Panamanian Time ... good or bad?

            As many of you may have experienced, Panamanians use time very differently as how North Americans do. In my opinion, Panamanians tend to be less stressed about being on time to social events. While I was living in Louisville, I noticed that if you didn’t arrive on time to something you were not able to go in or if you had an appointment you would have to reschedule. This doesn’t mean, that we as Panamanians don’t care about being on time to important events like meetings, job interviews, appointments and so on. I believe that we tend to chill more and focus on having a good time, instead of stressing ourselves on getting on time and spend a bad time when you are supposed to spend a good one.

            To be honest there are plenty of examples on how Panamanians treat time. It happens so often, that it has become part of our culture. For example, every time that my friends and I plan a trip to go to the beach we say “ok, we have to leave early in order to get tanned so lets leave at 8am”. Then, the day comes and we leave at noon, and the funny part is that no one cares. When I was studying back in Tampa, we planned a trip to go to a beach near by and we said be ready at 7:30am. The next morning my friends were picking me up at 7:15 and I couldn’t believe it. So much stress to go to the beach when it is supposed to be a day to relax, but I understand that it’s part of their culture to be on time. Another example would be, when we have students from Louisville here at QLU, you could see that they arrive on time for class and the Panamanian students arrive 15 or 20 minutes after the class started. I know that sometimes it is bad to always be late and I think that we need to correct when it comes to important events like class, meetings and appointments.

            As I said before, I think that Panamanians tend to focus more on having fun or pursuing happiness, instead of worrying for little details like many other cultures do. On the other hand, other cultures have to stress themselves about little details in order to be happy with themselves, and if they don’t they feel disoriented. Having the opportunity to spend time with people from different cultures, I realized that we are more laid back and don’t let things upset us as much as they should.  It is funny how people from other countries, tend to tease Panamanians about how we manage our time. I know that it might not be something that we should be proud of, but with time it has become part of who we are.

Defending our culture...

Every culture has a defense mechanism to protect their culture. Since I can remember Panamanians tend to protect their culture with festivities like dias Patrios, Carnavales and so on. I think that instead of thinking about how we protect our culture, we need to think about on how we protect who we are. Panama, as you may know is a pretty diverse country. Here you can find different cultures in a small space of land. I think that we as Panamanians protect our culture from outsiders with the different traditions that we celebrate on holidays and important national days.

Panama is known as a pacifist country. We don’t have a military to protect our country, but I think that we are very friendly to outsiders. I think that tribes and people from other provinces are more protective of our culture, than people who live in the urban area (Panama city). Since we are so costumed to the North American culture, sometimes we don’t even realize that we lose touch with our own culture. Besides that, Panama is a country where people from different cultures come to live and each and every of those cultures are seen around the city. We have learned how to deal or understand people from different cultures. Taking that in consideration, I think that it is easier for us to understand other cultures without feeling threatened about it, because we have always been influences by other cultures.

Throughout the years, I have learned that we protect our culture by celebrating the different traditions that has been passed down from generation to generation. When I was living in the US, we kind of did the same things in order to not forget who we are. The first thing was to keep speaking Spanish among other Panamanians. Besides that, we would celebrate the festivities there as well, not as big as we used to have it here but we tried to keep up the traditions. It is important for everyone to protect their culture, because its part of your identity and if you don’t protect it then a part of you will disappear. 

How do we educate ourselves about our culture?

Throughout the course we have been examining different indices that affect our daily lives. Today, I am going to talk education and discuss how people educate themselves about their culture. As we discussed in class, Panama is a country with a high power distance dimension. This means that students tend to develop dependence to their teachers and expect for the teacher to teach them how to do things in life. In the other hand, education in the United States is more of a low power distance culture. I experienced that in the US you can actually speak up what’s on your mind or contradict what the teacher says.

In Panama, education it is very similar to the United States. I had the opportunity to go to an American school here in Panama. For me, it was very similar when it came to academic stuff. Differences that caught my attention were that students in the United States are mostly independent, they tend to self-teach themselves about things, usually speak up in class without having the teacher inviting them into the discussion and they could contradict the teacher’s point of view without being punished or something. In Panama, it is more about doing what the teacher says or you were thrown out of the class. Panamanian students expect the teacher to give them permission to speak up in class; otherwise they would only listen to the instructor. Also, respect for teachers is also shown outside of the classroom. I can recognize, that Panamanians are more dependable on people with more authority. We usually just follow what our boss or leader say without questioning. Of course, this doesn’t means that we ignorant or anything in particular, but our culture has taught us that you always have to respect and not contradict your boss or in this case teacher. If you do contradict, this will have to take place in a private meeting where the person with more power is not publicly embarrassed.

