My Approach to Culture

                As someone who hasn’t really traveled that much, I feel like I don’t fully know what it is that I’ll be good at or need to work on when it comes to adapting to and understanding a new culture during my study abroad experience. I’ve always been an introvert and really enjoyed listening to people and learning about their lives. I’m an observant person – I love to be able to relax and take everything in when I go somewhere new. I think that all of these things will help me in Ireland – I’m very open to learning new things, and I’m willing to spend time to do it. Aspects of American culture that I’d like to educate others about are probably focused a lot on discouraging stereotypes. I’ll be really good at shooting down the one that says all Americans are really loud. I’d like to have a lot of compare-and-contrast conversations there – ones that leave everyone more knowledgeable about another group of people than they were before. Something I think I might need to work on will be the hands-on part of adapting to culture – listening and standing back to learn through observation have always been my comfort zones, but I know that to experience some parts of culture I’m going to have to put myself out there and risk making a mistake or doing something against the cultural norm.

                I hope to learn more about where I came from when I’m in Ireland. I think that seeing the ways in which other people are different from me will make me aware of a lot of things in my culture that have shaped who I am without me even realizing it. I want to find similarities and differences – figure out the universal and non-universal ways that culture works. While I’m finding that, I hope I can impart something similar on the people that I meet – help them learn a little more about themselves by showing them where I come from.