How different cultures respond to the COVID-19 pandemic
15.5.2020
Despite the quarantine imposed in our country, students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages are not bored, and the work of the Youth Club of Oriental Cultures is gaining momentum.
At a meeting of the Club, held online on the Zoom platform, the topic of how different cultures respond to the COVID-19 pandemic was discussed. The Department of Oriental Languages has been working for several years on the scientific topic “Culture of the peoples whose languages we study” and therefore it is natural that this topic was considered. Participants – students 1 – 4 years, teachers of oriental languages, as well as invited teachers and scientists – Lee Wei Hua (China), Melike Bahar Tike Tetik and Irfan Torsunogli (Turkey). The meeting was prepared and moderated by the head of the department Fedicheva N.V. and the Chinese language teacher Podmarev O.O. Fedicheva N.V. started the meeting and noted that when the epidemiological crisis broke out, it turned out that different cultures assessed the danger differently and reacted differently to it. Our University’s Turkish teacher between 2009-2012, Melike Bahar Tike Tetik, who now works as the director of the Science and Art Centre for Gifted Children, said that the atmosphere in Turkey is tense, but there is no hysteria or panic, and there is no particularly strict quarantine. She also said that together with her husband Ugur Tetik, who worked as the director of the Turkish Center of our university in 2010-2012, they make face shields at home with the help of 3D printer and distribute them to doctors and police department in Izmir, Turkey.
Irfan Torsunoglu made a report “Face masks and coronavirus: how culture affected our decision to wear them”. He noted, among other things, that in their country, wearing face masks is often seen as a collective responsibility to reduce disease transmission and symbolizes solidarity. Fedicheva N.V. added: “In a more collectivist culture, wearing a mask is more important than in the Western world. Wearing masks was associated with the spread of SARS and the mask served to define the identity of the disease. Later, dramatic photos of masked crowds walking the streets of Asian cities appeared in the Western media, this mask has invariably been racial and has been interpreted in the Western media as merely an “Asian” phenomenon. Nataliya Fedicheva also stressed that in the next few months in countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, employers and company executives will ask such questions related to the coronavirus (pandemic-related questions) during the interview. • What have you learned about yourself during the pandemic? • Can you do the job while working from home? • Are you willing to eventually work from an office? • How have you been spending your time?
Teachers Podmarev O.O. and Borzova O.D. drew attention to the following. In the countries of the east there is high sanitary culture. In Japan streets are very clean. The situation is similar in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. In these countries, people have a different mentality, a different level of trust in government: residents responsibly approach the instructions and recommendations, which greatly facilitates the work of physicians and epidemiologists.
The chairman of the Club K. Batyuk also prepared for the meeting. She reported that people in the small Mediterranean town of Sanari-sur-Mer in France refused to go outside to pick up their daily baguettes in the morning. In a country where taking a baguette from a boulangerie is a daily, almost necessary cultural practice, sacrifice has become a gesture of solidarity for them.
Students provided other interesting examples, asked many questions to teachers and guests. Students honed their ability to discuss, learned to establish a dialogue and organize a debate. Two hours of the meeting were like just one minute, because the atmosphere was very friendly and everyone wanted to communicate.
The information was prepared by NV Fedicheva
