Cultural Assimilation Essay, Research Paper
Cultural Assimilation
It is a big controversial subject that how much an international student should assimilate in the new culture. The result can move on a big scale. Depending on the person and its relationships it can cause depression. Two of my friends Aniko and Ivan are assimilating differently in the new culture.
Aniko and Ivan share some similarities in the new culture. They both come here for the same reasons. They wanted to improve their language skills. Also they wanted to get an American degree. In addition they both wanted to continue their athletic carrier. Like Aniko, Ivan was accepted easily by Americans because they both good athletes. In the beginning the magic of the new life stile leave the emotions and differences deep inside.
However just because Americans like them playing for them it doesn’t mean they can assimilate easily. For international students it’s much harder to decide how much to assimilate because their stay in the U.S. is usually temporary. Depending on personalities either way this students going to have problems. So after the magic of the firs weeks the differences were “braking up to the surface”.
Although Aniko and Ivan have similar attitudes, they also differ in many ways from each other. They were both spoiled a bit (which they told me them self), but Aniko was more open for changes, and could hide more her emotions. In the end of the third week Ivan started to “freak out”, while Aniko looked like the same as the first two weeks. It was easier to see how Ivan changes because he is a funny guy. While his emotions were really on the surface, we could tell easily that something was wrong because he wasn’t funny anymore. On the other hand Aniko a quiet tipical model of a “nice girl”, so it was hard to tell most of the people when she had some problems.
Aniko was close to a total assimilation, while Ivan just assimilate partially. Now, a distance of a year and a half I can tell they differ from each other pretty much. Ivan made mach more friends from his natives than Americans. His using his own language much more than english when his not in school. On the other hand Aniko has much more American friends than native, and most likely as a result of this she is speaking english 99 percent of the time. She also becomes Americanized because she doing the same activities that Americans doing, for example she watching tons of TV shows.
The effect of a new culture change people different ways. Even Aniko and Ivan who had similar background, personalities and goals become two really different persons in the new culture. In addition from what they do and what king of friends they make to how much english they use we can tell the differences easily. However, how is this going to influence their future no one can tell yet.