Respect For Different Cultures
罗梦璇 2013级翻译硕士 402013300034
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a movie about a Greek girl Toula married an American boy Ian. They two were from two different backgrounds. Toula lived in a big Greek family, they moved to American in the world war Ⅱ. The family consisted of Toula’s parents, her brother, sister, and a great number of big and loud relatives .The house they lived was modeled after the Parthenon. While Ian was from an American family, he was the only child in the family which was in quiet and harmonious atmosphere.
At first, their parents had different attitudes towards their love. Toula’s parents were opposed to their love. Her parents could not accept an xeno who they didn’t know anything. On the contrary, Ian’s parents agreed. In this position, Ian decided to be baptized and join the Greek Orthodox Church. Finally they decided to get married, and they found they had a lot of different customs. The Greeks hold weddings in the Greek Church, they need 10 bridesmaids and the best man is actually part of the ceremony, parents may give their children gifts, hold a big wedding, and end it with dancing together. In contrast, the American family would like to hold a wedding in the club, quiet and small. They may eat big wedding cakes and let the newly married couple have a honeymoon trip.
1
In my opinion, when meeting different cultures, we should accept it, respect it, and communicate to understand it. On this basis, we can learn from other cultures and improve our culture by the good sides of different cultures.
There are many kinds of cultures in the world, we may meet various people who are different from us, and the differences exist not only among nations but also peoples. Sometimes we may wonder, it is so surprising that they do those things. However, if we communicate with them, we will understand their culture and try to learn something good from the different culture, just like learning something from other people.
In a word, when we communicate with people from a different cultural background, we should pay attention to respect the different cultures firstly, and communicate timely to understand the wondering things; we may accept different cultures gradually and in this way learn a lot from the differences.
2
