Culture in Everyday Life Essay

I experienced culture shock near 7 years ago, when I became friends with a Philippine woman. Her name is Christeen Humangnan she was natural and raised in the Philippines. It wasnt until Christeen was 14 years old, that she moved to the unite States. She would tell me how spoiled we are as Americans. She lived in the Philippines without electricity, a television, and seldom had money for new shoes.Although those customs are different from ours in the coupled States, there is one culture she practices that stood out. It is called pagmamano. Pagmamano is a Filipino culture that has survived the clock and foreign influences. This is the practice of respect by asking for an elders pass around and touches ones forehead while bowing. One earthyly asks by avowing Mano po. Mano po translates to may I turn in your hand please. In return, the elder blesses the person. In the Filipino culture the elderly, refer to parents and grandparents, cousins, or close family friends. It is usua lly done when one visits a family, when meeting these mountain outside of the homes or after a religious activity. It is also common to bring children to their godparents during Christmas time to pay respect with this custom.I found this custom in the Filipino culture to be shocking to me because, I cod never seen it done before. I also see so legion(predicate) children act disrespectfully to their elders in this country, so it was a blessing in my eyes to see the elderly being respected. Now that I have intimate of pagmamano, I participate, and have taught my own children the meaning of this culture. We do non use it in our own culture, but whenever we visit my friend Christeen and her family, we sharpen enough respect to her and her family by participating in pagmamano.I would say that the value assumption was slightly an issue when I firstlearned of this practice. I thought to myself, this is not the Philippines, we dont do that here. by and by seeing the custom in person and how respectful the adolescents are to their elders, I realized I was wrong. I was happy to learn of it and see the children culture respect. You dont see many American children show this example of respect. Since cultural relativism supports the theory that there is no absolute right and wrong.Instead, the morals, standards and behaviors that leave among cultures must be taken into consideration. I was wrong to assume that pagmamano should be practiced in the Philippines. I think it is a great charge to show respect. At first I thought to myself, thats preternatural Then, I realized that we do weird things too. She considers some of the things we do as weird, when we considered it normal. We just have to accept the fact that we all live unneurotic in this country that participates and allows different cultures. I am thankful that I learned of the pagmamano culture, and I respect it.