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Individuals learn of cultural identity through the acculturation process. Megan* established her cultural identities and I learned about my own cultural identities, through our communication encounters (Guo, 2016). Megan identifies herself as of Samoan-Tokelauan ethnicity (collectivism) but considers her ‘home’ as Seattle in the United States of America (individualism). Thus, she is influenced by collectivist and individualist worldviews. Individualism versus collectivism determines how people live together, alone, in families or tribes and their values and how they communicate (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2015, p.233). Both of these worldviews have contributed to determining Megan’s values of family, respect and religion and how they …show more content…
Some communication barriers appeared when Megan returned to New Zealand. This included language differences– the speech rate, vocabulary, and different accent. For example, using American terms (trash) instead of New Zealand terms (rubbish). Sometimes, both of us would have to repeat ourselves in order to correctly understand the conveyed meaning. A strategy used is defined as convergence, based on the Accommodation Theory. Convergence occurs when individuals adapt their – often non-verbal - communication behaviours towards each other (Giles, Coupland & Coupland, 1991). Megan and I demonstrated convergence by using similar hand gestures and having a more balanced speech rate to simply convey meaning through our spoken language. Another challenge I faced was perceiving Megan in light of the American stereotype; to be proud and openly expressive of her opinions and emotions. The influence of her cultural values didn’t categorise her as the American stereotype. However, Megan did mention the Islander stereotype she faces; being perceived as messy, uneducated, large, and violent. These two stereotypes have contributed to how she communicated her ethnic identity. Using standard English language features and showing respect and love to the person rather than speaking off hate and forcing her opinions on others. My strategic response was to have a more dialectic approach. In this case, I would take into account her Samoan cultural influence and her American cultural influence rather than perceiving her as one or the other in our
In ‘Cultural baggage’, Barbara Ehrenreich described her personal experience and opinion about ethnic and religious heritage. Barbara was born in an immigrant family, With all the information she got, Barbara was unable to find her own ethnic identity. While been frustrated and embarrassed for her incapability of locating her own root, she eventually come to realize that she belongs to the race of “none”, those who think for themselves and try new things, and the race of “none” marches on.
“The Contact Zone”, is defined by Mary Louis Pratt as “the space in which transculturation takes place – where two different cultures meet and inform each other, often in highly asymmetrical ways.” Pratt describes what she calls ‘contact zones’ and elaborates on the pros and cons of these cultural interactions. She sees the contact zone as a place that allows people to exchange cultural ideas and break down the dividing cultural borders. When a contact zone is started, people are able to interact on new levels gaining a new perspective because they are able to collaborate with people from foreign cultures. If you are always with people of the same culture as you, you become used to hearing everything from the same perspective. With a new perspective, you can see your culture from a different point of view and reanalyze the logic behind your cultural traditions. Every ethnic/ religious/ regional/ cultural group has its high and low points, and it is just as important to learn about the low points as it is to learn about the highs. Gloria Anzaldua’s essay, “how to tame a wild tongue”, focuses on the ideas of losing an accent or native language to conform to the dominant culture.
Furthermore, these cultural competences defined their lives, how they lived in the community and how they organized their roles and their functions towards the society. These were various cultural domains that overall defined their personality and how they should live their lives and be unique individuals. However, it was these same cultural and religious considerations that separated them from the "normal sense" of development, function and expression of existence (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2009, p. 1). These are the cultural and religious influences that disabled them to understand the narrative display and critical applications of modern knowledge and science. Because of their own set of cultural displays and traditions, the Hmong people could not care less of the applications and understanding of modern practices and expressions.
“At a time when people are seeking to become more culturally aware it is important to note distinctions which make cultures different and unique from one another” (Giger, 2013, p. 163). “Culture involves much more than race, ethnic background, and language” (Smith, 2013, p. 32). Culture is a combination of learned behaviors, beliefs, and values that are reinforced through exposure to social interactions within one’s immediate social group or surrounding society. A personal interview was conducted with Andrea Sinkler, is an African-American female, whose culture influence is mainly attributed from her association with family and social interactions.
276). Curtin’s Coculturation (2010) combats this hegemonic discourse by stating, “everyone is continually engaged in social and political processes of identification” (p. 283). Thus, one’s identity can consist of multiple cultures and they can in fact coincide. The idea that one group “belongs” in a particular imagined community is a myth, there is no single response or adaption. The theory of Coculturation ultimately accommodates to a more realistic approach to cultural adjustment where a newcomer can adopt some behavior of the host culture while still maintaining the conciliatory and subconscious aspects of their native
Family’s beliefs and values may be different for some and in other cultures they may not be accepted. As teachers, we have to learn about different cultures and expand our knowledge so families could feel more accepted. In the book, Anti- Bias Education for young children and ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks & Julie Olsen Edwards, talks about how culture and fairness involves two dimensions, children’s development of a positive culture, identity, and their respectful interactions with other cultures. With these two dimensions, it will help the child to continue to express their home culture at school while learning the different cultures at school with their classmates. They learn about what’s right from wrong, how to dress, and talk
In conclusion, this book gave me a whole new view on life and how we can interact better with different people. The book emphasized that culture is key to understanding people. Sometimes it is hard to connect with others because they are indicated as different but in due time we can adjust. Every culture has their own traditions when it comes to what they eat, what to wear, dating, various ceremonies, holidays and more. Reading this book helped me become more accepting of who I am and where I come from.
