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Game designed to help combat culture shock
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 1st May 2007
The new game hopes to tackle cultural misunderstandings; Richard Gere now wishes he played it, we bet.
The game is set in a 3D re-creation of the University of Portsmouth and gives players the task of getting through a day at the University while being exposed to some things that foreign students may not be used to. These include seeing women drinking and smoking and couples kissing in public.
One of the game's designers, senior lecturer Nipan Maniar, said that he too suffered from 'massive culture shock' when he first moved to England from India seven years ago.
"It was not just the environment I was in, but the teaching -- the relationship with tutors was very informal... So we thought we could devise a game that they could play on their mobile phones on the way here so they would know what to expect -- so they don't get so much of a culture shock."
A version of the mobile game, which has been received very well by students, is planned to help British students also. It is now in its final development stages and Maniar is hoping a commercial sponsor will step forward to help take the game the final mile.
The culture differences between India and the UK were outlined recently when an arrest warrant was issued for Richard Gere after he publicly kissed Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood star who appeared in the recent Celebrity Big Brother.
Glad that games are increasingly finding a home in education, or think that the two should be kept seperate? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (33)
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http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/04/23/Pressure_for_investigation_into_wifi_health_risks/
The only thing this game will do is think that everyone in the UK has scrape-back hair (for the females) and wears anything with white trainers.
Is it me or do I come across as a little bitter/jaded? :p
I can't say I see it as that much of a big deal though, I mean anyone coming here from their home countries is likely to only find a country more liberal or as liberal as their own. So long as people aren't very immature there shouldn't be any problems.
You ever actually been in India? If so then I guess you understand that public display's of affection are not conisdered appropriate. Whilst this may seem strange to Westerner it's quite the norm over there. Even Indian movies are banned from having extended kissing scenes.
It's just different no more right or wrong than the values of the west.
Aankhen, do you think you could justify the use of the word hypocrite there?
jai hind...
If new people are arriving, fine, be helpful, offer friendship, tolerance and understanding, but don't apologise for the local culture.
Phil
What's to deal with? Informality with lecturers, people kissing(which I'm sure even the most sexually repressed country sees once or twice on the big screen) - it's hardly as if you need to learn to walk on the roof now is it?
I would be curious to hear of any "culture shock" people from india who moved over here experienced, and specifically what it was. I can't imagine there was really _that_ much that would be hard to get used to. Lot's of new and different things of course, but stuff that's hard to accept or aclimatise to I'd be interested in.
wait, don't answer that
Finally, just to be clear, I fully support the technique mentioned in the article to alleviate culture shock, since (hypocrisy or not) this culture shock does exist, so softening it can only be a good thing. My comments were addressed towards the reaction to a few kisses from Richard Gere.
Fine, great, no problem. Leave.
Phil
Dude I'm going to be honest, you're coming across as a complete xenophobe. I have a problem with heavy duty public displays of affection if I'm honest. Not the odd peck on the cheek but heavy stuff. Everyone has their limits set at different points. The point is I recognise it's doing me no harm and can ignore it. That's why I said earlier that none of this should be a big deal to anyone who's reasonably mature.
Everyone has different limits, so long as you're not being harmed or directly effected you can just choose to ignore it. Just because people from another country don't like something about their new host country doesn't mean they should automatically leave - and you being so quick to suggest they do is slightly saddening.
I agree with what you're saying, however, I think Phil was more going towards the terrorist aspect of things.
Most of the terrorist suspects/training camps are aimed at people who do not agree with the Western way of life and then go to create mass mayhem, murder and destruction.
In that case I would say, if you don't like the way we live, just don't live here, we aren't forcing you to.
Terrorist :O
Wow, I'm amazed you brought that one up. In the last 50 years the only people who've been blowing stuff up in this country has been either British nationals or Irish people. Hardly puts indians in the front line of being suspected(unless you're a moron, which I'm not sayin you are).
I'm not trying to imply that we should be apoligists for our culture, or that it should be changed in order to comply with the desires of immigrants or visitors. Far from it. However I think it's a concerningly disproportionate response to instantly jump from people having a problem(that they can live with) about our culture to telling them to leave if they don't like it. They don't have to like everything - and they'd be remarkable if they did.
Sorry, should have stated that I mean cultures not people, it's the culture/religion that causes the problem in my view.
Obviously, changing it isn't always possible and leaving it isn't always the most appropriate option. So, people cope with it. That the issue hasn't been in the public eye much until now illustrates how well most people do this. Developing a small, mobile game to help speed this process up and acclimatise others to our country is obviously a good thing - it'll make our country more diverse and welcoming to others and will show them what to expect from our nation. It's not like this game cost 50 million quid to make.
Lets not make this a terrorist debate, because i'm willing to bet that none of us are objective and knowledgeable enough to discuss it sensibly, including me. Games and gadgets, yes. International terrorism rings and the secret elite forces combatting their conspiracies on an international scale? I doubt it.
Unless, Alextwo works for MI5, which I've recently begun to suspect based on his knowledge of bugs: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=132873
There is a lot I dislike about this country but I have no intention of leaving.
As for the Richard Gere kiss, regardless of cultural differences that is just ludicrous.
but the English seems lacking here "A version of the mobile game, which has been received very well by students, is planned to help British students also."
nitpicking but wouldn't the following read better? "A mobile version of the game, which has been received very well by students, is planned to help British students also."
;)
If I go to someone else's house, I don't complain about the wallpaper. If I go to other countries (as I regularly do) I don't complain about their customs, at least not with any expectation of anyone giving a damn. Personally I think it's absolutely ludicrous to make women wear headscarves or prevent them from driving cars, and I'll direct as much scorn as I can at such practices. What I don't do is go live in Iran and start blasting on about it with the implication that I expect someone to change it for me. I choose to live there, I choose to deal with it as it is or I take personal responsibility for changing it if I can, anyone cares, etc. What I don't do is whine.
If you want to live somewhere where public displays of affection are verboten, such places exist. If you want to live somewhere there are schools teaching your own personal brand of imaginary-friend worship, such places exist. What you can't reasonably do is say, OK, I'll move to the UK and enjoy the first-world living conditions, free healthcare and high levels of employment, but hang on, I also want it to be exactly like home in every other way.
Not only is this cultural imperialism (for which the western world is often-enough decried), it's just boring - I don't travel to places in the hope that everything would be exactly the same as London. I love to travel. I don't want the whole world to become a homogenised blob of identicality.
Phil
My point is that it's fine to have problems with things, it's obviously not fine to constantly whine about a culture of a country you just moved to, or to try to change it significantly. But it's fine not to like it, that's allowed.
No-one said anything about actually wanting to change the UK's culture here, people have only talked about incomers having trouble getting used to it, and having problems with aspects of it(which to re-iterate, is fine and perfectly understandable).
As for the idea that anyone from India who's moved to the UK doesn't have healthcare, good working conditions, or experience a high level of employment in their area, that's fairly unlikely imo. People who can afford to move half way around the world from an industrial superpower to a country like our own, are likely to have all of those things.
We just shouldn't have to put up with is people saying "Oh, things should be more like they are in country X."
I'm just trying to advocate people taking a little bit of personal responsibility for things. My vitriol is borne of having suffered many, many countries other than the UK who are very ready to say "This is how we are, you must conform, if you don't like it, get lost." Living in the west, we're so often the subject of criticism in this regard, but when you get down to it, we're one of the most tolerant cultures in the world. Try and find a Christian school in Iran.
Phil
Interesting I think, how demonised muslims in the UK and demonised Christians in Iran have more in common with each other than the religious majorities in the opposite country.