[MANNAM] Misunderstandings

[MANNAM] Misunderstandings

 A child is waiting for his turn in a concert on the back stage. Next turn is his turn. He is waiting anxiously. But soon, his friends and family comes up to him and cheers him. Not only with the words, also gives him courage with a Thumb-up gesture. In this situation, what does the thumb-up gesture mean? You can easy think it is a way to cheer people or a saying ‘You will do fine’, ‘You are the best.’ But this means only in western places. Because if you are a person who lives in the Middle East, you could have thought the meaning is a swear word. That is what the people think in that place.

 Let’s look another example. A Korean who lived in America runs a convenience store. A person comes in and pushes the gun into the face of the owner. The owner is in confusion. “Give me all the money you’ve got!” shouts the robber. Since the owner has his wallet inside in his inner pocket, he tries to pull it out. But the robber thinks the owner is taking out his gun. Unfortunately, at the end of this story, the owner died because of the misunderstanding of culture. If the robber knew Koreans keep their wallets in their inner pockets, and if the owner knew Americans keep their guns in their inner pockets, this kind of disaster would not have happened.

 We live in a world which has many cultures and environments. In one country if something is A, the same thing can be B in another country. So, how can we solve the misunderstandings for other countries and cultures? We need an open mind about things. This is happening in MANNAM. Also we have to care for others. If we only think about my culture and don’t have the thinking of others, this person can only be a person who falls behind. In MANNAM I meet people from all around the world. That is how I knew how to make relationships with people that I never meet before. Especially in cultures, I now know how and why people do such actions. At first, even small things were hard to understand, but while I started to try, I can do better than before. Making peace is not a big thing and a difficult matter. By starting to learn and understand others, that is the key for hope. Learn more in MANNAM!