Question

1. What does this phrase mean in relation to studying culture: "A fish examines everything around it except the water in which it swims"?

Answer 1

People should never judge his or her cultures before commenting on others and they never used to be enthusiastic in learning the cultures from where he or she originated. It is important to learn about the backgrounds and cultures of a society where people live along with the knowledge of the global scenarios to enrich themselves which may help them to be kind and show respect of other different cultures. This will also help to maintain a good team bonding with increased productivity of work. In order to understand and relate the cross cultural relationship it is important to know own cultures, believes and values better to project the ideas in front of others.

Humans are like a fish in the water bowl who never examined the water where it lives and swim, thus when it is asked about the water it looks blank. The fish cannot describe the saline balance or pH or temperature in the water where it lives in. but it is important to value own cultures to value others. Humans tend to see the world through an imaginary distorting glass of water without realizing the fact that substances may alter the view and thinking of the outside world.

For example the Americans always give respect to the direct eye contact but the Indian cultures avoid eye contacts and make hands folded by saying ‘Namaste’ to express their respect towards others.
Thus, it is important to learn about different cultures along with own cultural beliefs and practices to communicate with people of different cultures to show them respect without insulting own cultures.