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Here’s a thread to talk about culture! I’ve always wanted to have/make a thread like this since CB is made up of so many different backgrounds and cultures. Anyways, you can discuss traditions, food, places, languages, just rant, etc. anything about culture. Make sure to keep comments respectful of all backgrounds, and if you have questions about specific cultures or in general, make sure they are polite.
Have fun! 🙂
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Ooh, what a good idea for a thread! In my neighbourhood there’s quite a large Sikh population, and every May there’s a big Sikh parade! Even though my family isn’t Sikh, we still like going to it because it’s kind of like being completely immersed in the culture: the music, the language, the clothes, the FOOD (yum). It’s so cool!
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Ooh, this is right up my alley! So prepare for a long post with various elements of different cultures I am interested in:
For starters, Indian classical music (India the country, not the colloquial/pejorative term for Native Americans [why, Colombus? why?]). I really enjoy hearing ragas (Indian classical musical forms on the sitar or other instruments), and I’m learning the sitar myself after finding a really good deal on a sitar (just $100 plus tax for a secondhand sitar from a good brand that just needs restringing but is otherwise great) on a music website which I will not say the name of for fear of being zapped. I don’t have a teacher but I do have a book by the late Ravi Shankar, one of the world’s formost sitar players, which includes a manual on how to play the sitar, and the basics of ragas and such. Since I am a musician, I enjoy learning abuot musical traditions from other parts of the world.
And languages! I really like learning different langauges; right now I am on Russian (my grandmother’s native language is Russian and Latvian because she grew up in the former Latvian SSR, and it is the language that she speaks best so I am learning to communicate with her in the language). I am getting pretty good at that and I am even creating my own language learning app! I learn anything I can get my hands on: I know English, Hebrew, French, and Russian pretty well, as well as a good level of Spanish, and some rudimentary Vietnamese (Xin chào!) and German (Hallo). My next languages will be Hindi and Latvian; I know some Hindi (Namaste) but not enough to my level in Vietnamese or German.
I also like learning about my own cultures, like Latvian; thanks to that new movie Flow Latvia’s film industry is booming, and I also think they did a great job at Eurovision even though they didn’t win; however, I do not like a lot of the public sentiment around the country; like once I was watching a video about Latvia from this person that makes one video covering every UN-recognised country and geography and such, and he was talking about how Latvia is “swampy” (no, it is foresty, not swampy) and creepy emo/such (mostly because of Karosta prison, a former Soviet prison that was turned into a hotel where you can pay to be treated like a prisoner of war). I also really liked watching Flow and I would recommend it; it is a movie with no words (so it is really easy to dub it into any language, you just need to translate the title) about a cat whose home is flooded and takes shelter on a boat, joined by a capybara, a lemur, a dog, and a secretary bird (in that order), and it explores the dynamics between them, and the environment around them collapsing; it’s mainly a movie about the fragility of the environment and the importance of friendship. There are no humans in the movie either.
Also, there is this really interesting tool by Google that generates a fusion recipe from two countries’ cuisines (I won’t say which, but if you want look up “google ai fusion food”). I haven’t made any of them, but they look really good. I like cooking different cuisines too, and of course eating them! One of my favourite cuisines is Indian and Vietnamese food.
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love this thread idea!! i also love cultures/languages (i might want to be an anthropologist or linguist). i’m especially interested in romance languages and the differences and similarities of the cultures where they are spoken. i am pretty proficient at spanish but would like to learn italian and spanish too.
also @Sinusodial–i’m latvian too, on my dad’s side. his grandfather, max, came to the U.S. through ellis island from latvia (basically all my ancestors came here through ellis island i think). i actually have ancestry from almost every eastern european country, plus italy. anyway i don’t think i’ve met another person with latvian ancestry before, so it’s cool that you’re very interested in that. i don’t know too much about the country/its culture and would like to learn more.
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Well, if we’re talking about culture, Uzbek skullcaps (called doppis) are super fascinating! I was doing some research on them for a school project. They’re apparently an old form of craftsmanship – there would be designers and embroiderers, and the craft was passed down from mother to daughter. There are lots of different embroidery techniques, and the caps can even be embroidered with gold thread!! And the patterns mean lots of different things – like pomegranates mean fertility, and birds portray happiness. Sixteen flowers mean that the wearer has sixteen children! There’s actually an Uzbek saying, apparently: “The honor and conscience of a man lies in his skullcap” or something like that. It used to be that skullcaps would vary according to regions, so you could actually tell where someone was from just by the cap.
It just seems so cool to make a plain old ordinary garment into something so pretty and meaningful. If you look up pictures online, some of them are absolutely gorgeous!! I’d love to wear one myself. Disclaimer, though: not being from Uzbekistan myself, I might have made a lot of mistakes in my research – I was using articles from reputable sources that seemed to be written by people from the general region, but still, people are always making mistakes about Mexican culture so maybe my research on Uzbek stuff is all wrong too – just take it with a grain of salt, in case:) And feel free to correct me too:)
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@Admins, do you know why this thread won’t top?
