My Culture Shock Experience

The day I stepped off the plane and landed in America, I knew that I’d have to face a great challenge. Being a first generation immigrant from Vietnam, I would have to learn English as quickly as possible. Although I’ve arduously prepared for this transition by learning basic vocabulary and grammar in my native country, I quickly realized that my practical aspect of using the language such as listening, conversing, pronunciation to be insufficient. By immersing myself in an English-speaking world, I finally addressed my lingual deficiency within a year.

After reading through the chapter on the DMIS stages (denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration), I would say that personally, I fall under the “acceptance” stage. “This stage represents an individual’s ability to recognize and appreciate cultural difference in terms of both people’s values and their behavior” (Cushner, McClelland, Safford, Pg. 152). As it states, the individual experiencing acceptance is “beginning to demonstrate the ability to interpret phenomena within a cultural context”, I believe that this is a fitting sentence for myself. Being that I am from a rural prairie town in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma, and the only people where I lived were other Senecas like my family and friends, I did not experience a cultural shock until I was in the sixth grade and had moved to Florida. In this town in Oklahoma, it was rare to even see someone described as “white”, as racial prejudice is still rampant throughout Oklahoma against Natives and basically, everybody who isn’t. I was taught to be accepting and welcoming throughout my life, and I believe that made the transition into a new cultural system much easier.

I 'm from cape cod and were definitely not know for our diversity so whenever I go into an environment with lots of diversity I instantly notice it. For my graduation present my mom surprised me with a mother-daughter trip to California for a week. It was my first time going and It was more amazing than I could ever imagine. My favorite place we visited was Venice beach. We would go every day and I could never get sick of it. I loved walking up and down the boardwalk and look at all the different people from all around the world just enjoying the simple beauty of the beach and all it has to offer. Every shop had its own personality and the stories behind the life of each owner made it even more interesting. My favorite shop was Egyptian themed and sold beautiful novelties. It

What does it feel like to live in a state where most of the demographic consists of individuals who are Hispanic? (Have you ever felt out of place?)

Being a culturally diverse person in American society implies that you have ancestors from different countries. I have two ethnically diverse Grandmothers who are legal immigrants turned citizens, and have studied the process for obtaining citizenship status in the United States, which means I can understand and relate somewhat to those who have faced the same struggles coming into the United States. In the article, My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant, by Jose Antonio Vargas, he tells his story of being an illegal immigrant and the struggles that are associated with his situation: his life as a child, struggling with integrating into western culture, his teen years, living a muted life because of his situation, and his adult life, jumping

Being born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, I was exposed to many different cultures. A few of which were Hispanics and German. They both had different languages and customs. My mom would take us to a festival in San Antonio yearly that was called the “Texas Folklife Festival”. There, our family would experience many different cultures with singing, dancing, food, art, and language. Our family enjoyed learning about the different places others came from and how they celebrated their heritage. Learning to appreciate where others came from and their back ground, gave me a better appreciation for differences.

Growing up in Laredo where diversity is low, we tend to get comfortable in what we consider “normal”. Laredo is a small, border town in south Texas with approximately two hundred fifty thousand citizens (United States Census Bureau). About ninety-five percent of that population is Hispanic (United States Census Bureau). My friend, Ali, is from India and still practices most of the customs from her culture. So I would’ve imagined she experienced some serious culture shock moving here. However, I later came to find she’s lived in the United States most of her life. I hadn’t understood how immense the difference from her culture was from mine until the end of my junior year in high school.

Since freshman year I have lived in Rosemead, Los Angeles. The residences are mostly Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese but without a caucasian in sight. This is totally different than what I expected of America, and definitely different than the little village of Pawling in upstate New York where I attend a lily white boarding school. However, I started to blend in; I played basketball. I rode bikes, and I hung out with other teens. We all were basically the same but just embraced different cultures. For instance, the Vietnamese insisted on entire families

My experience is a bit different compared to other minority group experiences because I am a Caucasian American with Hispanic from Central America. People from a minority of Native American, African American, Muslim American, Chinese/Japanese American, and Jewish American would all have a complete unalike experience compared to me. Central Americans and Vietnamese Americans I feel it is rare for these two cultures to come together and that is what makes my experience so unique to the situation. A similarity and the only similarity I could find between Central Americans and Vietnamese Americans is they both immigrated to the United States. Central America immigration has increased significantly and added to the diversity in the United States.

Arriving at a foreign country at the age of eleven years old was and exiting and yet intimidating experience. High buildings, wide roads, newer and nicer cars on the streets were some of the first things I noticed when I arrived to the city of Los Angeles CA. Living in a country where you were not born in could be difficult some times. Although Spanish is spoken at a grand scale in CA, it was difficult to communicate with and understand the teachers from my classes at the elementary level since all they spoke was English. Los Angeles is a city of great diversity, therefore it is believed to be the perfect place for any person arriving from another country to not feel like a foreign, such believe

I’ve always known contradicting cultural views I experienced my parents’ Mexican culture that was being passed on to me, and at the same time American cultural norms at school as I socialized with people of American society. I very quickly began to see how vastly views

I find that Compton story funny, because it is still related to American culture. I consider myself a world traveler. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit the UK, Greece, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey. In all of these situations, I have found myself easy to adapt and learn from these cultures. I find foreign cultures fascinating, and love to immerse myself in them. I honestly feel fearless and no intimidation by them, and do not consider myself to be ethnocentric at all. When I travel with my Dad, he gets annoyed when things aren’t as he expects them to be, and when I mean “expects” I mean American. I realize when I travel that they aren’t supposed to be like America, and that is the whole point. So to get to the final question, adapting to foreign cultural norms and values is a lot easier for me to do that adapting to different American styles of culture. When in another country, I use it as education: to better myself, and to understand the world. Being somewhere like Compton, because the media has already familiarized myself with the “idea” of what Compton is and all about, I have a preconceived notion about it, and in the end, ruins any kind of assimilation possible, if there could have

I was born in Japan and spent my life there until seventh grade. Even though my environment was very fulfilling, my community had little diversity. Everyone was from the same area, we all have same culture, and same race. Individual could had variety of thought but our basic mind was very similar since we all grow up in the same environment. I can say that I had little more diversity in my life than other people around me since my mother was Korean, I had some Korean people around me. Korea is a country located right next to Japan, but they do have different culture, language, and people. It gave me a little push to become diverse person. However, there was a big change when I moved to America as an international student in seventh grade. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who were not "my people". When I walked into the class, everyone had different race, culture,

The privilege to move to California has exposed me to many different cultures. This has allowed me to grow in many ways. The opportunity to listen and learn was there for the taking and I indulged. I now live in a neighborhood filled with people much different from myself My children's classrooms are filled with people from around the globe.  I also have a diverse group of friends that I very much enjoy and spend time with.

The environment, family, and community I have grown up in has shaped me as a person. So far, I grew up in the same house all seventeen years of my life. My personality has grown and molded over the years of middle school and high school based off the lessons I have learned and the things I’ve been through.