Culture Identity Essay, Research Paper

Many people go to different countries. Some of them go for school, some others go for business and some others go for living. However, some people adapt well to a new environment and others retain their original culture identity. I think adapting to a new culture or environment depends on three main reasons: background culture, where they stay, and their personality.

The first reason is the background culture of people. There are many people who don’t like their own culture or environment. They try to run away or change their culture. Therefore, it would be easier for those people to adapt to a new culture or environment. For example, many Russian people especially businessmen don’t like the business system in their country. Their system is Communism, which means that the government controls all the production and distribution of goods. Therefore, when many Russian people go to a new environment or new culture, the United States for instance, they find it better than their country because it has a different system. The United States’ system is Capitalism, which means that any person can be a private ownership. Therefore, it may be easier for those people to adapt a new culture or a new environment.

For example, in “The Plane Reservation,” Massud Farzan states that he has stayed in the United States for a long time before he visited his family in Iran. When he arrived in Iran, he found a lot of changes. It can be understood that the writer didn’t like his country and his culture before he left to the United States. When he lived in the United States, he found the right place for him that made it very easy for him to adapt to the American culture. Therefore, the background culture of people has a lot of effects on adapting to a new culture.

The second reason might be where people stay the most. Some people think that when a person lives in a new culture, he or she can easily adapt to the new culture. However, they forget that with whom they stay the most in the new culture can make a difference. If a person stays mostly with his or her own people, it may be very hard for that person to adapt to the new culture because he or she would not learn the new culture by staying with people from that culture. On the other hand, he or she can easily retain to their original culture identity because they would not know much about the new culture.

For example, there are many Hispanic people living in the United States. Some of them don’t even know how to speak English. It is because they stay mostly with people from the same culture, speak the same language and do not communicate much with American people. That all can make it very hard for some people to adapt to a new culture. Therefore, the people and the community that a person stays with have a lot of effects on adapting to a new culture.

The third reason is the personality of a person and where he or she has learned it. It might be sometimes very hard to adapt to a new culture whose people act and behave differently. For example, from the first week I’ve arrived in the United States coming from the United Arab Emirates, I lived in a school dormitory. However, I couldn’t stay longer than a month in the dormitory. It was not because of the small room or one kitchen in each floor, but it was because of the bathrooms. Whenever I wanted to take a shower, I saw men naked, and they walk around in the bathroom without any underwear on. It was very surprising for me because I’ve come from a country where people consider walking naked in bathroom is a very bad habit. I could not stand or adapt to living in the dormitory anymore. Therefore, I moved to a three-bedroom apartment with two roommates from the same culture so that we could understand each other easily. Even though I’ve been in the United States for about five years, I still don’t want to see naked men in the bathrooms. Therefore, personality and where it has been learned are very important reasons for adapting a new culture.

In conclusion, because I’ve come from a different culture, I found it kind of hard for me to adapt to the new culture. Therefore, I am only here to get my degree and go back home. It is hard for me because I love my background culture, and I want to be part of it when I become an old man. Also, it is because I don’t stay much with American people even though I tried at the beginning when I lived in the school dormitory. Finally, it is because I’ve learned many things back home that I don’t want to lose because I believe that what I’ve learned are the right things. Therefore, I think background culture of a person, where he or she stays and the personality of the person and where he or she has learned it are the three main reason for adapting a new culture or environment that depend on.