Interesting question on assimilation
Hey all, My name’s Neha and I was writing my admissions essay for The American University of Rome the other day. The question was pretty TCK-ish and interesting I was wondering what you all thought. It said what personal qualities do you think one must possess to best facilitate assimilation into another culture? Explain how you exhibit these qualities in your everyday life..
I think definately the ability to adapt is necessary, and an open mind..Sensitivity to cultures is important. And pre-conceived notions can be detrimental to assimilating because they get in the way sometimes. Anyway what do you think?
Cheers
Neha Shastri
Hey all, Bit overdue but here's my intro.. I'm originally Indian but was born in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I lived there for 5 years before I moved to Wellington NZ for 3 years, at which point I moved back to PNG..After that I lived in Sydney Australia, and Singapore. I'm now back in PNG (where my parents live) and am planning on moving to NYC or Rome for uni in August, depending on where I get in :-) I'm a MUSICIAN-singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist/tambourine-ist/triangle-ist..I wrote Brice something called The lolcat Song the other day haha If you want your own song give me a buzz.. My music page: www.myspace.com/nehashastri Cheers, NehaRelated Posts
9 Comments to “Interesting question on assimilation”
February 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am
You might add:
Curiosity: To assimilate you have to give yourself a crash course in what others have taken perhaps a lifetime to learn so curiosity will help you learn more about the new culture faster.
Intelligence: Intelligence helps you learn new things faster and understand why. It also helps you remember new things you’ve learned.
Sociability: If you’re an outgoing, social person you can learn a lot of new behavior just by going out with the locals. Even if you don’t really understand why you’re doing it - you can condition yourself to the normal behavior in that place.
Hope this helps.
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February 28th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
That IS an interesting question!
I think all the positive attributes TCKs have would be fitting.
Here are some from this thread:
- flexibility/adaptability
- we have about fifty different pairs of glasses to see through: for each culture, language, country, experience, etc
http://www.tckid.com/group/whats-the-best-thing-about-being-a-tck/
Oh, and you will probably love this thread because there are specific examples and stories of how those qualities are used in every day life.
http://www.tckid.com/group/should-my-children-be-tcks/
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February 28th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I think actually, the most important is lasting power. To become truly integrated…no lies, no matter how open minded/easy going u r, ur gonna SUFFER. u need to be strong emotionally, so u don’t get severe depression and other mental disorders before success.
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February 28th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
An integrated identity that makes you understand where, when, and why certain worldviews can be activated over others. A coherent identity system of both cultures. This is related to many traits listed above (intelligence, openness, etc.)
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February 28th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Hey thanks for all you input..I was just thinking about what integration and assimilation actually mean and Lynn’s got a great point. Like its not about replacing your mother culture. Its about being bale to combine the cultures and find the balance between..I didn’t even think about ‘curiosity’ but thinking bout it now it is essential…Thanks for the links Brice
Cheers all,
might post the essay up on here whne im done with it
x
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February 29th, 2008 at 12:48 am
A busy mind that can tuck away memories for later instead of dwelling on them, and buckle down and not think about how silly some things are and just get on with things.
It might be hiding emotions, but when you should just be getting on with things, it puts off the rough feelings you can get into.
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March 1st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Not a personal quality but I think that without ‘desire’ assimilation just won’t happen.
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March 2nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I agree with Ayako, I think you need the desire to assimilate. Open mindedness, too, definitely. I have seen it on action - and like Ayako said again, sociability, that’s a big factor.
I don’t think assimilation is necessary. I mean here in Canada, you don’t necessarily HAVE to assimilate - you just have to get along and tolerate everyone else’s culture, if that makes sense (I tend to confuse).
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March 13th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
For me “assimilation” is adopting the culture of the country you’re living in. However as Kristine above said, it is not always necessary to integrate. For a successful integration you need to respect others, have an open mind, see that we are all people and see the similarities instead of the differences.
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