Another way Panamanians tend to learn about their culture is at home. Since we are more of a collectivistic culture, it is obvious that we like to spend more time together than apart from people. Families tend to get to together on holidays and that is how we learn some traditional things about our culture as well. At home, in dinners or lunches we learn our manners and other values that are not taught at school.

How we educate ourselves about our own culture may be different on how people from other cultures educate themselves about their culture. This means that it doesn’t matter how people from different cultures educate themselves about their traditions as long they do it. Even though, I would prefer to have had the opportunity to grow up in a culture where you can speak up your mind, I think that sometimes it gets out of hand and then I realize that I feel more comfortable with the way I’ve been raised. As I said before, it doesn’t matter how you learn about your culture as long as you are always learning about it because your culture is a big part of you as an individual and it is important to keep your culture in mind no matter where you go. 

Commodification of culture

           Throughout the years there have been drastic changes in the economy around the world. As we may have experienced, living expenses have gone up and people have been forced to adapt to this new condition. Now days, people have to sell traditional art or experiences like rituals in order to gain some kind of income. This new strategy is call commodification of culture. One example that we discussed in class is how the tribes in Panama sell their traditional art in order to survive in this new economy.

            As we discussed in class, the tribe in Panama called the Kuna Ayala tribe are the ones who have become very successful selling their traditional costumes. What they sell traditionally it is a part of their shirt or skirt, which is called molas. Over time, the mola has started to get very fashionable. Now, it is on tourist’s t-shirts and handbags around the world. To be honest, they are very pretty, but Panamanians don’t value national art instead they always prefer something that comes from the US. Even though, we don’t usually buy molas still it is very popular and it is the only thing that has made possible to the Kunas to subsist without having to give up on their culture.

            As the North American students were talking in class about visiting a tribe and how amazed they were about these people using their culture to gain profit, it immediately reminded me of commodification of culture. Now days, you can see molas in several souvenirs stores, in different department stores and so on. To me, it is very impressing how these tribes figured out how to make profit out of their traditions, to be honest it would never have occurred to me. If they wouldn’t have used their heritage to earn some profit, they wouldn’t exist right now. Instead, they would have been working for companies or corporations in order to subsist and their cultural knowledge would have disappeared. 

The role of association in relationships...

            Perception has always been an important factor when it comes to first impressions.  In terms of association, how we perceive people will highly influence our decision-making when it comes to associating with people. As we may know, the people that we associate with will determine what people think about you. Depending on whom we hang out with, people will determine what our beliefs and values are. How people associate with other people in Panama and in the US is very similar. Even though they are kind of similar, there will always be some differences that will rise up and make them different.

            As we discussed in class, Panamanians tend to be more open-minded when it comes to associating with people they don’t know. Also, for the Panamanians it is important whom you hang out with because it will determine an important factor to the society, which is your socio-economic class. On the other hand, North American students shared that they don’t feel comfortable at all when associating with people they don’t know. I think this happens because North Americans are very individualistic and they would rather spend time with people they know instead of expanding their network. Overall we still share similar interests when associating with people.

            Besides gathering all my information from the presentation given by my classmates, I also look some interesting information in the book. The book explained that there are different phases of intercultural relationship development. The first phase is called the initial encounter phase, which explains how people initiate intercultural relationships and how factors such as proximity and similarities in interest may influence this encounter. The second phase is called exploratory interaction phase, it describes how people after meeting each other tend to share more personal information, they have more increased level of support, and the intimacy grows. The final stage is the ongoing involvement phase, this one explains how after exploring each others life, we as humans tend to involve our friends or partners into the family.  These phases kind of explained the difference between how Panamanians and North Americans associate with other people. Panamanians don’t need to get to the ongoing involvement phase in order to have a good time with a person they don’t know, but North Americans need to go through all these phases in order to feel comfortable to spend time with someone who is unfamiliar to them. 

Media: A resource for recreation and education

            As we may know media is the plural form of the singular “medium”. It refers to the channels through which messages are transferred. Since the beginning of media, people have been using it as a form of distraction from the real world. If I’m not mistaken, when TV was invented people would usually use it to set their minds off what was really happening in the US, which was the great depression. The same thing happened with the radio and now with the Internet. At the same time, I think that the media also shapes people’s cultures. How people stereotype, have different assumptions and attitudes toward people from different culture are based merely on media and popular culture forms such as TV shows, movies, and celebrities.

