Culture Shock Of Studying Abroad Cultural Studies Essay

Culture Shock Of Studying Abroad Cultural Studies Essay In the globalising world, more and more people go to abroad for work and study. Culture shock has been widely present in intercultural communication. Where there is cultural communication, there is culture shock. It can be illustrated by a simple case. A Chinese girl, who is a college student, experienced long-term acculturation when she came here at first. One day, she went to the bank to ask for the statement. When she arrived there, the officer told her that the statement must be posted, and she could not get it right away. She explained that it was urgently needed for visa, but the officer still insisted on his decision, which made her upset and frustrated. As opposed to it, in China, one can get a bank statement at any time. People will experience the impact of cultural differences in varying degrees from an ethnic region to a completely different one, especially to go to work, study and live abroad. The set of symbols, customs, behaviour patterns, social relations will be replaced by another set they are not familiar, which may bring about psychological anxiety, emotional instability, and even depression. In severe cases, it can result in a variety of psychological and physical diseases, worse, even mental problems or suicide. This is culture shock exactly. Culture shock has been an important source of interpersonal stress and conflict for those who are in a multicultural society. Generally speaking, culture shock is a phenomenon of cultural loss and mental imbalance, and it also can be seen as a process of the evolution of mental state in unfamiliar cultural settings. People experience varying degrees of culture shock. There are many factors affecting culture shock and the individual reactions, including previous experience with other cultures and cross-cultural adaptation, the degree of difference in ones own and the host culture, the degree of preparation, social support networks, and individual psychological characteristics. (Furnham Bochner, 1986) Nowadays, international students are playing an increasingly significant role in different countries, especially in western countries. They spend much money and time for higher education. After finishing the study, they usually go back home or stay to get a good job. Only if they overcome cultural shock can they continue learning and have the opportunity to carry out their dream. Otherwise, it will be a giant waste of time and money. Doubtlessly, these students have become vital for the study of culture shock. This essay is to address the definition, characteristics, phases, and causes of culture shock, and explore how it can affect foreign students through a collection of relevant examples. Literature Review In recent years, there is a growing literature in the area of culture shock, and many contributions to the mental health issues aroused by culture shock faced by foreign students (Thomas Althen, 1989). A number of scholars have discussed the definition of culture shock. Oberg (1960) popularised it to refer to the anxiety that results from losing all of our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. Adler (1975) suggested that culture shock is primarily a set of emotional reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from ones own culture, to the new cultural stimuli which have little or no meaning, and to the misunderstanding of new and diverse experience. Barna (1976) extended the concept to include physiological aspects. Bennett (1977) viewed it as a subcategory of transition experiences. Regarding the symptoms of culture shock, although individual reactions differ from case to case, various scholars (e.g., Oberg, 1960; Adler, 1975) suggested some common symptoms, such as: feelings of impotence and withdrawal; fear of being cheated or injured; excessive concern on health; being homesick; and a state of nervous irritability. Moreover, Taft (1977) summarised a range of definitions and argued that culture shock is a feeling of impotence from the inability to cope with the environment, because of being unfamiliar with cognitive aspects and role-playing skills. He identified six different aspects of culture shock: 1. Tension due to the ongoing necessary psychological adjustment. 2. A sense of loss of friends, status, occupation and property. 3. Being not accepted by and/or accepting members of the new culture. 4. Confusion in role, role expectations, values, feelings and self-identity. 5. Surprise, anxiety, even disgust and anger after perceiving cultural differences. 6. Feeling of helplessness due to not being able to deal with the new circumstance. In terms of mental health issues, the widespread use of the two major concerns, namely, depression (e.g., David, 1971; Hojat, 1982) and anxiety (e.g., Lin Masuda, Tazuma, 1982) has been documented. Some studies have paid attention to helplessness (Arredondo-Dowd, 1981), social withdrawal, loneliness, and homesickness (Church, 1982; Cort King, 1979). Causes of Culture Shock When one enters an unfamiliar environment, why will he encounter culture shock? There are various explanations in the psychological studies. A traditional one is to link it to grief of the loss of friends or relatives, ascribing culture shock to the loss of certain things. People feel grieved due to the loss of close friends and family, while those in a different cultural context may be subjected to culture shock for losing a familiar frame of reference in an intercultural encounter, such as status, values, friends, and customs. (Bennett, 1977) A number of new theories have been proposed which elaborate it from different aspects. Different Values Value is a kind of social consciousness, and it can identify what kind of behavior, survival patterns and interaction guidelines will be adopted by individuals, groups or societies. There is neither any kind of values superior than others, nor that inferior. Any of them is unique. For example, comparing the Chinese and American cultures, it clearly can be seen that the American value individualism while the Chinese emphasise collectivism. American people emphasise individual rights, whereas Chinese people value their obligations to society. In intercultural communication, one from a different culture must respect values of the host culture to ensure the smoothness of communications. If people act as the opposite, culture shock will occur inevitably. Take some Muslim students for example. When living in America, there are many students from Muslim countries, especially females, who usually continue to wear traditional clothing; therefore they are actively resisting participating in th e American popular culture. This has been in the way of acculturation, which may isolate them from the environment and bring about anxiety or