W11_B2

Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

The one concept I found interesting is according to Young Yun Kim, “She believes that sojourners interested in acculturation (i.e., becoming part of a new culture) should expose themselves as much as possible to host social communication. They should make interpersonal contacts and familiarize themselves with mass communication within the host culture. They should also avoid depending too heavily on ethnic communication networks” [p. 363]. The past year, our unit was fortunate enough to host five interns from Singapore to work on several projects. However, one of the gentlemen for whatever reason had a difficult time acclimating himself to the culture in California. For example, he basically kept to himself, he did not really socialize or did not know how to socialize with groups of people during or after work, and he really seemed to want to be an outcast. He definitely did not have any proper mannerisms according to the American standards. It is sad to say, but he was labeled the “contaminator.” The reason for that is everyday, we would have a table with goodies such as bottles of beef jerky, cashews, chocolate raisins, etc. with scoopers to use. Instead, he was always blowing his nose due to allergies and sticking his hand in the bottles. Needless to say, we had to throw the entire bottles away. It got so bad; we discontinued putting out goodies until after he left in December 2008.

One the other hand, the other four interns who were two females and two males were able to adjust very quickly with their new surroundings and made friends with everyone in the unit of about a hundred people. They were very open to venture out to new areas like eating at different ethnic restaurants; they visited different tourist attractions every week and they would join us for happy hour after work. These four Singapore students were sad to have to go back home.