John Gunter

Life - Faith - One Bridge

An embarrassing blunder and a vital life lesson

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John Gunter, Patrick Ku, and others in Asia
Patrick Ku and I in the midst of one of my many awkward cultural blunders (details below)!

I cannot begin to count how many times I have made cultural and life mistakes while living in Asia.  Pat Ku, upon moving to Asia gave me this advice regarding Chinese culture and the language. . . “however you do things/say things in America, do the opposite in Asia and the Chinese language”.  Though a little overly simplistic, it was solid advice just the same.

As a result of this, I have come to embrace one of the most helpful life lesson I have learned by living and working cross-culturally.  Whenever you enter a new environment, whether it be a new job, school, family, or in my case, country, FIRST notice what the local customs and norms are, THEN respond in all situations essentially in the same manner. This is THE fundamental skill in cultural and life adaptation.

This might sound as if I am endorsing conformity.  Nothing could be further from the truth.   At least not at a core values level.  Your values will stand firm and keep you grounded where ever you go in life.  However, styles, culture, and general ways people carry themselves around others will be different everywhere you go.  In order to be heard [Read more…]

Cherishing life through three realities from this summer

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John Gunter and family on the Alaskan cruise
Here is the entire Gunter clan on our Alaskan cruise.

This summer was a massive time of travel for me. 4 different countries, 13 different cities, and 15 different beds within a 5 week window.  It was a good and profitable time, but physically demanding. Throw in the fact that my time in the States (outside of our Alaskan cruise as a family) was FILLED with work meetings and the result is me still stuck in recovery mode here in Asia.

The time, though, was a blessing on many fronts. The work went very well, but more so, it was a wonderful time of being with my family and a few close friends. In addition to the Alaskan cruise that all 15 of us undertook (click here for the post I wrote during the cruise), we had other times of fellowship and celebration as a family of Mom and Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary.

As I sit here in this steamy coffeehouse in Asia reflecting over this time, though, three realities come to mind most about the summer that draws me to want to live a life of greater purpose, joy, and intentionality.

  1. Whales are awesome and Alaska is beautiful – I won’t go off on this much here since I have already written a post about it, but I did want to say this. . . whales are awesome.  On multiple occasions we had whales swim past our ship.  One day, we took a smaller boat on a whale watching excursion in Juneau.  Seeing mammals the size of school buses swimming in a pack of 9 within 20 yards of our boat was incredible.  I messed up in trying to take a picture and instead got 2 seconds of video footage (see the “video” below).  Probably won’t get me a Pulitzer Prize or anything, but I hope you enjoy this video captured on my iPad.  Not much here in the way of purpose and intentionality, but [Read more…]

10 tips for surviving LONG flights. . . YOUR input desired!

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As I stated in my last post, I have spent a significant part of my life on LONG, international flights (please CLICK HERE if you have not read it. . . definitely read the comments by Scott Stephenson and Tim Waddell at the end).  These flights tend to be physically demanding and life shortening, but at least we have them as opposed to boats as they had in the old days.

Flight to Asia in 1999
This was taken by a friend on one of my first flights to Asia. . . I’m busy at work.

Additionally, many of my friends will be traveling from America to Asia in the coming weeks, so I hope this will be helpful.

I’m sure one day we will find an alternative means of long-distance travel, but for now we are stuck with massive, over-crowed planes.  Until an alternative to plane travel is created. . .

Here are 10 of my suggestions for surviving LONG, international flights.  I’ll start off with a tip based on the end of my previous post.

  1. Wear shoes that can easily slip on and off – See my previous post for the reason why.  This is essential.  On a related note, ALWAYS WEAR SHOES TO THE BATHROOM!  If you have not, you really need to read this post. . . 
  2. Drink water often – I try to get up and ask the flight attendants for water every 1-2 hours.  You get massively dehydrated on flights of 8+ hours, even when you don’t realize it.  This will lead to [Read more…]

The 5 types of people you see on LONG airplane flights

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As I type this, I am on yet another LONG flight.  This one is trans-Pacific.  By my count (you do things like count flights when bored on a LONG flight), this flight will be the 55th time I have flown over the Pacific Ocean.  Add to this the 20 times I have flown over the Atlantic Ocean (not to mention flight from Asia to Europe), and long flights are one of the few things I can truly say I know well.

In honor of my vagabond lifestyle that I have lived for much of my adult life, I am going to do a LONG flight blog or two.  This first one will be on the characters that I often see on these flights.

Here are some classic “I can’t stay awake” guys on my flight.
You see, there really are a few characteristics and/or characters that you seem to always fly with on these flights.  Let’s take a look at a few of them.

  1. The “I can’t stay awake” guy – This guy gets on board, settles his bags, fastens his seat belt, and IMMEDIATELY starts the involuntary forward head bob.  He can’t wait until the flight gets up in the air in order to push his seat back, so he risks serious back injury by simply leaning forward the entire time.  The seatbelt keeps him still, yet is also the reason way he won’t be able to walk when we stands up for the first time in a few hours.  I envy these guys, I really do.  I have trouble sleeping in sterile, comfortable settings, yet [Read more…]

First Impressions. . . Asian hospitality

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(This post is part of a series I am doing called “First Impressions. . . my first few months in Asia“. If you would like to read about this series and other articles, please CLICK HERE.)

Chinese meal
Though not from that day, this is a typical local meal.

Coming from the south in America, hospitality is something that is valued to me. This isn’t just a saying, but a reality. My mother is one of, if not the best, hostess that I have ever known. She loves having people over. Some of my fondest memories as a child are of our house being packed with guests, laughter, tons of food, and Mom & Dad providing a wonderful environment.

One of the many things that I have loved about Asian culture is their value of hospitality. They are wonderful at it and place massive amounts of effort into hosting guests. Additionally, it is literally a Confusion teaching to honor and take tremendous care of foreigners in their land. The result is that these people have, by in large, gone out of their way to be good hosts me in every conceivable way during my time here. It’s been wonderful.

Though I have been in the homes of many of my Asian friends over the years, the following story is of the first time. Nothing dramatic during this day, it was just my first such experience so I went to greater detail in chronicling it. Many others have followed in a similar fashion. . .

I had met the managers of the local weight room on my second day in county. They were nice guys. Their English was limited to a handful of “weight room words” and my Chinese was non-existent at the time.

[Read more…]

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