Personal Narrative: Intercultural Relationships
Intercultural relationships are essential to our survival as a people. Without interacting withone another, the wrld would not be the place it is today. I would not be the person I amtday. I can recaall an instance of intercultural relating that has affected me. It changed the way I view the world. Living in the United States, we are subjected to many races and cultures. Living in central New Jersey, though there are many types of people, life is usually the same on all ends of the spectrum.
My trip to the Bahamas has allowed me to realize this: in the Bahamas, people, cultures, and attitudes are dfferent than what I have been subjected to my whole life. People tend to be more friendly and laid back. The atmosphere is light and there is no sense of the world rushing by. It was a culture shock to observe such differences. When I got to speak with some people nativeto the Bahamas, one woman said that the Americans tend to let things pass them by. That all of the “stuff” in life becomes more important than living life. Iagreed, but still could not get used to how “slow” things were in the Bahamas. Through out that trip I kept thinking of what that woman said.
A few days later I ran into a man from Japan (around my age). He spoke english. When he asked me if I spoke any other languages, I said no. The young man was shocked to hear my reply. The man admittedthat most people in Asia know at least two languages. Once again I had realized the differences of my culture and others’. I had also asked the man if he agreed with the woman who had said that Americans often tend to let the fast pace of our culture affect our own lives. He agreed, but said life is just as fast or faster in Japan. The young man said that it just depends on how you deal with the pace.
In the days to follow, I had been thinking…two different people from different places that I. One culture being absorbed first hand as I stayed in the Bahamas. Another (Japanese) explained to me. It makes me see how different New Jerseyi than everywhere else.
Stepping out of my first plane ride, I experience an epiphany of new culture, which seems to me as a whole new world. Buzzing around my ears are conversations in an unfamiliar language that intrigues me. It then struck me that after twenty hours of a seemingly perpetual plane ride that I finally arrived in The United States of America, a country full of new opportunities. It was this moment that I realized how diverse and big this world is. This is the story of my new life in America.
Most people experience dramatic events that demonstrate to them just how fragile life is. Whether these events are acts of gruesome violence, or deaths of a loved ones, the frailty of life is evident. However, for me, this was a different story. As a southern white-boy, my realization came in the most unexpected of places – the Hawaiian Islands. When I learned of a snorkeling trip mid-vacation, I was overcome with anticipation and couldn’t wait to embark on my “Pacific Pilgrimage.” This vacation would prove to be a dramatic turning point in my life.
Whether you have experienced a lot of traveling to other countries and continents or perhaps you have never left the East coast, it can be assumed; whether through school or a work environment, you have had at least one experience dealing with different nationalities and cultures. The realization is that we may come from different places and have different backgrounds but most people, cultures included, have more in common then we could imagine.
This past summer, my family and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas. We had just docked at the second port, Nassau, and were preparing to exit the gigantic ship named the Carnival Fantasy. Once we got to the city, I noticed it was bustling with people of all different backgrounds and cultures. The roads were narrow and some even hilly. I remember coming to the conclusion that a lot of people in the Bahamas must have road rage what from the blaring car horns I could hear around every corner. My family and I were walking along the sidewalk, glancing into shops as we passed them. The weather was unbearably hot, but growing up in South Carolina allowed my family and I to push onward with our adventure. The sun burn on my back started to pulsate in pain any time the sunlight hit it, so we decided to stick to the side of the buildings that provided shade.
I am a 52-year-young white female, with ethnicity that spans from England and Ireland to
Perhaps my most gratifying research experience was also my biggest research obstacle. During my early undergraduate research in Professor Paul Sternberg’s Lab, I had grown to learn how to communicate science, determine the important experiments to conduct and obtain the necessary laboratory skills. These experiences came from my project in engineering C. elegans to express a photosensitive archaea proton pump in the mitochondrial membrane to explore how we can engineer a more efficient strain of C. elegans. In this process, I learned to construct plasmids using molecular biology and learned to introduce these genetic changes by injections and genetic crosses. Each successive step, I learned to troubleshoot and optimize. The hardest task to
I remember the year my Highschool team went to the state championship. My team the Kansas City Hawks went up against the twelve time champs The St.Louis Kings. What made them twelve time champs was us. Every time my team went to the championship The Kings met us there. All twelve times The King where the victors. January 25,2024 The Hawks were on a warpath for that Championship.
What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".
On September 21 of the year 1780, I signed an agreement with a British man I had been in touch with by the name of Andre. I had agreed with him that I would surrender West Point and in return receive a sum of money. I wanted to help the British already, but the money I was promised and the idea that I would be recognized by the British for my excellence won me over. It was a bonus to an already magnificent deal.
United States usually known as the “melting pot” and it is a typical immigrant country. In the past 400 years, United States has become a mixture of more than 100 ethnic groups. Immigrants bring they own dream and come to this land, some of them looking for better life for themselves and some want to make some money to send back home or they want their children to grow up in better condition. Throughout the history there’s few times of large wave of immigration and it is no exaggeration to say that immigrants created United States. For this paper I interview my neighbor and his immigration story is pretty interesting.
The summer before my freshman year, I moved to Eagle County, Colorado from Evanston, Illinois– a town adjacent to Chicago. While it was a drastic change, there were some striking similarities in the socioeconomic disparities seen in both Chicago and Eagle County. Chicago is notorious for the inequalities that are represented between the inner-city neighborhoods and the suburbs. Still, I was surprised when I moved to the mountains– I hadn’t expected there to be such socioeconomic differences between the wealthy and less fortunate in the Vail Valley. Unfortunately, the less fortunate group of people in Eagle County are the Hispanics.
Through the process of developing our own personalities and perspectives in life, we begin to identify with a particular culture. Gudykunst & Kim (2003) identify that symbols and language usage remind us of our cultures, but they operate mindlessly, beyond our conscious awareness. Thus, we display our cultural identity subconsciously in the form of our language, dialect, appearance, and behavior in different situations. As an individual connects with a cultural identity, all the people around us connects with a culture, although not the same cultures, and often conflict with one
I built upon my cross-cultural experiences as I befriended exchange students from Belgium, Japan, and Korea. Each time, the friendships enriched my appreciation and understanding of not only my own culture, but the very concept of culture. What falls under the cultural blanket can vary from person to person, and I found it to be very interesting that while one person could claim lan...
Different cultures, or environments make up how people live their lives and how they may act on a daily basis. These cultures are common all throughout the world, even throughout the different places within the United States. Going on my school trip to New York City made me aware of these cultures changes and when are plane landed back in Minnesota I was so thankful to be back to the places and faces I had always been used to.
“ You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” (Tan, Amy) Like Tan in her narrative “Fish Cheeks”, everyone has had a time in their lives when they wanted to fit in at school or home. Sometimes it is hard to try to blend into the surroundings. Moving from Boston to Tallahassee has taught me a lot about such things like honor, pride, and self-reliance. Such is related to us in Wilfred Owens’s “Dulce et Decorum est” which is about his experience in World War I. Sometimes experiences such as moving can teach more about life than any long lecture from any adult. As the old saying goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”