Cultural Speech (Spc 1)

The author Jamais Carcio once said, humans are social animals. We devote a significant portion of our brain just to interacting with other humans. Now think about this. If we can distinguish and understand the cultural differences between one another, we can save tons of time and efforts to have a great relationship with people. So today I'm going to discuss about the values and cultures that Ernesto, my partner, and I identify with and how I practice mindfulness while preparing for this speech. First off, I'm going to talk about his American and optimistic culture in contrast to my masculine and traditional Chinese culture. Lastly, I'll talk about the difference and similarity That, uh, between our culture and the mindfulness part. So Ernesto is part of the American culture. It values individualistic cultures because of the focus of personal value instead of the conformity from Mexican culture. When he was in the sophomore year of high school, he told his parents he dyed a strip of his hair blue. Not only his parents verbally supported him, but also helped him pay for it. Secondly, he's part of the optimistic culture. The value he holds It's more indulgence than restraint. There's one time he broke his ankle while doing ice skating. He was able to keep a very positive mindset and then just find ways to amuse himself, enjoy himself. For example, he played video games and he watched animations. While recovering in bed. At this point, I have finished talking about Ernesto's American and optimistic culture, and now it's time to talk about mine. I value the masculine culture from my family. Achievement of material success is the key to speak louder while having dinner. 2 years ago, I opened a food store and I almost lost all of my uncle's money. And so I went out to dinner with him and I tried to persuade him again to invest in my business. But the response I got was to shut up. And he, from that time, he He starts to ignore my opinions until I can have the profits back to the table. From this experience, I realized that material success is a way to show your ability so that people can trust you or rely on you. Next, I was raised in the background of traditional Chinese culture. It is the high ambiguity tolerance. 4 years ago, I went to Thailand to attend a 5-day youth camp, and I met some Chinese friends along the way. We got along very well, and they invited me To go to China. Honestly, I barely knew them, and basically there's no actual plan for what's going on on this trip. But I still chose to go, and ended up I'm fine. I have all my organs. And I have one of the most enjoyable experiences in my life. With that, without knowing what's going to happen, and I'm very calm with that. I believe I value high ambiguity tolerance. So right now I finished talking about my masculine and high ambiguity tolerance culture. I will now talk about how I practice mindfulness. The major cultural difference That I found out from UNESCO is individualistic culture. From my experience, people should always follow the social norms and try not to be different from other people. But it makes me realize I can't judge a person whose background is totally different from me. Instead, I should learn their culture. I should experience it. And try to adapt the good part that can benefit myself. And about the similarity that we both share is high ambiguity tolerance. High ambiguity tolerance. Yeah, I feel pretty good about it, and, uh, I feel pretty good about it, and, uh, It trains my improvise skills and gives me a sense of surprise along the way. Okay, so today I've covered my partners and my cultures and also how I practice mindfulness. So sometimes we think about— sometimes we think we already know other people's culture very much, and then we try to jump to the conclusion very fast. Or even, you know, try to make good for ourselves or our country. But there's one very important thing: bias is very dangerous. That can destroy our relationship and bring truth away from us. So we should always bear in mind that we should be open-minded, no matter how different, how new a certain culture is to us. So, let's make our world better and ourselves better by learning different cultures from today and from right now. Thank you.