            If you ask most of the time people use TV, radio and the Internet to distract themselves from what is really going on in their lives. They may also claim that they use it to look up information or to educate themselves. I don’t think that media is either a recreation or a tool to educate; in my opinion it’s both. It is obvious that there are many mediums that can be used for an educational purpose or that keep you informed of what is going on in the world. Teaching is not all, most of the time when people get out of their jobs or schools, they need a time to relax and the media offers that too. As we discussed in class, I don’t think that people analyze a media text critically. Instead, I think people view media more as a resource of education or recreation.

            Besides media being used as an educational or recreational tool, I think that it also makes a big impact when we talk about our perception about other cultures. As I said before, the media influences how we stereotype people from different cultures. Movies, TV shows and so on are the kind of media that shapes the way we perceive people. For example, when I was little my nannies would usually make me watch telenovelas with them. Most of the time, they were from Mexico. When I finally got the opportunity to travel to Mexico, I already had a perception about the Mexican people just because I saw it on TV.

            Now days, the media is used for several things. I personally think that in the world that we live today, media can be used as both educational and recreational. As humans, after a stressful day we need relaxation and media gives us both. Before writing this blog I’ve never thought about how I stereotyped people from other cultures just because I learned some things about then on TV or the Internet.  I encourage everyone to take a minute a think about what do you know about any other culture that its not yours and then think about how you learned that. I can bet that most of you will end up with the same answer as I did, which was through the media. 

Adaptation is how we subsist...

             Since the beginning of life, human beings have always been able to adapt. It is a kind of natural behavior in order to survive. Now days, it is easier for young adults to adapt to different environments than adults, because the world that we live in today demands it. Every time we have to change jobs or schools we are required to adapt in order to succeed in the new environment. Throughout history humans adapted to new kinds of food and weather, but now it is much more complicated than that. Besides adapting to food and weather, you also have to adapt to the people and culture that live in the environment, so that you can be able to survive in all aspects of human needs.

            At the micro-level view, there is a model that explains how humans adapt to new environments. This model is called the U-curve model. This model describes that there are three steps that humans do in order to adapt to new environments. First, we tend to go through the stage of anticipation, which is when we start to discover exciting things about the host’s culture. Personally, I think that everyone that has had the experience to move from one country to another has been excited when you first encounter the new culture. The second step would be culture shock. After experiencing all the excitement of the new things that you are learning, then you start to realize that you are totally unfamiliar with the environment and that is when you have a culture shock. For some people it is really hard to overcome the fact that they feel uncomfortable in the new environment and they tend to give up by frustrating and blocking any kind of help. For others, it is hard at first until they realize that they have to adjust to the new culture in order to survive or feel good about where they live. This final step is called adjustment; it is when we negotiate the vernal and nonverbal codes, values and norms of the new culture.

            As I mentioned before, young adults tend to adapt faster than adults. I believe that this happens because we were born into a world where adaptation it’s an important factor of subsistence. You can see the differences between kids and adults, on how much faster kids tend to adapt. I think this happens just because adults have lived with their culture for a long time and it is hard for them to let go or to feel that the new culture that they are experiencing is ok. As humans, I think that we all go through the same steps in order to adapt to new environments, it could be new countries, jobs or schools. As we may know, it is important to be able to adapt to new surroundings, because if we don’t we are not going to be able to be reach that happiness that we need in order to survive in any given situation.

What is Cultural Space?

         Every society has cultural spaces. Today, during class we discussed how cultural space influences on our verbal and nonverbal communication practices. In order to understand cultural space, we have to examine everything that surround us; from the architecture of buildings to the language used in a specific environment. Aspects such as, languages, accents, slang, dresses, artifacts, and architectural designs are factors that create cultural space. Collective and individual identities can also be influenced by cultural spaces. Bearing this point, living in a specific area may influence how other people perceive you as an individual or as a group.

            As we were discussing in class, the cultural space might change from culture to culture. For example, in Panama we tend to stereotype people just because of where they live. I can say that maybe happens because it also establishes what is your socioeconomic status in the society. Some of the students from Louisville were saying that in the US is kind of different. They said that they actually had places were the cultural space would be identify people from one culture. For example, if you live in the Vietnamese neighborhood, it is most likely you are Vietnamese.

Another interesting point that caught my attention was when we talked about how we communicate in different cultural spaces. Like the professor pointed out, if you are in the library you would not behave in the same way as you were in a club. There are different types of behaviors, such as whispering and yelling that will influence your cultural space.

