It's Anyone's Game

There is simple card game that can alter anyone's perspective of culture within five minutes.  What I thought was going to be tournament to assess each person's personal patience and inner pride, turned out to be a frustrating test of each person's ethnocentricity. Placed in groups, each student was required to learn a card game, the rules, the restrictions, the trumps. After running through the game quite thoroughly and attempting a few practice rounds, we were ready to move on to the competition portion of the game. The only rule, no talking. I didn't have a problem at first, I got a lucky hand (all hearts, the trump card). After playing a few rounds, I gathered up my winning hands and counted them out in comparison to the other players at my table. Seeing as I won, I was instructed to shift over one table clockwise. As I sat at the next table, I exchanged silent smiles with my new opponents and took a seat. The cards were dealt out and the game commenced. At the first hand, I noticed something... different, about this game. I was the first to place my card down, I placed down a heart, the other three players placed down cards of other suits. Since hearts trump all, no matter what, I moved my hand towards the cards to claiming my winnings. I was beat to it. As one of the other players swiped the hand off the table I stopped her. Trying to motion as descriptively as possible, I tried to explain that hearts trumped everything and therefore I won the cards. The more agitated all of us got the more we began to try and silently communicate. Finally, we were put to rest as the teacher called our attention back to the front. Apparently, each table was given a different trump and when we switched tables our trumps clashed. Just like when you go to a new place, your customs/trumps may not coincide with other's customs/trumps. When barriers such as language stand in the way of explaining why you did what you did, things can get messy. I was frustrated by the difficulty for my opponents and I to communicate. In reality, people react one of three ways to this sort of situation. One can either take the path of ethnocentrism and think the person you are with is wrong and must follow how you do things because that is the only right way. One can go into culture shock and be unsure of how to react.  Or one can understand the other person's culture, their different customs and accept the way they are. Although I understood where the stigmatize was coming from, what I was most frustrated about was the lack of ability to communicate. But that's how it is in the real world. Two people with clashing customs most likely don't speak the same language, making it difficult to explain their differences. I wasn't angry with my other opponents differences in their game rules, I was frustrated by the incapacity to communicate. We are always told to talk it out, but how can you do that without a common language.