Glad to finally be a part of the Humphrey seminar, learning from you all and hopefully sharing something in return.
All of today’s presentations were interesting and entertaining, but what struck me most wasn’t any single piece of information. What struck me most was how each Fellow presented his or her country. Everyone represented their home nation in different ways, which to me brought out not only the presenter’s individual personalities, but also hints at how their country thinks and feels about itself.
Obviously, I haven’t been to most of the nations presented today, so my assumptions are based upon (best case scenario) an outsider’s unique insight and/or (worst case scenario) American stereotypes. But I felt like each speaker’s approach to his/her presentation was culturally informative in addition to the information they gave us. While no substitute for the facts, the style of each Fellow seemed to give their presentations a little extra cultural flavor:
-Smiling, calypso-infused showcase [Costa Rica]
-Diversity, sports, and optimism [Brazil]
-Highly literate + black humor [BiH, Macedonia]
-Focus on family, community and media [Pakistan]
-Focus on geography, history, and jokes about vodka [Russia]
– Focus on population, patriotism, and pandas [China]
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Anyway, I learned a lot about everyone’s home countries today, both factually and culturally. A good start to the semester and the seminar. With all the recent changes we’ve seen in media and communication, there is no longer any excuse for us not to understand and appreciate one another. After all, back in the Pangea days, we were all one big happy nation…
Thank you very much for the observations you shared about our presentations.This was just the glimpse ,you will learn so much about our regions as the time progresses.There are still so many features left and which were not highlighted due to time constraint.But I think we can share with you and the class during some other time.
I miss the days of Pangea. Not that I remember, or that our species even existed then… but it’s always nice to reminiscence!
It’s a very interesting point of view. The main reason that make me enjoy the Humphrey seminar is I can learn many different culture and their ways of thinking. We know more about this, misunderstanding will be less.