I was only here for half the lesson so.....

Unfortunatly I had two disruptions that hindered my ability to listen to the culture lessons in their entirety for the past two days. The deans have no respect for sociology. Couldn't they have waited a period and taken me out of math? Unbelievable. But the culture differences I did hear were vast. Its pretty crazy how simple gestures can mean totally different things in different countries, like the A-OK symbol meaning butthole in Italy. Speaking of that, something even as common as toilets are very different. Japenese toilets are on the ground so there is no seat for sitting, which keeps the experiance more sanitary. Ive got to say it makes sense. Public bathrooms would be much less uncomfortable if there was no seat-skin contact between everybody on earth.
And also signs of respect are really different around the world. Showing respect in the United States means looking someone in the eye, maybe shaking hands, and generally not saying anything insulting. In some eastern asian countries (china, south korea), respect is measured with a bow. I watched a show Lie to Me, which is on Wednesday 9/8c on Fox (which is not on this week because of a two hour American Idol show, I'm furious!) , and on last weeks episode a body guard showed the korean ambassador's son a lack of respect by giving him a shallow bow. The body guard is treating the ambassador's son as an equal, which is a sign of disrespect givin the different statuses. In America we don't even bow. And I doubt the average american would recognize the shallow bow as a lack of respect. This all reflects the cultures we grow up in.