Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
adapting to a different culture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: adapting to a different culture
Cultural Adjustment
"An analysis of cultural shocks"
Coming to America was one of my dreams, so I started working on it and
after completing collage, I received the visa for the States and bought
the ticket to come to America. I was a little bit confused because I
had been hearing about America since my childhood. There is a huge
cultural difference between my society and the modern society of the
States, and because of these differences, my friends and I faced some
problems after coming here. These problems are commonly called cultural
shocks. By analyzing the differences between America and my own
country of Pakistan, in the areas of gender roles, family, marriage and
celebrations, one can see how cultural shocks occur.
Since my birth, I have been living in a society where the men and women
are not all to interact with each other as over here. It is one of the
biggest differences in my culture and the culture here. There are
usually separate classes for girls and boys in my society, but over
here, there is no concept of this. In addition, I know you will
surprise to earn that having a boyfriend for a girl or a girlfriend
for a boy is a difficult achievement.
In my society there is a joint family system, the children live
together with their parents whether they are under 18 or not. Over
here, there is a concept of "individualism". Every one has an
individual life, making their own decisions for every thing. Here, a
person over 18 living with his parents is considered an immature
person. In my culture, a person not living with his parents doesn't
have a respectable place in the society, because it is our social and
religious custom to take care of our parents.
Divorce is common here, but in my society it's not good to even think
about it. People are divorced, but not as commonly as over here. For
example, among every 100 married people, perhaps just one is divorced,
but over here out of hundred, about fifty are divorced or separated.
Also, some couples live together without a legal marriage.
One day, I went to a wedding ceremony with my uncle .It was one of his
friends' weddings. I just sat there, wondering when the people would
sing songs and when the lunch would start, but after kissing each
other, my uncle's friend and his wife went on a long drive in their car
with a poster on the back saying, "Just got married". It was really
surprising for me to attend a wedding like this, because in my culture,
Society in general has a way of assigning men and women with individual roles that need to be complied with. To clarify, in the 1950s and 1960s, American women were required to maintain their homes while raising their children and making sure the husbands were happy. On the other hand, American men had to provide for the family and protect them. Displaying characteristics not parallel to one’s gender is rarely unobserved and almost always has negative consequences because society seeks to maintain order. In reality, the people cannot conform to society’s “norms” because people have the right to be independent of society, yet be a part of it without sacrifice. An example would be how American society views masculinity as a man who is strong,
Patriarchal society, where most things are still controlled by men. The men have been always
Philosophers have developed many different theories to explain the existence and behavior of “free will.” This classical debate has created two main family trees of theories, with multiple layers and overlapping. It all begins with Determinist and Indeterminist theories. Simply put, determinists believe that our choices are determined by circumstance, and that the freedom to make our own decisions does not exist. Indeterminists, for example Libertarians, believe that we are free to make our own choices; these choices are not determined by other factors, like prior events. In class, we began the discussion of free will, and the competing arguments of Determinists and Indeterminists, with the works of Roderick Chisholm, a libertarian who made
Cultural competence has to do with one’s culture. Culture affects among other factors, how children are raised, how families communicate, what is considered normal or abnormal, ways of coping with issues, the way we dress, when and where we seek medical treatment, and so forth. I should know because I come from a very cultural home where it is considered bad to talk to a male doctor about anything gynecological.
Our society is dealing with constant changes in gender norms because both, men and women, widen their curiosities and actions. In her article, What it Means to be Gendered Me, Betsy Lucal pointed out how: “It is now widely accepted that gender is a social construction, that sex and gender are distinct, and that gender is something all of us 'do'.” Even though Exchanging and practicing each other’s gender norms is becoming world-widely accepted, certain gender norm violations will remain common. Raised as 'daddies little princes' I never imagined myself violating those typical, socially and culturally ascribed gender norms that I was taught and reminded of too many times throughout my life. However, growing up as a girl, and becoming a mature person or women as we usually title it, my desire towards experiencing gender violation became inevitable; I wanted to jump into men shoes just for a day. I decided to transform myself physically, mentally, and emotionally in order to get to know the cruel and harsh gender reality men and women are facing every day.
