A Valuable Tool: Humility

Humility

Modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, status, rank, etc. 

The above is a dictionary definition of "humility." For our purposes the concept of humility does involve this definition, but I would say that it also means setting aside our sense of entitlement. One of the best ways to avoid cultural misunderstandings is by removing yourself as much as possible from your own culture while maintaining and open-minded and accepting attitude about the culture you are visiting.

When you find yourself in difficult circumstances or you aren't sure how to communicate or behave, be humble. Even when you do not know the language well, humility will translate in almost any situation. It will be one of your most valuable tools! Along with this humility, heighten your awareness and pay attention to what the people around you are doing and imitate that behavior.

Humility will help remove your ethnocentrism.

Ethnocentrism
The idea that one's own culture (values, beliefs, understandings) is the best. 


We have all grown up in a cultural system that has inevitably shaped how we understand the people and world that surround us. To understand this better, let's think of culture as a pair of glasses - we all have lens' that we view the world through, and each pair has a different prescription.

That prescription is shaped both by the culture of the society we live in as well as our individual experiences. Each prescription is unique. For our purposes we will be looking at culture only... 

We cannot judge the next person's culture through our own cultural prescription. Values and standards vary greatly from culture to culture, and we cannot judge other cultures around the world relative to our own.

"Civilization is relative . . .  

our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes."

- Franz Boas,  the Father of American Anthropology 

In essence, we must be intentional about viewing another culture by its own values and standards rather than our own.