Growing In The Culture

I appreciate those times when I can discover just how much I’ve grown as a person. One of those areas I endeavor to grow in my life is having to do with culture.

Yesterday, I celebrated my friend Vali’s birthday by giving her a pretty pink box filled with stuff on the inside of it, and a really nice card.  When I gave her the box, she looked at it and said, “Magaia!” It was very pretty.  I figured she likes pink, since she’s one of those “Princesses” type people.  Well, she told me that pink was okay, but she really likes YELLOW! I happen to have had a yellow top on at the time and I made this really random statement,

“Well, I’ll just take off my blouse and give it to you!” I said.

“Oh my gosh Lex, that’s a typical “samoan” statement! You’re getting it Lex, you’re finally catching on!”

And I’ll never admit this to Vali, but I felt kinda good about that!

Ever since I could think about it, I’ve always been fascinated by different cultures, because after all – people think differently and so do cultures. I’m so 100% apple pie American, but I have friends from all different cultures.

One of the cultures I admire a lot happens to be the samoan culture. I have my former boyfriend to thank for that.  I’ve made a lot of friends within this culture genre and I’ve learned the language, some of the customs, the food etc. They have a weird sense of humor and are very steeped in their beliefs.  They love to laugh at everything, they all can sing and they are very creative and innovative people. But knowing my friend Vali has given me a sense of appreciation for all that she is an all that they are as a people.

So anyway, I’ve grown in knowing this culture and I’ve come so far! I came in as clueless and anyone, and I wasn’t ashamed of that but did I stick out like a sore thumb! But I feel that last night when Vali shared with me that I’m “catching on” that I’ve somewhat graduated to another level of “Samoanism”.  I’ve learned from my life group girls that you pronounce “Samoan” “Sam’oye’an”. Sometimes my girls are the most hilarious individuals I know! :-p

So anyway, I’d gladly take off my shirt and give it to you, figuratively speaking, of course I can’t do that! Maybe they take things figuratively, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a girl felt like she had to do that and literally take it off, of course I’d discreetly let her know that she need not do that for me, because in my culture, we take many things figuratively! I think something not short of a miracle happens when you combined two cultures, I really believe that they compliment one another – one culture can provide the heartwarming thought of giving something, and another culture can provide the sensible thought of “discreetness”.  Still, it’s pretty hilarious when one culture gives into another culture, and before you know it, one woman from one culture can expect that another woman to give her her shirt, and the other woman from the other culture actually offers to give her her shirt! That’s hilarious! That’s called “Growing in Culture” and it’s not limited to shirts, mind you!

There’s still some things I need to grow in, which is why it’s a journey and not a destination. I remember I used to share these silly samoan jokes and none of my samoan friends would laugh with me – they would stare and blink and I’d hear crickets in the background. But when it comes to my real life funny samoan encounters, they’d laugh like there’s no tomorrow. I began to realize that they don’t like laughing with you as much as they like laughing at you!

There’s hope yet for this “Samoan Wannabe”.

~ by lexigurl on August 25, 2008.