Error of attribution to culture

Once you have lived overseas for a while, you start to realize that many of your assumptions about culture are not true. Most of this realization comes via comments others make about your home culture, as they assume that you represent the norm for what every country you hail from, in my case America. I have created a term for this called error of attribution to culture. By this I mean that someone observes a behavior in a person from another culture. We then conclude that all members of that culture must act exactly the same. We attribute their behavior to an entire population. Saying it another way, we take the actions of one individual and stereotype the entire culture as being exactly the same.

The offending wallet.

An example of this that I have seen recently is my wallet. For years I carried a wallet in my back pocket. The wallet would become a thick monstrosity as I accumulated receipts and business cards. Eventually it was like sitting on a phone book. I took quite a bit of good-natured ribbing about this. So, last year when I thought it was time to get a new wallet, I bought a front pocket wallet. This is basically a couple of leather pockets and then a money clip for your cash. I love it. It worked better in the US because you can pay everywhere with your credit or debit card and just keep a bit of money on you. Here in Malaysia it doesn’t work as well because I carry more cash due to a high rate of credit card theft. You give you card to someone, it comes back but they swiped it in a machine and then make a second card and charge things on your account. Malaysian money is also poorly designed for this. Denominations are 1, 2, 5, 10, 50 and 100 so if you break a 50 to pay for a 7 ringgit item, then you get 4 ten ringgit notes and 3 one ringgit notes. Therefore, my money clip often looks untidy. I pull it out and people notice it. They then say, “So this is the kind of wallet Americans use.” I laugh and try to set them straight. “No,” I say, “I’m the only person I know with a front carry wallet.” But I know the damage is done. They will forever think that Americans use the kind of wallet I do.

Of course this is a two way street. We have all met people of different cultures and labeled an entire culture bases on our interactions with .00001% of the population. What I’ve tried to do is show how this is different than stereotyping. Stereotypes are the nerdy Asian kid, the AK-47 wielding Arab, the loud and boorish American. Those are based on a larger sample of the population. This is how we personally stereotype a culture based on our own experiences. Perhaps the safest thing to do is see each person as unique and try to shed our own or societies stereotypes. It is only then that we can really get to know the true heart of another person.

Economies of scale

This blog will deal with the idea of economies of scale so let’s make sure the definition of that is clear. Economies of scale are when it costs an enormous amount of capital to build something but then as that item operates it becomes cheaper and cheaper. A classic example is a power plant. Let’s say that it costs 1.2 billion to build a power plant. The first kilowatt generated cost 1.2 billion dollars to make. However, as the years pass it becomes cheaper and cheaper with each unit produced. Usually with items such as power there is little marketplace competition because of the massive amounts of capital needed to get the first unit produced.

Economies of scale impact us everyday and not just when we flick on the light switch every morning. Some economists may disagree with me but most of our lives are made easier by this idea. Walmart sells millions of items each year at lower prices than their competitors because they allow the factory producing it to work on the economies of scale principle. The factory that supplies Walmart’s hair ties for them can actually lose money on the first million if they can make money on the second million and the third million and so on.

This impact has given us better lives. We have more income to spend on other things because we can get cheap items at the local Walmart. Even the smart rich people shop there for their daily necessities.

What is the unmeasurable cost of all of this? I believe it is the standardization of our lives. As economies of scale caught on they swept across America. You can see the proof of this in franshises. I’m sure McDonald’s did something right back in the day, maybe even made edible burgers. Today they are just cheap, quick and for children.

Americans, well, everyone in general, love this standardization. We love the fact we can drive 500 miles and stop at our favorite restaurant and order our favorite item and it will taste just like it did in our hometown. I see it all the time in Malaysia as Americans like to hit TGI Fridays and Chili’s. We know what we are getting. Gone is all the guesswork.

Actually, I was shocked by it last year when I moved back to Oklahoma. Ask any person in Oklahoma or Texas what their favorite restaurant is and they will tell you a chain restaurant. Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse or On the Border. (Ok, may be not EVERYONE) In Bellingham there were many, many more local restaurants. Skylark’s Hidden Café, Grace Café, The Bagelry, La Fiamma, Bob’s Burgers and Brew (now a franchise) are all my favorites. New Orleans is much the same, with many restaurants being one of a kind. In fact, it may be a way to mark the quality of life in a city, by the uniqueness of the restaurants found there. This is a new thought as I write this blog. Oklahoma City definitely has seen the number of restaurants explode with the growth of Bricktown.

