Before reading the rest of this post, take a look at this video. (Trust me on this.)
Did you watch the video?
Did you see the moonwalking bear?
Yes. It was a moonwalking bear.
When we show this video in workshops, there’s always a collective gasp when the voiceover mentions the moonwalking bear.
Moonwalking bear? There was a moonwalking bear? What the…?
Then, as the video plays a second time, there are peels of laughter as the crowd suddenly notices a big black bear moonwalking its way through the basketball players.
And then everyone wonders how they didn’t see a big black bear moonwalking its way through the basketball players the first time. Maybe the bear wasn’t really there the first time? (It was).
So, what the heck does a moonwalking bear have to do with culture?
Try this: Watch the video again.
You can’t not see the moonwalking bear now, right? So why didn’t you see it the first time?
Simply because you weren’t aware of it. Because you didn’t expect it. Because a moonwalking bear isn’t part of your frame of reference. Because your attention was drawn to something else, namely counting the number of passes made by the team in white.
So it was really easy to miss the moonwalking bear.
Okay, so what does moonwalking have to do with culture?
Culture is the moonwalking bear. It’s really easy to miss culture, even when it’s right there in front of us.
For instance, why do most US Americans leave at least one seat between each other in the waiting room of a doctor’s office? Or at an airport? Or pretty much anywhere?
photo by frances1972
Have you ever noticed this? If you’re US American and can’t explain it, don’t worry: most Americans can’t either. But this is what generally occurs in waiting rooms.
Why?
Everyone grows up learning their culture(s) — in their family, at school, in the neighborhood, on TV. But we’re often only aware of the more superficial aspects of culture: food, celebrations, greetings, things like that.
We’re often not aware of the reasons for our behavior. We just know what we should (and shouldn’t) do. We just know that, in many instances, it’s preferable to leave an empty seat between us and a stranger, rather than sit right next to them.
Most of our cultural perspectives (we could also call them cultural moonwalking bears) are completely hidden to us. We just do what we do because we know we should do it. And that is exactly what we mean when we say that culture is like the moonwalking bear in the video.
Are you now wondering how you can improve your ability to see these cultural moonwalking bears?
We’re glad you asked.
“Culture School” is officially in session!
photo by owltoucan
In order for these cultural moonwalking bears to become visible, you need knowledge + self-reflection + experience.
Culture School is here to help. About once a week, we’ll take an aspect of intercultural theory and take it for a walk down Ponder Street. Apply to daily life. Ask it questions. Suggest ideas for reflection and experience. Offer additional resources. We promise to make it interesting, even though it is theory! And because this blog is about culture and education, we’ll consider the cultural topics in the context of the classroom.
We look forward to exploring all of these cultural moonwalking bears with you.
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