Jill Scott Quotes

Wherever you go, respect the local culture or you will suffer.

I think that we in the West expect people to adapt to our culture very, very quickly when they come to our country. But when we go over to someone else's, I don't think we are willing to meet them halfway like we expect them to meet us. I think having cultural sensitivity is a lot more important than we realize.

I say the same thing that I've said for decades now, which is: don't go over to Japan trying to change it, thinking that you know better. Go there trying to understand.

Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.

I've got tremendous respect for different cultures, for the food and everything.

I try to study the background of the country I am in and what were my hits there, so I can at least give them some of what they want. It's like a wedding - give them something old, something new, something borrowed and definitely something blue!

Other people's traditions look charming and decorative and exotic. They're nice places to visit on holiday, but you wouldn't want to live with one.

I don't think that people understand enough about each other's cultures any more.

I navigate different cultures daily, and I understand how people can make false assumptions because of their lack of interaction with the cultures I find myself in. But if they don't frequent these spaces much, how can they rush to judgment?

There's a kind of integrity to being an observer of a culture. I think Canadians have that privilege innately. We are, like, the observers of the American culture.

There's the fine line between presenting your culture and learning about other cultures so it becomes global.

I think when you move to a country like the U.S., you need to understand the culture, to understand how people see the game, and adapt yourself.

A lot of issues that we have in the world today rise from the fact that we do not know enough about each other's cultures, that we don't respect each other's origins and there is so much negativity and strife around because we don't know where the other person is coming from.

One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions notwithstanding.

The two cultures of East and West are very different, and the priorities are very different. So when you understand that - if you are from this side or this side - when you understand that the other is different than you, and you respect these differences, you can build communication.

If you decide to move to another country and to live within its laws you don't express your disregard for the essence of the culture. It's a form of aggression.

I had a hard time convincing students that they were going to North Africa to understand the North Africans, not to understand themselves.

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.

I'm anti-globalisation. There is nothing more enriching than to go out into the world and meet people different to you. We must fight the spread of a singular way of thinking and preserve cultural differences.

If you respect a language and culture, it shows in your work.

I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.

We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own culture.

Culture makes all men gentle.

When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.

Believing in each culture's right to be understood by the other party without any form of falseness or distortion is paramount.