Thursday, 29 May 2008

I see your Western Face and I raise you my Eastern Feelings

I came across an article that states: “When it comes to emotions, Eastern and Western cultures see things very differently”. Considering that I live in the East I thought I should take a look. It is quite interesting, although I am sure a lot more can be said about the subject. I suggest you have a look at it here.

There is the main point of the article:

“What we found is quite interesting,” says Takahiko Masuda, a Psychology professor from the University of Alberta. “Our results demonstrate that when North Americans are trying to figure out how a person is feeling, they selectively focus on that particular person’s facial expression, whereas Japanese consider the emotions of the other people in the situation.”

Something I always wonder is where other cultures fit in to this. South East Asians like the Philippines, Indonesians and Malay, seem to be very different from what we like to think of as the East, but you rarely see studies involving these groups.

*****

It is amazing when you don’t have to worry about the cultural constrains or certain products. We are raised in wine drinking cultures where whine must be in a glass bottle or, dare I say, a box with a tap on it. It does not really matter how you buy it though, you will still drink it out of some sort of a glass, unless you are a drunk and just swig it out of the bottle.

I picked this clip up on Mongdori. Lotte Chilsung thought it a good idea to put whine straight in to a can so that you can drink it, well, straight of the can. It is a fantastic idea if you ignore how “stupid” it will look, drinking your wine from a can.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen small cans of wine in Japan too. My wife drank some recently and liked it.

Unknown said...

I would imagine the Japanese don't have to worry about the wine culture either. I am sure there are many who do, but just as many will not care a bit.

Another area where Korea breaks all the rules is with dairy products. they put cheese in yogurt. I tasted it and it was not that bad. If I have to mention the strange ice creams then I will he here all day :)

I don't have a convenient e-mart or something close to me, but I am planning a field trip to obtain a sample.