Culture Shock

This week in sociology we are discussing culture. I think that the whole idea of culture is kind of hidden at times because our culture comes from the things that we are most used to, so we don't always notice it. That's why it is so hard to adjust to another culture. One interesting concept of culture we discussed was culture shock. Often, people get frustrated when they experience culture shock. We played a really interesting game called five tricks. We played the game, without any language, with one group, and with a certain set of rules for a matter of five minutes. Afterwards, we were told to switch groups. While playing the game, little did we know that the new group was playing by a completely different set of rules than we were. It was funny and interesting to see people get angry and frustrated, even though we were only playing for a short amount of time. This was a great way to show how culture shock would feel. When people are used to a certain set of rules, and a certain way of living, it is extremely difficult to adjust to a new set. I experienced culture shock when I went to India a few years ago. Since I was born and raised here in the US, I do not know that many things about Indian culture. Things in India are very different. There are different modes of transportation, they dress differently, they talk differently, and they think differently. For example, one thing is that people there do not usually say "okay" , or "yeah" as often as we do. Whenever i said that, everyone automatically knew that I wasn't from there. Learning about culture shock makes me more aware, and also more understanding and accepting of other peoples culture. Everyone belongs to a culture that is attached to them, and it is very hard to adjust to a new culture.