What is culture?

I believe the culture is the most powerful human tool to differ from other wild animals. Since human had lived as a group or family, the culture started from there. They used to hunt for eating, build shelter for living safely, wear furs for keeping warm, interact for understand each other. Those are the basics of culture. That is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists in our mind. Our government, building, clothes, written language and other man-made things are actually product of the culture. But they are not culture in themselves. For example archeologists dig up for remainder of ancient people's stuffs from underground. They can't find culture directly from there, things that were found are only materials. People learn and inherit the culture from generation to generation. As a result without human there is no culture at all.

I am totally agree with the quote "Never judge a culture by one man and never judge a man by popular culture." The culture is not about one man (individual), there must be at least ethnicity or nation. One man can't tell all about culture from his appearance, talk and behavior. I think the best thing to get know more about the culture is live inside the culture. I mean live in Japan if you want to know more about Japanese culture. I am experiencing now that I am living in Oxford to have better knowledge of American culture. When I am generalizing American culture, I have to meet a lot of people, associate with mass media of US, read a lot. I shouldn't depend on only stereotypes or rumors.

I want people to perceive my culture optimistically. There are many negative stereotypes about my country. Such as: people in Mongolia don't live in city, they don't have computer or internet, everybody still rides a horse. I want to correct some misunderstood ideas about Mongolia when I talk or meet people from the U.S. It seems like no Mongolian in Oxford area, so I am the one who represent my county here. Likewise, I am the sole ambassador here in Ole Miss, Oxford,MS.

A cultural tradition that I have shared with other students

When I first met other students from the Philippines, China, Laos, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica and the U.S.A, they didn't know much about our country. They know where is it located and probably some of them heard of Genghis (Chinggis) Khan who established the Mongol Empire in 13th century. All I had to do was to tell them about my country such as culture, history, dress, food, lifestyle and climate.

Today I wanted to focus on our traditional nomadic yurt which is called 'Ger' means 'Home'. Because I haven't shared it yet with other students.

The population of Mongolia is 2.951.000 (2007) and over 60 percent of citizen live in town, city. Around 40 percent still lives nomadic life. But more than 80% live in Ger rather than house, apartment, building. Ger is a portable, felt-covered, wood-lattice framed dwelling structure traditionally used by nomads in central Asia.

Traditional ger consist of a circular wooden frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of the flocks of sheep that accompany the pastoralists. The timber to make the external structure is not to be found on the treeless steppes, and must be obtained by trade in the valleys below. The frame consists of one or more lattice wall-sections, a door-frame, roof poles and a crown. Some styles of Ger have one or more columns to support the crown. The (self-supporting) wood frame is covered with pieces of felt. Depending on availability, the felt is additionally covered with canvas and/or sun-covers. The frame is held together with one or more ropes or ribbons. The structure is kept under compression by the weight of the covers, sometimes supplemented by a heavy weight hung from the center of the roof. They vary regionally, with straight or bent roof-poles, different sizes, and relative weight.

Below shown how Ger is being built:

China and Mongolia relations

When we look back to our history Mongolia and China have waged many wars. China's Great Wall was constructed to ward off invading hordes from Mongolia and Central Asia. Mongols under Kublai (Khubilai) Khan successfully conquered much of China and established the Yuan Dynasty, and Mongolia later fell under control of the Qing dynasty of China. With the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared its independence after almost 300 years of Chinese rule. Although many peoples of Inner Mongolia sought to accede to the new state, China retained its control over the area and invaded Mongolia in 1919. Consequently, Mongolia sought Soviet Russian support to reclaim its independence. In 1921, Chinese and White Russian forces were driven out by the Red Army of the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Mongolian forces. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was formed.

In early 20th century relation of China and Mongolia led to hopeful situation. The People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations with Mongolia on October 16, 1949 and both nations signed a border treaty in 1962. As a result, bilateral ties remained tense until 1984, when a high-level Chinese delegation visited Mongolia and both nations began to survey and demarcate their borders. In 1986, a series of agreements to bolster trade and establishing transport and air links were signed. Mongolia also began asserting a more independent policy and pursued more friendly ties with China.

In the Post-Cold war era, China has taken major steps to normalize its relationship with Mongolia, emphasizing its respect for Mongolia's sovereignty and independence. In 1994, Chinese premier Li Peng signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. China has become Mongolia's biggest trade partner and source of foreign investment. China offered to allow the use of its Tianjin port to give Mongolia and its goods access to trade with the Asia Pacific region. China also expanded its investments in Mongolia's mining industries, seeking to exploit the country's natural resources. China is likely to support Mongolia's membership in to the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and granting it observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

What I thought about when I read Ladda's blog

I didn't know much about Laos before I met Ladda. I remember 1 or 2 years ago Lao president visited to Mongolia. I know it's a country located in Asia next to Thailand. I found that Lao national food and American food are totally different in case of Ladda's impression about it. Because since she arrived here she don't like the food so much. People who live in Laos usually eat rices tastes much more spicier than food here. Also I knew Mongolia and Laos have a many similarities. In both countries most of the people are Buddhist and there are a lot of temples.
It's very proud that people wear their traditional clothes often in Laos while we do not. I imagine countries like Thailand and Laos like prestigious architecture building which looks like golden. Language spoken in Laos in very similar to Thailand is very intersting because we don't have similar lanuage. Finally I am happy that I have friend from Laos.

