Alicia Mondini Boschetti
Professor Harlow
IFS2052
December 2nd, 2015
Double Perspective One thing we all have in common is how we become introduced into this planet. We are all born on a specific date and time and take that first breath of air when we are no longer in our mother’s womb. After that moment, everyone has a different story. We are all born into a specific culture which is dictated by our parents. They raise us and instill in us their values, beliefs, and behaviors without our consent or approval. By the time we begin to speak, we already have an idea of what is right and what is wrong based on how we have been taught. Yet, it is not until we have experiences of our own away from our parents that we begin to challenge their ideals and beliefs. Going to school, college, abroad, volunteering, are all great examples of instances that will change your outlook on your preconceived ideas. However, one will undergo the most drastic change in their perception of the world and in their values once they expose themselves to literally “a whole new world”. Perceptions of your own culture and the culture you immerse yourself in change once you have left your home country and experienced first handedly other worldviews and ways of life. Culture is reflected on how one feels towards many different elements. With this being said, it is fair to say that culture furnishes attitudes. Having a general evaluation of something or someone is learned throughout the course of your life. Attitudes are feelings about things that range from positive to negative. They may be tweaked or changed, although changing them is fairly difficult. For example, you may have a positive attitude towards having your steak cooked medium rare or rare because you believe it tastes better that way. Or you may have a negative attitude based on the belief that eating steak that is moderately raw may be detrimental to your health and may be bad for your digestive system. You could even have both attitudes at the same time. If so, then you value both fine dining and physical health. When going abroad, you could have a negative attitude towards the Mahco-Piro Indians when they have to sacrifice a llama when one of their family member dies. But you could also have a positive attitude towards it if you understand the core principle behind it and the value it has to the tribe. Attitudes are based on beliefs as well as values. Beliefs are certainties that are based on subjective and often personal ideas rather than on factual information or scientific proof. Attitudes vary according to how essential something is or how much value something has. In the Colombian culture, the death of an aunt is an event that business managers are expected to perceive as significant to the family members; a boss is expected to have some sort of pity and to be understanding towards an employee who is not able to turn in a project on time due to the passing or funeral of his or her family member. In Britain, a death in the family is also perceived as something regretful and sad to the employee. But it is also a private affair that must be dealt personally. The boss and co-workers do not get involved in the employees’ grieving and all projects are to be turned in in a timely manner regardless of the employee’s aunt’s death or not. It is essential to understand the direct relationship between a value and how it is linked to that specific person’s attitude and behavior when traveling abroad. For example, in The United States, we value status. An attitude may be that a high status means one has control over others, and a behavior may be dressing in designer and expensive clothes to show this high status. However, in China, status is perceived differently. They value status like we do in The United States, but the attitude and behavior are completely different. The attitude towards status in China is that someone is wiser because of age, and the behavior is giving advice to your nieces or nephews because you have the authority to do so. Keeping this in mind while going abroad is key to survive in a new culture. Although it is hard to completely understand the host culture, it is important to try and put yourself in their position and attempt to think like they do. Living in a third world country is the reality of many people. Immigrants move to The United States from all over the world in order to find better opportunities and in order to live a better life. Most people not only come by themselves, but with their families. Those are the lucky ones, because leaving your family behind to move to a more stable country in order to make money to support them must be disheartening. I know of a guy that had to leave his home, wife, and kids in Mexico to make the long and dangerous journey to The United States past the Rio Grande and the Chihuahuan Desert. Fear ran through his body, but the determination to help his family out of poverty ran through his veins and was stronger than anything. After almost dying through his journey, he finally made it to the land of the free. With his low paying job that paid under the table, he sent back almost all the money he made back to his family. One year and a half later, he was able to find them a way to join him in The United States in order for them all to live more comfortably and together. Interviewing Anly Renda reminded me of this man I once spoke to while I was waiting in line for the doctor. In the short amount of minutes that we spoke, I was able to really get some of his perspective and he was able to touch my heart. Anly’s family had a similar story. Except her family migrated to The United States from Venezuela. During our interview, I could hear the passion in Anly’s voice and see the fervor in her eyes when she was telling me the story of how her and her family came to The United States and all the hardships they faced and still face today. Being from Venezuela myself, I could relate to some of these things but having moved here at the young age of nine, I could not grasp everything she went through. At the age of eighteen, Anly and her parents decided to migrate to Tallahassee. This meant leaving their mother land, their culture, their friends, their family, their traditional food, and everything they ever knew behind in search for a land where freedom was a well-respected human right. When Anly gets told by her parents about their decision, she had no other choice but to agree. She said: “Coming to terms with that decision was not an easy task. It took every ounce of me to finally accept the fact that my country was never going to offer me what I deserved: a good education to enhance my professional career as a reporter”. All communication channels in Venezuela are controlled by the socialist government. Meaning that if Anly wanted to pursue her career, she had to give in to a government that is corrupt and reports false information. As much as it hurt, Anly knew the right thing for her to do was to leave the country she called home. Going to The United States gave her the opportunity to graduate from college with a degree that would give her the chance to fulfill her aspirations. In Anly’s eyes, this was the idea of the “American Dream”. Her mother always spoke about Americans being “gun-loving” and violent people. Growing up, she saw them as such since her mom mentioned it often. Hearing about the shooting in Virginia Tech and other shootings in numerous universities reinforced this stereotype she already had in her head about Americans. Anly thought most people living in the States were crazy and since they could have access to guns, they would shoot a whole town on a regular day. Furthermore, she mentioned that she viewed Americans as materialistic people who overly consume anything they see at the mall. Impulsive and superficial were other words she used to refer Americans to before moving to The United States. Anly said: “all the American movies I watched seemed to focus on the fancy cars, the signature purses, the unnecessarily large mansions, and the expensive