Cultural Adaptation - Essay Example

Cultural Adaptation: An Interview Intercultural interaction is defined by Ellingsworth (1998) as the encounter of one person from a certain culture of another host culture. This phenomenon is increasingly becoming common as movements of people among societies for personal or business travels become necessary. Cross-cultural encounters especially those that take a long time can be a stressful experience and this field is the subject of our inquiry. The important point is to determine other people's experience in adapting to their host culture. In this paper, I am to relate the result of the interview that I conducted with a Filipino nurse acquaintance of mine. The experience was quite enlightening as it was enriching as it broadened my perspective in life. Philippine society is quite remarkable as it deviates from our concept of Oriental culture. While the Philippines is located in the South East Asia, its society displays more resemblance to Western culture. As far as the written historical records of the country would show, the country has under been Spanish and American control thus explaining the Western tendencies. Filipinos, as they call themselves, are increasingly becoming a major global workers as they search for greener pastures in other countries. Many of them have found employment here in Ireland and I had the opportunity to interview one of them and ask him about how he adapts to the host culture. When asked about the first major difficulty encountered in his first few weeks in work, he related to me that it was the difficulty in understanding Irish English. While Filipinos have a good knowledge of English language, they were accustomed to American English. He had difficulty in understanding Irish English because of the intonation and the pace. There were also words which were uncommon to him. This language barrier became a major problem as it made him look to his superiors like he was ignorant and unable to follow their orders. Miscommunication was common. It was not long, however, when he began to be accustomed to the eccentricities of the language. According to Kim and Ruben (2004), the process of cultural adaptation with regards to communication is indeed stressful but it does develop over time. The process of being bicultural or intercultural usually begins with overcoming the language barrier and once that is breached, becoming "enculturated" with the host culture and "deculturated" from one's own culture becomes easier. The next serious issue is the negative labels and being treated as someone inferior. Stereotyping or generalizing certain characteristics is a social phenomenon described by many researchers such as Searle and Ward (1996) and Asuncion-Lande (1990). It was established that this tendency is often unavoidable because one is so proud of his own culture. Feelings of being discriminated upon was very high according to my interviewee not only in the workplace but in other environments as well. Comments on the quality of his education and training was often brought up before. Once he experienced being offended and insulted by a patient. He does recognize that this is to be expected but he is trying to show them of his skills and abilities so that he will earn their respect. This is not unusual according to Skinner (2000). People will have the tendency to try to adapt to the host's norm as much as possible because of the need to make a good living and socialize with other people. Another major cause of concern is dealing with other people of other religion. Majority of the Filipinos are Christians and the minority are Filipinos. According to my interviewee, there is a certain undying emnity between the two due to the long wars between the two. Being a Christian, there is the certain feeling of fear when dealing with Muslim people. Nonetheless, the exposure to another religion made my interviewee have a broader understanding of the eccentricities of other cultures. For example, he knows what is prohibited for Muslims and can therefore act accordingly. The religious divide made him understand that other people have other beliefs. In other words, he had already passed the "ethnocentric" stage to practice cultural "relativity". He does make it a point not to bring up the issue of religion with people of the host culture and other nationalities because he knows this is quite the wrong step. According to Skinner (2000), religious differences is a major point of discussion and often conflict for different cultures. This is one of the most sensitive areas that will take a long time to be deculturated. Religion is also the basis of many beliefs and norms and forms the foundation of some culture. Being immersed in another society of another religion is quite stressing. Quite fortunately, Ireland is Catholic in orientation and so my interviewee did not have too much problem adjusting their spiritual beliefs. There are also the issue of some remarks or jokes which others find as amusing but is offending to him. Filipinos are very fond of laughter but they have certain boundaries which they try not to cross. They are of the outgoing kind but tries to limit it to fit their religious beliefs. Aside from these issues, my interviewee generally did not have any other problems aside from change in diet. They do find the local food as quite enjoyable as their native cooking. As stated before, they have been accustomed to Western practices but their Oriental background provides them also a good understanding of many cultures. Reference: Asuncion-Lande, M. 2004. Cognitive Foundations of Cultural Stability and Diversity. Trends in Cognition. New York: University of Chicago Press. Ellingsworth, P.J. 1998. Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Process. Kim J. and Ruben L. 2004. The Organization of Learning, Development and Conceptual Change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Searle H. and Ward K. 1996. The Nature of Cultures. University of Chicago Press. Skinner, A. (2000). How the Mind Works. New York: Norton. Visual Presentation Critical Incident 1: A man who identified himself as a Qatari citizen came to the hospital and conveyed to us his concerns regarding nausea, fever and flu. Fortunately, the man spoke good English. This being the time for swine flu, one attendant remarked quite discreetly to a fellow attendant about the possibility of the Qatari having the disease. The man overheard this and became very annoyed and agitated. He demanded to see the management. Only when the resident doctor talked to the man did we found out that he was offended by being accused of having a disease from swine. The doctor explained to him about the nature of the virus and how it is a major concern currently in the world. Only then did he became calm. Comments: Explaining the nature of the virus from a medical point of view helped the man understand about the concern of the attendants. The attendant shouldn't have mentioned the possibility of the virus especially near the patient. While this maybe an innocent discussion, nobody should mention any matter regarding the medical nature of the symptoms because it will cause panic and anxiety to anybody. The 1st answer provides us a very important point for critical discussion. Qatari citizens are Muslims and they are seriously offended when swine is related to their body which they place great importance. For them, swine are filthy and is very much unwanted. The second comment can be considered as more on protocol rather than in culture. Nonetheless, we can think of the culture of the one who made the remark as having some factor. He may have been brought up in a society where open discussion about ailments is normal. Critical Incident 2: A Bangladeshi lady who spoke no English came with two of her friends who tried to translate for her. They were not very effective as they themselves were grappling with speaking the language. We had an Urdu speaker and he tried to talk to the woman. Unfortunately, Bangla language had certain differences with the Urdu language and this made the converstaion very unreliable. In the end, we had to verify the ailment through blood and x-ray tests. She was visibly very much in pain. The process was not without any issues because the lady wanted to call her family before they start to conduct the tests. Her friends tried to calm her but she got very agitated. We promised here we would arrange for her family to come to the hospital and as proof, we called her mother's mobile for her to hear her voice. Comments: The extra effort made by the staff to let her talk to her mother provided a very effective method of assurance for the patient. It provided her some degree of peace of mind and her reluctance to the necessary tests waivered. Having someone in the staff able to speak another language is good especially in light of the ever-increasing multinational population. The concept of the family and the importance of informing them on some very personal matters is innate in many cultures. Family members provide incomparable concern to each other and this close knit relationship is very strong in Bangla culture. If we look deeper in Asian cultures, we find that many of them have extended families where the oldest, youngest and new members live closely to each other. On another note, while the Bangla and Urdu language have many similarities, the differences can make the discourse very ineffective. Assessing medical condition is very imporatnt to know exactly what is wrong. This brings us to an important point. While some culture have similarities with other culture, there may be a different perception regarding some matter. It is important not to interpret something from one's own culture even if the person is perceived to be very related. Critical Incident 3: A gentleman from Zimbabwe came to the hospital visibly in pain as he was clutching his chest. The man knew little English and communicated his condition more in body movements. First aid was administered while we searched for someone to translate for him. There being nobody, the doctor decided to put him up for immediate tests and only by that time was it determined that he had suffered a heart attack. He relayed to us that someone may have cursed him back in his country as his family members didn't experience before the ailment. He told us that even if their family were Christian, he believed that many events were due to the mischief of people who had upernatural powers. We explained that it was the result of poor body maintenance and lack of exercise. Comment: The language barrier is bound to be a big problem in providing health care and no one can be prepared enough to deal with the issue. The last recourse is to resort to body movements which is very much ineffective. Spiritual beliefs play an important role in the psyche of African nations and belief in witchcraft is very much real. Every culture is unique in its own right. Each have developed unique ways to communicate. This also goes true for religion. While there are established religions in the world, each society is not bound to accept it as it is. There will always be an incorporation of past beliefs leading to a spiritual belief that is quite distinct from the original. Critical Incident 4 A Middle Eastern man and lady came to the hospital to seek medical help regarding some facial irritation. The lady was wearing her hijab which fully covered her face except for the eyes. The lady got permission to remove her hijab so that the attendants can examine the irritation but she was very reluctant to remove all of it. We agreed to do it in a secluded room with the husband being there. They were very thankful of this suggestion. When she finally did, we learned that she was very young and was about 18 years old. We asked the man if she is the father because he looked at about 50 years of age but he remarked that he was the husband and this was her 3rd wife. We did not pursue the discussion any more. Comment: The hijab or face cover is traditional to Arab nationalities particularly because their beliefs regarding the proper behavior of women. Providing them a private place for assessment provides them some degree of comfortability. One should not make any assumption regarding the relationship of the patients and their companions as these may lead to awkward situations. Arranged marriage is common to many cultures. Arab cultures permit polygamy in the belief that the number of ladies exceed the number of men and this could result to many ladies not getting married thus suffering from ridicule. The hijab is common among Arab ladies and removal of it and exposure of the face to the public should first gain permission from the husband. Read More