This whole idea came about because the other night I was sitting in a Malay food stall and I ordered roti canai. Roti is a staple here, a kind of tortilla that is fried on a griddle and served up with some sort of gravy. That night it was dhal, a lentil based curry that is flavorful but without spice. On the side was sambal, best described as Malaysian salsa without vegetables. I mixed the dhal and sambal and proceeded to devour the roti in a couple of minutes. I sat back and thought about how good it was. I wanted another. So I summoned the waitress and ordered up a second roti canai. Then I started thinking, “Why do I never order a second of anything in the USA?” Then I realized it is mostly due to the economies of scale. It tastes the same every time, everywhere. I have never eaten something and then said, “Wow, that was perfect, give me one more please!” Because everything is standardized, everything tastes more or less the same. Maybe you have been to a bake sale or food fair and had this experience but they are increasingly disappearing from the landscape of the American experience.

Roti canai with dhal and sambal. When done right it is the best thing in the world.

Malaysia still has this unstandardized life. The roti guy at the bottom of the hill makes wonderful roti, crisp the way I like it, and the dhal and sambal blend together into a delectable, savory slurry of perfection. The guy down the road a bit may be selling roti having the consistency of wet socks and gravy that is bland and dull. You never know. And when the cook gets it just right, well, order up another round.

Standardization means the loss of creativity and ingenuity. Take chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is everywhere, most notably on the back of every package of Toll House Morsels sold. So why is that some people can make amazing cookies and others can’t? Well, we decided to get rid of that and now you can buy cookie dough at our local grocery or with your pizza.

We need economies of scale to give us a higher quality of life. But we need to keep them in check so that the uniqueness is maintained and our lives are a bright tapestry rather than a dull, drab coat of gray. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go see the roti guy. There was no teh tarik in the post but in real life there was. Nothing beats a good roti and teh tarik breakfast.

Changes

(Disclaimer: I'll change my mind about all this in a week.)
I have only lived one year of the last eleven in Oklahoma. That was last year when I lived with my parents and went to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas to get my teaching certificate. I then moved back to Malaysia about 4 months ago.

Over the last few years I've enjoyed going home to see my family and friends. But I never thought it was the place I should be until the last month. It's strange in someways. I have missed so many Thanksgivings but this one I really feel the desire to be home. I'm not homesick per se. I was homesick when I left Malaysia in 2007. It's more like a feeling that it is the right place for me to be. I have desperately missed my active lifestyle from the last year...the 1/2 marathon training, riding across Oklahoma on a bike and other possibilities.

Teaching here has given me more experiences that working in the States would have. In 14 weeks of teaching I have put on a school dance, had my club put on an awareness week which included selling ribbons and performing skits, been emcee for Sports Day and next weekend we will have 200 orphans at the school for Christmas Cheer. The next weekend we will be off for a leadership camp...oh, and I forgot the conference I went to in Thailand. Whew, no wonder I'm tired. I say living overseas crams several years into one and it is doing the same with teaching. Hopefully next term I'll be running a Model U.N. club to boot.

Therefore, I am surprised by these feelings that I should be home, that I want to be home. Lots of good things are here. I keep voicing the fact I want to buy a house here. But, somewhere I wonder if it isn't time to go home, be with my family and put down roots. I really want to spend more time with my family, especially my granny.

I want to do so many thing that I so often find that no matter what I do there is a draw in the opposite direction. I would love to settle down in Bellingham one day but I don't know when and how that will occur.

All this is to say I don't know what the future holds. I love being in Malaysia and will enjoy each moment here to the fullest. I am just musing over what choices I will have to make in July. Happy Thanksgiving.

Shotgun blogging

Well, I haven't blogged in a couple of months so I thought I would sit down and write a few thoughts.

How is school?
School is good. I absolutely love my students. There are a mix of good and bad of course but I often find myself thinking what wonderful kids they are. We have been reading "Rules" in class on Fridays and have an aquarium with a few guppies. I was the organising teacher for our fall dance. I thought it went really well. One thing you have to get used to is the fact that people don't praise each other in Asia. Compliments are rare. A few other teachers thought it went well and I thought it did so I just have to be happy with that. The funny thing was that two weeks later I was emcee for the sports day and that was met with loads of compliments. I scratched my head a lot at that one. The dance was a much bigger affair than reading the placings of students in the 100m etc.

