I was talking with a friend recently, about learning languages and culture and everything that goes with it. Although language is relatively easy to learn (she says in hindsight!!!), as it has an agreed structure, and rules, and plenty of people who can explain what you don´t understand.
Learning culture on the other hand, is a very different thing. My friend compared it to trying to steal a diamond! (Just imagine one of those scenes from mission impossible)
You know where you want to get to, and initially it might even look easy to get to, but then you take one step and alarms sound all around you. Of course any diamond of any value is surrounded by lasers, and trip wires and alarms -- but you can´t see where any of them are, so you´re forced to move forward blindly and slowly, knowing that at any moment you might make a mistake or trip or set off alarms that you didn´t intend to. Sometimes you learn where one laser is, and manage to contort yourself into avoiding it. Other times, just when you think that you´ve worked out where it is, it changes or shifts, so that you´re right back to the beginning.
It seems like quite an accurate analogy to me!
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