As an international student in the University of Delaware, I often focus on the presence of other international students in the same university, particularly those from my home country, Taiwan. Even though the university advises international students to stick with American students to catch up with the American Culture and to learn English faster, most of the Taiwanese and Chinese students that I encounter still tend to interact with those of the same cultural backgrounds. Moreover, in only a few minutes these international students who have never met before can talk and joke to each other as if they have been acquaintances for years.
Cultural difference might be intimidating at first glance, but one should also know that similarities are still shared among cultures, since they are all founded by humans. For a foreigner, of course, experiencing culture shock is still unavoidable at first, because it takes time to fit into a new culture. Living in a society much unlike ours, we often face difficulties like adjusting to a new table manner, a different definition of politeness, and even daily habits that we find alien. Under these circumstances, most foreigners face troubles to fit into a new society, and thus fail to build up a sense of belonging which every human needs as a social animal to feel safe. Language barrier also prevents one to fit in a foreign society, since one will find it hard to understand the content of everyday conversation, and in times of emergency this barrier can have disastrous results. All the factors above can make a foreign person seek for traces of his own culture, and the less the traces are the more desperate the person can be in trying to gain a sense of belonging and familiarity on an otherwise alien land.
During my times spend abroad I have faced the problems mentioned above. Despite my relatively better English-speaking skills, I sometimes still feel excluded in a different culture. On the first day that I spend in a British household, for example, I felt as if all the values previously firmly held were breaking down. At the dinner table I got blamed simply because I put the fork on the wrong side, and the way I ate the food was regarded as offensive. The worst thing is, most English people have dinner at 4:00 PM, which troubled me since most Taiwanese people have dinner around 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM. After two days of sufferings in the English household, with shower times much limited, I suddenly had a strong wish to stay in a Taiwanese or Chinese household in England, but I felt instantly ashamed by my cowardice. In another experience, I was totally shocked and even terrified by the dazzling chaos of the UD Freshmen Party that I stuck tightly to the Chinese friends whom I did not even know several minutes ago. Normally, in my home country I do not form friendships with strangers easily. However, here in the UD the Chinese freshmen, especially those who live on my floor, sometimes are like my relatives and become my only links to my home country where most things that I’m familiar with reside.
Despite the fact that I perfectly understand Liu’s predicaments, as someone who has gone through similar situations I take Liu’s decisions to stay with his people and even leaving the U.S forever to be disgraceful. Liu’s failure to adjust lies in the fact that he over-generalizes the American Culture. Indeed the United States is a culture that differs greatly from both Taiwan and China, but from a sociological perspective a culture also contains many subcultures. Some subcultures actually hold values that are quite similar to ours. For instance, I still found it comfortable to communicate and even laugh with my teenage friends in the UK, who share my music taste, regardless of my sufferings in a conservative English household. In another example, I have formed close friendships with quite a few American students, even though I still occasionally find other American students strange. Apparently, given the examples above, Liu picks the wrong subculture to stay in. Moreover, he still had not spent enough time to know the new culture in detail before giving up and making a misinformed summary stating that it’s impossible for him to make an American friend. Cultures differ, but cross-cultural exchanges are not impossible as long as one finds the fittest way to do so.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Assignment 3
When I was a child I used to learn English from TV programs, and one of the things that impressed me but puzzled me at the same time was the fact that in each and every English learning program, the American speakers had a wide variety of expressions and gestures. It impressed me because I hadn't seen anyone talking with so many exaggerating facial expressions and hand gestures, and it puzzled me simply because we didn't do it in my home country Taiwan. I suppose that was the first difference that I noticed between American and Taiwanese cultures.
A major divide between two cultures can always be found in their forms of non-verbal communication, and it wouldn’t be understood if one hadn’t experienced it vicariously. I was lucky enough to be able to visit the U.S in person, and if I didn’t go on the trip, I would never learn that what I observed from the TV programs was nothing but the tip of the whole iceberg of cultural difference. Also, without this experience I wouldn’t also realize that a culture’s significance can only be seen when you are outside of it. Taiwanese and American cultures, without a doubt, vary from each other greatly, but similarities still exist. A shared pattern of non-verbal communications, for example, is a proof that the two cultures have exercised certain influences on each other.
Nonverbal communications take place on a daily basis, and thus cultural difference can be noticed in everyday life. For instance, when you catch a stranger’s eyes as you walk down a Taiwanese street, normally that person will return you with a careless, cold, and even icy glance that signifies indifference. If you smiled and even nodded at that person, he or she might simply avoid your look or even turn the head away to ignore your presence. However, when I catch somebody’s eyes, even those of a total stranger, on a U.S street, I often receive a gentle nod or a quick smile of recognition despite the fact that I have never met that person before. In another case, cultural differences exist on the level of close interactions. For example, in China people don’t hold a strong sense of personal space, and touching a person can be regarded as a display of friendliness. However, in the U.S touching a person might be found offensive and rude by the majority of people. Doing so can be misread as a disrespectful act even if it is an attempt to convey friendliness.
