Times When Two Cultures Come Together

Times When Two Cultures Come Together Culture is defined as the historically transmitted and interrelated web of values, assumptions, norms, belief systems and behavioral patterns that differentiate one human group from another. Culture is manifested in music, painting, literature, theater, sculpture and films, shortly in all aspects of life. It influences the way we perceive the world, the way we attribute meaning to our environment. Therefore diversities and conflicts are commonly seen when people from different cultural backgrounds encounter each other. In this paper I would like to examine this cultural contact based on a movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The 2002 romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a great example for depicting cultural differences between the US and the Greek culture. It shows how differences in cultures may affect the lives of people through the main character of a 30 year old Greek girl Toula. Being brought up in the US by a traditional Greek family, Toula has to have a single purpose in life: to marry a Greek man and have as many Greek children as she can. Compared to her sister who has been married for a while and has 3 children, she is perceived to be seen unfortunate due to her reaching 30 and still being single. Her father continuously reminds her to marry soon because she started to look old. Toula is stuck with all of the Greek values in her life. She is working in the family-owned restaurant and has no free space for herself. From the time she was a child, decisions regarding which school she would attend or where she would work are all determined by her family. However; being raised in an American culture that is totally different from Greek culture resulted her to be unsatisfied with her life. The emphasis on individuality, being able to be autonomous affected her views as well. The realization of this uncontentment climaxed after meeting Ian while working at the restaurant. When Ian enters her life, she began to realize that she wanted to live her own life and she starts to make her own choices. With her mothers help, she gets the permission for taking computer classes at college which she may later use for business. The approval of the father comes late because he thinks that city is a dangerous place to go. Even when her mother insists on this permission, he responds: if a girl is enough intelligent, why bother going to school. This dilemma of acculturation process which Toula experienced is examined scientifically in Cigdem Kagitcibasis book of Family, Self, and Human Development across Cultures as well. In her book, Kagitcibasi explains that the aspirations of adolescents have are influenced by the dominant society when there is a cultural contact between the culture of relatedness of ethnic minorities originating from collectivistic societies and the culture of separateness of the individualistic dominant society. In the culture of separateness, autonomy is highly valued because it is functional and adaptive in everyday situations. When these minority adolescents engage in a social comparison process, they see that their peers who belong to the culture of separateness enjoy more authority than they do. On the other hand, being related with their parents satisfies their need for warmth and security and it does not create a conflict. However; in some cases where parents lack enough education, parents see a utonomy as a sign of disrespect or separation. Therefore they may not give autonomy to the child. Here we can talk about a culture lag in which the traditional point of view in the family of interdependence still continues despite the fact that it is not functional in the urban, technological society. This culture lag creates a conflict where the autonomous-related self and the family model of psychological/emotional interdependence that adolescents favor collides with the heteronomous-related self and the family model of interdependence that parents value. Because the first one is more adaptive in an immigration context, it is likely that it will be the case (Kagitcibasi, p.324). However this transition would be tough just as it is observed in Toulas struggle. As it is examined above, autonomus related self is more adaptive in an urban lifesetting as it is the case with Toula in the movie. Autonomous related self is a concept that is established by Kagitcibasi that satisfies two basic needs which are autonomy and relatedness. Although the mainstream psychology has always thought autonomy as being separate, Kagitcibasi notes that these two are distinct concepts which are independent from each other. Autonomy refers to willful agency, being governed from outside; whereas being separate or close is about the relationship with others. This type of self is more compatible with an immigration context where there is urban lifestyle involving education and work. Because urban lifestyle requires individual decision making, in other words autonomy is needed for taking initiatives. However close self other and kinship relations continue to exist, too. Therefore it is more adaptive to have autonomous related self. But the process for migrant families with traditional lifestyle to accept the shift towards this type of self takes time. After getting the approval of her parents, Toulas