Reflection Paper Number 4

If someone were to analyze a human being, they would notice that that one human being is very difficult to understand. There can be thousands of tests and scientific experiments on that particular person, but to completely understand that human is impossible to do. The reason why it is impossible to understand that particular person no matter what you do, is because one can only understand someone in a particular situation by being in their shoes and experiencing exactly what they are experiencing. The tests can give us an idea of what that person is feeling, but it will never give us the complete picture. This concept shows how there will never be two people in this world that are exactly the same. They may be similar, but they will never be exactly the same.
In this world today, there are many different people with many different cultures. The word ‘culture’ is a very difficult word to understand; because culture means something different to every single human being. As described above, there is not one human being that is exactly the same. There may be a group of people that have a similar background, but no matter how similar they are, there is not one of them that are the same. For instance, let us say there is a group of Jews standing around. Typically, if these Jews were religious, they would all look similar to a person standing outside of the group. However, each Jew in that group is completely different from one another. Even though they have the same ‘culture’ as people would say, there is still something different with each one of them.
The person standing outside the group may view the situation by stereotyping the group. However, this is not valid. For when one stereotypes, they are only going by a few characteristics of a person. They are not viewing and understanding the entire person, and it is almost impossible to understand the person because we are not and will never be in their shoes.
Now since the understanding of culture being specific to each person is there, you can now understand how difficult it is to actually attempt to be an intercultural competent person. To be an intercultural person you have to have the ability to actually live in a certain area where the culture is different than your own. This is not as easy at it seems anymore. Because not only are you in an area that is completely different than you are used to; but each person in that area is different even though they grew up in the same environment and have a similar religion etc.
These ideas are actually very new to me to a certain extent. I went away for a year in Israel and everyone looked the same and spoke the same and had similar ideas. This then made me categorize them in a certain way. However, after reading these articles I feel awful for how I viewed these people. Each person that I put in that specific group I was basically stereotyping because I thought they were the same because of their ‘culture’ and background. Now I know if I ever go away to a place that is different than what I’m used to- I can actually attempt to understand to the best of my ability who these people are and where they specifically come from, and G-d willing I can eventually become a intercultural person.