I like to watch TV. Here in Belgium there are lots of programs to watch that I would have never seen living in the U.S. One program that has become a favorite of our whole family is Total Wipeout on BBC. Contestants try to conquer the biggest obstacle course in the world. Only recently did we discover that there is also an American version of the program, simply called Wipeout. Now we watch both, and we’ve noticed some contrasts.

American contestants behave differently than contestants from the U.K. On the American show there is trash talking, rivalries develop, and contestants often cheer when someone else fails. Contestants from the U.K. typically cheer for each other and even physically help each other on some parts of the course. The program format even encourages this kind of atmosphere by seating the contestants who have been eliminated on bleachers in a sort of cheering section. While on the American show you disappear after you are eliminated. And on the American show there are new features to the obstacle course almost every episode, where on the U.K. show there are changes only occasionally.

So we can conclude that Americans have shorter attention spans and are ruder than people from the U.K. Maybe that’s true, or maybe not. But what is true is that we can learn about ourselves by getting out of our culture and experiencing another’s. While to a limited degree this can be done by watching TV, it is much more effective to actually step into that culture.

Think about the experiences that have shaped you. Have you had experiences outside your own culture that helped you learn what it means to be Belgian (or Flemish, or Dutch, or whatever the case may be)? Have you had experiences outside of your home culture that have shown you ways your cultural identity has influenced the practice of your faith. If not, I challenge you to look for opportunities like that. In a future post I’ll write more about what I’ve learned from my cross cultural experiences.

By the way, it would be good for my language development to watch more Flemish TV programs. If there is a Volledig Wipeout please let me know.