differentiation process towards the autonomous related self begins. She gets herself a new hairdo, abandons her glasses and starts to wear make-up. Moreover she manages to find new contacts and becomes more outgoing and social. She quits working in the family owned restaurant. Instead, she starts to work at the tourism agency bureau of her aunt. In her new job, she feels much better, especially after getting the attraction from the guy, Ian, whom she met at the restaurant. After a while, Ian and Toula starts to date secretly but as Toula finds out that the guy she was dreaming of is non-Greek, things began to be challenging for both of them. As Toula is struggling with how to make her family accept Ian who is a foreigner, Ian finds himself confronted with the family of his love where things are totally different from his own. As opposed to Ian who has only two cousins, Toula has twenty seven. When Ian asks her what she does in her fre e times, she responds that there is no free time for her own because the extended family is together all the time. In addition to that, Toulas family is very proud of their Greek heritage. Her father constantly states that all of the words have roots from the Greek language and he overemphasizes that there are two types of people, firstly the ones who are Greek and secondly the ones who want to be Greek. Moreover, her family tries to preserve their Greek identity in all aspects. Their house is designed in Greek style and there were Greek statues and miniatures all over the place. They engage in every traditional practice that a Greek family might have. They celebrate festive days in Greek way; they dance and eat with Greek relatives. They send their kids to Greek schools so that they acquire the Greek culture. The family also has a patriarchal structure where the father is the head of the family and where the mother helps with the care and support of the household. Toulas family fits into the model of interdependence as it is described in Kagitcibasis book. The model is associated with close family relations and is often characterized by patrilineal family structures (Kagitcibasi, p. 136). Toulas family also has strong familial relations, they celebrate everything together with the extended family, cousins altogether work at a family owned restaurant in order to contribute household jointly. As it is expected from Toula, this type of family structure demands fertility as well. Moreover, the childs dependence is ensured by obedience-oriented socialization and authoritarian parenting as it is the case with Toula. Even reaching her 30s is not enough to make decisions regarding herself alone. Still she needs the approval of her father, is strictly controlled when she comes home late. This type of socialization promotes loyalty and interdependence as it is seen in the movie. As opposed to Toulas family which values interdependence, Ians family is characterized in the model of independence which is the typical model of the western individualistic, nuclear family that is found in the industrialized societies (Kagitcibasi, p. 139). This family model values interpersonal independence. The family exists in nuclear structure and low level of fertility is common. Socialization practices enhance the independent self where there is less control in childrearing. Thats why Ians family does allow the marriage at first sight and does not interfere with the process. Moreover, Ian lives alone and has no sibling or twenty seven cousins like Toula which is seen in family of interdependence. The differences regarding the values and beliefs are mostly seen through reaching the end of the film where the two families start to meet and interact. When Ians family comes for a dinner which was supposed to be a quiet dinner for meeting each side, they are shocked when they see the crowd which is waiting for them. Every single member of the extended family was invited for the dinner and the dinner turned out to be a party where everyone eat, dance and sing Greek songs which is common in Greek culture. As opposed to Toulas crowded family, Ians family comes to dinner with only the nuclear members of the family composed of mother, father and Ian. As the wedding preparations accelerate, Toulas relatives continue to intervene in every single detail. For example; Toulas mother has already prepared the wedding invitations by herself and didnt ask Toulas opinion about whom to invite. Her wedding dress is already planned by her cousin and the place of the wedding is arranged by Toulas family, despite of the fact that Ians family thought a club would be okay. As it can be predicted, marriage from the perspective of Toulas Greek family is just not about uniting two people, but it is the joining of two clans. As opposed to this, marriage can just be a consumer decision with utilitarian value shared with associates at a club (Denny Wayman Hal Conklin, 2002). On the day of the wedding, Toulas family intervened in all the details as well. When Toula has noticed that she has a pimple on her face, all her female relatives help her to cover it with a foundation. Lastly I would like to emphasize some of the similarities between Greek culture and Turkish culture that I have observed throughout the film. In the film Toulas family reminds me of the traditional Turkish family with extended family ties in rural