Journal 3

To make a distinction between cultural rules and norms, The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Workbook has defined three terms that differentiate culture from personal and universal. Cultural norms refers to what a group of people have in common with each other & what differentiates them from other groups. Personal norms refer to differences that individuals hold within a group. Universal norms refer to the similarities that all groups have in common. It is important that one understands these concepts to make educated distinctions between a cultural, personal or more universal norm in different social situations while studying abroad. Many cultures have different preferences and recognizable patterns or behaviors.  I thought it was very intriguing how different cultures normalities have mainly become something that they’ve adapted from historical roots. Awareness of cultural patterns helps figure out ones of perceptions of events and adaptation strategies in different social situations. The most successful way to carry out this idea is based on observation; one is to try and observe behaviors in different situations and watch for reactions to look how they are perceived by others. This is a very smart strategy plan for one to adapt to their host culture, but I think that it would be harder than perceived. I am convinced this would take a great time to get used to ones host culture and the norms that they practice. It would be very difficult to observe a host culture just by how a couple people in a group react, I think this is a long-lasting strategy that a person has to develop to successfully carry out the unconscious norms that a host culture practices. With that said, the Maximizing study abroad book has some very good points on how to gain more information about the host culture. They suggest to check out novels, short stories, poetry to learn about the major literary figures and their work. Also, they suggest to read nonfiction books on history, geography & politics to discover intercultural specific books. In addition to reading both fiction and nonfiction books, they suggest to read your host cultures newspapers and magazines to observe cultural trends and hot topics, such as societal issues, sports team headlines, and artist or musicians that are currently popular. I believe this is very valuable as one should be soaking up as much information as possible about their host cultures current societal issues and events