Geography of Thought (Eric Dodge)

I was born in upstate New York and lived there until I was ten, when my family moved out here to California. All of my relatives still live back on the East Coast and the Midwest, so I know what those areas are like and that they do have different cultures and mindsets. I feel lucky because I have been exposed to all these different cultures and ideas. A lot of people are not even aware that others think and act differently from them, so they are surprised when everyone does not act in the same way as them. I'm happy that I learned at a relatively young age how much different people from different areas are.

I also work for a company that has sites all over the world, which means that I work with people from all different cultures. We have sites in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America, so there are lots of different cultures that you run into. Even working with people from different parts of the United States I can notice the differences in cultures and the way people think. I went to Iowa over the summer on business and it reminded me how different the culture is there compared to California.

As a result of my exposure to all these different cultures and ways of thinking, I think I have become pretty good at not doing things that would be considered culturally unacceptable. The first step in the process of getting along with other cultures is realizing that they exist, and that they act in ways much different than ours. This makes interacting with other cultures much more enjoyable because you can learn to appreciate their differences, rather than being bothered by them. When I interact with someone from a culture that I don't I understand, I try to pick up on the ways that they act or think differently from our culture.

There are lots of little things that are considered taboo in some cultures, but are totally acceptable in others. This means that it will be impossible to interact with different cultures without occasionally offending someone. The trick is to be aware of these instances and learn from them. This can be fun too because you get a chance to learn about people that are different from the ones that you interact with everyday.