The constraints society has for people were already determined, and with their influences it may also cause a person to have a determined future. Therefore leading me to believe determinism is the cause of people’s events. Although this argument doesn’t explain how intuition was created, natural laws from a chain of causes gave me a reason to believe how our intuition was formed in the first place. The importance of this topic is overlooked by the majority of society. Having a choice of determinism over free will can help our society in a number of ways like, deciding what punishments should be made for people.
Gender is intertwined in many of society’s institutions-education, religion, relationships, and politics- and because it is tangled up in all, it is very hard to change gender as an institution. It is very likely to be reinforced beginning in childhood; from children, adults, and peers. Because of the reinforcement, it is reproduced from parents to children and conforming is the easiest way to go through society. Change happens very slowly and although there is change from my grandmother’s experience to my own, I see the change as not very fluid- instead of water it’s more like heavy mud.
From a young age , many individuals worldwide are socialized according to their gender and what is appropriate for males and females. Socializing according to ones gender starts from the moment you are born when the nurses give you either a blue or pink blanket to wrap the child in. This allows society to known whether the child is a male or female. The double standard for gender occurs within many areas of development for instance the clothes one wears, the toys that are placed with, the jobs and careers one chooses in their later life. Attachment given by a child's parent reinforces an individual to be socialized and children can also contribute how their parents treat and see them , these are social constructs within parenting (Ambert,2012). All of these things can be gender separated and still are in today's society. Another area where males and females are socialized differently is in the area of sexuality and what is acceptable for males is not always for the female gender. Gender specific norms govern the appropriate amount of partners , when it is acceptable to engage in sexual activity and what motivates ones behavior (Kreager &Staff, 2009). This shows society individuals are socialized according to their gender because males are socialized into behaving a different way than girls but it still be accepted as a norm. Women are taught that it is okay to have sexual relationships but they need a reason, example being in a committed relationship, where as men just need a place. This is a common perception based on ones gender , formed from a western conservative view point ( Fugere et.al, 2008). Gender socialization is a process where boys are seen to be given wings and girls are to be given roots (Myers, Spencer, Jordan...
As one looks through society, one starts to see many cracks and loopholes where one set of standards does not apply the same way for men as it does to women, and vice versa.
Society places ideas concerning proper behaviors regarding gender roles. Over the years, I noticed that society's rules and expectations for men and women are very different. Men have standards and specific career goals that we must live up to according to how others judge.
Pi Patel in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a young Indian boy who is put through a tremendous traumatic experience; he gets lost at sea! Not only does he lose all his family, but he is forced to survive 227 days at sea with very limited resources. This ordeal causes great psychological pressure on Pi and causes his mind to find ways to cope with all the stress. When asked to describe what happened, Pi tells two stories: one with him surviving with animals including an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, and a parallel story with humans in which Pi is forced to bend morality. Pi’s story of his survival with Richard Parker is a fiction that he creates to cope with a reality that is too difficult to face.
As some believe that we humans have free will, they believe that we have the freedom of choice and the freedom of action. But, if all of our actions have a reason behind them, or if there is a causal explanation behind each of our choices, it is difficult to say that we actually have the freedom of will. For this reason, determinism challenges free will, as the determinist believes that all of our decisions are governed by some form of natural law, and that all of our behaviors are explainable by this law.
Soft determinism attempts to make the disagreeing data of determinism and freedom compatible. The theory of soft determinism rests on three fundamental claims: (1) the deterministic concept that human behaviour is causally determined; (2) that there is freedom in voluntary behaviour, so long as there is no physical impediment or constraint upon the action; and (3) that the cause of the voluntary behaviour (which is possible in the absence of impediments or constraints) is an internal state of the agent of the action. According to soft determinism, therefore, we are responsible for our actions on o...
Electronic Commerce as popularly as E-commerce has become a big deal in our growing economy due to the increase use of online systems. E-commerce now of the fastest growing business in the world. The technology has change the way of business. Business that have physical location have now made it an effort to focus their online business. It is the new sort of business platform where you can make use of different technologies like electronic data interchange or transfer document electronically. Online business is an effective of sales.