November 20, 2007

Murky waters

I have a couple of deadlines today. For those of you who have been following the conversation over the past few days, I am linking you back to a post I did last February on my friend, the iceberg. The iceberg in this case represents the visibile and invisible parts of culture which I hope helps clarify the discussion we have been having. Come back and leave me a note!

a domani,
E

5 comments:

Roam2Rome said...

Exactly!

I especially agreed with your conclusion that most feel threatened by what goes on around us, or what others say...

The outcome? Instead of seeing things from a different perspective, or taking a second to study the "how" or "why", many close up and resort to defensive vocabulary.

Nothing will ever be just one way! Never...

Most of the time, things are not better, or worse, just different...

Rob said...

Very thought provoking, and very insightful.

Methinks you should run a course. I know a few hundred people (myself included) who would benefit.

I linked through the Iceberg post to another post of yours that I thought complemented it beautifully and was very relevant to the discussion of the past few days:

http://culturalmoments.blogspot.com/2007/01/i-found-this-million-dollar-question-on.html

Elizabeth Abbot said...

roam2rome, just different indeed!

Rob, Thanks. actually I do train, speak and do orientations and am looking to do it all on a larger scale. Blogging is helping me figure out my niche, which I have discovered is "curious and thoughtful people living, working and studying abroad." I guess you are in this category!

Elizabeth Abbot said...

Maryanne, how true that Americans value one thing while not really noticing that the reality doesn't quite match up. Europeans in general are less idealistic about it all.

Jennifer said...

I've heard similar statements from what I would consider wannabe Italian intellectuals (they haven't quite acehived full intellectual status despite their aspirations). I have trained myself to change the subject. You are much more courageous to initiate discussion.

(I found your blog ages ago, then lost it. This time around I'm bookmarking you.)