As we may know, there are cultural space differences between the US and Panama. One of the most outstanding differences is how we differentiate on greeting people. Panamanians tend to give kissed and hugs when greeting somebody, even if you don’t know the person; that it’s just part of our culture. On the other hand, Americans prefer to only shake hands or wave from a distance, in other words they like their personal space to be respected. The behaviors and patterns of interaction are an important role in cultural space, because without them then it would be hard to perceive how people are.

When talking about displaced cultures, it was interesting to hear how the American students related with this word right away. They told us that even though they are aware that we have a different culture, like any other foreigner they brought their culture with them. Everything they do, they do it like back at home. The same thing happened to me when I went last semester to Louisville, so I totally understand them.

To be honest, before this class I’ve never think about cultural space. Having the opportunity to discuss this topic with people from different backgrounds was very interesting, because we learned how cultural spaces could differ from culture to culture. If you were in the same position as I was, I would really encourage you to reflect more on your surroundings, and understand the different cultural spaces you face daily. 

Gender Differentiation in Society...

            Historically, men have always been the breadwinners and the head in society, and women would usually depend on men. Now days, women are starting to take a more active role in their careers and are trying to gain the same amount of power as men have in society.  In recent years, this idea that men have more power in society than women has started to change due to all the new achievements that women have accomplished.  In today’s world, women are head of corporations, own their own businesses, and tend to be very active in their communities. Bearing that point, years back it was easy to say that men had the power in our society, but now that idea has started to shift in many cultures and women have started to gain more respect and recognition in today’s society.

            In my discussion with the North American students, it was clear that women in the U.S. are starting to gain the same amount of power like men in society. Now days, women do not rely on men, in order to maintain a family. Also, in our discussion it was interesting to hear that women not only the U.S., but also in other cultures are going in the same direction. I learned that besides the power differentiation between genders, there are other factors that also impact society. Gender differentiation appears early in life. An easy example would be dressing girls in pink and boys in blue. Usually, women are taught to be nice and gentle, while men are taught to be tough and strong. As we grow up, these differences get deeper and deeper; girls tend to gain popular attention by their attractiveness and boys gain popular attention by showing leadership and endurance. One of the main differences between men and women is how they interact with each other. Women, because of their nurturing skills tend to be gentler, caring and like proximity when talking to others. Because of that, women are not seen as strong as men. Men, on the other hand, like to have their personal space when talking to others and tend to speak firmly giving us that feeling of confidence. Factors such as physical space, eye patterns, gestures, clothing style and hairstyles are all the aspects that differentiate women from men in various cultures.

Men and women behave differently, because society demands it. As we discussed in class, a culture is composed of many sub-cultures and I think that gender is one of them. As the book points out, gender differentiation is a vital part of any social group’s structure of domination and subordination and division of labor in the family. That is one of the main reasons why I want to encourage everybody to try to understand the role of gender differentiation in a society, because if we are able to understand that it would be easier for us to understand the culture itself. 

Interactions between different cultures...

            People interact with each other on a daily basis. To interact with people you should have reciprocal actions with each other, which will also make an influence on yourself.  Before people became dependent on technology as a communication source, proximity was an important factor in order to interact. Now days, due to globalization people can interact with others who are overseas without having to meet face to face. Advances in communication have made interaction and interrelationships among people around the world more important. Sometimes people don’t realize how important interaction could be when it comes to intercultural communication. The world, in which we live today, wouldn’t be the same if people didn’t interact with each other. It is important that people experience intercultural interactions, because due to globalization people from different cultures have to share physical space everyday and we have to learn how to understand each other by finding common factors in order not to have a cultural-clash.

            Today, we had the opportunity to interact with students from North America. At first, it was kind of difficult because of our cultural differences, especially when they entered and heard us speaking Spanish. I could see that language was a barrier for them in order to interact with us, but when the professor asked us to pair up with them they noticed that it wasn’t that hard at all because we knew English as well. It was kind of interesting, because it started with a lot of questions that had to do with entertainment, college, and life in general. We got to discuss what do we like and don’t like about both countries.  We also exchanged information about our experiences when treating people from other cultures. I think that we had a lot of fun while we got to know each other better, because we got to hear great stories about themselves and more importantly we got to hear everyone’s standpoint about interesting topics.

            I believe that this was a perfect and fun way to think about how people of different cultures get to interact with each other. It was very interesting how by just asking and answering questions we got to learn so much from one another. Even though, we have different backgrounds we got to learn that we still have some things in common in order to not have a cultural-clash.  Overall, I think that it was easy for us to talk about general things; maybe in deeper conversations it wouldn’t be as easy because everyone has their personal standpoint, but overall it was really pleasant.