Navigating another culture - Essay Example

Navigating Another Culture The term culture is used to de the sum of understanding, familiarity, ideas values, approaches, religions as well as functions and assets that have been attained by various individuals belonging to a specific group. These various elements have been obtained by individuals of these groups over a long period of time and have transferred these elements from one particular generation to another generation. Culture may vary from time to time and new elements may be connected to a particular culture over time and different generations may experience different elements of culture being handed down to them as compared to the generations that existed before them. 2. I belong to the district of Gangnam that is located in the country of South Korea and the culture of Gangnam has been highly influenced through various elements.

One of the elements that have mostly influenced the culture of my region is education. Education is given immense importance in my region mainly for the purpose of the development of the self of the people of my region. The education has transformed my region into a place where people have become quite materialistic and prefer spending a luxurious and wealthy lifestyle. The main purpose due to which education is promoted in my region is that it is believed that education will help us attaining better standards of life.

The popular culture of my region is another aspect that has mighty impact on the culture of Gangnam. The district has been a host and part of various musical videos as well as movies. The region has been used for the purpose of shooting videos and that is one reason why the neighborhood of Gangnam is always bright and colorful. It is a place where people come to enjoy and especially witness the night life of the region (Willett 1).3. I have been living in the region of United States since I was only 15 years old.

My main purpose of moving to United States was attaining higher education as it is one of the main elements that is promote by my culture and my society. When I first came to the United States I faced various difficulties but unlike people belonging to collectivist cultures, I faced little difficulty in understanding the culture of United States and assimilating in their culture was fairly easy for me as compared to other immigrants. The main difficulty that I experienced when I became a part of the United States was my failure to communicate in English Language with the natives of the region.

Due to this I used to feel left and alone and I used to even experience difficulty in my educational pursuit. The problem was that various words in English Language are used by the natives that can have different meanings. So the real difficulty and challenge was to be able to understand what they meant when they used a particular words that could have various overt and covert meanings. But as I continued to learn the language and communicate with the people of United States, the difficulty slowly faded away and I realized that the natives of United States were as fun loving and friendly as the people of Gangnam.

Similar to the people of Gangnam, the natives even preferred partying and hanging out with other people and welcomed people from different backgrounds. The one characteristic that really helped me in turning around and overcoming the challenge of intercultural communication was being open to other people and their ideas. I opened up to the natives of United States instead of holding myself back and did not pursue the feeling of how they will react. In turn, the natives of US became quite friendly with me and I was able to successfully integrate in their society.

ReferencesWillett, Megan. Tour The Ritzy Seoul District That Inspired Viral Hit Gangnam Style. Business Insider. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Jan. 2015., from http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-seouls-district-of-gangnam-gu-2012-9?op=1