frustration. Ethnocentrism People tend to criticise the practices of another culture from the perspective of their own cultural values and beliefs. Ethnocentrism, constituted by ethno and centrism, refers to a cultural bias that leads people to judge another cultures habits and practices as right or wrong, good or bad (Samover Porter, 2000). This tendency will result in vanity of ones own cultures superiority, and contempt of outsiders, thereby influencing the adaption process. To illustrate, several cases will be presented. Chinese regard western food such as sandwich and hamburger as junk food. Americans are shocked that Chinese eat nearly all kinds of animals. Chinese think Hindus bathing in the river Ganges is unsanitary. Islamic counties are criticised for supposedly subordinating women. Western countries think Chinese forced-feeding education has no benefit for students. Ethnocentrism sometimes can produce positive social effects, including a very strong social status, which may enhance individual self-esteem, sense of loyalty and group survival consciousness, but also reduce internal contradictions. However, ethnocentric attitudes will cause negative social effects, which prevents people from learning new knowledge from other cultures and broaden new vision. In addition, to safeguard the status of national superiority, competition, fear, anger and hatred may increase, which leads to a variety of destructive conflicts. Ethnocentrism and culture is symbiotic, and each of us grows up in a certain culture, thus it is impossible to completely get rid of ethnocentrism. When students enter an unfamiliar cultural context, it is easy to judge the target culture as good or bad, right or wrong from the standpoint of their own cultural values. With the bias judgment, one cannot break the barriers to achieve intercultural understanding; therefore, culture shock occurs, which causes psychological and physiological stress and tension in communication contact. Preconceptions and Stereotypes The presence of preconceptions and stereotypes is a stumbling block to cultural contact. For instance, U.S. students try to keep distance to a noisy group from Middle East since the stereotype that the Arabs are inflammable. If one has regarded Japanese as inscrutable before his or her Japanese guests coming, he or she will probably see their behaviors (e.g., the constant smile) as much (Barna, 1994). Stereotypes help to reduce the threat of the unknown by making the world predictable (Becker, 1962). Stereotypes lead to overgeneralisation, and affect intercultural communication directly, because the predictions to the behaviours of the other party are based on their fixed views rather than whether they are accurate or fit the circumstances. Stereotypes are psychologically necessary to release our helplessness so as to interact with people in different situations. Stereotypes make people pay attention to what fit their initial impressions, and ignore the left. It prevents people from communicating with those from the distinct cultural backgrounds. As a psychological reason for culture shock, stereotypes are detrimental to the process of communication and have been an obstacle to intercultural interactions. Language Differences Language difference is a stumbling block in the adaption process. Vocabulary, syntax, idioms, slang, dialects, and so on all cause difficulty, but the person struggling with a different language is at least aware of being in trouble. (Barna, 1994) A big language problem is that users cling to one meaning of a word in the target language, without considering the specific context. Various meanings are so difficulty that they are often waved aside. Conceit and complacency will stop a search for understanding. Yes and no are classic examples. How to answer the question, Dont you know him? When a foreign student first hears it, he may answer yes, which means he does not know him. However, if he wants to express the meaning that he does know him, he has to answer no. There are some other problems, including the different styles of using target language. These differences may lead to wrong interpretations of tone and intent. Language skills are linked with adaptation effectiveness (DeVerthe lyi, 1995). Foreign students in the USA who cannot speak English well may be isolated socially, which will affect their academic achievement. For instance, one can order a cup of tea at a cafà ©; however, he or she may not discuss academic issues such as linguistics very well. Despite that he or she holds the idea, it cannot be presented by language. As mentioned above, language issue will result in academic and intercultural failures and further lead to high stress and depression which are the exact symptoms of culture shock. Avoiding Unfamiliar People and Things When students come to a new environment, they usually would like to assume similarities instead of differences between the host culture and their own culture, which can bring themselves a sense of intimacy and familiarity. Some other students prefer to stay with those from the same country and share experiences within the small circle. They avoid and resist people and things they are not familiar. Due to the avoidance, they cannot understand the new cultural identity, and even mistake their cultural norms as universal ones that everyone can accept. Once they find acts strange (different from them) they expect, confusion, disappointment, and even rejection will be produced. This phenomenon is widely present in communities of Chinese students. These students are together for everyday, and they cook, eat, go shopping, study, travel and chat with each other; moreover, they share joy and sorrow, and intentionally keep away from communicating with people from target culture. Generally, the y live in the small world created by themselves, and set up an obstruction in intercultural contact. With time going on, they become less brave to break up the barrier and reach an impasse of cultural contact. Level of Knowledge How should I greet when I first meet them, shaking hands or bowing? What should we talk about for initial meetings? Should I be more enthusiastic or control my facial expressions when talking with them? There is a long list of cultural norms needed to be learned by overseas students before or during a sojourn. Ones level of cultural knowledge may contribute to the acculturation (Begley, 2000). For example, overseas students studying in Britain should be aware of the different educational system and better ways to succeed in learning. Google claimed to withdraw the investment in China for it did not recognise the complicated realities of the country and finally failed in China. From these examples, we can understand that being aware of little general and specific cultural knowledge can cause communicative problems that may lead to culture shock.

