November 6, 2011. Writing #4
You may think that certain cultures are more emotional than others, and that may be the case, but we are more outwardly different than each other than we are inwardly different. This is because each culture as their own display rules, meaning different guidelines for how and when to express emotions. I see this is my life quite often. I work at a Korean fusion restaurant, so two of my bosses and two more of my co-workers are 100% Korean. When I first started working there and they would tell me things I was doing wrong, the words they used were usually stern, but by looking at them they would have just as easily been talking about the weather. When they would crack a joke they wouldn't change their expression until they finally understood that I didn't get the joke. There display rules that they've learned are very different than mine. Because of this it's very easy to misinterpret how people of a very different culture are feeling or trying to tell you. I'd like to learn more about how this effects internal emotions. Does suppressing facial expression also suppress emotions?
Do you think gender might also play a role? Why do you think they have different display roles? Links and pictures would be nice.
Links should be posted on all of these besides the 5 Years From Now post.
I also always thought that as belonging to different cultures and nationalities we are different in our emotional expressions. And my brightest example has always been with Latin people and theire deep emotionality and expression of it! But your reflections and observations definitely make sense and I am getting your point!
Fulham