Cultural Integration
What is cultural integration? Cultural integration is a process by which people exchange their cultural factors without affecting their own cultures. Now, what are the cultural factors? The cultural factors are belief, ceremonies, symbols, language, norms and practices of some group of people. Cultural integration is an important way to maintain a good community with the people of other cultures.
How does the cultural integration occur? Cultural integration occurs due to the movement of people from one cultural group into other. People usually move one cultural group into others to migrate to a new place, to study, or to visit other countries. Every year many people migrate to the United States to live permanently, study, and work. They have their own cultures, but they also learn United States cultures. For instances, many Bangladeshi people come to the United States, and they are used to with a lot of US cultures. However, they do not forget about their own cultures, they just integrate the cultures.
Now, you have may a question in your mind, whether cultural integration is good for the people or whether it has some negative effects on the group of people? Cultural integration is a good medium to exchange our own beliefs, norms, and language with others without losing our own cultures. It is necessary for the human beings to live in the society. That’s why it is important for the migrating people to exchange their own cultures with their community. Some people argue that people usually lose their cultures because of their migration to the new cultures. However, it is not the definition of cultural integration to lose one’s own cultures. It is not the fault of the cultural integration, but it happens due to these types of people.
Does only movement of people cause cultural integration? Cultural integration may also happen by seeing other cultures’ movie in Television, YouTube, and social media. A movie is a good medium to learn about the cultures of a country. For example, people may know other cultures’ marriage style by seeing movies, if there is a marriage performance in that movie. Nowadays, there are lot of foreign restaurants in almost every country. People might learn food habits by having foods those restaurants. Therefore, there are a lot of ways to integrate cultures.
In conclusion, it is clear that Cultural Integration is an important tool to understand other cultures without losing one’s own cultures. It is also important to live in a foreign culture community. (Rafikul Islam). Cultural Integration
Culture is the trust, faith or acceptance of customs, rituals, etc. in a way that is followed by a group of people or place. When this culture is particularly observed during a period of time it could be interpreted as ‘civilization’. It requires human interpretation of facts and beliefs to know and follow culture, but civilization passes from one generation to another without any efforts. This interpretation by human beings could only be attained if they are associated, and acknowledge the full worth of culture. While culture depends on language, arts, beliefs and rituals it is as well unique as a place’s geographical location. To name a few there are African, American, Indian, Chinese, and Russian etc. Integration is the combination into a whole, and here the cultural integration is how the cultures of two different groups are integrated into one, without losing any aspect of the original culture. This essay focuses on the needs of people who integrate culturally and the advantages of doing so.
Cultural integration is necessary for people in present days. Adapting to new culture by acquiring few aspects of that was a necessity, to people who migrated initially and who were not a huge population earlier. Owing to globalization and advancements in technology there are lot of people who settle abroad, travel frequently, and send their children for higher education. A person who travels to another country seeking a livelihood and a life is an immigrant. For example The United States (US) is a land of immigrants, United Kingdom (UK), and Germany are also popular for people attempting their best to migrate. The primary reason to migrate to another country is in search of better fortune, higher education etc. This immigration gives a new identity. When a person is willing to migrate to another part of the world, he is required to adapt to that culture. This is acquired in addition to his inherited culture. Here adapting refers to accepting the concepts of the new culture that are required to develop a healthy relationship with the people around him or her.
Cultural integration helps people realize success, achieve and contribute to betterment of society and self. Advanced countries like the US and UK are the first nations to be open to develop less prevalent cultures by extending their support in multiple ways like offering free land to build infrastructure for their community. Cultural integration emerged more influential because of globalization. The exposure to different cultures helps in gaining knowledge of the best of any culture and the combination of any two such cultural arts, cuisine, or fashion results in a contemporary discovery, suitable to all people from those cultures. The success of Hollywood was attributed to its attitude of encouraging foreign talents and investments (Globalization 101).
