Cultural Training

Monday and Tuesday this week from 9:00a-3:00p consisted of cultural training for our family. The kids were in one room with a trainer and Randy and I were in another. The kids trainer was sweet and just wonderful! She played games with the kids and was very interactive. They learned all about England, the Magna Carta, the Union Jack (England's flag), sports, royalty, how to understand the English and some of the words they use. We learned that we don't say pants here. They call them trousers and pants are underwear. :) Many words are different and it is kind of fun to see. Here are a few we learned.

Trainers = Sneakers

Toilet/Loo or Water Closet = Bathroom

Chips = French Fries

Crisps = Potato Chips

Swimming Costume = Bathing Suit

Drawing Pin = Thumbtack

I will ring you = Call you

I will call you = Stop at your house 

Candy floss = Cotton candy

Biscuit = Cookie

Rubbish = Trash

Come off of it = Calm down

Randy and I were trained in Social & Cultural Etiquette, British history and government, daily living and culture shock. Randy was also trained in how to handle and work with the British. They are very different from Americans. British use a lot of humor, it is expected at all times. They use is for entertaining, a cover for embarrassment and aggression, it is frequently self-deprecating and irony is often used. They are people that do not like conflict and will not directly tell you they disagree. They use things like "you might like to think about it." They also will say things like "Randy it would be great if I had that Friday afternoon." They won't dictate, they hate to be dictated to and so they will suggest but that is there way of saying it is due Friday afternoon. It is against the law here to leave your kids home without a nanny if they are under 14 years of age. The British do a lot of small talk, like weather. They are hard to break through to get to know but once you do you are great friends. We learned that you NEVER talk about Politics, which is okay for me, and Religion with anyone. Those are two no no topics, we will have to pray hard for opportunities to talk about religion. They say sorry all the time, you bump into someone and you say sorry. You are in their line of walking, you move and say sorry. Their personal space is at arms width and you don't cross it. When you are invited to dinner at someones house you always bring expensive chocolate, a bottle of wine or flowers and not white flowers because they are for mourning. So much to soak in, Randy and I had a headache after we were done Monday from information overload. My favorite illustration was  that of an iceberg. At the top of the iceberg were things that we could sense with our 5 senses like food, clothes, language and behavior. At the bottom of the iceberg under the water were things we could not sense but resulted in the top things, like tradition, values, politics, religion and history. We come to a new country and we expect them to act just like us but our icebergs are different. We hold different religious views and have a much different history then they do, etc. It made so much sense and can be used for any person of different culture. Those two days were very much worth our time!

The kids made posters of things in Iowa (US) and then things in the UK as part of their cultural training. They also made a flag, courtesy of Abby.