I struggle a lot with how the school is run. The last two years I worked at great schools in the states where they accepted all comers and were run efficiently. Here we have a two day admittance test and only take the best and brightest. The school is run in typical Malaysian style. That means someone comes running in with an 'important' task. You drop everything to do it only when you get it finished you find it wasn't that important. The real struggle is the amount of admin work teachers do. I have to update school folders for all my students, so the first week of school I spent 5 hours typing their biodata into a spread sheet. Now we are finishing our term and I had to write 187 1-2 sentence comments about each student I teach. I then had to write 19 more comments (one paragraph) for my homeroom students. I don't mind this but, for example, I listed an actual instance where a student gave up. The comment was edited to read 'gives up when the going gets tough'. I rarely get to focus on creating great lessons and really just try to tick off all the duties required of me in a week, doing none of them with excellence. Unfortunately I have a personal creed to do things with excellence. Dang those personal creeds!

I go back and forth almost daily on whether or not I'll teach here next year. I have always wanted to teach multiple years in a school but putting up with poor management makes me wonder if it is worth it.

Actually, I was offered a job in Texas in October. I say 'offered' but I was asked to apply which is about the same thing. I turned them down because I feel a duty to finish the year with my students here. However, last weekend I had a 'panic' attack. I was really missing my family and my former active life of running and bicycling etc. Here I work 11 hour days and don't have the support network (living with my parents) that allows me to be active. Again my sense of duty wouldn't allow me to email and see if the post was filled. But then a day will come and I will have some great interactions with students and I think "I'll never leave here." I suppose all teachers fight similar battles emotionally.

How is Malaysia?
I have always fought this problem that I have three distinct spheres: Oklahoma, Bellingham and Malaysia. I feel equally at home in all three. I love being back here. I am often taken aback when people ask me basic questions about Malaysia. I forget that I am very obviously NOT Malaysian. This time the weather has been wetter than any of the other years I have been here and it has been harder because I don't ride my motorbike in KL traffic in the rain, if possible.

Random Tidbits
I'm going to Korea over Christmas, something I've wanted to do for a long time. I'm very excited about it. I had planned on a trip to the Similan Islands in Thailand before that but I won't be making it because I have to take 5 students to a conference on leadership the weekend before I head to Korea. My school year will end on July 23 and I'm not sure what I'll do after that.

My computer hard drive crashed and I've been adding songs again. There are a few songs that I always get. I was thinking about that recently, how I always make sure they are a part of my music library. Some are (in no particular order):
Live--Lightning Crashes
Van Halen--Humans Being
Van Halen--Jump
Billy Joel--We didn't start the fire
Madonna--Vogue
Bruce Hornsby--Mandolin Rain
U2--With or Without You, Beautiful Day and Where the streets have no name
Smashing Pumpkins--Disarm, Tonight, Tonight, 1979 and Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Cranberries--Linger
Some newer ones that I just think of as entire albums
Coldplay--Viva la Vida
Parachute--Losing Sleep
Nickle Creek's first CD
Emmy Lou Harris Red Dirt Girl

Thoughts on a six year plan

Well, I’m back in Malaysia for my second stint here and thought I would write about things that are going through my head concerning the present and future.

Things I learned while in the USA for the last two years: I love my family, they are just amazing, love my friends, amazing as well and my love for Malaysia did not diminish either. I think sometimes when you live overseas you are acutely aware of all the faults of your home country but being back in the US for two years made me remember all the wonderful things about it. In all honest, it was a tough decision to leave. Lastly, I realized that the place in the world I want to end up is Bellingham, where the largest concentration of my friends are and my family can visit much easier than Malaysia.

Things to consider in the 6-year plan: The first thing is that I love my granny dearly and she is turning 82 in February. She is still in great health but no one lives forever and I want to spend time with her while she is still very active. I went to New Orleans three times with her over those two years and want to spend that kind of quality time with her. I’m also glad that I’m gone for a bit because I push my parents too much on what they are going to do after retirement. Being in Malaysia means I won’t be hounding them so much about things.

Possible scenarios: My first thought was to live in Malaysia for 6 years and then return to the USA. I would return with a lump sum payment of about $40,000 USD, which would make a nice little down payment on a house. My instinct right now is to teach only 4 years in Malaysia, which would give me roughly $25,000 when I leave. So here is what I am thinking. I will save for two years and then purchase a house in Malaysia. I will continue renting myself and rent the house out, making double payments on it for two more years. After four years I will return to the USA and get a job close to my parents and my granny (they will be together), hopefully living with them. In the meantime, I will use the 25k from Malaysia with some savings to put a down payment on a house in the Sunnyland neighborhood of Bellingham, a house I will then rent out.

This scenario sets me up for later in life, Lord-willing, to one day move back to Bellingham but to also have a retirement home in Malaysia where I can either spend my summer school holidays or 4-6 month chunks after I retire.

