So odd. Today, the third person in my group of students today revealed she didn't realize I had siblings. If she had thought about it, she may have realized it, since she had seen her when we met at the airport to leave the States, and I had said she was my sis.
Once before, I was hanging out/prepping for a presentation with a couple other students in my group, and for some reason I mentioned my sister (or maybe my brother) and they, too, told me they had thought I was an only child.
Now, we've been studying the differences between "warm" and "cold" cultures in one of our classes--one difference being the emphasis on relationships that warm cultures (like here in Central America) have, versus the emphasis on doing things or getting work done that cold cultures (like that of the United States) have. It occurred to me that this sort of thing would never have happened in a cold culture.
I couldn't have been in a group of twelve students for six weeks without having talked about family and friends, had we been raised in a warm culture.
And seriously--are siblings, like, nonexistent until spoken of a lot? I know I've mentioned my sister....
Once before, I was hanging out/prepping for a presentation with a couple other students in my group, and for some reason I mentioned my sister (or maybe my brother) and they, too, told me they had thought I was an only child.
Now, we've been studying the differences between "warm" and "cold" cultures in one of our classes--one difference being the emphasis on relationships that warm cultures (like here in Central America) have, versus the emphasis on doing things or getting work done that cold cultures (like that of the United States) have. It occurred to me that this sort of thing would never have happened in a cold culture.
I couldn't have been in a group of twelve students for six weeks without having talked about family and friends, had we been raised in a warm culture.
And seriously--are siblings, like, nonexistent until spoken of a lot? I know I've mentioned my sister....
Comments
Abby: I don't know, I suppose it's because I don't usually talk about random things out of context (which is what most of our fun would be, here). I know two of the three have siblings (multiple), and I think the third does too.