

I’ve been told stories about people who say how much they love a country, like say Japan, but when they were there, they didn’t even try the rice.

My own experiences dealing with other foreigners include a certain friend whom I will not mention by name. Anyways, she is a good person and very much interested in visiting Asia someday.  I tried explaining some of the cultural differences, such as not expressing anger when you are mad, or things like not making a huge deal about things you see are unfair or unequal – suck it up things we wouldn’t put up with in America.

Her immediate response was that it is her character and she has to express herself and blah blah. Of course, I try to explain that certain things aren’t done in say, Japanese culture. But she wouldn’t have it, insisting on her self expression.

Personally, and people may argue with me about this, I believe that people from Asian countries can be a deal more open minded than Americans. I say so because a great many try to learn a new language, usually English and its culture. Many travel abroad to study for long terms and have to deal with being outside their comfort zone. Something not a whole deal of foreigners would be willing to do.

As for myself, am I open minded? I don’t know. It’s hard to accept another culture when you still hold in the back of your head what is right and wrong based on your own cultures ideas. Some things I can accept and try to accept as being different, but somethings I just can’t – like dog treatment and eating it.