One noticeable cultural difference between the society pictured in this chapter and our American society seems to be a collectivist ideology. In America we value the individual and place emphasis on distinction from the group. This causes a strong sense of competition, and leads people to take actions that would benefit themselves in spite of negative effects that may trickle to other members of the community. The culture pictured in our reading, however, seems to place greater value on family and community goals rather than the needs or wants of specific individuals.
Ruth Benedict’s anthropological book, Patterns of Culture explores the dualism of culture and personality. Benedict studies different cultures such as the Zuni tribe and the Dobu Indians. Each culture she finds is so different and distinctive in relation to the norm of our society. Each difference is what makes it unique. Benedict compares the likenesses of culture and individuality, “A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought or action” (46), but note, they are not the same by use of the word, “like.” Benedict is saying that figuratively, cultures are like personalities. Culture and individuality are intertwined and dependent upon each other for survival.
Times are changing and I feel like I am forced to conform to the everyday social norms of America, which makes me feel impuissance. Racial identity, which refers to identifying with a social group with similar phenotypes and racial category, is the only experience that I have with life (Organista, 2010). Racial ethnicity was used to build my self-esteem and to keep me in the dark when it came to how society treats individuals of darker complexion. However, once I left the confines of my family and neighborhood, I was forced to befriend and interact with individuals that had different cultural values and beliefs than me. This experience caused me to learn how to appreciate other racial and ethnic groups and their cultural values and belief. This is an accurate definition, of acculturation because I was able to understand and fit in with individuals different from me, while maintaining my own culture and ethnic identity. Therefore, knowing the importance of my ancestry, while acculturating and developing my own identity was all used
In contrast to my culture’s social norm of Individualism, our host culture displays the social norm of Collectivism, where identity is found solely in one’s family group. I first observed Collectivist culture from the families in the grocery shop on Monday. They made most of the decisions together as a group, even allowing the small children to have a say in what was bought. On Tuesday, while on our first house visit, the mother spoke often of her children and husband, stating how much she detested being apart from her husband while she healed from an injury. A similar sentiment was expressed by the family at our second house visit on Wednesday, when they spoke of the struggle to reunite as a family once they were all in America, and how they continue to send help to family members who are not in the States yet. During the Pakistani church service on Sunday afternoon, I noticed many families sitting together as a large group, allowing the children to interact with each other. The group speaker on Tuesday spoke of his attachment to his family, mainly to his younger
Coming to the United States was a big change for me, having to learn a new language and a new way of living. I didn’t realize that I have an accent when I speak English until people started asking, “Where is that accent from?”. The experience of coming to a different country made me realize I was different. Therefore, experiencing things is what makes you acknowledge who you are. Cultural identity is your surroundings, beliefs, and experiences. Furthermore, what you do and believe is cultural identity. On the other side, there’s invisible culture where our culture is invisible to us because we see that other cultures are different to ours, but we don’t see that ours is different to others.
If I were to choose one place in the whole world which would be the best setting to learn the lessons of life, it would be at home with my family. I am from the islands of Samoa located in the Pacific. I grew up in a family of five people in a society of strong culture and religious atmosphere. I love being with my family because they play a vital role in my life. Most of my time was spent on helping out with the family chores, going to school and fulfilling my church callings. In this essay I will discuss how my culture, my family and my church has changed and molded my character for the better.
“Culture refers to the organized pattern of values, beliefs, and behaviors developed and transmitted over time by a cultural group” (Robbins, Chatterjee & Canda, 2012). I talked about the different aspects of how I define my culture. A social worker working with my family would be the most effective if he or she takes my family beliefs and values into consideration. The case that I choose based on familiarity was the Jones Family. Despite some differences, I connected more with this family when talking about my family’s culture. To help the Jones family in their situation, I would focus on the strength and empowerment perspective. Cultural can easily be defined in many ways, but it is up to a family to choose what is include when discussing culture.
In today's society, with the advent of modern digital communication and an increased focus upon global society and diversity, humans have a golden opportunity to evaluate themselves and how they identify both individually and in their broader culture. Although the question of “who am I” is perhaps one of the classical questions of the human cognizance of identity, our identity as both groups and individuals is directly related to the culture we are a part of, especially in regards to whether that culture is determined to be individualistic or collectivist. These differing mindsets have an inherent connection to the way that we view ourselves and the impact of interactions between different cultures.