Significant Impact of Cross Cultural Studies - Coursework Example

Cross-cultural learning is essential in the context of different individuals who belong to various cultural background interacting in a single workplace which might be distinct from their own culture. The term culture shock comes in whenever a particular culture possessed by an individual is distinct to the culture of the workplace or environment where he moves, therefore creates an uncomfortable feeling. The situation will then push the individual to make a comparison to both “his” culture and the “environment’s” culture, thus the source of learning is from the ability of a person to generate another set of information from the relevancies and differences of both cultures. Cross cultural studies show a very significant and evaluative fact that will build a clear understanding of how one culture may be influencial in one person’s approach to other environment. Cultural knowledge is essential in making an assessment of a particular culture, thus will lead to the extent of addressing the value of cultural diversities. Thus after the assessment is to meet the forces that might be opposing to different culture, leading to managing the dynamics of difference. Because of that, an individual or the particular group or workplace will see the differences and adapt to it, and lead to admit that both cultures have their own unique and distinct qualities that have to be accepted. The period of adjustment is required to those people who will be enganging in a different environment, more particularly to students from different economic or racial backgrounds. It is a matter of learning in action, or an actual experience that is that is emerging in actions and routines, and finally meaning systems or understandings resulting from communication, interpretation and sensemaking (Diedrich and Targama, 2000). In order to achieve having a broad cultural learning and make an assessment, the basic point where a person should start is to make an observation by means of interacting with the environment and to the people in the environment. The world is not getting bigger, but the world’s population is increasing, which makes the travel of people from place to place. This tendency then drives for more interaction among individuals and groups away from their home country engaging social contacts to people of different cultural backgrounds (Brislin, 1981). This creates the room for cultural assessment, where interaction is the key factor. That is the experience Chris Hammilton has, where he is able to correlate the Islamic culture to his own culture. Imagine a person who lived in a totally different environment will then engange to another workplace is like fish taken out of the water, and will need a certain period of time to evolve and learn how to breathe in the air, if evolution is true. In a classroom incident, this thing might also happen to non-American children, of different language and culture who will attend school in an American environment. This will take a long process of making self fit to the new environment, to the new system, and most of all to the new language that he has to be learned. Gradually, the more interaction a child gets in the new environmen will induce a trial and error process that will lead more to cultural literacy which is in great need to a successful cultural adaptation. As a person, or a child adapts to the new environment, he carefully collects all the information as his own checklist, repeating it over and over again whenever a similar situation occures. This is a portion of cultural assesment that a person applies in an individual level little by little achieved through observation, and later the interpretation of his observations that will make the new system as an integral part of his own being. This the essence of cross cultural learning that every person, even children will go through once put into different situations that involve varieties of cultures. He will first look unto the culture as a totally different thing than his own, then later, learn to act not based on his belief systems, but of what is acceptable to the particular trend where he is in. This is not a matter of degrading his own culture but a matter of achieving cultural proficiency which is a part of his adjustments. This is what a person or a child will need in order to make himself mingled with the group. The adaptability of an individual to another system apart from his own native system is a matter of change and time dependent invidual development (Alasuutari, 1995). So, a person a can not forcibly make himself comfortable with the new environment in a flash, but somehow require enough transition period. From an observation to Diahann Reyes, as she mingled to different cultures from time to time, it makes her as a chameleon acting as per particular culture dictates. The incident show how she observes, mimics and learn cultures in a span time interacting with people and the environment. Adaptation to the environment is a process of integrating past experiences to the new culture. Once a person makes it, like Diahann did, this will be a great help for him to become an active part of the norms and disciplines a particular community accepts, a higher level of cultural proficiency. It means learning the belief system, social norms and most of all another language as a tool for communication. Cultural learning can not be achieved if a person will not be able to determine how to integrate self to the qualities and characteristics of other culture. As cultural proficiency increases, the more personal development happens. In classroom experiences, a child new to American culture will find a way to adapt. As Diahann, the only way that it could be achievable is to learn how a culture could be a part of one’s person, thus will make it easier to achieve the degree of acceptability. Learning culture, is to persuade self in effectively engaging to a cross cultural environment, thus will motivate self of having knowledge to cultural rules. These knowledge to cultural rules, with respect to non-American students, will make a child know how to move with the group, live with group, make friends with the group and enjoy the sense of belonging. This sense of belonging with other people will somehow absorb the impact of culture shock. This will also minimize the sudden change of culture. Cultural proficiency really starts with the culture shock, that can be overcomed by inter-cultural training, and as inter-cultural training takes place, the child develops the competence to inter-cultural communication (Brislin, R.W.,1981). The amount of training