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September 12, 2005
My culture-Mongolia
I am a descendant of Chinggis Khan who is known to Americans and the rest of the world as Genghis Khan. No, I am really not. However, my family and I don’t know who our ancestors were. I know about my ancestors up until my great grandfather. As Mongolians take their father’s first names as their last names it is impossible to track down who is whose grandson or grand-daughter. But it might be possible that I am Chinggis Khan’s descendant.
In middle school and high school my teachers used to say that, “Once upon a time, our country was known to the rest of the world, as the Mongolian Empire under Chinggis Khan’s rule”. On the contrary, when I first came to America not many people were even heard of my country other than Chinggis Khan. He, who first established Mongolia as a country was not as celebrated but paralleled his name with Hitler or Napoleon, outside of Mongolia. My country is located between China and Russia. Most of the time I am usually the first Mongolian that Americans or other foreigners meet. It makes me feel special but sometimes sad as once my ancestors have ruled the half of the world but today hardly half of the world knows that my country even exists. Many people ask me whether Mongolia is a part of China. The
Mongolians prefer to be recognized as completely independent and separate from China.
The Mongolians are affected by Russian and Chinese cultures. Our traditional food is dumpling and almost every family cooks Russian noodles soup everyday. We use Cyrillic alphabets and celebrate Chinese New Year.
When I go to Mongolia during summer, I notice how different and sometimes hard to relocate my thoughts and perspectives from American culture to my own. If I tell American jokes to my Mongolian friends, they wouldn’t be able to understand why I would think the joke would be funny. In the world of globalization, many people experience cultural and ethical dilemma between two countries-two cultures. In my opinion, people who experience the differences between cultures have advantage to see the gap from another angle. I encourage every one of you to go through different culture-different country, if you haven’t. Yet. Enjoy.
Posted by lcisbold at September 12, 2005 08:55 PM
Comments
It was great learning about your culture. As an American (and as you probably know) I wasn't taught much about your country or relative countries. I would love to learn much more about your culture. You seem to know so much about your history and It must be so captivating to not only be a part of the cultures you had but now be a part of the american college culture. I'd love to talk to you about it more.
Posted by: Jessica at September 13, 2005 09:29 PM
Zaya,
I love the anecdote about telling your friends and families American jokes and them not getting it...it is such a perfect example of cultural construction of humor, as well as other kinds of meaning making that we engage in! It is also very instructive that you instinctively understand what it means to straddle two distinct cultures...it will certainly increase you ability to relate to and understand others...
Posted by: Ellen Grabiner at October 9, 2005 08:03 AM