An Analysis Of Megan's Samoan Culture

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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

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