Cultural Diversity Examples

Asher Hassell

Cultural Diversity

Example One: In the book it is mentioned that the simplest form of intercultural encounters is that between a foreign individual and a new cultural environment where the foreigner experiences a form of culture shock. The foreign individual will try to learn the ways of the new environment but they will not feel or recognize the underlying values.

My experience: I can relate to this “culture shock” because I experienced it in many different ways when I came to The Netherlands to live. For example when I came to the Netherlands and went to the store I did not find any of the ingredients I use back home to cook with and I was forced to try the Dutch foods and ingredients. Another time I experienced culture shock was when I first went to the city in The Hague and realized how much things I had to watch out for; cars, trams, and bikes. Where I am from there is only one road and everyone knows exactly where the sidewalk is, so I had to get used to being alert at all times.  Another thing was when it came to making appointments; in The Netherlands they make appointments for everything and get angry when you are late, and I had to learn to be exactly on time because I was once late and the person got angry. This culture shock can make you feel overwhelmed especially coming from a quiet 5 square mile island to this huge country that is very busy.

Example Two: In most intercultural encounters the parties also speak different languages. Without knowing the language you can miss out on a lot of subtleties of a culture and are forced to remain an outsider. One of these subtleties being humor because what is considered funny is different in each culture.

My experience: I can relate to this text because when I came to the Netherlands and my other Caribbean friends and I went to a party we felt like outsiders because we don’t speak Dutch fluently and didn’t find their jokes to be that amusing. When one of the Dutch girls made a joke with us in English we didn’t know it was a joke until she said she was joking and then we just smiled. Also, because we didn’t speak fluent Dutch it was basically the Caribbean people in one area and the Dutch people in another and because we are in their country we felt a bit left out.  However, now I have a small idea and understanding of what Dutch people like to laugh about so I can relate to their jokes, but only a bit.