“There are no primitive people, only primitive cultures.”
A quote that has been, and probably will continue to be, one of my favorite quotes. It’ from a man named Paul Teasdale, or “grandpa” as everyone called him when I went through a year-long training in North Carolina. One of the smartest guys you will ever meet who probably knows at least 10 languages.
This man spent years of his life in cultures where many of the people are what most would consider “primitive.” But the truth is that some of the things we think may be important they may have never been told about or have no access to learning.
This evening, I went to an international student Lantern Festival party. As I talked with several of these people from China, I began realizing how much these people were doing. They were the ones putting in all of the work. Here I am, an American, coming to an event to make friends and help build community with international students, but I know nothing about their language or really much about their history.
There were two students in particular that I got to know more and I started to realize just how much you can have in common with people from other cultures and languages. Even though there’s the natural barrier of language, there’s a sense of commonality when you really start talking about more subjects.
Whether the person with the highest status symbol or the lowest of the low classes, they’re all made in the image of Him and have many things that we can relate to