Cross-Cultural Lessons Learned from Dr. Koh and East Rock Institute - Reflections to Mexico
By Terri Stangl | July 2023
I have been living in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the state of Chiapas, Mexico since January 2023. I am learning Spanish and also about the history and culture of the region.
Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, a beautiful and mountainous region which was not fully incorporated into Mexico until 1841. There is a significant indigenous population in the area which substantially influences the community's current life.
San Cristóbal also has a long history of immigrants, especially from Europe, visiting the city and deciding to remain there. Some Mexicans describe Chiapas and San Cristóbal as unique, almost like a distinct country within Mexico.
San Cristóbal de Las Casas Chiapas, Mexico
When I first started working with Dr. Hesung Chun Koh as a college student in the late 1970s, she introduced me to the value of a cross-cultural approach to understanding other cultures. We worked together on a research project examining the networking strategies women used in 3 diverse cultures to survive and transcend poverty. Dr. Koh showed me how, by considering one culture within a broader multicultural context, I could see more clearly what made that culture distinct. And it caused me to think more carefully about my own values and culture. In my more recent work to understand and optimize the other than conscious processes of the human brain, I have come to appreciate how, from infancy onward, human beings learn to perceive by observing differences. These studies have given me a renewed appreciation of what Dr. Koh taught about the wisdom of cultivating a cross-cultural lens, not merely to learn about unfamiliar cultures but also our own.
Terri with her friend in Mexico
I have heard the expression that fish are unaware that they live in water. It is invisible to them because it is what they know, indeed all they have known, their entire life. They are immersed in it. It is not until they are out of the water, that they are in a different environment that they can even perceive what had previously been invisible. I think this is one of the strengths of East Rock Institute’s cross-cultural approach to understanding the values and culture of Korean and their expression within the Korean Diaspora. Not only does it introduce others to Korean culture, but it helps Koreans and Korean Americans to see their own culture more closely. Certainly, Dr. Koh has talked about how learning to adjust to life in the United States allowed her to perceive and articulate the Korean values that her parents had taught her, which she had taken for granted until she was in a different country and culture.
As Dr. Koh says it in her articles about Korean Values, the traditional Korean value of “Both/And” (rather than the dichotometric “Either/Or”) is inherently inclusive and multi-cultural. Although that value has its roots in Korea’s own history with Japan and China, it remains meaningful for new generations in the Korean Diaspora and, indeed, for anyone to learn about and appreciate people whose experiences, language and cultural context is different than our own, whether they live across the street or across the globe.
I am very glad that Dr. Koh and East Rock Institute are archiving and organizing ERI's publications and programs, as well as the personal publications of Dr. Koh. This work can continue to inform and enrich a wide range of cross-cultural conversations and research projects. I continue to find these concepts invaluable to my experience of living in and learning about Mexico and Chiapas. I would like to see others also build on the groundwork that has been laid by ERI and Dr. Koh, and see how it applies to their own lives and endeavors.
Terri Stangl is one of East Rock Institue devoted advisors, she is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Law School. Now retired from the practice of poverty law in Michigan, she currently offers online and residential workshops to help people to understand and make practical use of their own other than conscious thinking machinery. She can be reached at stangl.terri@gmail.com.
