One of the most eye opening things I learned during my training is whether to classify an action as personal, cultural, or universal. A basic example of this would be a person, named John, that sings. Does John do this because he personally likes to, does he grow up in a culture that enjoys to sing, or does the entire universe love to sing? Even with a basic example, the boundaries of where this action lies are blurred. There could be cultures that look down upon singing and therefore don't enjoy it, maybe everyone in the entire universe likes to sing.
Even though there aren't clear cut boundaries, it is something helpful to keep in mind when approaching difficult situations. For example, if you're in another country traveling and your being harassed, stop and think before jumping to classify these people with sweeping generalizations. I'm going to say for curtain, this doesn't fall under universal. There's a chance it's a cultural thing and this group of people just doesn't like you. Realistically though, in the majority of situations, it's just a personal action. So, before saying that everyone that lives in X country is rude, stop and think to yourself, is it personal, cultural, or universal?
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