context. The development of the related self is assured with obedience socialization and control. Though not being in a rural context, Toulas family is committed to their values and traditions so strictly that they do not let their daughter be free like the people in the American culture. Toula finds herself in a complete dilemma where she wants to change things in life but out of respect she can not exercise it easily. Another similarity that I have observed is the Greek traditions which are also common in Turkey. For instance; hospitality is highly valued in Turkish culture, too. When a guest comes to visit a Turkish family house, the host family offers delicious meals to enjoy their time. When Ian first visits Toulas family, although he responds that he is not hungry, Toulas mother says: Ok I make you something to eat. The concept of the wedding is also similar in the way that all the relatives even the ones who live far are invited to the wedding ceremony. After the ceremony, they celebrate the day with dancing, eating and wishing a happy life just as in the Turkish culture. They dance sirtaki which is a popular dance of Greek origin just like the Turks who dance halay. They also have the traditional desert baklava like the Turks and use the same word portakal for orange. Lastly, Turks also give presents to the newly wed couples just as it is seen in the movie where Toulas father has bought a house near to them. Buying a house near the parents also shows that loyalty and being close are highly valued in Greek culture where there is a culture of relatedness. In conclusion I would like to stress that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a great movie which conveys the message that no matter how different two cultures may be, there is a universal aspect of humanity in all over the world. Though history is filled with great atrocities, wars and pain resulting from differences among cultures, the hope for our future may rest in us being able to love and accept one another because of these differences. The scene right before the film ends also summarizes this view perfectly. Before the visitors all are dancing and singing, Toulas father states in his speech: You know, the root of the word Miller (the surname of Ian) is a Greek word. Miller comes from the Greek word milo, which means apple, so there you go. As many of you know, our name, Portokalos, is come from the Greek word portokali, which means orange. So, okay? Here tonight, we have, ah, apple and orange. We are all different, but in the end, we are all fruit.

Posadas

Did you know that a posada is one of the biggest celebrations that takes place in Mexico? A posada is a celebration that has been going on for years. I am going to talk to you about 3 main things about posadas. First of all I am going to talk to you about what a posada is. Secondly I am going to talk about when and where the posadas are celebrated. And thirdly about the importance of this topic. First of all im going to talk about what a posada is. A posada is a Traditional party that is held each night in a neighborhood home.According to Steven Hicks in the article Celebrate the posada in mexico It is a reenactment of the journey Joseph and Mary took to find shelter before the birth of their child, Jesus. At night people gather outside the house with children dressed as shepherds, angels and most importantly, Mary and Joseph. After the people divide into two groups known as the â€Å"pilgrims† and the â€Å"Hosts†. The â€Å"pilgrims† sing a song asking for shel ter, and the hosts sing a reply denying them shelter, at the end the hosts open the doors to the guests and offer them hot ponche, fried rosette cookies known as bunuelos, tamales and other foods.At the end the party ends with a pinata in the shape of the Christmas star. Secondly I am going to talk about when and where the posadas are celebrated. The posadas are mainly celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Central America. Such as: El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras. To this day Las posadas is a tradition that still continue. They are celebrated 9 days before christmas from December the 16th to December the 24th.According to Dale Hoyt in the article Las posadas the posadas are also known as a novenario — nine days of religious observance based on the nine months that Maria carried Jesus in her womb. According to the article The significance And origin of the posadas there has been research that leads to the possibility that the posadas originated from san Agust in Acolman Mexico near the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Thirdly I am going to talk about why I chose this topic. I chose this topic because tradition is a very important thing to me it represents the values that we have as a country.It’s something that our ancestors have passed on to us for hundreds of years. I think it is essential for us to follow those traditions and pass them on to our younger generations. A posada is not just about throwing a party, it’s about celebrating god, spending time with our family and knowing the importance of traditions. In conclusion, In my essay I talked about three main things about posadas. First of all I talkes to you about what a posada is. Secondly I talked about when and where the posadas are celebrated. And thirdly about the importance of this topic.

