A most pressing struggle when one “crosses into” or enters a culture different from one’s passport culture is learning to adapt. What was natural, “normal” or innate for us in our own culture, now stands out as very different in another culture. For example, in North American culture, we are taught, when at the table, to hold the fork in our right hand and the knife in our left hand. In France (and perhaps other European contexts), it is the opposite. Changing what is “normal” from one’s own culture and adapting to one’s new adopted culture is not easy. And with this example, we are just scratching the surface of the kind of adaptation one is called upon to make when crossing cultures.
As more and more workers are launched and sent from the Global South – places such as Cameroon, Guatemala, Senegal and Indonesia , for example – the work of learning to adapt to one another will significantly increase. How do others, with whom we are called to work, make decisions, hold crucial conversations, or express agreement to mutually shared guiding principles?
Having crossed from one culture to another certainly gives tools for learning to adapt. However, that does not mean working from one’s home or passport culture excludes one from being able to learn to adapt. Either way, it will take time, effort, and gospel humility to learn.
And there is the key word for all of us: taking the stance of a “learner”. Rather than being a teller or a doer, we must work with others from a learning posture. Taking the stance of a “learner” will go against the grain of our nature. We would prefer to be the one helping others rather than asking for help from others. In our heart of hearts, we often think we just know better what to do.
There is a good deal of difference between saying: “This is what we should do and the decision that needs to be made. What do you think?” And saying: “What would the decision-making process look like in your context? And what will we need to do to best adapt to that process?”
Taking the stance of a “learner” is to be willing to ask others for help. It sounds so simple, but it takes humility infused by the Gospel to allow us to honestly ask and listen to help from others.
Filed under: Crossing cultures, Humility, Lifelong learning, Uncategorized |
Thoughts Along The Journey 
Thank you, David, for this pertinent exhortation. I recall Duane Moyer coaching me before my family moved to Haiti. Going there with an M.Div. and years of pastoral experience, I was looking forward to contributing to the formation of church leaders in Haiti. Duane, gently but clearly, told me, yes, you will make a contribution, but you are going there first as a learner. As it turned out, even our in-home cook with a 5th grade education taught me plenty!
Thanks Sean for your comment! Probably one of the hardest things to do for any of us coming from North America or the West to learn from “those we are coming to help” — when in fact they end up helping us more than we may help them.