Reflective Essay: West Covina

A sudden change in one’s surroundings can result in culture shock. Culture shock refers to the anxiety and surprise a person feels when he or she is discontented with an unfamiliar setting. The majority of practices or customs are different from what a person is used to. One may experience withdrawal, homesickness, or a desire for old friends. For example, when a person goes to live in a different place with unfamiliar surroundings, they may experience culture shock. Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective

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.

My mother’s side is English, German and Irish while my father’s side is Filipino and Korean. My fascination with cultures started when I entered my intermediate years. Being able to learn how morals and traditions differ between cultures greatly interest me because it is like learning a totally different world. When I encounter a different culture from one that I was raised around I am able to broaden my spectrum and see the world through many perspectives. I am able to realize how privileged my life is. Not everyone in the world is able to possess the same freedom as I, and I begun to notice that no matter how many obstacles I may face it is never the worse circumstance out there. How selfish it must seem of me to complain about not being able to go out with my peers when there is others out there who is facing morally suffocating situations, discrimination and

Growing up, I was surrounded by a juxtaposition of numerous cultures due to the fact that my dad is from Bangladesh, my mom is from India, my family is in the Middle East, and my childhood is rooted in a diverse area where I am surrounded by no one like myself. My family would joke about how I was culturally confusing, as I shifted my perspective and filtered my communication almost effortlessly in order to adapt to my environment, however, to me, analyzing those discrepancies between cultures and traditions dazzled me rather than dizzying me.

A time I experienced culture shock was when I was seventeen years old, within my own country just states away from all I knew,Southern California, to a different, less diverse south- Louisiana. My experience may not be too extreme considering the United States holds many of the same values across the country, but one cannot argue that it is culturally different in other aspects that will support my shock. Up until age 17, I had lived in cities only within Southern California being exposed to a life of learning appreciation for diversity. Then came a drastic move to a rural,small town near the swamps, and their lifestyle was obviously different yet so similar because, well it is America and as a whole we’re unified. My cultural assumptions gave

Growing up in New York City and attending public school my whole life gave me the opportunity to grow up in a diverse environment which in turn has helped to broaden my perspective socially and culturally. These experiences allowed me at a young age to become friends with other immigrants and people whose culture, ethnicity, religion, and experiences were completely different from my own. Friends have taught me things like cultural norms and what is and isn't acceptable in other religions. Another experience that I that changed my perspective was taking the career pathway biomedical science because it helped me see academic courses in a different way. It showed me that school wasn't only tests, solving math problems, and writing essays. In

My first intercultural experience occurred with my elementary school best friend who was African American. I never thought this was odd because our classroom was a melting pot. Instead, what I thought was odd was when my elementary school teacher told a story her white friend marrying a black and how this was an amazing achievement. This was an example of me defying stereotypes.

Please excuse me if the following content seems out of sorts or out of basis with sound logic, I was still very young (of course) and not everything can be recaptured the way I would like to. All names will be used, not used, or even changed to protect certain identities and confidentialities of said person (s) in my stories. I will occasionally be jumping back and forth in some sections of my story to help better reflect portions of my life that were forgotten as of late, or to give inference, to better explain, and give more visual elements to events that were either too bland and vague.

I come from a world that is multicultural and inspirational. It is not only because of the city that I currently live in or the school that I attend, but rather, it is from the family that I come from. My family is from around the world and the experiences that I have had with them has made me into someone who aspires to help others.

When asked to describe the world I come from, I am immediately taken back to the amazing amalgam of religions, cultures, interests and unique life experiences that have molded me into the diligent, culturally conscious, and empathic person that I am today.

The cultural diversity was something I have never experienced before and my eyes were opened to a whole new world. However this world was missing something vital to my life. The people who lived here were fascinatingly diverse, but the land was not. We had moved to the central valley, an almost completely flat area. Because the thing I loved most, nature, got taken away from me, it became obvious what my goal in life would be. I wanted to protect and help the earth as much as I can to preserve what it has to offer us. Upon moving to California my interest in nature was sparked even further as I sought out ways to get myself into the wild. When I entered high school, I joined SAVE Club (Students Against Vandalizing the Earth) where we would do community service events and then get rewarded by going on hikes in amazing places like Yosemite National Park. I began to learn about ways we can help create a more sustainable earth and it became clear to me that a career in Environmental science would be an amazing way to spend my

I grew up in a multicultural household, my father came from Peru and my mother came from Colombia. Both of my parents are proud of their respective countries and heritage. They both embrace each other’s cultures by celebrating traditions and preparing food native to both countries. Having open-minded parents has taught me to experiment with new foods, music, and hobbies without judgment. I have been surrounded by so many

In my school, I made sure to promote diversity and welcome students. Since middle school I became interested in learning about different cultures and languages. I was fascinated with the variety of cultures and how each of them differs from my own. The beauty of languages enraptured me, how each syllable rolled off the tongue delicately. The mystery behind the languages as I am compelled to listen to a language I do not understand. My interest in culture and language drew me to join Global Buddies in my high school.

The clinical site at Cannon Falls is a great environment to work in and the coworkers there are friendly to work with. The technologists that are present in the hospital setting answered almost every question I had about what we do as radiologist. The first day on my clinic, the tech shows me around the hospital such as where to park, the cafeteria, where to put my stuff. In the first week of the clinic, my first chest x-ray positioning went great even though I did not know the control panel that well. That same week I was helping out with the exams, like setup the room, taking the patients and position them then take image from the patience while the supervision was present. My first attempt on the foot, I was the technologist said I have to angle the oblique 10 degrees angle, this procedure was new to me since the positioning they have in our book is little bit different in a way.

Later definitions emphasis psychological explanation where Adler writes that “culture shock is primarily a set of emotion reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from one’s own culture, to new cultural stimuli which have little or no meaning, and to the misunderstanding of new diverse experiences. It may encompass feeling of helplessness, irritability, and fears of being cheated, contaminated, injured or disregarded.