Culture Shock

In April of 2012, I traveled to Guyana with my parents and my brother. When I arrived there, I expected it to be at least somewhat like here in Florida, with all kinds of technology but maybe not as progressed. I soon realized when I stepped out the plane that it was nothing like home. At this point I began to experience culture shock. Culture shock is defined as a disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken for granted assumptions about life (page 36).

There were no cell phones, no television, no air condition, and no computers. The computers that I saw were in the airport and there were only about six, everything else was done by hand. With there being no cell phones, I had no contact with any of my friends back home to tell about it or to just have a regular conversation with. And being that there were no computers for me to use during the time that I was there, I had no way of even remotely doing any of my homework which I had sworn would be completed by the time I returned home.

Culture is defined as the language, beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors (page 36) of a group. When I was in Guyana, I found that I was experiencing a different culture than I'm normally used to. I noticed that the language was very different than in the United States; everyone spoke English but it was so much harder to understand what people were saying to me. I had to pay more attention to people than I normally have to. Also everyone seemed as though they were slightly yelling but they weren't, I wasn't used to the tone of voice that they used.

I also noticed that the way people dressed was also unlike home. Material culture is classified by jewelry, clothing, and hairstyles (page 36). Women were dressed in skirts and dresses and here I am dressed in jeans and t-shirt. Whenever I went out, I noticed that not many people wore jeans; many of the people wore track pants and a top, nothing fancy.

While I was in Guyana, I became aware of the fact that the greater part of people there thought differently of me because of the clothes I wore. Many of the people looked at me in an awkward way because I wore jeans and a t-shirt. This concept is known as ethnocentrism; it is the tendency to use or own ways of doing things as a way to judge others (page 37).

If you were speaking to a person, they wouldn't smile at you, not once. For the entire time I was there, I didn't see one person use a positive sanction toward another. A positive sanction is known as a reward or positive reaction or following the norms (page 46). The only time I saw someone smile was when they laughed and that wasn't very often. I had to hold back my laughter at times to fit in social places because that would draw more attention to myself than I wanted.

As I traveled through the towns that my parents were from, I noticed