Prof. Demar
Name: Mauricio A. Ostos
First essay ESL 018
Cultural Shock
Now what!? This was the first question that I asked myself after arriving to this country.
After being in this country for about a week, I realized that everything was different from what I was used to. The culture in this country is pretty different from the one in my country. As a new immigrant I found that the social behavior, the laws, and education were the 3 things that I found the most culturally shocking for me for the following reasons.
The fist thing that found really shocking about this culture was the social behavior; I could divide this into two groups. The first group is the touch and feels kind. Are people who really love to touch other people.
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Compared the people the one in my country, we never really touch people unless we have some kind of relationship with that person. But in this country, most people like to touch others while they are talking to them. I totally hate when they touch me since I hate being touched. The other group is the noisy kind. For me it is pretty hard to interact with others because people in this country are too noisy for me; I would rather be in a peaceful and quite place. People in this country like to party a lot, and they like to scream for everything. So for me, it is pretty hard to interact with others since my culture makes me a peaceful and quiet person. The second thing that I found really shocking about this culture was the laws. The laws in this country were pretty shocking for me since many of them seem to be pretty stupid and old. I was in shock when I realized that this country has laws for pretty much everything that I can imagine. For example, can you believe that there is a law about how much human waste can go into the water system. For me this pretty ridiculous since in my country is pretty much a lawless country. In Venezuela I was really free to do anything I want there. As long as I don’t kill someone or rob a bank, I will always have the freedoms that I don’t have in this country. But in this country, there is not such a thing as freedom, since here there are so many laws that are so overwhelming that you feel a little paranoid every time you act that you may be breaking the law. For example, just the other day I went to the beach to take pictures of the lunar eclipse, but surprise, surprise, I almost got a two tickets, one for trespassing, and the other one for public consumption of alcohol. Luckily, the officer just gave me a warning since I was alone at the beach, but that proves my point about the many laws here in America. The last thing that I found really shocking about this culture is was its educational system.
This system is pretty shocking for me because I was excited about coming to the United States for my education. Since I am a little bit of a nerd and I love learning. I was expecting a better education since this country is what some called a “first world country“, but the education here is pretty bad. I am saying this because in my country, I was getting some really hard math class and the best grade I ever got in that math class was a 70 and remember that I was taking pre-calculus when I was on ninth grade, but when I went to high school, all my grades jumped to 100. In fact, this was also true in on all my other classes because of the poor educational system in this country. It not only affects, high school it also applies to their community colleges because they are pretty much the same. A perfect example for this is that last semester I had a 3.7 GPA and I never really studied for anything but math. And I even got invited to join to PTK, an honor society. This I just the perfect example of how broken the educational system is in this country
In conclusion, moving to another country is a culturally shocking experience for the following examples: social behavior, laws, and education. I enjoyed the experience since I love traveling. I know that this may seem like a scary experience, but I would totally recommend to everyone to move to another country at least once in their life since it is a perfect way to get to know other cultures and expand your
knowledge.
The greatest country in the world still has problems evenly distributing education to its youth. The articles I have read for this unit have a common theme regarding our education system. The authors illustrate to the reader about the struggles in America concerning how we obtain and education. Oppression, politics, racism, and socioeconomic status are a few examples of what is wrong with our country and its means of delivering a fair education to all Americans.
When I first arrived in the United States, I was very surprised at everything. This is a country completely different from my country, whether it is language, race, background, and even political system, relative to China, like a mirror in the outside and outside, is the two extremes.
It is obvious American culture has changed drastically over time. American culture today is a lot different than it was one hundred, fifty , even twenty years ago. Styles, music, entertainment, and technology have all altered significantly. There are many people that influence our culture with their new talents, ideas, and personalities. During the 1930’s, your go-to girl for a good movie would be Judy Garland. With her diverse talents and unique beauty, she was always a sight to see on screen,she symbolized American culture back then. Nowadays, one could relate Judy Garland to Demi Lovato. Demi is one of the most diverse celebrities in the entertainment business today. Just like Judy, she also had a difficult time with being in the spotlight which led to self harming substances. Judy Garland and Demi Lovato was/is a big part of American Culture. They have many similarities but are very different at the same time. This is why they are perfect examples of how American culture has changed majorly over the past 100 years.
First and foremost, Culture can be seen in many points of view, each person sees everything from a different perspective, such as the essay “Two Ways To Belong In America” by Bharati Mukherjee. There are people who embrace a new culture, and people who don't. Each person has their own way of seeing the world and the people in it. For example, “I am Premila and she nodding in my direction is Santha. Oh, my dear, those are much too hard for me.