Despite the differences pointed out above, when one culture is heavily influenced by another it can take on certain values of that influential culture. It is especially so in Taiwan where American media are largely introduced through movies, books, and magazines, while other American values are brought back from generation after generation of the students studying overseas. The impact of American culture thus becomes obvious: in Taiwan people have developed a strong sense of personal space, and might consider some previously held values outdated and inappropriate. Moreover, in recent years they have gradually adopted certain American forms of nonverbal communication unconsciously as their hand gestures grow more and more differentiated and important in aiding conversations.
Regardless of the differences presented above, we should know that cultures are constantly changing. Both American and Taiwanese cultures are being reshaped as they integrated new elements, and more or less both cultures have exercised a certain amount of influence on each other, even though some aren’t obvious. In other words, the differences between cultures around the world are gradually minimized through cultural interactions in many aspects, and some defining differences have submerged under the waves of globalization and thus become less distinguishable in everyday activities and communications.
A major divide between two cultures can always be found in their forms of non-verbal communication, and it wouldn’t be understood if one hadn’t experienced it vicariously. I was lucky enough to be able to visit the U.S in person, and if I didn’t go on the trip, I would never learn that what I observed from the TV programs was nothing but the tip of the whole iceberg of cultural difference. Also, without this experience I wouldn’t also realize that a culture’s significance can only be seen when you are outside of it. Taiwanese and American cultures, without a doubt, vary from each other greatly, but similarities still exist. A shared pattern of non-verbal communications, for example, is a proof that the two cultures have exercised certain influences on each other.
Nonverbal communications take place on a daily basis, and thus cultural difference can be noticed in everyday life. For instance, when you catch a stranger’s eyes as you walk down a Taiwanese street, normally that person will return you with a careless, cold, and even icy glance that signifies indifference. If you smiled and even nodded at that person, he or she might simply avoid your look or even turn the head away to ignore your presence. However, when I catch somebody’s eyes, even those of a total stranger, on a U.S street, I often receive a gentle nod or a quick smile of recognition despite the fact that I have never met that person before. In another case, cultural differences exist on the level of close interactions. For example, in China people don’t hold a strong sense of personal space, and touching a person can be regarded as a display of friendliness. However, in the U.S touching a person might be found offensive and rude by the majority of people. Doing so can be misread as a disrespectful act even if it is an attempt to convey friendliness.
Despite the differences pointed out above, when one culture is heavily influenced by another it can take on certain values of that influential culture. It is especially so in Taiwan where American media are largely introduced through movies, books, and magazines, while other American values are brought back from generation after generation of the students studying overseas. The impact of American culture thus becomes obvious: in Taiwan people have developed a strong sense of personal space, and might consider some previously held values outdated and inappropriate. Moreover, in recent years they have gradually adopted certain American forms of nonverbal communication unconsciously as their hand gestures grow more and more differentiated and important in aiding conversations.
Regardless of the differences presented above, we should know that cultures are constantly changing. Both American and Taiwanese cultures are being reshaped as they integrated new elements, and more or less both cultures have exercised a certain amount of influence on each other, even though some aren’t obvious. In other words, the differences between cultures around the world are gradually minimized through cultural interactions in many aspects, and some defining differences have submerged under the waves of globalization and thus become less distinguishable in everyday activities and communications.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Blog Assignment II
I portray myself differently according to the person I encounter, but I generally appear to be clever, easy-going and even funny, especially in front of boys. In doing so, I believe that I can relieve their tension and lower their walls of defense while not losing my dignity as a person of wisdom. On the other hand, when it comes to ladies I tend to take up another image which is normally collected, knowledgeable and silent.
Frankly, I consider myself to be successful in displaying my “public images”, and as far as I know I rarely misrepresent myself. People’s first impressions of me live up to my expectations, even though the majority of them, as time unfold, gradually learn the true nature of my somehow multifarious real personality. Girls often regard me as an idealist who is shy, slightly proud and mysterious. Each phrase I utter to them is gentle, intelligent but terse, and whenever we take a walk I remain a speechless shadow that falls behind my long line of giggled female friends silently. Boys, on the contrary, take me to be a friendly person who enjoys to help friends and to say some witty statements with awkward messages behind. For them, I’m not as mysterious as I appear in the girls’ eyes, since I often participate in their short but random conversations.
However, throughout 17 years of self-discovery, all I have learnt from myself is the fact that the two identities portrayed are all various degrees of expressions of my true personality, even though they differ from each other to some extent. My mind, in this respect, can be compared to an intricate machine that has components of different shapes but all function together as one. Only on rare occasions do I go to great expense to portray myself as a whole, of which I only have a slight grasp, and that’s when I fall in love with someone.
