While I was reading this chapter, concept of common sense
was pretty familiar to me. What the book defined common sense is “commonly
understood, taken-for-granted assumptions about the way world works and
expected communicative behaviors.” I think common sense could be uncommon in
situation, culture, race, and region. Otherwise, it can’t always be universal. For
example, I heard that people take off their shoes in their house in American
culture. As my experience, however, not all people in United States do and it
is different depending on families, regions, and cultures where they’re from.
I strongly agree that common sense isn’t innate and it
consists of a background of experiences. Living in America, I’ve heard phrases
such as “it is just common sense.” and “it is natural in America” so many times
especially from my host sister. At that time, I was confused and struggled on different concept of "common sense" between us. Now, I understand that she thought common sense
as what she knew and what she practiced without knowing common sense for her is
not always common. Since people have different mind, cultures, experiences and
different concept of common sense, I think we should avoid judging and expressing
our opinion by what I know as common sense when we communicate with others.
Hello Yeonjin,
ReplyDeleteYour experience is very interesting and I wish you would have elaborated on it more or add more examples. I am always curious as to what others from overseas find is NOT common sense in which we Minnesotans do. What are some things that you regard as common sense that your host sister did not? What sort of things that Minnesotans do still confuse you or you find strange? Would it have helped you a lot if someone had written out some "Minnesota common sense" rules for you before you came here so that you would be more prepared to behave/act differently than you normally would? I also do agree with you that common sense definitely varies in different cultures, race, and regions. Even in the United States, what is common sense in Minnesota may not necessarily be the same in New York (I believe we've discussed this in class or something of the sort).
I also do agree with you that we should communicate with an open mind when someone violates what we believe to be as common sense. What do you think is the best way to approach this though? What would you do if a person who is not as much of an open communicator as you has a different concept of common sense? It can get tricky because some people are stubborn and many people do not like to hear that what they perceive to be "correct" or "right" is actually not in a certain context. How do you explain to them that the way they are going about a certain situation is not necessarily the only way without offending them? And at the end, what if they are not willing to listen to you? Just some few questions I was wondering if you had any opinions on. I have run into many of these situations and still trying to figure out the best way to go about them.