we're all the same
it just looks different
While shooting the film Burning, Korean-American actor Steven Yeun lived alone in South Korea for five months.
When asked about what he took away from his time abroad, Yeun didn’t speak to the food, sights, or even the culture. Despite his solitude, he found solidarity in human experience:
“The first thing you notice is… it’s all the same. The same people are in the same places, [just in] different countries. They’re just called different things. Your brain has to work through the mental gymnastics of being like, ‘That’s not how I categorize that person.’ And then you realize that you put someone in a box, [so] you try to take them out of that box. So there’s a lot of deconstruction in that way.”
What a powerful insight ― to immerse yourself in a foreign environment and emerge with a stronger sense of shared humanity.
You don’t get to that point as a passive observer. Taking the extra step of challenging and unlearning your cultural biases requires deep reflection and inner work.
Thankfully, it can feel easy in the right setting. I’ve been lucky enough to share meals and late-night conversations with Malaysian management consultants, Egyptian medical students, and French cancer survivors.
Sure, we differed on surface-level things like accents, colloquialisms, and skin color. But in these people, I saw my own ambitions and fears ― the very same wonderings about our lives and the world around us:
“What is my purpose? Am I on the right path? How do I find my way in this world amidst all this suffering and uncertainty?”
We learned about each other’s cultures and family dynamics. We danced and sang and played drinking games at an ill-advised pace. We bared our insecurities en route to beaches, museums, and absurdly themed cocktail bars.
Across language and cultural barriers, we lived in full expression of ourselves and saw each other for who we truly were, and who we wanted to be.
It’s harder to see in our daily lives, but we really are all the same. We all value safety, freedom, and connection. We all partake in rituals around food, togetherness, and the celebration of life.
At the end of the day, we share nearly identical values ― we just have different ways of expressing them.
Some cultures show respect through hugs, kisses, and handshakes, while others bow from a healthy distance. Some offer care by dancing around touchy subjects; others offer concern through blunt honesty. Some extend love by directly exchanging money, while others prefer gifts and Hallmark cards.
All of them deserve a place in this beautifully chaotic existence.
Note: Burning was one of the most unique films I’ve ever seen. The moment I reference in the Steven Yeun interview begins at the ~5:46 timestamp.