How successful is concealment in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Essay

â€Å"†¦the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.† How successful is concealment in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Jekyll and Hyde is a novel which addresses the drug usage that went on behind closed doors in 1890’s Britain. Also much of the book id based on some of Stevenson’s own experience’s of drug use because from very early childhood Stevenson was on a strict regime of drugs to deal with various aliments. Throughout the novel concealment is used to keep the reader interested in the novel, both physical and metaphorical concealment is used. For example at the very start of the test Jekyll’s will is concealed from us so we are not exactly sure what the issues with Edward Hyde are. This keeps the interested and encourages them to read on to learn more of the texts sudden interest with Edward Hyde. Another example of physical concealment is Dr Lanyon’s letter to Mr Utterson the lawyer when Uttterson receives the letter the audience, for a moment are lead to believe that this is the end and they will finally find out what is going on. Then the first envelope is open an again no joy but the audience continue to read on with the fresh hope that soon this envelope will be opened & all will be revealed. Examples of metaphorical concealment would be when Utterson urges Jekyll to come clean and explain why Hyde is in his will but he refuses to give an explanation there fore refusing the audience explanation of why he is so fond of Hyde. Also throughout the text Steven son conceals things from the reader by telling things from a different points of view, nothing is ever explained in one go from one perspective. This creates ambiguity as the things that Stevenson does reveal could mean many different things. This causes suspense in the readers. There are many different reasons for things to be concealed in the text by both Stevenson and the characters; the characters conceal things from themselves and each other because they are scared of what would happen if they didn’t. In the 1890’s people were extremely God fearing people and anything scientific could be considered evil as this would be meddling with Gods work and not only would Jekyll and other characters be ashamed of themselves for having anything to do with and would not want others to find out they had any connections to this. Also there everyday lives were very routine based, so why disrupt this comfy, cosy routine when they could just cover it up? Why cause all this trouble over something they could just cover look and ignore. Stevenson chooses to conceal things from the reader to help the reader relate to the character and understand just how in the dark they really were about what was going on at the time. Also it helps create tension, ambiguity and suspense in the text. With in the novel Stevenson conceals hidden themes showing what was happening at the time in Victorian Britain; such as the outrage towards Darwin’s theory of evolution, at the time people strongly believed in God and was against science. Darwin was purposing that we all came from animals; these ideas had major repercussions as it went against everything the church had worked so hard to preach. Stevenson put these things in to get a reaction as he knew in a strongly religious Victorian Britain the fact that Hyde shows some animal like instincts and cannot control this would not go down to well. Another concealed theme would be degeneration, as at that time society were concerned that human nature was becoming worse and evil was becoming more dominant in peoples characteristics, Stevenson uses this when he shows how Hyde is slowly but surely becoming Jekyll’s stronger persona. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein share some of the same themes such as concealment, as when the Doctor creates his monster and rejects him , he becomes very secluded and ill as does DR Jekyll in Jekyll and Hyde. Also the books contain similar use of weather and animal imagery. This may be because they come from the same area. Stevenson shows great decadence in this novel as at the time Victorians were strongly opposing science and all of it attributes, Stevenson seemed to be trying to throw off the restraints of society at the time by referring to Hyde’s animal like ways well he was trampling the girl, thus high lighting Darwin’s theory that was frowned upon at the time. Also reflected in Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde was the fin-de-siecle, this is because the level of evil becomes slowly greater towards the end of the book until finally everything came to an end this connotes the concerns that everything was slowly getting worse as time went on. In the next things are concealed from the reader by Stevenson, concealed from the characters by other characters by other characters and also characters will conceal things from themselves to make themselves feel better. The effect of the reader not knowing what is going on is that they constantly feel the need to keep reading to gain more knowledge about the illusive Mr Hyde. The effect of the reader finding out things at the same time as the characters helps the reader emphasize with the characters so they can see things more easily from there point of view so this helps the reader understand more clearly what is going on in the book. The consequences of concealment are different for