Cultural Differences or is it just me?
There are some interesting things I have marvelled at in my life and watching things happen in a Junior High school in a foreign country really redefines the word "marvel"
Cultural Differences and Sports Days
In Canada when we have sports days. It actually means students play sports. Take for example, track and field day. This, in my own small school, meant a day were you sat outside and baked in the hot sun waiting to compete in the one or two track and field events that you signed up for and chatting with the people around you. When you practiced for this event it meant you actually practiced the events for which you were signed up for. Now here this means something entirely different. When we say sports day we actually mean a day with no sports except for a few races. The rest of the events include group cheering, group dancing, group marching and many, many speeches. And when they say practice they don't mean running. We practice walking to and from our proper places. We practice bowing for speeches, and the speeches themselves, well, they are only practice speeches. For example:
Announcer: Opening Speech from the PTA president
The person pretending to be the PTA president comes onto the stage and bows, causing everyone to bow back politely (If it's not polite enough we do it again)
Person pretending to be PTA president: Work hard on Saturday! On Saturday the president's speech will be longer. That's all
The person pretending to be the president bows causing everyone to bow politely back. The person pretending to be the PTA president leaves the stage.
Announcer: Opening speech from the principal.
and so on.
Cultural Differences and Sports Days
In Canada when we have sports days. It actually means students play sports. Take for example, track and field day. This, in my own small school, meant a day were you sat outside and baked in the hot sun waiting to compete in the one or two track and field events that you signed up for and chatting with the people around you. When you practiced for this event it meant you actually practiced the events for which you were signed up for. Now here this means something entirely different. When we say sports day we actually mean a day with no sports except for a few races. The rest of the events include group cheering, group dancing, group marching and many, many speeches. And when they say practice they don't mean running. We practice walking to and from our proper places. We practice bowing for speeches, and the speeches themselves, well, they are only practice speeches. For example:
Announcer: Opening Speech from the PTA president
The person pretending to be the PTA president comes onto the stage and bows, causing everyone to bow back politely (If it's not polite enough we do it again)
Person pretending to be PTA president: Work hard on Saturday! On Saturday the president's speech will be longer. That's all
The person pretending to be the president bows causing everyone to bow politely back. The person pretending to be the PTA president leaves the stage.
Announcer: Opening speech from the principal.
and so on.