Coconut and Peach Culture/Personalities

From several sources, I learned that a psychologist, Kurt Lewin, grouped the culture as coconut and peach. Coconut is described as hard outside and soft inside. Peach is described as soft outside and hard inside. Because of this different culture, cross-cultural misunderstanding often happened.

For me, it is interesting that a person with a German nationality described his culture as a coconut culture. For someone from a coconut producing country [1], coconut (cocos nucifera) gives a different impression. Coconut is not associated with a soft characteristic. Young coconuts have sweet flesh, which is not very soft (compared with peaches) but can be eaten directly with the help of a spoon. Mature coconuts have harder flesh and in a greater amount of flesh compared with the young one. To make coconut milk from a mature coconut, the flesh needs to be first grated (Because of their hardness, this is not an easy process). Additionally, the inside of a coconut is mostly coconut water. 

Coconut is so hard that can cause death when it falls from its tree [2]. However, a coconut tree is special because all parts of the tree have many uses. Therefore, the Indonesian girl/boy scout use the sprouting coconut seed as their logo.

Every person has his/her personality and surrounded by various cultures. Maybe some can be associated with coconut, peaches, mangoes, grapes, cactus, banana [3], durian, mangosteen, snake fruit, or dragon fruit. We can always learn from each other.

1: List of countries by coconut production

2: Death by coconut
3: Used to described personality in the movie of Crazy Rich Asians