Franz Boas noticed that people who study other cultures still tend to be ethnocentric and look at other cultures with their own ideas about how life should be based on their culture. A person may be ethnocentric without meaning to be. Ethnocentrism is the idea that one’s own culture is the best, and other cultures are studied or viewed with this outlook. In Boas’ article “On Alternating Sounds,” he explains how different cultures experience sound differently. When people study or come into contact with other cultures, people misunderstand sounds and language. An example used by Boas, is when he studies Eskimo texts, words and languages spelled in the Bureau of Ethnology by British Columbia. There were many misspellings explained by a misunderstanding by other cultures that have a different phonetic system rooted in a person's life. 