watches. Self-worth is not measured by the material things you buy in Venezuela”, and her belief that Americans measured self-worth in useless things like objects drove her off the edge. Caracas is known as “the city of goodbyes”. This nickname was adapted when many Venezuelans started storming out of the country and moving into cities all over The United States. Anly herself had to say goodbye to multiple friends that moved away but still kept in touch despite the distance. Speaking to them about their new home gave her a new perspective of American culture. Her best friend Mafe, who she spoke to most, told her that the new friends she made were fired up about social change and did not seem to be as materialistic as Anly made them out to be. Mafe also went on to tell her that at her high school, homecoming and prom were just like the movies. Anly thought that it was all made up but Mafe said it was as dreamy as they made it seem in movies. How the (American) football players were attractive and how the cheerleaders were the prettiest girls in school. Anly thought that was different, yet interesting. High school is cliquey in Venezuela but not based on who is on the cheerleading squad, who is a nerd, and who is on the softball team. Once Anly moved to Tallahassee, she started at Florida State University right away as a communications major. The currency in Venezuela is weak compared to the dollar, so Anly is forced to work in order to pay off part of her tuition. The problem is that she is here on a student visa, so she can only work up to ten hours a week through the university. If she were to work anywhere else, it would be illegal and she would have to get paid under the table. Anly’s father works the long hours to make sure that her daughter gets the opportunity to obtain an education. Making friends was relatively easy for Anly since she is fluent in English and is quick to make friends. However, the culture shock she faced was inevitable despite her knowing the language. She had no idea that “rednecks” existed, and there were some words she had never heard of since her English is very basic. Her respect towards Americans increased after realizing that they work hard for what they have. Previously having thought that they were all materialistic, she understood why. She prefers to not be so attached to material things, but now she can sympathize with those that are. Anly stated: “When you think about living in The United States, you think about the ‘American Dream’. Being able to buy a nice car and not have to get on a waiting list for the next one to arrive from outside your country. Having endless supply of milk, toilet paper, and shampoo at the grocery store. What you do not think about is how hard you have to work in order to survive. In order to have all the essential things. How everything in this country is about money. Nothing is ever free. I am surprised there is no tax on breathing the air yet.” From our interview, I could tell how drastically Anly’s perception of The United States and the American culture changed overtime. It started changing when her friend Mafe told her about her experiences, but her perception changed most when she herself experienced and was confronted with the culture face to face. Inversely, I decided to interview an American man from Port Saint Lucie named John Rowe. He wanted to live in Rome for five years. Having minored in Italian, John had developed a passion for the language, culture, food, music, and history of Italy. Post-graduation, he was not sure of what career path he wanted to take, so he decided to explore and move to Italy.
John had always thought Italy was the most beautiful country in the world and had always admired the Italian architecture. From his Italian classes, his professors perceived Italians as loud, funny, and straight forward. He had never interacted with many Italians before going to Italy with the exception of some of his professors, who were not all that Italian in their behavior since they had assimilated to the American culture. He perceived the Italian culture as being steeped around food, family, arts, music, and architecture. His favorite opera singer, Pavarotti, was one of the main and initial reasons as to why he became interested in the Italian culture in the first place. John mentioned to me that he loves the movie The Godfather and how that movie influenced his views towards the culture. John stereotyped Italians to be family oriented and involved in the mafia because the two main themes of the movie are family and crime. Before leaving Italy, he did not have any expectations, he said he wanted to dive in head first and take it day by day.
The euphoria he felt once he arrived to Rome was outrageous. Everything about the exciting new culture he was introduced to seemed wonderful. However, he began feeling disillusioned and frustrated at the culture after a couple of weeks. He started interacting with Italians on a daily basis after he found a job and found that most of them were really in your face and in your business about every little thing. He disliked the fact that his co-workers wanted to know everything about him and wanted to get him too intoxicated when they would invite him to go out to the local bar after work. John is a professional and prefers to keep his private life to himself when it comes to the workplace. His perception of Italian culture went from positive to negative through this experience he faced at his office.
All the crimes and the mafia he thought were commonplace ended up only being a stereotype instilled in his head from movies. The sense of family was definitely present in most places he went to but the overbearing amount of attention he received was too much for him to handle. He was aware of the high-context culture he would be facing but did not realize how different and suffocating it was at times.
John’s perception of the Italian culture was changed mildly. He still perceived Italians as more extroverted than Americans and as big family people. Food was definitely a crucial and primary part of their culture as he perceived before going to Italy. He mentioned that Italians have six different courses for dinner and how happy he was to be eating such amazing and authentic food. In the contrary, he noticed that almost no one listened to opera like he thought they did. Pavarotti, his favorite artist, rarely played at the places he would go to. To his surprise, Rome was one of the dirtiest cities he had ever seen. He had this idea that Italy was extremely clean, beautiful, and filled with history. Living in the capital changed that outlook he had before since most areas were filthy and not every building was as historic as he had thought, of course with the exception of the Vatican, the Coliseum, and the other famous cites around the city.
Even though Anly and John had different experiences and views towards the host country’s culture, they one thing they both underwent was culture shock. Taking yourself out of a society that is structured around a certain norm you are accustomed to and entering a whole new culture you know very little of is not an easy task. Adjustments have to be made to fully immerse in a foreign country and to be able to call yourself a local after a while. Intercultural and international communication from a global perspective is one thing both Anly and John have mastered from their experiences. Viewing the world from two different lenses makes you not only a more interesting individual, but a more understanding and complex person. It gives you the patience and will to view someone else’s values, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes as if they were your own. Miriam Adeney once said that: “You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” When you are too full of different cultures, different friends, and different experiences, you will always feel a sense of loss. This is because you have to give up some of your identity once you immerse in a new culture, which will dictate your new and improved worldview.