My daughter and I came here at the same time. I still have a trouble in everything such as American food, culture and language, but she became to feel American lifestyle comfortable. Sometimes, she says that she prefers English to Korean in reading, writing as well as a general conversation.Prabably she is going to move in the last, home stage. For example, I went to a theater to see up-to-date movie that named 'twilight' with her two friends. It was so boring and never interesting for me, but she and her friends who were born in the US were interested in the movie. I felt lonely for a while. It'll take long time for me to go upto the home stage.
Here's the fourth Culture Shock.
Newcomers are now able to enter and prosper in the mainstream culture. They accept both cultures and combine them into their lives. Some people will adopt the mainstream culture at school and follow the values of the home culture outside of school. During this stage many immigrant parents make it clear to their children that they do not want them to adopt the mainstream culture. This is because many immigrant children forget their native language and reject their culture. People called them '1.5 generation'.
In my opinion I lie between supprting parents and parents who never want to adopt the mainstream culiture, because times are changing rapidly. Contrary to past, today's world is a global village. It's obviouse to everybody that everything has been changed fast.
Today's real winner is a person who can adopt whatever he/she face up to.
Of course, he/she should be able to control both mainstream and native culture.
1 comment:
Even though you yourself want to adapt to America to some extent and want your daughter to be comfortable here, it must be hard to see your daughter becoming so Americanized. I took my daughter to Twilight too. Has yours read the book? I thought it was a good, bad movie. That means that I know intellectually it was awful, but I somehow enjoyed it anyway.
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