Language is the part of culture

Language that we use everyday is the tool of our communications. I can't imagine interactions of people without any language. We can categorize languages by spoken and written, by regions and countries (nations) and etc. But today I wanted to write more about Mongolian language which is indispensable part of our culture.

Mongolian is a Mongolic language. Other languages in the Mongolic family include Khamnigan and Dagur, spoken in China's Qinghai and Gansu regions; and the probably extinct Moghol of Afghanistan. Oirat (including the Kalmyk dialect) and Buryat – both spoken in Russia, Mongolia and China – are considered by some scholars to be major dialects of Mongolian, and by others as Mongolic languages in their own right. Ordos, spoken around Inner Mongolia's Ordos city, is regarded by most scholars as a dialect of Mongolian; a few consider it an independent language. The Altaic theory proposes that the Mongolic family is a member of a larger Altaic languages that would also include the Turkic, Tungusic and Japonaic language and Korean.

Mongolian language is considered the one of the most difficult language especially by its pronounciation. Modern mongolian alphabets were imitated from Russian alphabet which is called Cyrillic. Mongolian has been written in a variety of alphabets. The traditional Mongolian tradrional script was adapted from Uyghur script probably at the very beginning of the 13th century and from that time underwent some minor disambiguations and supplementations. Between 1930 and 1932, a short-lived attempt was made to introduce the Latin script in the Mongolian state, and after a preparatory phase, the Cyrillic script was declared as mandatory by government decree. From 1991 to 1994, an attempt was made to reintroduce the traditional alphabet which failed due to popular resistance. In informal contexts of electronic text production, the use of Latin is common as well.

American football and mongolian national wrestling

These 2 sports are both icon of two countries. American football is a competitive sport whose rule is to score points by carrying the ball into the opposing team's ending zone. The ball can be advanced by passing to teammates and points can be in a variety of ways.



Mongolian wrestling is a traditional sport that has been practiced for centuries. Genghis Khan considered wrestling is a good way to keep the army in good physical and battle shape. The objective of the match is to get your opponent to touch his upper body or elbow to the ground. There are no weight classes or time limits in a match. Each wrestler must wrestle once per round, the winners moving on to the next round.

Differences between these sports are:
*Football is team sport, Mongolian wrestling is an individual sport.
*Football is played on the field indicates yards, Wrestling can be matched in are with wide space
*Football needs ball and 2 team, Wrestling needs at least 2 people
*Football has a league, wrestling has a rank and title
*Football is able to seen on during season, wrestling is available on holidays

Similarities:
*They are both very popular in the nation.
*They both have coach
* Only men play football and wrestle
*They both have judges
*They both wear special clothes
* They are both very competitive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xDZzLnpB18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEqlrPh_2nk

How others percieve our culture?

Mongolian culture has been on earth since there was a small tribe called Khamag Mongol. After a few centuries in 13th century Genghis Khan established Great Mongolian empire.

Mongolians were nomadic who move from one place to another season by season. Based on nomadic lifestyle everything is ideal for nomadic as well as culture. Earliest notice about Mongolian culture and lifestyle is from 1300s by Italian traveller Marco Polo. But in 21st century 65% of Mongolians living in cities and towns. Others still live in countryside by nomadic lifestyle. Many tourists visit to Mongolian who is more interested in Nomadic life than city life. Mongolian herders who live in countryside they breed livestocks like horse, camel, sheep, goat and cow. They get product from livestocks for living such as milk from cow, wool from camel and sheep, cashmere from goat.

Food is also from livestocks mainly we use beefs and muttons for main dishes besides rice, vegetable, flour. If you visit typical mongolian family, they will treat you with soup with beef and flour, vegetable or stewed flour meat inside.

Our traditional dress is called 'Deel' which is very comfortable to wear. But nowadays people live in city don't wear while others wear in countryside. We have also traditional boots and hats. Most people wear them for special occasions like national holidays.

Education system is more similar to Russian. 4 years in elementary school, 4 years in junior school, 3 years in high school. Also you can study in college for 4 years to get bachelor degree. There are over 100 universities in Mongolia and few of them are public. You will find some mongol families more hospitable in countryside than people in the city. They are friendly and naive that they will show rescpect for someone from other countries.

My first impressions of American life at the University of Mississippi

Firstly wow it's great to be here in Oxford. The campus is bigger than I was predicting. I might be lost unless I have a map. When I arrive in Oxford, I settled in Crosby hall and my roommate is from Philippines. He is very friendly and nice to communicate. I had same flight with students from Laos and China from Chicago to Memphis.

Since I was newcomer in campus, Willy from Costa Rico did help us a lot like entering to cafeteria and what is it like life at campus. I heard that people from southern state like Mississippi are very friendly and hospitality. Actually it's true in Oxford. If someone passes in the street, they always smile and bow their head. If I need any help, anyone in the street tells me.
Food served at campus cafeteria is very diverse. I can choose what i like to eat. So I won't worry about that I will be hungry.
Dressing here is like free you can wear whatever you want upon the weather condition. I made a mistake that I didn't bring jacket and warm clothes. I thought it is going to be very hot in Ole Miss but it's not in the room. Because there is a/c that I can not control to turn it off.
We had our first pre-academic lesson today it was pronunciation class. The teacher's name is Lance and he is very cool guy who makes class very interesting.
At last I am glad that my dream to study in the U.S. is coming true.