12.04.2015

Some cultural differences, an example: "Belgium for Dummies"

Have you ever heard of the series of books and videos ... for dummies?

To start with, I strongly recommend the video below, Belgium for Dummies, as an example of how to ironically present a country and how to make it look so idiotic. That being said, I must remark that I have been myself living in Belgium for some years, and that it is not boring at all. It just looks boring.
For me, all those years have been a continuous encounter with cultural differences (more than in any other country that is farther away from Spain), and at the same time, I have had a strange feeling of recognition, of feeling at home, as if I had been living there all my life.
I guess this is this is the drama of emigrants/expats, which is very well expressed by a Japanese artist living in Amsterdam (don't remember his name), from whom I once read an interview where he declared the following: "In Holland I feel home, but I don't feel Dutch, and when I am in Japan I feel Japanese, but I don't feel home anymore".
Still, even of you feel like you don't fully belong anywhere, being abroad helps people open their mind, and encounter new and different cultures. This is very enriching. Travelling is also one of my passions, and it serves the same function. So, if you have time, and some money (not so much is needed nowadays, with all these social networking for traveling available), I really recommend you go and get lost in some far away country for a while. Enjoy the video!


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