25 May 2020 Week 6 Response To Differences in Emotional Expressivity

My ancestors on my mother's side of the family are from many parts of Europe including Great Britain and Scandinavian countries. My father is from the Netherlands. I was trying to find out what the public emotional expressivity of the Netherlands is. From what I can tell it may be in the middle of a scale of low to high. Whereas Great Britain and Scandinavian countries are at the low end.

I lived in Missouri from about age 1 until age 4 and from then until age 17 I grew up near Salt Lake City, Utah. After school I joined the military and lived in Southern California and Okinawa, Japan from ages 20 to 24. Even though I lived in Japan twice for six months each time I lived on military bases and was not immersed in their culture.

I believe all of this has led me to be less likely to express emotions in public which is why most people that know me view me as too serious.

Then at age 24 I went on a mission to the Dominican Republic where public display of emotion is high and done often. I still remember leaning far back into a sofa to avoid kisses on the cheek from a young lady whose house we were visiting. I did this because it was against our mission rules. For Dominican ladies this is an acceptable way to greet a man. When I returned after my mission and was greeted by a lady kissing me on the cheek I accepted because I was no longer a missionary.

In the Dominican Republic is where I remember first encountering a nation where almost everyone was happy, friendly, and very kind to everyone. I soon began to compare these people with those of the United States and the best way I found to do this comparison was to refer to the Dominican people as very open whereas the people from the United States are closed.

I wanted to and still would like to live in the Dominican Republic. I would have far more friends there and not just because I would be viewed as a rich foreigner. While on my mission I learned far more than just the Spanish language. I immersed myself in the culture and did my best to learn how to be a Dominican. In many was I succeeded. I am far more outgoing when around Latinos and speaking Spanish than I am when around native English speakers.

As I reflect upon my life and how I express emotions I find it very interesting that I believe I have been more emotionally expressive in public during periods of my life when I lived in the Dominican Republic than when living in any other place. Just thinking about it makes me long to return there.