Cultural integration is sometimes accomplished through cultural diffusion. Cultural diffusion refers to the spreading out of culture from different ethnicities to the native people living there. The western coast of the US is one of the prominent territory where we can identify the cultural diffusion. The native population develops interest on the other new invading cultures, helps towards development and growth of that new culture. Integrating Indian choreography in American pop music videos or a rap inspired by Jamaican tradition into pop, China Town in Los Angeles and New York City, Indian, Chinese, and Sushi restaurants, and Tex-Mex are all examples of cultural diffusion. Thus cultural diffusion enables to identify the similarities of two different cultures, usually the best of those, and bring people from different cultures to agree on this fusion. Thus the success of cultural integration through cultural diffusion leads to realizing of economic success. This helps people to get to know the better of the two cultures and also helps in growth of talents.
Cultural integration is a positive aspect as it is an addition of new things. Considering globalization and people’s ambition to achieve greater heights, the developing and developed nations should be welcoming multiculturalism, support the positive aspects of cultural integration and contribute to world development. (A. S.)
References
Cultural Assimilation. (2016, September 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:59, October 4, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultural_assimilation&oldid=741003292
Globalization 101. Culture and globalization. Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/uploads/File/Culture/cultall.pdf
Essay
When immigrants come into the United States or any other country, a very optimistic way of adjusting to new things and learning about the new cultural way of living is important to make the cultural integration process easier, but how hard could the integration process be to an immigrant? In fact, the cultural integration process will be easier depending on how well minorities and majorities interactions are.
Therefore in order to analyze the minorities and majorities interactions, first of all, they should work together to make everyone’s life better. However, sometimes this is not always an easy task to achieved because both parties need to put all their effort to make getting a better life not matter what the circumstances can be. As an example lets think about the case in where two roommates want to know more about each other's culture, this process is easier to achieve and its called the integration process. On the other hand, throughout the procedure of knowing each other more, the roommate from the minority finds out that he is surrounded by what the majority offer and to make his life better and easier he has to accept what its offers by the majority. This kind of process is called the assimilation. In my experience as a minority in this country, I came from Puerto Rico a U.S. territory. In Puerto Rico, our official languages are Spanish and English, but more than 90% of the population only speak Spanish. So the language is for me the first big step to take and make my life better in the United States. Another example of assimilation is the food; Puerto Rican food is way better and healthier than U.S. food, but for me to find most of the ingredients I could spend more money than expected and in order to survive I have to accept the U.S. food. Nevertheless, sometimes our effort is limited to what it is available to us by the U.S. community and we have to adapt instead of trying to keep doing the things that we use to do in our country. After pointing out the differences between integration and assimilation the most important thing to know is that in any moving process, the immigrant has to know the difference between those two and being positive to get comfortable with the idea that this happens because of the circumstances, not because he wants to change its way of living.
Every immigrant that took the decision to moving into another country, most of the time is to get a better life. So I urge all immigrant to be positive and try to see the new culture as part of the new beginning. Also, learn about everything, and always having in mind that when things get difficult, every place has its good and not so good things that every immigrant has to deal with to get the better life that he or she was looking for at the very beginning. I believe this process is more than difficult, but at the moment the immigrant and majority get in touch both parties need to put their effort in trying to understand that making the effort will make their lives better in the future. So, let's start making this new experience in Lubbock a better one and start making new friends and learn a little bit more of Lubbock and U.S. history because learning is an unending process. Also, we can get the majority and other minorities to know more about our cultures. (Armando)
Academic Writing, 2016
Immigration, has always been a part of humans’ life throughout history. Humans naturally seek good lives in which they find themselves happier. Thus, when they don’t find happiness in the place they live, they may leave their hometown to search for better lives. Today, in our globalized world, immigration has radically increased. However, many psychologists think of immigration as a traumatic experience, because of an immigrant faces many serious crises; identity crisis, homesickness, racism, etc. are only some traumatic experiences that an immigrant may go through. Here, in this essay, I will argue that fluency in the language of the country to which a person immigrates is the most important factor in the successful integration and the psychological health of the immigrant. In this regard, I will specify that through good communication one can be happier in his/her relationships. Also, communicating through language is a major factor in finding job opportunities.
