Week 5- Cultural Practices- Dominique Lawson

When looking at the lives of immigrant children there is a clear difference in their educational experience and the way they communicate.Acculturation is described as the changes experienced as a result of being in contact with other cultures (Vaughn, 95). While this is thought to only occur when visiting another country, it actually happens in every day life. In education, students come into contact with many other students of different race, religion, family practices, and other traits that define culture. Here at the University of Cincinnati I may run into many different cultures in the course of one day. So far, I have only interacted with a few people of other cultures, however, those experiences can be connected with the readings.
"Different intercultural frameworks contribute to challenging intercultural interactions with different norms and values. These frameworks include pre-established schemas and scripts that may contribute to distress in interactions" (101). About a month ago, a fire alarm went off in our dorm. We were forced to evacuate the building. This was the first day back from spring break so many people were still unpacking or just arriving in the midst of the chaos. I went to a friend's dorm to wait out the madness with my roommates. As we were waiting in the lobby of her dorm watching all of the students outside of my dorm a man knocked on the door to be let in. With him was a foreign exchange student. She could not speak much English and was trying to find out where her room was and what she needed for her classes the next day. I tried to communicate with her by using gestures and pointing at things, speaking slowly, and trying to be as clear in my verbal cues so that she could understand if I was asking a question or making a statement. We eventually got her situated but it took a lot of work as there were many communication barriers in effect. Overall there was minimal distress in the communication. We laughed a lot even though it was hard to understand one another, and the goal was met in minimal time. Communication is not only talking. It includes nonverbal cues such as gestures and facial expressions, which vary cross-culturally and are hard to decipher at times. 
One of the biggest challenges that immigrants face in acculturation is the change in education. In many other cultures education is much more strict. The time frame from which children attend school is also different in many cases, sometimes it starts much earlier and lasts throughout the day, other times it is later in the day, and in some cases there is a large break in between the hours that children attend school (Igoa). It is hard to make these changes from what was practiced before to what needs to be done now. Many children find it stressful because they not only have to change the style from which they went to school, but they also have to learn a new language and immerse in the culture of the country they attend school in. In Hong Kong, for instance, the student body is made up of about 99 percent Asians (Igoa, 88) while in the US there are many ethnic groups such as African Americans, Whites, Asians, and Hispanics. This immersion into a culturally diverse environment can sometimes cause a culture shock. Although there are negative changes in the education there are also positive changes where the students find the work to be easier once they get the hang of it and get higher rankings as students. One of the best ways to make the educational experience easier for a new immigrant students is to pair them with another student of their race to help them understand and help them blend with the culture better. The best suggested form of acculturation is integration, where there is an interest in both maintaining the original culture while showing interest in and engaging in daily interactions with other groups. Pairing a student with one of the same race and culture helps them to retain the original culture and engage in conversation in it from time to time while still learning the ways of the new country in the educational system with the other children in the same classroom and school as the other cultures.
I am African American, Christian, a woman, a sister, a Godmother, and a daughter. My skin color is brown which in some way connects me to Africa yet I reside in America and am cultured as such. I practice my faith through going to church and reading the Bible. I pray and I sing. I act in femininity through caring, nurturing, loving, and providing. I am connected to other members of my family through blood and through my culture I love them and communicate with them as such. I am a Godmother, I protect my Goddaughter, I provide for her when her mother cannot, I treat her as my own without all of the responsibilities of actually being a mother and should her mother pass, I will take her as my own.