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As I understand it, Chatterbox format now automatically puts the most recent/most used threads at the top. And this thread just rose to the top!
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Hurray, thank you! It’s odd though – some posts don’t manage to make their threads top, but whenever an Admin makes a post, the thread tops instantly. It seems like some posts don’t “register” in a way that will make it top, and some posts do.
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ooh yes, I always find it interesting how much the knowledge people tend to have of a culture and then the culture more from the inside and it’s different. this sort of thing is very interesting to me. I feel like there tends to be certain aspects that get focused on.
Also, am I correct in thinking you are somewhat “white passing”, or don’t look the way that your average person would assume a Mexican person would look? If so, I’m curious if you want to write a bit about what that is like? I could be remembering wrong but I always find it interesting to hear about that experience. Also I mayyyy fall under it??? I really have no idea if I look Asian or white or what. I have mentioned it assuming people didn’t know and they were like “…yes i’m aware” but then on occasion I’ve had people seem to assume I’m not and ask “do you like anime?” and seem somewhat surprised (ironically both times it was a haircutter. also I was wearing a mask both times (that was from Daiso, and the haircut I was getting is fairly common in Japan, hence the anime question (well the other time it was K-pop, the cut is also common in Korea)) and with my (white) mom, maybe that’s why? the mask could be it. Great, now I’m going to think about that when I’m wearing my mask, which I have been wearing pretty much any time I go out lately bc I CANNOT get sick again and have to stop practicing and build back up again (i think i’m getting a cold actually… but maybe i’m just tired and allergies), and if I look like an anime/K-pop fan, who I have usually had bad experiences with, personally.) overall i don’t interact with people much also, and when I do it’s usually at orchestra and specifically about the music, and also, a very disproportionate amount of my orchestra is East Asian. Being mixed race is weird though. I don’t feel like I look white or Asian… ANYWAY.
I always think you are interesting to talk to so i’m just curious if there’s any thoughts about any of this. or other things, ig. also since i mentioned the mask, did you say you had something like, you got sick easily or something? or something about COVID? Not really related to the thread, but i’m curious. no pressure to answer any of these in depth, though. Would you like to resume the gardening/tea thread, maybe? The CB has been so inactive lately. I’ve missed it.
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Oh, that’s such an interesting question! (I’m glad you think I’m interesting to talk to, by the way! I feel the same way about you, you always make such good points and I always learn something from our conversations:) ) I think my appearance tends a little more toward Latina than generic-American, but not obviously so. I don’t think someone seeing me for the first time would instantly think I was Latina, and I don’t really look like the stereotypical “Mexican.” Like for example, I don’t have an accent at all because English is actually my first language… Also my area is pretty diverse in terms of ethnicities; there are Indians, African-Americans, Asians, so it’s not like I would stand out that much even if I did look very Mexican. Even so, it’s nice to get back to Mexico – like it would be nice to go sit in a restaurant there, and have all the other restaurant-goers think I was a typical middle-class city girl with the same social structure (a fashionable high school, lots of friends, probably a boyfriend, etc.) as all the other typical middle-class city girls there. But I fit in quite well in the US too. One slightly annoying thing is that Mexicans are always presented in the media as sort of poverty-stricken and common and unsophisticated, and it’s like really!! Mexicans are often quite sophisticated and good-looking. Like the actress Maite Perroni, for instance. But the media always wants to portray them as rustic. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t like the movie Coco.
One thing that might interest you is that very Indigenous-looking Mexicans actually sometimes look kind of Asian? Like there’s this one girl, the daughter of my parents’ friends, and she’s always being mistaken for a Chinese girl, despite being completely Mexican. Oh, and another funny thing is that some Mexicans look quite Middle Eastern – like one of my relatives went to Turkey, and people would just come up and speak to him in Turkish, assuming he was a local! And then he had to explain “But I don’t speak Turkish!!” It just goes to show you can’t judge by appearances lol.
Funny about the haircutter! I guess there are advantages to looking both white and Asian, though – maybe you can choose which look to emphasize and have some more choice over how you want people to see you? Do you have a preference between the two options at all?
Of course, the good thing about looking “mixed” is that you can challenge people’s preconceived stereotyped notions and all that, and eventually, if all the different ethnic groups in the US mingle more and eventually everyone just looks like they could be from several ethnicities, then maybe there would be less racism. But that’s a deeper topic…
I’m sorry you’ve been sick so much *optional hugs* *positivitea* It makes sense that wearing a mask would be part of the reason that people mistake your ethnicity. About COVID, what happened was that back in 2020 I got it rather badly a couple of times, and so did another family member, so even now my family and I are being a bit more careful about it than most of the people we know, not wanting to catch it again. I hope you can manage to stay well! Wearing a mask isn’t the best, but it’s definitely worth it if it protects your health.
It’s so cool that you’re in an orchestra! How did you get interested in music? (if you want to share?)
Yes, I’d love to resume the Gardening and Tea thread! I’ve missed it too. I’ll make a post there and see if it tops.
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topsy toppp
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oh for gosh sake why won’t it top
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