One can suggest that being fluent in the language of the new country is critical for having a better social life and thus happiness. In other words, it can be said that happiness deeply relies on a high quality of relationship among the individuals, and that communication is a key factor that shapes interpersonal relationships. The better we communicate, the stronger our relationships are. Therefore, the better we communicate, the happier life we will have. Language, I think, is the most powerful tool for communication. This argument can illustrate the importance of language skills in the successful immigration and integration. I think, in particular, talking about our deep feelings and values requires lots of understanding of language. For instance, when I first came to the USA, I could talk or socialize, but I felt very alone when I needed to share my deep feelings. After four years, I have several close friends that I can share my inner feelings and thoughts with, and I am much happier now. I think, for me, becoming more fluent in English is the most important reason for having a better social life now.
The other way that language is vital for the quality of the life of an immigrant is the immigrant’s professional life. Clearly, finding a good job opportunity is vital for the person who immigrates to a new country. Learning the new language is critical in getting accepted for interviews and being successful in any given job. For example, the first year I came to the USA, I applied for many work study positions at my school, but I got rejected in most of them. Several times the interviewers told me that I have some excellent qualifications, though they are not sure if I can handle different situations while working, because I couldn’t talk English as good as other students. However, after I became more fluent in English, I could easily find some incredible job positions and internships. Therefore, one can state that the better immigrants know the language of the country to which they immigrate, the easier they can find a job.
In short, in this essay, I am concerned about the idea of immigration. Indeed, I argued that the most critical factor in immigrants’ quality of life is the extent to which they are skilled in the new language of the country to which they have immigrated. In fact, language is the most significant element in communication. And a healthy communication is a component of a successful relationship and then happiness. (Niloofar Gholamrezael)
Essay: Cultural Integration
Though there has been a vast development in the past few years in terms of technology and culture throughout the world, still there are certain regions that lack basic needs and advancement in technology. In this scenario, cultural integration is important to maintain homogeneity and certain balance in the society. Cultural inequalities in the society may lead to conflicts and these would become harder to resolve as people are not obliged to a single decision. Their decision might be influenced by their culture. This might create instability in the society. Culture can be both materialistic and non-materialistic. Materialistic differences include dressing styles, ceremonies, technology, i.e. innovations of the general public, whereas non-materialistic includes the religion people follow, standards and estimations of a general society.
Cultural integration is beneficial for a country because of the following reasons. Firstly, cultures interrelates with the language people speak. At the point when individuals of various societies stay together in the general public, they may talk dialects of their own way of life. Take a case of a recently moved understudy who has been to another nation for advanced education. The understudy's first dialect need not be the dialect that individuals use to interact with each other at the new location. That individual would confront trouble in connecting with the general population of the new area. This accentuates the importance of social mix. Also, there are other aspects to be considered in cultural integration such as, practice of certain religion, economy of people and so forth.
Secondly, Cultural mixing also helps minorities integrate with rest of the population. People migrate to find a better life. Most of the minorities are the result of historical migrations. They should be considered as homogenous entities. With a specific end goal to counteract clashes and further violation of human rights, the security and advancement of the privilege of minorities have gotten to be key for the manageability of countries. Integration is required to change the social attitude towards minorities, beating partialities existing in the public eye towards them and an ascent in their way of life. Education, employment and recognition of minority groups would contribute to a better integrated society.
Finally, cultural integration helps in globalization. Globalization is said to have extended practically all through the whole world whether through transport, trade or correspondence. Advances in technology such as telecommunication, transportation and biotechnology have made the cultural integration much easier. Society has dependably been affected by innovation. Technology is changing the way people interact and work. Every development has influenced how individuals identify with each other and how societies have extended or finished. Innovation impacts how urban areas develop, where individuals live, and who possesses what. All these advances help in cultural integration
In conclusion, Social reconciliation keeps the general public together, so all can have the same convictions and qualities in a social framework. Globalization helps in loss of diversity of cultures among cultural groups. Cultural integration makes the world a small village and would keep it conflict free as well as maintain it as a society of equality. (Bhargavi Gude)
Inter Cultural Essay
Many people leave their native country for different reasons. Some may leave it for a better job or, a better education, or simply to have a new experience in life. When a person is preparing their self to leave his country he prepares for many things. Among such things are, where he’s going to live, work or study, or where the kids will go to school among many others. But we immigrants always forget to be prepared for the intercultural shock that we are going to face. Or at least I did not prepare myself for that when I came to America. I am a Puerto Rican, and I would never have imagined that Puerto Rican and American cultures were so different. For that reason, I would like to share with you what are the three aspects of a country you need to consider when you are planning to move in.