Frankly, I consider myself to be successful in displaying my “public images”, and as far as I know I rarely misrepresent myself. People’s first impressions of me live up to my expectations, even though the majority of them, as time unfold, gradually learn the true nature of my somehow multifarious real personality. Girls often regard me as an idealist who is shy, slightly proud and mysterious. Each phrase I utter to them is gentle, intelligent but terse, and whenever we take a walk I remain a speechless shadow that falls behind my long line of giggled female friends silently. Boys, on the contrary, take me to be a friendly person who enjoys to help friends and to say some witty statements with awkward messages behind. For them, I’m not as mysterious as I appear in the girls’ eyes, since I often participate in their short but random conversations.
However, throughout 17 years of self-discovery, all I have learnt from myself is the fact that the two identities portrayed are all various degrees of expressions of my true personality, even though they differ from each other to some extent. My mind, in this respect, can be compared to an intricate machine that has components of different shapes but all function together as one. Only on rare occasions do I go to great expense to portray myself as a whole, of which I only have a slight grasp, and that’s when I fall in love with someone.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Different Forms of Languages.
Various forms of one language can be manifested under many circumstances, and the gap of different language usages can be apparent among different generations. It's particularly so when the generations in question are influenced by different cultures.
Although I was educated by my parents, I developed a form of spoken language that differed from that of my parents. The changes took place on my trip to England when my speech was re-shaped by my English friends who tend to use slang. Gradually I found a mixture of English and Chinese, my mother tongue, to be more efficient in conveying my ideas. The language I used became foreign-influenced and constantly included expressions such as: “Never mind” and “Whatever”, “Gotcha” and “Bless ya”. Sometimes even “Bloody hell” sprang from my mouth. My parents, professionally trained in traditional literature, reacted differently to my new language usage. As my mother adapted and assimilate the new elements of my language, my father insisted to retain the family’s traditional way of speaking, which often quoted from the Dialects and other classic Chinese Literature.
Apart from everyday conversation, I still deliver any public speech in the most formal way possible. In public I make use of sophisticated words while decorating my speech with a succinct yet knowledgeable tone. Every speech of mine is like an academic essay with profound brilliance, and that takes my parents by surprise since, as mother portrayed it, “it was like addressing to the Congress!”
Although I was educated by my parents, I developed a form of spoken language that differed from that of my parents. The changes took place on my trip to England when my speech was re-shaped by my English friends who tend to use slang. Gradually I found a mixture of English and Chinese, my mother tongue, to be more efficient in conveying my ideas. The language I used became foreign-influenced and constantly included expressions such as: “Never mind” and “Whatever”, “Gotcha” and “Bless ya”. Sometimes even “Bloody hell” sprang from my mouth. My parents, professionally trained in traditional literature, reacted differently to my new language usage. As my mother adapted and assimilate the new elements of my language, my father insisted to retain the family’s traditional way of speaking, which often quoted from the Dialects and other classic Chinese Literature.
Apart from everyday conversation, I still deliver any public speech in the most formal way possible. In public I make use of sophisticated words while decorating my speech with a succinct yet knowledgeable tone. Every speech of mine is like an academic essay with profound brilliance, and that takes my parents by surprise since, as mother portrayed it, “it was like addressing to the Congress!”
Friday, September 4, 2009
Introduction
I've been a Blogger user for years and I believe that I've written similar self-introduction like this for many times since I kept creating different accounts while quickly forgetting their existences. However, on this account I have no choice but to keep in mind all the information needed to sign in again otherwise I'd lose my credits and I can assure you that it's the last thing I expect from my freshman year. I suppose it's the time to introduce myself now. I'm Yi-Chen from Taiwan, but I also use many different names such as Mickey and Prašina. Therefore, among my friends I'm known as different names, but people, to my surprise, never get confused. I suppose the University of Delaware is my first school and please do take me seriously because I've been home schooled soon after my parents realised the needs to educate me. I did stay in formal schools before but apparently they failed to suit me well since I never last more than 2 months in each of them. Without a doubt, though, I'm expecting to stay four years here in the University of Delaware. Now it's really the time to tell you about myself and I'm trying not to make this a dull monologue. I'm seventeen going on eighteen, and I major in Anthropology right now. I've developed many interests that cover many fields, but unfortunately mathematics is never one of it. I write songs, I play guitar and what more? No more actually. I'm the sort of person who spends a great amount of time on self-discovery but I'm reluctant to admit that this long journey of discovery yields no specific result since I only found out what had been known to me. If I had to pick one word to define me, I'd pick the word "ignorance". But, isn't that the true source of knowledge? Well, we'll find out.
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