Hi everyone,
I've just taken part in a seminar; whose theme was the "meaning of time in different cultures", essentially it was aimed at trying to educate germans who work with foreigners, to have more patience and to develop or voice possible coping strategies, which would help them to avoid colliding into any stereotypes ...

The thing is when you try to mince around stereotypes; you often end up without meaning to, feeding those stereotypes. We've all heard about 'African Time', it's basically the same as 'black time' - well, I spent the better part of a day trying to explain to the audience that although such a thing exists it is not for the reason they all think i.e that africans are lazy, don't take time seriously, are undisciplined, are more relaxed and easy going in their attitude towards time yardy yardy yah...

Using an e.g of the Akan from Ghana; I explained that Africans, actually have their own ideas and attitudes and beliefs assoc. with time which has nothing to do with western notions of time - hence the culture clash! The info. actually came over quite well but I was still surprised how hard some people wanted to believe otherwise despite hearing the truth from the horses mouth so to speak...

Anyways I'm glad that I took part coz I sincerely believe that cultual ignorance is the root of a lot of social probs. esp. in the west and I've kinda taken it on board as a challenge to break down barriers, whenever the oppurtunity arises...

Would you do the same? What do you do to help bridge the gap between ignorance and cultural blindness? Or do you think it's a lost cause altogether to try and open the eyes of the 'other'??