Disclaimer: I am always thinking and scheming. Some come to fruition, such as moving to Malaysia. Some don’t, such as my dog poop scooping business. Please take all I have said with a grain of salt.

Goodbyes

Well, I have taken a job teaching geography in an international school in Kuala Lumpur, so I am headed back to Malaysia, arriving on July 29. I will then sleep 22 hours and be ready for action. That sounds like a solid plan for beating jet lag. I'm very excited about moving back but of course will be sad to leave. I loved, more than I can describe, teaching history to 8th graders this year. I liked the 6th graders but I think I hit my stride in that final 6 weeks when I was substitute teaching. Of course, I am my own worst enemy on classroom management when I suddenly break off course from a lecture on the Dust Bowl to wondering if all that grit made for whiter teeth when they brushed and if that was where the idea for pumice might have come from. 3 minutes later I'm trying to get the conversation back on the Dust Bowl and kicking myself for my vagrant conversation.


Anyway, all of this to say I will miss the people I have met here. Another group of people who are very special to me are those at my church. Not being able to do normal things, I have been attending a Korean church in Wichita Falls and I have been doing the children's sermons on Sunday mornings for the last few months. I will miss the kids, who are extremely cute. I don't think I was ever that cute as a kid.

Mom, tell the scary man to let me go!

The pastor and his wife couldn't escape my reach either.

Notice how far they sit away from me. Hmmm, I'm rethinking that pledge to go organic and stop using deodorant.

Most of the kids have to be held in place by their moms or they run screaming in terror.

Freewheel Oklahoma 2009

Last week I was off on my bicycling adventure, otherwise called Freewheel Oklahoma, an annual ride that usually starts near the southern border and finishes up in Kansas. This year we covered 415 miles according to the official certificate I was given at the end. Basically, you ride several hours each day, covering between 50-70 miles a day. We left on a Sunday and arrived the following Saturday in Kiowa, Kansas. You could do it much more quickly but we rode way to the west and then went back to the east. I'm guessing that riding hard you could go from Texas to Kansas in about four day.

What surprised me was how early people got up and started out. Some people were on the road by 4 a.m. Do you know how loud a tent being rolled up is that hour? Oh, we camped along the way and put our luggage in a trailer that was then moved to the next town where we would be spending the night. Indoor camping was available as well. I usually left out around 6:30 a.m. and arrived about 11 a.m. Then I would shower and find something to eat. The hard part of the whole trip was the afternoons, which would have been fine if I had been traveling with friends but mainly I just spent the afternoons reading. I did meet quite a few people but not really anyone that wanted to hang out with me the whole day.

It was definitely a good time and I would do it again next year if I weren't moving to Malaysia. Maybe I'll have to start Freewheel Malaysia.

Posing in my spandex just before leaving Duncan.

Not sure what dad is doing here. My butt has spent many hours in that location.

On the road to Apache.

The campsite in Apache. Mine is the little yellow tent in the lower left hand corner. About 1,000 people either ride or follow Freewheel. A ten year old girl rode every mile and one guy turned 70 during the week. Also, a guy who was a leg amputee did it as well.

Cheyenne in the pre-dawn light. Makes for a great morning ride, watching the sun rise.

This is Thomas in the mist. By the way, there is nothing in Thomas. They don't even have a restaurant, just a little place called the Big T that makes take-away food.

The Wheatfield

These are pictures of a wheatfield that I ride past when I go out for my bike rides. I have been wanting to take pics of the green wheat and the tree which has not yet leafed out. Later, when the wheat ripens, I want to go back and juxtapose the golden wheat with the greenness of the tree. That should happen by late May. Until then, enjoy the tree and green wheat.

Belief

In a dream I saw us three
You and I and she
We walked along the misty fringes
Lost and stumbling nowhere
Surveying the crags and precipices
When out of the fog I beheld
A bridge across the chasm
"Onward", I cried, "Hope is here!"
You, ever the cynic, paused
"We don't know where it goes."
"To lands of milk and honey", I cried
"Where streets are paved with gold!"
"Well, to get to a place like that
you need more than a bridge.
It can't be real", you scoffed.
She, ever the skeptic, jumped in
"How do we know the bridge goes to
any wondrous place? You haven't seen it!"
"No", I replied, "but it could be true.
I want to believe."
Onto the shaky bridge I stepped.
Its destination ever unsure
You and she, wrapped in your
Cynicism, scoffing and skepticism
Hung back
I believe and so I test the unknown
I would rather try
Than die never knowing.