Not all countries have the same food. You need to know what type of food people in that country eat. It would make the transition process a lot easier if you go to a country where you can find similar food to the one you have in your native home. For example, for me it is real difficult here in Texas, because people only eat Mexican or TexMex food. On the contrary, if Mexicans moves here, I would assure you that they would not feel the same as I do, because the food is practically the same that in Mexico. For me food is really important because food is one of the things we immigrants tend to miss more from our home. When you think of the family and places you left, always you tend to think about your native food. If you could find a place where the food is similar to the one you eat in your country, the place would feel more like home. That would facilitate the intercultural adaptation a lot, because even though there are going to be other cultural differences, at least you are not going to face them hungry.
Traditions and cultural celebrations are essential aspects of a culture we also need to considered before moving in. For that reason, moving to a place that has more or less the same culture than yours is preferable. Study and knowing the culture of the country with anticipation would help you in different ways. If you know the culture the shock would not be so bad, because you have a previous idea of the country. Also it would help you to decide if you can manage that culture or not before going there. For example, for a Puerto Rican it is going to be harder to move to an Arabic country where the culture is completely different than to a Central America country where at least they celebrate Christmas and other holy days we do. For that reason, is very important to know the culture that you are going live in. In that way you can be prepared for the difference you’re going to face.
There is a popular saying, that says that the residents are the ones who make a good or a bad place. That can’t be more true. Another thing to consider before moving to a different place is to know how the people who live there are. What I mean is to whether is they are nice with immigrants, and how they feel about other people going to their country. That would help you because you can know what to expect from the people, and you won’t be so disappointed when you arrive in your new town. Also you should look for a place where people seems to be like you, or a place where people of your country tend to migrate. In that way the incorporation process is going to be better because you have people like you. Moving is never a good experience, but being prepared to know what the challenge that you are going to face are would help. It is very important to first know the culture of a country before moving in. In that way the intercultural adaptation would be better. Knowing the culture would make the adaptation process easier. In this essay I wrote three things that if people know them previously could help them in the adaptation process. I hope that if you’re planning to leave your country this advice could help you and your adaptation process could be a pleasant one. (Edgar Aviles-Rosa)
Cultural Integration and Shock
The excitement and expectations for studying or working in a 1st world country are always very high. Ordinarily, this is always a goal and one of the key components that drives one’s motivation towards working harder and remaining focused. Hardly does one get to remember the trauma that would be caused by a vast range of diverse variations in climate, environment, and culture while away from home, as elaborated in the subsequent paragraphs. I endeavor to demonstrate the great variation in cultural practices in my home country because of its multi-tribal nature. Though diverse, there is generally no intuitive realization of differences in human race and so everything is as though we are one but with different personalities. In a first world country, the expectation was that it should be more refined and admirable though not generally very true as highlighted in the next sections.