System Analysis and Design Life Cycle Essay

There are nine parts to the system analysis and design life cycle. The first three stages are about gathering information. The first part of the cycle is initiation. This is when someone identifies a need or an opportunity. The second part of the cycle is the system concept development, which defines the scope or the boundary of the concepts. Next is the planning stage. During this stage the project management plan and other planning documentation is developed. This will be the basis for acquiring the resources needed to achieve a solution. The next three stages are about the actual design. The fourth stage is the requirements analysis. This is where the functional requirements document is created in which user needs are analyzed and user requirements are developed. The fifth stage, which is self-explanatory, is the design stage. This is where the systems design documents are created from the detailed requirements, focusing on how to deliver the required functionality. The sixth stage is the development stage. This is the part where the design is transformed into a complete information system. The final three stages are where everything comes together. During the integration and testing stage the developed system are tested to see if they perform as designed. Stage eight is implementation. This includes the implementation preparation and the implementation of the system into a production environment and the solution to any of the problems found in the integration and testing stage. Everything being discovered has a system in place. Following the steps above, with a little tweaking toward our goal, gives us a template to develop a successful database. When I type â€Å"Resolution Analysis† into the search bar, I get heading such as â€Å"Requirements Analysis – Software To Track All Requirements†, â€Å"Amazon.com: Getting It Right: Business Requirement Analysis Tools†, â€Å"Exploring Alternatives During Requirements An alysis†, and â€Å"Sociotechnical Requirements Analysis for Clinical Systems†.

