April 18, Chapter 11 response

Chapter 11 discusses a topic concerning conflicts that emerge between different cultures without the intention of starting them. This begins with a process of foreigners coming to a new country. The process consists of three stage: euphoria, culture shock, and acculturation. Euphoria deals with the excitement of first coming to a new country while thinking of all the possibilities that await. Culture shock relates to how people begin to realize that the culture they are in is different from the one that they came from. Acculturation is the last stage and it involves the acceptance of the other culture and learning to work with it. (pg. 384) Unlike the Chinese students from my classroom, I can not say that I have ever truly experienced the changes that come from going to another country. Although I can't really speak for them, I can only imagine that this must be both an exciting and perhaps difficult time for them. One one hand, they're finally having a chance to tour around the US and see American sites that they're only heard about. On the other hand, it might be difficult trying to adapt to the American culture since they must communicate mostly in English to other people here and not in Chinese, their native language. I've only traveled once outside of the US in my life and that was when I went to Poland. In this instance, however, I did not have to worry to much about fitting in since I was already familiar with the language and I was staying with some family members. Hopefully someday I'll be able to visit more countries and get the chance to be more open and accepting towards other cultures.