CULTURE
I grew up in eastern part of Nigeria, and my first knowledge of culture as a way of life was being passed to me through the oral tradition as I moved along with parents and relatives. I can remember my interpretation of culture had to do with language, food, dressing and mode of reference. In fact, people’s dress code or language mode easily exposed from which part of location they were from and this made me to associate culture with location and race. I remembered in an occasion my dad told me that people could change their mode of dressing in order to feel belonged to a particular group. I should have learnt that to be accepted in a particular group, I needed to integrate by understanding their culture but I was too proud of my origin that made me to be more ethnocentric.
Thoughtfully, when, I moved to Italy to join my husband, I came in contact with a different knowledge of culture. I was being judged to be …show more content…
It stuck me when I read Moran, Harris, Moran (2011, p31) “You have to acknowledge cultural differences without becoming paralyzed by them.” I therefore started a corrective measure of learning to live with other cultures. At first I discovered that most of my problems were direct interpretation of situations in my culture, comparing it before doing it. The same problem was with the language culture; first I used to interpret it in my language instead of reasoning it on the original language.
My understanding of culture now is more than the boundaries of my native land. I can count the richness other cultures can bring if I interact with them. This will help me to embrace people from different race and places that their culture might be different from mine but through what I have learnt, I could grab a point where I can agree with them and can tolerate each other differences. My knowledge now doesn’t see the culture barrier but the new thing embracing a new culture can
I grew up in eastern part of Nigeria, and my first knowledge of culture as a way of life was being passed to me through the oral tradition as I moved along with parents and relatives. I can remember my interpretation of culture had to do with language, food, dressing and mode of reference. In fact, people’s dress code or language mode easily exposed from which part of location they were from and this made me to associate culture with location and race. I remembered in an occasion my dad told me that people could change their mode of dressing in order to feel belonged to a particular group. I should have learnt that to be accepted in a particular group, I needed to integrate by understanding their culture but I was too proud of my origin that made me to be more ethnocentric.
Thoughtfully, when, I moved to Italy to join my husband, I came in contact with a different knowledge of culture. I was being judged to be …show more content…
It stuck me when I read Moran, Harris, Moran (2011, p31) “You have to acknowledge cultural differences without becoming paralyzed by them.” I therefore started a corrective measure of learning to live with other cultures. At first I discovered that most of my problems were direct interpretation of situations in my culture, comparing it before doing it. The same problem was with the language culture; first I used to interpret it in my language instead of reasoning it on the original language.
My understanding of culture now is more than the boundaries of my native land. I can count the richness other cultures can bring if I interact with them. This will help me to embrace people from different race and places that their culture might be different from mine but through what I have learnt, I could grab a point where I can agree with them and can tolerate each other differences. My knowledge now doesn’t see the culture barrier but the new thing embracing a new culture can