Alpha/Beta Activity

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As an introduction to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, we did an activity in class in which the teacher divided us up into two groups - the Alphas and the Betas. Each group represented a culture and we were forced to interact with the other culture, so as to experience the difficulty in relating to a culture different from your own. This is my response to the activity.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title character becomes infuriated when he sees an actor shed real tears in response to the fictional story he acts out. Many people, like this actor, can get themselves worked up about something fictional, made up by their own imagination. I'm sure I've done the same somewhere along the line, but I felt it difficult to approach Monday's activity from the mindset I was supposed to take on. To me, all my responses to the Betas, though fabricated, were probably realistic – in character – but I just could not make myself fell as an Alpha would truly feel in the given situation. I still possessed my American culture, which caused me to laugh in response to the interaction between the two culture groups. Rather than perceiving the situation as a tribe member, I saw things from the perspective of an omniscient observer – I was not afraid of the others, I just knew that the other Alphas and I were supposed to avoid being touched. When someone attempted to approach me and/or touch me, I did not feel violated, I ran simply because I was supposed to act like I felt violated.

Maybe my response to the activity – not really being able to involve my emotions in it – and my ability to conform to what I was supposed to do, how I was supposed to act, says more about our culture than I realized at first. When we're in certain situations, society pressures us to act in certain ways, according to that particular situation. Thus, when I was told to act as the sheet described, I quickly conformed, since I'm supposed to follow the instructions of my teachers since they, being my "superiors," are "more experienced than I" and therefore know the proper way to act better than I do.

Since I've never moved or switched schools, I don't have an experience in which I felt outcast by a new society. The summer before my freshman year, though, I traveled to North Carolina to participate in a program that taught me about missions. I remember learning about all the work that is spent attempting to figure out the cultures of the people where missionaries travel. For example, in some nations, the center of emotion is, say, the liver. Therefore, rather than the typical "ask Jesus into your heart" deal, it would be something like "accept Christ into your liver." Funny from our perspective, but logical to some tribe somewhere in the world.

At this week long retreat, one day we had to participate in a simulation in which we traveled to a foreign country and such. This, to me, was similar to Monday's activity, except more realistic in my mind. I was basically given a few resources and I had to figure out everything else myself. I had to realize that putting "missionary" on my visa application wouldn't work, and other similar details. Throughout the whole ordeal, I felt intimidated and afraid, never quite sure of what I was supposed to be doing. Sure, the situation was fake, but the customs people, the visa people, etc all acted to realistically. I felt like I was really a missionary going wherever I was going.

Another experience similar to Monday's, yet also more realistic for me was with a card game I learned Sophomore year. I believe the game was called Maou and there were basically a bunch of specific rules, but no one is allowed to teach them to you – you must watch, participate, and learn the game by making mistakes and figuring out where you went wrong. As I played the game, I had to watch every move, not only with the cards, but also the words and actions of my friends. A few times, I remember feeling a bit intimidated, unsure of how to play the game, afraid to make a mistake and get laughed at. Eventually, though, I learned the rules.

The rules of the card game and the missions simulation mirror Monday's activity in that I was thrown into a society/culture – or a situation/place with a set of rules different from mine – and was expected to interact as if I had grown up with those standards, throwing all my previous social skills out the window.

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