is needed so that the child will not have that too much difficulty in adapting the culture during the transitionary period. Intercultural training is defined by expert as; “any procedure used to increase an individuals ability to cope with and work in a foreign environment (Tung, 1981). Given the fact that the students are non-Americans, there are already many things that he has to deal with. First, the way he will adapt with the common living as compared to the kind of living he lived before, second, the language that he is going to communicate, provided that he already engage in a foreign environment. Learning the language is the essential part of how successfully a person can make an effective interaction. It is a device that will bridge the distance of culture. Compatibility of man to the new culture will be easier and probable to the extent that a person new to the culture comprehends what other people feels, think and how they behave, and the same time the ability to react with it. Once a person can express himself to others, this will create a connection to the gap which is the basic step of interaction. Inter-action is how a person will relate self to others through action, and relatively have knowledge of the rules of the society. This is important in achieving cultural proficiency, which is valuable most especially in living in a foreign environment. Cultural adjustment is really a problem that children of another cultural background faces. The switching from home culture to new culture could not be an automatic process. It takes time. From the first interaction with the new environment, the tendency for children is to become disoriented, confused and uncertain to the kind of the new environment that he will work with. It is like a big jigsaw puzzle that every pieces of compatibility requires an extensive process of learning. This could be solved, once the child is trained to know or have at least basic awareness of culture and environment that he will deal with. This will somehow reduce the negative impact of culture shock and confusion, and will create a smoother transition from home-culture to the new culture. The formula needed is to to enhance the child’s cross cultural knowledge so that everything that he will see in the new environment will just serve as the extension of what he already knows. Like in the incident of Diahann, learning cross-cultural interaction will make dealing with other culture not a painstaking activity, but in a better point of view, will enhance person’s communicability with people. This is the kind of qualities that non-American students or pupils should possess in order to completely adapt with the American school systems that might be different from the educational system that they already had previously. Culture has a complex nature, and it is essential that an invidual will develop a mental awareness that will prepare him in facing to the problems of cultural differences. Once other culture seems to be unfamiliar to a person, the way so that he will know how to fit with it, is to at least know how to behave and act together with the culture of the other people he will then engage into. It is reconciling self to the dynamics of the new culture, trying to fit in, until he perfectly understands and accepts the behavior of the new environment as a whole. In this context, managing the dynamics of differences will depend on the child’s ability to introduce self to the new environment. Again and again, knowledge of cultural rules is essential in managing the dynamics of differences. It is the question of knowing how to deal with a particular thing in own home-culture and how to behave in a particular situation in the foreign culture. Differences could be managed, through learning that cultures of different people is so essential to be acceptable in the society. Therefore, it is first imperative to achieve a sense of familiarity to the foreign culture (Benders,1996), that will prevent to be in shameful or culturally unacceptable situations. A person, will be muchly feel the impact of culture shock, once totally he is not familiar to the new culture. Thus to manage the dynamics of differences, parents or teachers, most especially those who will be in-charge of non-American students should orient or socialize the children to the foreign environment. This will relieve them from the tensions of being disoriented, confused, or become unacceptable to other children. There are incidents when children do not develop their inter-cultural competencies because they were not properly oriented on how they can be acceptable to the new environment. Once negative impressions to particular culture happens, then that is the time when inter-cultural appreciation would be replaced being dismayed than enjoy, reject than to accept. To achieve giving value to the diversity of culture, is to make children realize that every culture has their own distinct qualities therefore differences should not create the idea of one culture is dominant to others, but to understand that every cultures has their own core values. These core values should not be contradicted, but has to be accepted, thinking that dissimilarities makes one culture unique. Therefore to engange in inter-cultural training is to infuse to the child how he or she is going to be flexible in facing cultural differences, and make him adapt. It is a wrong notion to inject negative idea about a particular system of beliefs, but should motivate an individual to learn how to appreciate, as in the case of Chris. This will help the invidual to integrate self to the new environment that is not going to be painful, but on the brighter side, will encourage them to learn how to manage and give value to those differences. Relative to giving importance to characteristic of every culture, is also understanding how the institution will deal with the problems of possible discrimination which will lead to problem if will not be given with due care. Then how cultural knowledge could be institutionalized when the diversities of culture, and its qualities and importance are successfully recognize. The best way that it could be applied is making this cultural knowledge as a visual map on how a particular child would react on a certain situation based on his or her cultural background and gradually made him understand that he should learn the new environment as a part of his cultural proficiency. Take for example, a child from Africa or any Islamic region might experience discomfort going into an American because of the type of environment and community he might see. This will however be solved once the institution or the school