This summer, I've had the opportunity to go on a two-week long camp with Palestinian and Israeli college students through this organization I've joined upon entrance to ICU. They were by far the friendliest people I have ever met.
One game we played...a game called TAKI:
They brought many things from Israel and Palestine to show us Japanese participants - games, food, and their life story. They were simply fun, and I also got to know a bit more about a land I knew not much about until then.
Though I do believe age is one factor to be considered- the college students, especially the Israeli people were at the maximum 9 years older than I - I believe it can be said that it is their character, how people in the Middle East work, that made this intimacy all possible.
(The reason behind this significant age difference is military service. Israeli men have a compulsory military service for 3 years and women 1, and upon completion of military service, it is common for people to go on a carefree journey that lasts about an year. People start college after all this.)
There are many things I want to learn from their attitudes- not just for leadership, but to become a better person, a funner person to be and to be with in general.
Most of the other significant experiences I have regarding interpersonal communication - especially those physical ones - come from middle school.
I remember being scared of looking blue-eyed people in their eyes when talking to them. I always had this feeling of being sucked into them - getting dizzy and all. I eventually mustered my courage and got over it. Today, I have no difficulty looking into their eyes...at least, I think so.
Then there's also the effort I put in to try keeping up the habit of bowing to teachers in the U.S. once I moved there for middle school. Bowing to a person while passing by him/her, as most or all of those reading my blog may know, is a natural, respectful action towards the person.
- Didn't work.
Just like the awkward handshake, bowing didn't work because the receptor (recepient) - the teacher - didn't have any idea or appreciation of being bowed to.
Conversation about receptors can lead to food science - the reason that a body cannot appreciate or notice some substance or taste is because it lacks the receptors. For an example, the reason that people get poisoned with puffer fish poison is because the human tongue don't have receptors that catch them.We don't spit the puffer fish poison out because we don't notice them!
(image from http://photozou.jp/photo/show/206346/18957453)
Anyways, I do believe that receptors differ for each person and their affiliation - such as country.
I felt that in class there was a tendency to regard the "Western (U.S. style et al.)" physical intimacy as the best. It is true that there are many things that can and should be learned from the intimacy, as mentioned with the Middle-Eastern style in the beginning, there is beauty in the way that, for an example, Japanese do things.
Bowing to teachers and smiling affection towards them was, I felt as an elementary schooler, a beauty.
As a last note, here's a Youtube video about empathy, which completely goes over the explanations about mirror neurons.
(RSA Jump to their HP)
This is all good, but, taking an example from the video, there are some people who don't think spiders crawling up one's arm as creepy. They don't feel plight - rather, they exclaim that the spider is cute and promptly takes that spider into their own cupped hands. Are mirror neurons initiated in these cases?
→ How to stop being afraid of spiders: http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Being-Afraid-of-Spiders
→ How to stop being afraid of spiders: http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Being-Afraid-of-Spiders
Hey Maki,
返信削除Great first post! I like the way you are weaving together so many different, but related, elements. I have had several middle eastern friends, and what you say is so true about how much fun they can be. And I love the Rifken Empathy video. He's famous, empathy is big these days, and all the RSAnimate clips are fabulous.
Keep up the good work.
Ken