08/11/08 14:57:45
>491です。改行がおかしかったので訂正します
Culture shock can be very good lesson in relative values and in understanding human differences.
The reason culture shock occurs is that we are not prepared for these differnces.
Because of the way we are taught our culture, we are all ethnocentric.
This term is made up of the Greek root "ethnos", meaning a peopleor a group, and "centric", meaning the center or middle of something.
Thus, it refers to the fact that our outlook or world view is centered on our own way of life.
Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own patterns of behavior are the best; the most natural, beautiful, right, or important.
Therefore, other people, to the extent that they live differntly, are perceived as living by standards that are inhuman, unnatural or wrong.
Ethnocenrism is the view that one's own culture better than all others; it is the way all people feel about themselves as compared to those from other cultures.
There is no one in our society who is not ethnocenrtric to some degree, no natter how open-minded he or she might claim to be.
People will always find some aspect of another culture unnatural, be it religious practies, a way or treating friends or relatives,
or simply a food that they cannot manage to get down with a smile.
This is not something we should be ashamed of, since it is a natural result of growing up in any society.
However, it is something we should constantly keep in mind when we study other cultures,
so that when we try to make value judgements about another way of life, we can look at the situation objectively and take our bias into account.