different characters. Utterson was protected from Hyde purely because of his lack of knowledge about him and how he is created. Lanyon, however is killed when all is revealed to him so perhaps it would have been far safer for certain characters to have things concealed from them rather than not. Concealment is what overall resulted in the death of Henry Jekyll, as he thought firstly that he could conceal his evil mannerisms in Edward Hyde and go about his evil under the name of Edward Jekyll but he fails and in the end (all though the other characters do not get to learn this we do) we see that all Hyde is to Jekyll is a disguise, not in fact an evil alter ego, but his own evil way encased in a different person. Things begin to slowly be revealed through the novel, as documents are opened and characters crack under pressure and share there secrets with someone else. Some things remain concealed almost until the very end such as Jekyll & Hyde being one person. Jekyll was forced to reveal his drug use to unsuspecting Lanyon when he turned into Hyde in the night and could not reach his cabinet to get the drugs out. This was disastrous as the shock of seeing all this evil killed him in the end. At this point it was already too late to help save Jekyll from his ever looming fate. This was successful in the terms of engaging the reader with the story as it leaves you wondering who Jekyll might reveal his deep dark secret to next. People were also made to understand how small & desperate the drug addict can feel sometime, but Lanyon’s shock and unwillingness to help once he new the situation connotes how people would turn a drug user away today because they fear for there own safety; because of all this I believe Stevenson was very successful in highlighting these issues. At the end of the novel the exact true circumstances of Jekyll’s death are concealed. This leaves the reader to draw there own conclusions from the information they are given by Stevenson. This helps add mystery to the plot and readers can draw there own conclusion, and think up an ending most fitting for them. The modern reader can relate to the text in so many ways, such as the pressure and longing to be bad, teens can relate this to there everyday life because they fell they need to miss behave to gain the respect of there friends. In the league of extraordinary gentlemen men the fact that Hyde is much larger than Jekyll helps show that evil has a bigger presence, and the pull of evil is much more appealing in today’s society. Also some teens can relate to the drug usage in the book as when Jekyll becomes Hyde he does everything he would love to as Jekyll, he can truly be himself. Teens can identify with this because they take drugs to relax, to have fun; some feel they can only do this with drugs in there system. In society today concealment still plays a very big part, parents conceal evil such as drugs, drinking etc from there children by trying to keep them away from this. But instead children will adapt a Jekyll and Hyde like persona’s one for there parents were the none of these bad things exist and one for there friends were they can be as bad as they like with no repercussions. Stevenson was successful in bringing these issues to light as he helped highlight just how much of the true human nature is repressed and hidden away.

Understanding The Core Self Evaluation Scale - 1646 Words

Almost, Doran, Hall and Laschinger (2010) linked antecedent variables to intra-group conflict among nurses. The purpose was to develop and test a theoretical model, which linked antecedent variables to intragroup conflict among nurses, followed by conflict management and two outcome variables (Almost, et al., 2010). The authors used Cox’s (2008) Critical Theory, where conflict is deemed a process, with antecedents and outcomes. The method of the study was a predictive non-experimental survey that tested the theoretical model. The sample for the study included 275 acute care nurses who were chosen from the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) registry. Six-hundred nurses were randomly selected from the CNO, but for the purpose of maintaining accuracy in estimates the number was decreased. Almost et al. (2010) used six different tools in the study. The Core Self-evaluation Scale ([CCS]; Bono Judge, 2003). The CSS has twelve items, which use a five-point Likert-type scale. The scale measured self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism. Almost et al. (2010) report that the scale has previously demonstrated a Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.81 to 0.87. The authors used the Unit Technology Scale ([UTS]; Leatt Schneck, 1981), which had 21 items and used a five-point Likert-type scale to measure the complexity of nursing care on the unit. The author reported that the questionnaire had previously good reliability and validity (Alexander,Show MoreRelatedA Study On Korean University Curriculum1724 Words   |  7 Pagesin engineering architectural design by BIM. Answer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Scale Do not understand at all Almost do not understand Neutral Fairly understand Completely understand Each question is asked from 1 to 9 in scale. Scale 1 means ‘Do not understand at all ‘, scale 3 means ‘Almost do not understand’, scale 5 means neutral, scale 7 means ‘Fairly understand’, and scale 9 means ‘Completely understand’. 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