successfully recognize cultural differences and made child do things that will not violate his own home culture. That might be in the context of their socialization, rationales, traditions and customs that might be fully different from the American environment. Institutionalizing cultural knowledge is actually a matter of integrating the best of both cultures, thus, preventing cases of discrimination of cultures which can be a main hindrance to learning. Discrimination creates bars between two cultures, the people within that cultures, and the future educational and academic development that should take place in a school setting. The idea here is to create an integrated society of numerous cultures wherein different culture would not create a barrier for giving opportunity for children’s education. For instance, a discriminatory act that a child will experience will introduce to him a negative impression to the environment, therefore will lead to the failure of cultural integration. As in the case of Aimée Skidmore, her children was not able to find the satisfaction of getting into a foreign shools, eversince they travelled from one place to another. The main problems that the children complain about is the way the amount of socialization they need to be accepted by the environment. Meaning, it is not that they can adjust to the environment, but the environment does not seem to be comfortable enough to accept them. Language has been the main problem, simply because they can not communicate with their school because language differences. The mirror of every culture is the language they speak. Children may not have the enjoyment in staying in schools where nobody accepts them, do not speak with, and do not know the language they have to communicate with the other people. Meaning, the initial process of introducing non-American students to their foreign American environment is to make them knowledgeable on how they can communicate with the American which is the essential part. However, it is not only the language which will be the main concentration in dealing with in providing non-American children education to an American environment but the environment as a whole. It is to ensure that they will engage into the community wherein people will not get fun of them because of not knowing what to do, how to say it. It is the question of the way they will socialize with the immediate American community where they will live, most particularly the school. Painful experiences in school leads to the fact that the children will hate the environment, hate the language and hate the foreign culture. To avoid that is to make children at ease with the environment by means of orienting them a particular way of life about a particular culture. That is to inject them the idea that for them to really enjoy studying in an American school, is to feel like an American, to think like an American and to speak like an American. Because the concentration of the discussion is in a classroom setting, or in the context of education, it implies that the institution needs to make non-American at ease with American culture. In the aspect of education, the educational system in Asia is different in America in their approach, teacher and student relationship, and the learning process as a whole. For example, many Japanese students experienced culture shock when transferring to American schools. As for observation, they are surprised that American students gives attention to what the teachers are saying, and teacher at the same time are willing to be interrupted by the students during discussions for the sake of asking questions or expressing student opinions. This is not the same with the kind socialization Asian students learned or are used to. As an observation in most of the Asian schools, teachers in Japan expect student to be quiet in class while explaining the contents of the subject or the discussions. This is however not in the case of an American school. American teacher thinks more of participatory learning, which may not be the same with the Asian educational system (Takeya, K.,2000). This is the area where non-American students should adjust, and that could only be possible if the child will learn appreciating the American approach to learning. The importance of establishing a classroom participation both to American and non-American students will foster to the advancement of an integrated community of different cultural backgrounds. Once class participation among students of different cultural backgrounds has been effectively imposed, then it open the door for every students in the class to equally react to the subject matter that every teachers instructs the students. This is where the question of innovative and rote or traditional learning become an issue. The established difference between the innovative approach to education used in the US and the traditional approach commonly used in Asian countries, shows that the inability of non-American students to successfully interact in an American classroom setting is because of the totally different school environment, policies, system and educational approach imposed in their country. Meaning to say, culture shock occurs not only because the environment is foreign to them but at the same, they are not proficient to such kind of educational cultures. Now to be successful in handling non-American students is to see the areas where they might lacking or not adjusted to, depending on the kind of orientation they have in their own country. Their orientation will be the basis for further development where American teachers can concentrate and work on wherein student’s cultural background is the basis for necessary improvements. References: Brislin, R.W.(1981), Cross-Cultural Encounters : Face-to-face Interaction, Pergamon, New York, NY. Diedrich, A. and Targama, A. (2000), “Towards a Generic Theory of Knowledge and its Implications for Knowledge Management”, A Paper presented at the 7th Workshop on Managerial and Organizational Cognition, ESADE, Bercelona 2000. Alasuutari, P. (1995). Researching Culture, Quantitative Method and Cultural Studies, London: Sage . Bender, D. (1986), “Intercultural Competence as a competitive advantage”, Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, Marketing Review., Winter. Tung, R.L. (1981), “Selection and training of personnel for overseas assignments”, Columbia Journal of World Business, Vol.16, PP. 68-78. Takeya, K. (2000).Culture Shock: Schools in the U.S. and Japan. 8 May 2000. Feb, 10, 2007. Retrieved from, http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/kaleidoscope/volume3/cultureshock.html. Read More