Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Cultural Contradictions

I have been trying to instill in my children some kind of road safety sense and obviously I have been successful to some small degree as now whenever we are out driving Rose or Joshua or both will say - that person didn't look both ways before they crossed!  
However, now I am faced with an interesting conundrum because actually in the Philippines it pays not to look both ways or you won't get across the road.   The point here is just to make a path across the road or it won't happen which involves avoiding eye contact with drivers - pretending they are not really there - so they have to stop for you.  So, how can I tell them that what I have taught them is actually "wrong"?
I have been bumping into this conundrum in a few different cultural circumstances where what my children need to know for behaving in England is quite different to what they need to know to behave here.  Sometimes it is merely a case of letting go of unimportant cultural attachments and trusting we can pick things up when in England, but sometimes it is a genuine dilemma.

1 comment:

PG said...

Difficult I can see, I suppose drivers are more likely to stop here? Not only is this TCK issue tough it also has a tendency to create a real sense of split personality or two different people with cameleon abilities and the ability to adapt depending on their current environment.
Love D * M xxx