Pilgrimage

Over the Christmas break I read several books. One was called "The Ramsay Scallop". It was about two people in medeival England who are sent to Spain on a pilgrimage. The book is peppered with people that they meet and the things they learn while heading to Spain, which was quite a trek in those days. It made me think about pilgrimage.

Psa 84:5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you (God), who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage historically has been a trip undertaken to gain some sort of blessing at the end of the journey. I realize that this is slightly skewed in many ways but at the same time as some truth in it. Sadly, this idea of pilgrimage has been eliminated from the modern Christian vocabulary. I noticed that the KJV often uses 'pilgrim' in verses the NIV translates as 'alien'.

To me, this idea of pilgrimage is still a valid one and one that needs desperately to be reclaimed. This reclamation also needs to include the idea that pilgrimage is to a place as in the Middle Ages. Well, not to an earthly, temporal place. I find it interesting that the Bible often refers to this life as our pilgrimage or our journey. To reclaim the original idea, I feel we Christians need to see that we are on a journey to our home. Our lives are this journey back home. We are pilgrims traveling through this world. Pilgrims are not people who accumulate material possessions nor are they ever fooled into thinking that the land they travel through is their home.

However, this day in age, most Christians have become settlers in a land they were only meant to pass through. They set up shop and establish themselves. Then there are looks of shock upon our face when the world proves to be fickle and fleeting. When the chaos comes again we are just as shocked as anyone. If only we had kept moving and kept our faith in what is eternal rather than misaligning it with what is temporary.

A question that has run through my head multiple times this week is this: Should we be foregoing certain things so that others may benefit? If all we have is this world, then the answer is take all you can. If we look the coming of a heavenly city and a Saviour, then we can forgo many of the things of this life, looking forward to the eternal and complete fulfillment of our longings.

Pilgrims in the Middle Ages often forsook certain luxuries. Perhaps we too should consider this again. Is it right to have 30 pairs of shoes when some go barefoot? I read recently that hunger could be stamped out in Africa if we just spent all the money on food that is currently spent on cigarettes. Pilgrims understand and make these types of decisions on purpose. Settlers try to build a surplus because they don't know what the morrow brings.

We were not made for this place and when we try to stay here we only show our satisfaction with lesser things. Let us press on to the high calling of God in Jesus Christ--and our heavenly reward.

Dilemmas

Most New Years come with a sense of turning over a new leaf. We make resolutions that we think will make us better people. There is often a sense of anticipation at what lingers on the horizon of the coming year. Most years, this is the feeling that I have. Not this year.

Since coming back to the USA from Malaysia in September 2007, I thought that I would go back once I had attained a teacher's certification. I thoroughly enjoyed working in a middle school last year I am looking forward with great anticipation to the next 14 weeks as I student teach. Through it all, the question that keeps echoing is, "What next?"

I have loads of ideas. Teach for America is a program that places teachers in innercity schools in places like New Orleans, Houston, Washington D.C. and New York City. I am applying to that program. I have great friends in Bellingham, WA and could try for a job there. Recently I was in Pensacola, FL and that is a possibility.

However, day after day, I can't shake the feeling that I want to go back overseas again. There were tons of struggles living in Malaysia but it was worth it. So much so that I still call Malaysia home, after all, I lived there for 5 years and have been back in the USA for 15 months.

I also miss scuba diving. The only other time I have had this same feeling was when I broke up with my girlfriend in my first year of university. Something is missing that I love and I want it back. I was reading today an article about Layang-Layang, one of a few places in Malaysia I have yet to dive (also Pulau Tioman and Aur, and Labuan) and seeing scalloped hammerheads and manta rays makes me want to get on a plane NOW.

Living overseas is definitely not for everyone. It exposes your every weakness, from interpersonal to food quirks, the gamut but I miss it. I miss living in a place that people saved for a year to spend two weeks in and I lived there every single day. I did quiet times on the beach five minutes from my home. Everyday was an adventure. I don't hate living in the states but I certainly am rarely surprised by what happens in an average day.

So here I am faced with a few dilemmas. Do I stay in the USA and get a job that pays well and builds a retirement pension? This will also cement my status as a teacher and lead to better jobs. Or do I go overseas? If so, where? Brunei? Malaysia? or maybe Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? It's on the Red Sea, some of the best diving in the world. Korea pays well and I think Air Asia is starting a cheap flight from there to KL. I'll be praying and applying for the next few months. We will see what happens in this new year of 2009. One thing for sure, one year from now and my situation will be vastly different.

Happy and blessed new year.