A native of the Republic of Uganda, the first time I left Uganda for another country was April this year (2016). I left Uganda for Eldoret, a city in a neighboring country, Kenya, in the Eastern part of Africa. I am twenty nine (29) years old as of now (September 2016) before my next birthday. Until this year, I lived all the other years in my home country. Uganda is a multi-tribal country with over fifty five (55) ethnic tribes spread throughout the different parts of the country. Each of the tribes has traits that are common amongst its people and these vary from tribe to tribe. The traits span and constitute several cultural aspects for a tribe ranging from religious beliefs, dressing, marriage ceremonies, and food eaten. For instance, one of the tribes called the Karamajong does not originally dress up but just wrap themselves to cover private parts among adults. The difference however is that I see and infer in general that all the ladies here in USA are skimpy in dressing and this seems not a concern per se. The Karamajong like the Bagisu in the Eastern part of Uganda, foster circumcision for every male child. The Karamajong also practice female circumcision, a habit currently referred to as female genital mutilation. The Ugandan government, community based organizations (CBOs), and other humanitarian Non-governmental organizations have continuously carried out sensitizations to minimize this primitive custom. My trip to Kenya revealed similar practices among the Turkana tribe and Karamajong, who also double as nomadic pastoralists.
Marriage in Uganda is the most highly cherished and celebrated tradition. In most cases, two ceremonies are usually celebrated that include; a traditional customary introduction ceremony that gathers not less than two hundred (200) people including friends, relatives, and the would-be in-laws. This is usually organized by the girl’s parents in their home. At this function, paying dowry and other customs are performed. The second is a wedding ceremony, which is usually done on a different day. This gathers the biggest number of people and is usually organized by the man’s side in their home. While most of the tribes showcase seemingly similar marriage practices, the Alur tribe has an outstanding difference towards this practice. Traditionally among the Alur, when any male teenager gets to his sixteenth year, relatives and close friends search for and locate a female teenager in any home. Once located, without notice to the girl or the parents, the girl is “kidnapped” and forced into the boy’s hut during the night by a group of not less than 10 individuals. The girl and the boy thus meet and accept each other as a wife and husband from that night. Later after some weeks, the boy’s parents report themselves to the girl’s parents and perform some customs to bless their children. It is worth noting that a big percentage of men in different tribes have more than one wife. My experience in USA so far informs me that the marriage here is literally “one man, one wife”. It is thus rare to find a man with more than one wife at the same time. However, some conversation with USA classmate someday, clearly revealed that the rate at which marriages break up in USA is high and emphasized that statistical values can be used to clear any doubts. It was quite shocking that “one man, one wife” marriages suffer high divorce rates as compared to “one man, many wives” marriages common in Uganda. This remains a question to be answered yet.
The most shocking and terrifying issue is the Black Lives Matter which clearly demonstrates lack of tranquility and harmonious cultural integration in the United States. Though aspects of climate change, dressing demeanor, marriage, and food variations were shocking, they were not as terrifying as the Black Lives matter that I didn’t originally know about until I came to USA. Such can be easily and sustainably addressed by simply holding the victims accountable since they are few, enforcing transparency, and applying due justice. The matter if not addressed can result into acute genocide as witnessed in Rwanda in 1970s. Knowing and believing that the world is a big unending entity with all categories of human race, the difference is simply natural and makes the world rather beautiful and exploratory. It is surprising that a few individuals in USA have not yet accepted this fact in this 21st century, yet accepted by a 3rd world country like Uganda. Upon a closer look at cultural aspects that span the East African community and based on individual experience as a native African, we can see that though all the tribes portray diverse cultural practices, they have related beliefs. As far as religion is concerned, people are divided among Christianity, and Islamic affiliations, with a few people believing in their own traditional gods. This is common across all the East African countries. Additionally, all the tribes in Uganda commonly feed on similar natural foods with no prior industrial processing or preservations. A few individuals from capital cities perform minimal refrigeration of food. There is need for someone to easily adapt to foods and climate changes.
In conclusion, despite differences in cultural practices in over 50 tribes in my home country, these people have managed to live together with minimal land conflicts that sometimes emerge even amongst members of the same family, and thus the tribes are harmoniously culturally integrated. There is need for extensive research for travellers and immigrants to mitigate the trauma that can be caused by diversities in cultural practices. Also, cultural differences are inevitable, and natural, these should be embraced and used as a notion for further exploration. Harmonious cultural integration is possible and achievable. (Judas Tadeo)
International Students’ Challenge (Language)
The latest research says 30% of Middle Eastern young people are moving to the United States in the last five years for studying. However, the biggest problem that they are facing is the language, and as we know, most of Middle Eastern people are Arabic native speakers. If you decided to move or live in any new country, the first thing to do is learn the formal language in that country. Furthermore, the only way for being familiar with people, doing your daily tasks, and your studying is to learn the country’s language. Moreover; as much as you learn the country’s language you get familiar with the system, and achieve your objective for being in the country. The suggested solutions for this problem are three solutions; the first one is attending any language school in your country before your traveling. The second is similar to the first one; you can attend any language school once you arrive in the country. The third one is start learing through online courses, nowadays, a lot of resources are available on the Internet.
