Perspective and Experience

SHORT ESSAY 

Cultural shock pertains to being immersed into a foreign culture or situation, and a person is forced to cope with the situation without having the tools to cope or understanding. Culture shock, is in fact a shock to the system. Because culture is something that can be so tacit, we do not realize all the small things that we changed suddenly, can affect our system. A personal example of culture shock happened to me this summer. My boyfriend and I returned to his country, Croatia. We had been travelling through Europe for a month before we arrived there. We had stayed in hotels and with his family in all of the other countries we traveled, but in Croatia, the most inexpensive and customary way for travellers to stays is in the homes of people, especially in the tourist destinations. The bus drives you from the airport to the main city, in this case Dubrovnik. It is typical that once the tourist get off the bus, those who have empty apartments or rooms in their houses, come to the bus stop to show the tourists their spaces. So the bus stopped, and we gathered our bags, and as the bus doors opened, their were many people saying apartments, apartments, follow me, follow me. So my boyfriend who speaks the language found a lady and we began to follow, we were walking fast to her apartment, she was speaking in Croatian the whole time, having a conversation with my boyfriend. It was night and we were walking through the crowds down ally ways finally coming up to stairs where the apartment was located. She told us the price and told us to have a look around. By this time I was in complete shock, i couldnt breathe, my heart was racing, and I could barely speak. Our culture here, tells us to be on guard, to be weary of strangers, especially in foreign countries, and to keep to yourself. After I experienced a panic attack, my boyfriend and I left, sat down at a pizza place. He explained to me that it was costumary, that people rent rooms to make extra money, that most apartments are registered, and that it is normal. After that night, we found another apartment in a villa with a nice couple. They were the friendliest people, made us feel at home, and offered us drinks and to have a conversation with them. They gave us good beach spots and made our trip to Dubrovnik wonderful. But the panic that set in to the intial culture shock, is something i will always remember. This just goes to show, that when traveling to other countries and being immersed in other cultures is not an easy thing. One needs to be educated on those things that might be a shock to their system, to prepare yourself for the experience.

If a person has an idea, given to them by their culture it is deeply engrained. If another culture goes against those ideas, we might look upon something as negative, even though it is not negative, but just different than how one culture views things. For me, walking into a stranger's home to sleep and be safe was negative. But in this culture, opening your home and welcoming people in, is seen as natural and polite. Once I became familiar with the idea and values, I saw it in a different perspective.

This idea plays into ethnocentricism, being too attached to one's own culture. Putting your own culutre, ideas, and beliefs above another. And to go further, thinking one's own culture is more superior or more advanced than another. Thinking that your culture is right and the other culture is wrong, because it differs from your own. We take our view of life that as been impressed upon us by society as the best way of live or the best view of life. When you are ethnocentric, you view the world only through the lens of your own culture, and are not able to imagine life through someone else's point if view. Ethnocentricism is inevitably and negative. Cultural relativism tries to remedy this by saying there is no way to not judge another culture by one's own standards, there is no way to look upon another culture with out bias, therefore, we must suspend all judgement with observing other cultures. This idea cause trouble and conflicts with human rights perspective, because relativism negates human rights, for example the practice of female gential mutilation or arranged marriages. The conversation goes, like this between relativism and human rights perspective. Human rights perspective says, female genital mutilation is wrong, it goes against the rights of women and is a backwards practice, those people being violated need help. Relativists will say, there is no way you can judge, it is a different culture, and it has a meaning in their culture, you cannot look upon that practice and judge it based on what your culture says is right or wrong......