A sudden change in one’s surroundings can result in culture shock. Culture shock refers to the anxiety and surprise a person feels when he or she is discontented with an unfamiliar setting. The majority of practices or customs are different from what a person is used to. One may experience withdrawal, homesickness, or a desire for old friends. For example, when a person goes to live in a different place with unfamiliar surroundings, they may experience culture shock. Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective Function Phase. These phases denote some of the stages that exemplify culture shock. The four phases are illustrated in the articles “New Immigrants: Portraits in Passage” by Thomas Bentz, “Immigrant America: A Portrait” by Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut, “When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories” by Thomas Kessner and Betty Boyd Caroli, and lastly, “The New Americans: Immigrant Life in Southern California” by Ulli Steltzer, and are about the experiences of some immigrants. This essay will examine the four phases of culture shock and classify the experiences of these immigrants by the different phases of culture shock identified.
... so many things about interacting with others and about understanding different cultures, Things are different everywhere you do because someone was raised that way or because they believe in something different than you. Culture isn’t all about the way someone lives or the society that they live in. Culture is about things you own, the way you act, where you live and your lifestyle. I now look at people with a different culture than me with so much more respect. I don’t know what they have gone through or what kind of culture they grew up with, life is harder in other places then it is America. I understand the differences in the way people live and see things. The culture and diversity in the world is amazing. Overall I loved this class, I learned things that I never could have imagined learning, I am impressed with the book and the class discussions that we have.
We all live in America, and America is the mixture of different cultures. Many of us are immigrants. So, I know many of us are familiar with different cultures and this topic will definitely create lots of interest to at least some of us.
New country means new language, new culture, new people and different lifestyle. I never thought of being somewhere where you don’t know the language and people. For my parent and me the difficult part was learning new language. Since, I and my sister were going to school, so we knew Basic English. But for my parents adopting new language after so many years was really tough. Since, my dad had his own business, he also had to take care that before we move to us.
Public Schools in America for a long time were regarded as the best public schools in the world, but with the development of Asian and European schools American schools are not ranked as highly. American Public schools in 1999 were ranked sixteenth and seventeenth in science and math right behind Bangladesh. Some students are graduating from high school with little more than an inadequate ability to read and a diploma that should mean the student knows at least the core subjects. Other students are dropping out and not graduating at all. Colleges are not trusting diplomas and grade point averages as a basis of admissions because they know that with the large variety of classes that high schools offer as credit that the student may not know as much as his or her GPA says. Colleges are recalculating GPA's deleting non-core classes and evaluating SAT and ACT scores for the purpose of admissions. Colleges also have to offer more remedial classes to teach students what they should have learned in high school. Something needs to be done to reform America's public schools especially at the high school level.
interesting to people of other cultures. This society rests most of their regard on love and
George Ritzer defines culture as “the ideas, values, practices, and material objects that allow a group of people, even an entire society, to carry out their collective lives in relative order and harmony” (54). Culture in America has changed drastically over the last several years. One of the main aspects of American culture that has changed is values. Gallup, a research-based incorporation, conducted a study in 2014 that shows how some of America’s values have changed. The study included a survey of what people consider to be morally acceptable. Since 2001, divorce has increased by ten percent, premarital sex increased by thirteen percent, homosexual relationships increased by eighteen percent, stem cell research increased by thirteen
Discussing these thoughts with my group members helped me learn about new cultures and helped them out as well. One of the ladies in my group spoke about herself, because she was from Puerto Rico. She had a lot to say about the cultures. She also experienced culture shock due to the climate and the individualistic life in America. She said that the weather in Puerto Rico was tropical and i...
Education plays important role in society. It determines the final development of an adult’s personality. In today’s society most jobs require a University degree. To receive a University degree students need to rely on a good education system. Does America provide this? The American education system has relied on the grade point average system for a long time. The problem with this is there is not a universal GPA grade point system varying from course to course. This creates an inaccurate way to determine ones overall achievements. Teachers have different standards than others, grade inflation can occur and students can be exposed to different learning environments. Does the education system need to change to create fairness?
Everyone reacts differently to new environments.While some are excited others are upset to have to leave important people behind. Culture shock comes in many different forms and sizes, some may find it harder to adjust than others. The difficulties to adjusting don’t always show up right away (TeensHealth). Culture shock is experienced in many different ways some common feelings are; sadness, loneliness, anxiety, trouble concentrating, feeling left out, negative feelings towards the new culture and frustration (TeensHealth). These feelings are temporary, eventually people get used to their surroundings. Although, many have been planning on the change for a long time, many still experience the impact of culture shock (International Students and Culture Shock). A huge majority of the cultures norms are based on language.
The system we have is temporary. The future holds bigger and better things that todays system does not meet the standards of. Plenty of people get by and do just fine and there is nothing wrong with that. This new system is not for the ones who can make it and get by perfectly fine. This system is beneficial for the larger number of civilians that don 't make it by or drop out of school. This new way of education is designed to help people that typically struggle and the larger number of students that are not