· When meeting with new people of other cultures, people usually have a natural tendency to perceive their behavior from the standpoint of their own culture. Misunderstanding of a foreign language, gestures, and other elements of behavior often leads to a false interpretation of the meaning of their actions. Another historical pieces of knowledge I gained from reading Fadiman’s book is that cultural biases have prevented us from connecting with others. In Hmong culture, epilepsy is known as quag dab peg, which means the spirit catches you and you fall down, the title of the book. In the Hmong culture seizures is known to be a good thing. Moreover, Fadiman states that, the Hmong people are distrustful of Western physicians who do nothing, but experiment on their patients. To connect with others, especially the Hmong people. This is evident when Fadiman tells the reader about a Hmong-American student who gave a presentation about fish soup and the Hmong culture. In that presentation, the student gave detailed methods of preparing the fish soup. To Fadiman, the fish soup gives a window to how best understand the Hmong culture. And that to truly understand the Hmong culture, we must understand their history and where they came from.
Recent comments