Is my experience just a simple misunderstanding due to the poor Spanish proficiency my Korean friend has? Or is it the result of a more complex set of cultural variables what made her think that our beer is the same as her Soju? In order to answer all these questions, I would like to explore and analyze the multiple factors that could have had influenced this Korean lady’s erroneous offering of Soju instead of beer. In order to do this, I will perform a systematic comparison between our cultural backgrounds in ways to understand how the drinking culture in Panama and Korea differ from each other. Moreover, to complement this comparison, I will focus on the different learning methods people use to acquire a concept. Once these factors have been analyzed, we will definitely have a wider perspective on how cultural positioning lead to the distortion of the beer …show more content…
There are many theories that explain how cognitive learning occurs, and all of these theories generate controversy among researchers. The cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner defines cognitive learning as "the search for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from non-exemplars of various categories.” In simple words, concepts enable people to create mental categories in order to classify ideas, objects, or events (Krammer). In addition, Bruner explains that people have different methods of learning concepts. According to Bruner, through words, examples, experiences, and comparison people can acquire a clear mental image that can become a concept. With this in mind, we will need to first understand the main differences and similarities between the Panamanian beer and Korean Soju in order to break down our case.
Following Bruner’s though process, comparison is one of the main methods used by people to acquire a concept. Therefore we should expect to see a solid relationship between the Panamanian beer and Korean Soju that led my Korean friend to wrongfully think that they were the same. As we can see in Figure. 1, both drinks have certain physical similarities that can definitely bring confusion to the untrained eyes of