Viva La America

[Slade]

In Leo’s newest video he briefly talks about how the contrast between cultures can be shocking and help to wake you up. I’ve never been out of the country and I’m really feeling a need to experience some culture shock. Haha 

What places have you guys been to that contrast with American culture the most? 

Edited January 23, 2018 by Slade

[MMontesL]

I live in Colombia, a country with both beautiful and horrifying stuff. The closest thing I've experienced with culture shock was an encounter with "Las FARC" (a local guerilla) in 2003 (now with the "Peace agreement" this armed conflict has suposely ended, we'll see how it goes..) Still, within countries there is enough variety to experience culture shock. In Colombia if you live in a city (like myself) you are in another planet compared to the reality in the country side where the State and law are just none existent.. villages are controled by paramilitar groups. This country have lived a civil war for over 50 years. Also the very well known narcotrafic issues exploited by the media and stereotypes, very real and disturbing some decades ago, specially 80s.

In the experience I mentioned above with Las FARC, we were basically kidnaped for almost an entire day, then we were released but they kept my uncle who was working with a politician at the time, he was kind of a public figure. He was kidnaped for 6 months, the suffering in the family was tremendous.. In the end it all worked out well.

Besides that, well.. here cities are insecure, a lot of violence in poor neighborhoods (and rich ones too..) I supose it may be very similar to ghettos in USA, and there are also insane levels of corruption, poverty.. authority abuse, well the list can go on and on, you get the idea, not an exageration.

In a way, that experience was very eye opening for me. One thing is to know about acts of terrorism and kidnapings in the news and another story is to actually live it first hand. 

[snowleopard]

I suppose it depends on what is defined as shocking. I find that the internet-fuelled homogenisation and globalisation of culture is now so pervasive that it is becoming quite challenging to find such a contrasting culture 'shock'. Perhaps in those rare remaining isolated pockets of rainforest or outback where there is still some semblance of a hunter-gatherer society, along with their shamanic paradigms. Beyond that, maybe there is still enough of a contrast between western and eastern worlds that it could be considered mildly shocking ... but better get moving fast if you want to want to experience what's left of it. 

Edited January 23, 2018 by snowleopard

[Akim]

You can read books written hundred years ago like "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin". It really shows how different people were. Or books written by people in different cultures like "A Thousand Splendid Suns". Even better if it is a book written in different culture a long time ago. Bible is good for culture shock if you do not have deep religious background and just try to read the Old Testament without preconceptions. You can also find documentaries on Youtube about people living in different tribes, cultures.

Edited January 23, 2018 by Akim
bad sentence