Attending a language school in your country allows you to get a good start, and the basics about the country, like the United States. Unfortunately, any language needs practicing; therefore you can learn the language, but ; then you can improve it with available resources. For example, reading simple books and watching documentary movies with subtitles can make your language skills better.
The best solution is attending a language school once you arrive in the country. It is the best solution to learn the country’s language for several reasons. First, the teachers are native speakers, which allows you to communicate with the right people for learning the language. Second, in this kind of schools you learn the academic skills of the language, for example writing skills. Furthermore, you have a continuous learning process every day while you are doing your daily routine. There is a negative side of this solution, which is the language schools have very high tuition. But you can attend small programs which are cheaper than other programs. One more thing is that you are still learning from different resources, and improving your language every day with people in the street, your neighbors, your native friends, and other resources.
The third solution is one of the best solutions as well. Attending online classes for any language is available nowadays on the World Wide Web. It has two important advantages, the first one is this solution is the cheapest way to learn any language any time that you prefer. Second advantage is you can learn the language while you are at home, no need for going to school. Therefore, you are saving money and time at the same time.
To sum it up, living in a new country is not easy, and you will face many challenges and problems. The language is one of the biggest problems. In generalto communicate and live. It does not mean how many words or letters you know, it means how much you understand the culture, and how much you can accept it. In my point view, if you want to move to any country, just go to that country and live there, face your challenges, and make your community by yourself. (Yousef)
Integrating Atheism into a Culture
Assimilating a person from a particular doctrine into a different culture has always been difficult. Most of the cultural rejections happen when a person from a defined belief system migrates into a society with orthogonal doctrine from his own. However, this is not the case with some cultural minorities who face rejections even in their own societies. Prominent of those cultural minorities, who are most often frowned upon, are the atheists. It has been suggested that the acceptance of an atheist into a culture is much lower than that of any ethnic or religious groups. On the other hand, even atheists are known to exhibit hostile attitude towards believers. With the number of atheists growing in recent times, there is a necessity to understand why the general population has trouble in accommodating an atheist and vice versa.
One of the main reasons for the above-mentioned trouble is the general misconception among most of the theists that atheists are untrustworthy. The refusal to acknowledge the existence of a supernatural being, in many cultures, is considered an act of ignorance. Added to this, atheists are also considered to be immoral by theists, which widely leads to discrimination of atheists in a social setting. Though these judgments are baseless, they are very prevalent among the theist community, making interpenetration of these ideologies difficult.
The low acceptance of atheists into a culture is not just to be blamed on the perception of theists alone, but also on the attitude of iconic atheists towards believers. Recognized atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, are known for their hostile attitude towards believers, often branding them (on stage and in their books) as irrational. These heated stage debates between theists and atheists often end in feuds projecting a general image of atheists as arrogant. Unfortunately, this projected image combined with the stereotyping prevalent among the common population ends up in every atheist being called religiously intolerant.
In total, the origin of this whole issue of integrating atheism into a culture can be described in terms of insecurities developed among the population of believers and nonbelievers. Atheists, being the minority, are prone to cultural rejections, even from their own ethnic groups, which at times leads to identity crisis. Hence, atheists tend to push back with an arrogant and hostile attitude as a defense mechanism. On the other hand, confronting a theist, who in his entire life has believed in the existence of a supernatural being, with an atheist dogma makes him insecure about the purpose of his existence. This ends up with the theist adopting his version of the defense mechanism of demoralizing an atheist, thereby glorifying his own purpose.
