Intercultural Analysis Paper - Essay Example

Balinese) and the American culture on grounds of marriage, language, religion and social organization among others. DISCUSSION I have been settled in America from past several years. I have visited various nations of the world and encountered with diverse cultures and ethnics. However, America has been a different experience for me. This experience of mine is largely influenced by the rich cultural heritage, values along with beliefs that hold by the people belonging to this country. In my initial days in the country, I attended a marriage of one of my close friends who belonged to the American culture.

There, I had an international experience which aided me to figure out the difference of my culture with that of the American culture. In this regard, it will be vital to mention that I belong to Balinese Hinduism culture. Balinese Hinduism is regarded as a practice which is mainly associated with the people of Bali. People belonging to this culture possess several different set of beliefs and cultures that differs drastically from that of others. As per my experience relating to cultural pattern, I observed that there lay certain drastic differences between the Balinese culture and the American in terms of marriage, language and religion among others.

Marriages of an individual in my culture i.e. the Balinese culture generally take place in a very young age. . On the other hand, I learnt from the experience that marriages in American culture take place mainly by declaring commitment towards one another in the presence of friends and families along with religious statures like priest. One of the imperative cultural patterns that I have experienced is that marriage in my culture involves more rituals as compared to that of American culture (University of San Diego, “Factors That Influence Our Views on Marriage”).

Furthermore, apart from the marriage traditions, I also learnt from the experience about the drastic language differences that prevail amid the two cultures. People in my cultural group mainly speaks in their native language i.e. Balinese. However, with the aspect of modernization, people in my community also speak in English while conducting their daily activities. My language i.e. Balinese is divided into three levels on the basis of politeness that include low, medium and high Balinese. The low Balinese is usually spoken to friends, the medium one is used for strangers and higher one is spoken to priests (The Economist, “Language of Many Levels”).

Conversely, in relation to determine the cultural pattern that I have experienced, I found that the American culture has no official or native language of its own. In order to obtain a comprehensive understanding regarding this aspect, I have cited a census survey conducted by the US government in the year 2000. This survey depicts that 82 percent of the people belonging to American culture speak English while conducting their daily activities. However, I was unable to identify any sort of level existing in speaking language which was present in my culture (Saint Ignatius High School, “Languages Spoken in the United