Herodotus and the Scythians

The accounts of Scythia in Herodotus’ The Histories are organized in concurrence with the timeline of the Persian invasion of Scythia, led by King Darius, where as the invasion progresses Herodotus repeatedly digresses about the history of Scythia until the Persians and Scythians meet, at which point the apparent essence of the accounts of Scythia in The Histories, the Persian invasion, is concluded. Although Herodotus’ description of Scythia seems to be a byproduct of the accounts of King Darius, it is nonetheless thorough. Along with detailed descriptions of the origins of Scythia, as well as its diverse populace, Herodotus seems determined to write extensively on the geography of Scythia. Concerning the veracity of Herodotus’ accounts on Scythia, there is no effort to provide one point of view as fact, but instead he provides many possibilities and then gives input on which he believes to be most accurate. Because of this, there is little evidence supporting Herodotus having a Greek anti-†barbarian† bias. In fact, as Herodotus is considered by many to be the â€Å"proto-historian†, his work is not easily weighed against the efforts of those that followed. Rather, the stories Herodotus relates weaves a fuller more comprehensive picture of the time than later histories. This unschooled effort should not be construed to suggest a bias, but a rich and new writing style undiluted by the socratic method to follow in later years. Herodotus describes three possibilities for the origin of the Scythian nation. The first possibility described is the position of Scythian people who state that, â€Å"theirs is the youngest of all nations. †? As claimed by the Scythians, the first man born on Scythian soil was descendant from the daughter of the Borysthenes River and Zeus. This man, Targitaos, had three sons whose descendants were that of the first three tribes of Scythia. Herodotus clearly states he does not see much merit in this claim, but acknowledges that this is what the Scythians believe, â€Å"†¦ though that does not sound credible to me. Nevertheless, that is their claim. †? Because Herodotus acknowledges the position of the Scythians and does so politely, the idea that he has an anti-†Barbarian† bias is further diminished. His commentary disregarding the Scythian claims should not be construed as a bias, because it is not forced upon the reader. It is simply an his opinion that is completely up for discussion. This same idea applies to the next possibility of the origin of Scythia, because, although Herodotus does not necessarily believe it, he leaves open for discussion. The second possibility for the origin of Scythia described by Herodotus is according to the Hellenes. The Hellenes believed that Herakles, or Hercules, came to the land of Scythia before the Scythians and as he was heading through the land he came upon a woman who was half woman and half serpent. This woman and Herakles had three sons together and, at the request of Herakles, when they became men any of the three who could draw Herakles’ bow and wear his belt would stay in the future land of Scythia, whereas any of the three who could not do these things must leave.? The youngest of the sons, Scythes, was the only one who achieved this task and, â€Å"the descendants of Scythes son of Herakles have succeeded ever since to the kingship of the Scythians. † ? The third possibility of the origin of the Scythian nation discussed in The Histories is the one preferred by Herodotus. It says that the Scythians were originally from Asia, but because of conflict with other Asian inhabitants they left Asia and settled in was what to become Scythia. At that time Scythia is said to have been inhabited by Cimmerians, but when the Cimmerians learned of the approach of the large Scythian army they either fled or killed themselves. Herodotus believes this to be the most viable possibility of Scythian origin because there is remnants of Cimmerian ruins within Scythia.? After discussing the origin of the Scythian nation, Herodotus goes on to discuss the differences in the people who inhabit Scythia, based on there region. According to Herodotus the easternmost Scythians, know as the Greek Scythians, practice the same basic tenants of Scythian culture besides the fact that they grow grain, onion, garlic, lentils, and millet for sustenance. To the northeast of the Greek Scythians are the Scythian plowmen who, â€Å"grow grain not for their own consumption, but for sale. ? East of the plowmen are the Scythian farmers and southeast of the farmers are the Scythian nomads. The nomads do not farm, but instead live a nomadic lifestyle of hunting. Further east, across the Gerros River are the Royal Scythians. The Royal Scythians are considered to be the most noble of the Scythians and, â€Å"consider the rest of the Scythians their slaves. †? To the north of the Scythians, from west to east, are Neurians, the Maneaters, and the Black Cloaks.? Although Herodotus spends a lot of time discussing the different peoples of Scythia, most of the information given is in the form of stories or very detailed arbitrary aspects of Scythian culture, which does not have a central theme. One aspect of Herodotus’ accounts of Scythia that does have a central theme and is extensively discussed is the geography of Scythia and more specifically, the rivers of Scythia. It is clear that Herodotus was impressed by the rivers of Scythia and was eager to convey information about these rivers to his readers. He discusses each river that flows through Scythia territory, from west to east and credits the rivers for being the most important natural resources of the Scythians.? It is hard to say what information Herodotus deemed most important to know about the Scythians. Discussion on the customs of the Scythians is vast, but largely arbitrary, while remarkable emphasis is placed on the geographical tenants of the area of Scythia. Though, throughout Herodotus’ accounts of Scythia one aspect is largely consistent and that is his determination to provide multiple points of view regardless of the source. There is no real attempt to provide evidence on the veracity of what is being said, besides his commentary, but there is also no bias. Notes 1. Herodotus, â€Å"The Histories,† in Landmark Herodotus, ed. Robert B. Strassler (New York: Pantheon Books, 2007), 282. 2. Herodotus, 282. 3. Herodotus, 284-285. 4. Herodotus, 285. 5. Herodotus, 286-287. 6. Herodotus, 289. 7. Herodotus, 291. 8. Herodotus, 298. 9. Herodotus, 301-306. Bibliography Herodotus. â€Å"The Histories. † In Landmark Herodotus, edited by Robert B. Strassler, 282-306. New York: Pantheon Books, 2007.

How Do The Different Classes ( Upper, Middle, Working )...

How do the different classes (upper, middle, working) throw birthday party? Before I talk about how they throw their birthday party. Im going to explain my experiment is going to talk about how they react differently in their party. And when I say classes I mean rich people who their parents give them money, and middle class who are barely getting through, and working class are who went to college, but most likely she/ he dropped out of school/ collage to start work for he/ she family. The hook that I pick is social cuing. What is social cuing? In Opening Skinner s Box: John Darley and Bibb Latane experiment of the smoke coming from the vent is a hook is social cues. They, decieded, based on the social cues of the confederates, rather than the material evidence, to interpret the emergency use harmless failure of the air-conducting system, and under the spell of that story, they just k=hacked away until many minutes had passed, and there was a fine white film in there and , in their lips, and the examiner came in and called it off(104). So social cuing mean is like doing/imitation and like what professor Clark says monkey see monkey do. So if you do it the other will do the same thing too. In you re head, maybe you re going to say why I pick class? So I m going to explain it, I pick class because to see how they react difficulty to upper class to working class or working class to middle class. My experiment starts off with separate my subjects. Their going to beShow MoreRelated Workers Need a Living Wage Essay3068 Words   |  13 Pagesworkers, themselves to fight for equality in the corporate world. And they have done just that. 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