Personal Narrative: My Cultural Norm

The social norm I broke is making too much eye contact, or staring excessively, at my teachers. While sitting in class, I stared at my teachers more than I stared at my paper or looked around the classroom. It is usually normal for students to stare down at their desks and not look at the teacher a lot.

I grew up as one of the hardest things to commit to, black and alternative. My meaning of alternative is being interested in goth fashion and heavy metal music. From what I was told, being black is listening to hip-hop and dressing like everyone else around them or what is the social norm. Clearly, my definition of alterative is contrasting on what it means to be “black.” I say it's hard to commit because coming from a closed black family, I felt pressed to let go of what I felt about myself just to make them happy. Questions like, ‘’Why are you trying so hard to be different?’’ or ‘’Who told you that was okay?’’ Still replay in my head whenever I decide to wear something that I would feel most comfortable in. Not long ago, I got into an arguement

I personally found trying to find a single “Social Norm” to break challenging so I chose to do two instead. The first was to end my phone calls with I love you, and to talk to a stranger in the bathroom stall next to my own. Which is how I confessed my undying love to a coworker. Working at a casino, employees have to call surveillance for anytime they move around with money or have to be escorted to the vault. I’m a pretty lively person but going into work, I started to get this bashful nature about myself especially the closer it came to performing both of the social norms I gave myself to break.

In the United States we can be so self-absorbed and have no regard for other people and their feelings and well-being, it is a distinguishable norm for American society at this point. We always ask ourselves “What do I want?” or “What can I gain from this?”, but we never ask ourselves “What do they want?” or “What can they gain from this?” This is where Japan separates itself from the United States. The people in Japan hold such high esteem for everyone they know and meet, while we can hardly treat the person next to us with even the smallest amount of admiration and generosity.

When I had first arrived at the program, I wrote to Carlos thinking that it would be worth trying to get my parents to hand off my letters to him. They did a few times. One day during group therapy, Norm paced around the outskirts of the circle we were in. He stopped, studied his feet, and crossed his arms around his back.

Next, I walked and jogged in between on the way to the van. I was excited that I was able to help my mom with something since she never really asked me before. On the way to the car I was thinking about what a great time we were going to have this weekend. My family always went camping at the cabins ttwo times a year and the park provided us a beach so we had the chance to swim also in the daytime. I saw the van getting closer to me so I sped up my pace to get their faster thinking if I did then I would be able to get back to my football game in no

Oh, to see what I wish I didn’t. To see an image staring back at me that I don’t identify with. To long to be accepted, and wonder if ever such a thing could happen. For now, all I can do is move on and pursue something to challenge the “norm”. I suppose it’s time to go forth and spread ideas that no longer require there to be a fear of ourselves. I guess it’s about time for me to do this on my own, even though I am at the ripe age of 62.

Culture heavily influences the social interactions that occur in a society, since culture provides rules as to how society expects a person to act or behave socially. For instance, in the United States, culture expects individuals to arrive promptly for meetings. However, in Latin American countries, it is extremely rare for a person to show up on time. Since culture dictates how communication proceeds, this cultural expectation creates

After arriving to work one Friday morning, I was greeted by an employee with some nerve-racking news. She said she was looking for something in a pile of papers and happened to come across Mrs. Brown’s file she demanded for explanation acting as if she was the boss. What kind of explanation could I give her knowing that I’ve broken the first rule of the company policy. She reassured me that I would be in big trouble if I don’t fix it immediately. I was lost for words my only response was ok. I was so ashamed and worried that this might indeed cause me to be jobless. I can’t lose my job now I thought to myself what would I do if she was to report me I better get on this right away before time runs out. Suddenly I grabbed the phone and began

The United States scored a low 46, in this section of the dimension of culture. The information suggests that Americans impact on their behavior would be higher if the scores were different. Acceptance of new ideas, innovate products, and the ability to try something new or different, whether it being technology, business strategies, or food. Americans allow for opinion of different individuals to be hear allowing freedom of speech. However, Americans are not strict when it comes to rules and express themselves less emotionally than countries who score high.

We lived in a mixed of culture where we can find a variety of nationalities. Sometimes it is fascinating to wonder how people have different cultures, customs and values. I personality experienced endless events where my values clashed with someone else’s. Immigrating to this country and going to school with different nationalities helped me obviously to understand the distinctions we have culturally. It’s was difficult to adjusting and also learning about all these different cultures and I came into conclusion that each culture has their own beauty. I don’t believe that neither is a right or wrong in custom or values. I had opportunity to interview someone from my family that is Peruvian and also an Italian American which is my husband.

This week I competed three social histories. It seems like the more I do them, the easier it seems to be getting. I feel more comfortable with the residents. It also seems like coming up with questions is becoming easier for me. There is a general idea on what to ask, but she wants me to go beyond what is on the sheet. It actually has become fun. I have learned so much about the residents. They are so interesting and have some wonderful stories to share. Man, how things have changed through the years. I interviewed a 94-year-old man and I asked him how him and his wife met. He said that there was an all-girl school across the street from his house. He went over to talk to a girl he knew and he met another girl, and that girl was his now wife.

I had basic knowledge of the Gofstede national cultural dimensions – Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity-Femininity, and Long term-short term orientation; however, I have never viewed them as a helpful tool to analyze cultural differences related to conflicts at a workplace. For example, every time I used to e-mail or call the Mexico office with questions about planning assumptions, the second in command finance staff member would never give me an answer and would always say that I should speak to the manager. This looked strange to me because an identical position holder from a US office would always give me an answer followed by a detailed explanation. I simply thought that the Mexican lower rank staff members were incompetent and that I was better of contacting someone higher in the ranks right away; however, if I had looked up national cultural dimensions for Mexico, I would have found that Mexico, different than the U.S., is a very hierarchical society. It is

This essay will discuss the influence of cultural dimensions on behavior. A cultural dimension is defined as a perspective of a culture based on its values and cultural norms. In particular, Hofstede’s cultural dimension of individualism vs. collectivism will be discussed. Individualism vs collectivism is defined as the preference of a person only being concerned about oneself and looking after oneself, compared to a person who wants to remain in a closely knitted network. These are some terms with definitions which will be used in this essay: the Asch paradigm, which refers to the studies conducted by Solomon Asch, in which he showed his participants different lines and asked them to verbally judge and respond as to what the length of the

The seven cultural variables are the way different people inside contrasting societies are able to communicate with each other and understand what is happening. These contrasting attitudes, beliefs and ideas will shape how they relate to one another and their focus on interacting with numerous individuals. For example, inside the United States the most effective way of discussing what is happening is through presenting objective information directly. While other societies (such as: Sweden), are focusing on two way discourse and establishing friendly relationships. These differences are showing how there are contrasting views as to how various people interact with each other and understand what is happening. (Sepehri, 2011)