To conclude, the hostile attitude of theists towards atheists and vice versa, which makes the cultural integration among these groups difficult, is particularly due to the baseless judgmental nature of theists and the arrogant attitude of atheists. The reason for the evolution of such behavior among theists and atheists can be viewed as a defense mechanism developed in response to the insecurities prevalent among the respective populations. Finally, the interpenetration of the cultures of theists and atheists can happen only when these groups learn to respect each other’s doctrine irrespective of the differences in their ideologies. (Ashwin)
Culture
Shock
Perhaps the term
“culture shock” was unfamiliar word to a large number
of the population a few decades ago. However, as traveling from country to
country and continent to continent is much easier than it used to be, “culture
shock” has become a commonly used terminology nowadays. As an international
student myself studying abroad, I couldn’t find a better candidate to introduce
what culture shock is. Culture shock is defined as a feeling of disorientation,
confusion, and nervousness experienced by people who are new
to an unfamiliar culture than their own. This mixture of
feelings and emotions can be characterized into four distinct phases:
honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation (“Culture shock,” 2016).
First, in the honeymoon
stage, visiting or settling down in a new country or environment can be a
fascinating adventure. The impressions people they have prior to coming to the
new settlement, the information from the news, the movies, and words from other
individuals make this stage quite exciting. People who start to embrace a new
culture can feel and observe things around them almost like tourists. They see
the bright side in difference; those things keep them occupied. I genuinely
think I have a best say in this; when I came to America, I was in Boston first.
The time I spent up there was absolutely splendid. Excursion around the city
and embracing something entirely new to me become my daily routine. However, once this short period is over,
homesickness starts settling in. From what I can observed in the past year I
lived here, people begin to compare and contrast things that are new to them
with their own culture, I am not only speaking for them, I am also speaking for
myself.
Being critical of
things could almost be the next step in culture shock. This stage is called
negotiation. The electrified, exciting period is gone, people
start to feel familiarity in their current situation;
they tend to focus on the weakness of the culture; this includes the food
difference, language barrier, and living difference. However, at this time, as
aforementioned, it is the bad side. Sometimes they feel lonely and this
manifests itself which leads to a worse stage of homesickness. At this point,
some people decide to leave for their homes. I personally encountered a number
of people, not because they are not doing the best they can, but simply they
are just not fancy with their current life and decided to return to their
homeland.
Last, a person who
stays in the newly settled environment is going to transit into the stage of
acceptance of the new culture. This stage can be sub-characterized into
adjustment and adaptation in my opinion. The weakness of the culture, culture
traits and things that were annoying back in the negotiation stage perhaps now
just are simply seen as a different aspect of doing things. People start to
adjust their daily routine and lifestyle, and eventually balance with their own
norms as if they were home. They begin to appreciate and understand the culture
difference. If a problem arises from their so called “norms” (“WorldWide
classroom: About culture shock,” n.d.), they can simply go back to the
frustration stage. As this goes on, they eventually adapt more and more into
the culture; they start to root in the new culture, making new friends,
discovering new things that are on a different level of new; moreover, even dreaming
in another language. By the time of this stage, they have overcome the feeling
of culture shock.
Some people have labeled
culture shock as a roller coaster effect due to its re-appearance behavior.
Culture shock is not an exact step-by-step process; not everyone has the
experience the same way or at the same time; however, they all generally follow
the “peak-valley-peak” pattern once they experience culture shock (the T.R. of,
2011). Introducing
oneself to new and foreign cultures can benefit a person
in a various ways; however, the process of adapting to the new environment can
be overwhelming. In my opinion, the four stages of culture shock which were
discussed above are the most common stages for ones who are experiencing new
culture. (Lingjuan)
Reference
WorldWide classroom:
About culture shock. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.worldwide.edu/travel_planner/culture_shock.html
Culture shock
(2016). . In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 24, 2016 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock
the T. R. of. (2011). UCI study abroad center. Retrieved September 24, 2016 from
http://www.cie.uci.edu/prepare/shock.shtml
