The magnitude of cultural globalization is immense; however, for many modern people it remains unnoticed. They do not comprehend the powerful influence that constantly shapes their cultural identities. On the one hand, this unconscious adaptation may be beneficial, because it does not require much cognition. On the other hand, uncontrolled culture shock can lead to adverse implications such as disrupted positionality, due to the fact that people may gain negative/maladaptive personal characteristics. Therefore, it is important to increase conscious involvement in the process of altering personal cultural identity to align it with the demands of the external realities. This paper reveals conscious participation in the process of cross-cultural communication on the basis of visiting a Cuban restaurant with my Cuban friend as in response paper https://bestcustompapers.com/response-paper-writing/ 

A Description of the Cultural Experiences

The Cuban restaurant that I have visited is called Xiomara. It is decorated in a hybrid mode: high tech style with a dash of embellishment that create the image of a marine village hut. The decoration of dishes complies with this eclectic interior. Specifically, the menu contains a lot of sea-food dishes and claims to serve Cuban national dishes; however, if it has not been specified, I would have never guessed that it was the Cuban restaurant and cuisine. Besides, the menu proposes a lot of mixed-culture dishes. This restaurant creates the atmosphere of privacy and intimacy demonstrating the culture of hospitality, value of the aesthetic cuisine, and openness to multiculturalism. This description implies positive and minimal culture shock as my reaction to this place.

Xiomara is considered to be a well-suited place for romantic dates and other special occasions that are associated with escapism from daily burdens and harsh realities. In other words, it is a place for those who value private atmosphere. After visiting Xiomara, I read comments of other visitors and realized that the majority of them had the same positive experience. The restaurant brings the notion of escapism to a wonderful and restful place to most visitors.

At first, I experienced culture shock that encouraged me to adapt to the environment, the natural part of which I wanted to become. I started to ask my friend about some Cuban words and terms that would be appropriate in that environment. The Cubans speak Spanish. Therefore, language as a cultural symbol, was close to my cultural identity, which allowed processing written information. In this way, I found myself more comfortable in a culturally strange environment.

Besides, I was observing other visitors because I wanted to know how they felt, and if my response matched theirs. I detected that customers were from quite diverse ethnic background, and all of them seemed to feel quite natural in Xiomara. At that moment, I felt uncomfortable, because my response (culture shock) seemed to be stronger than that of other people in that restaurant. I wanted to accommodate to the place to an extent when the external stimuli stop being too significant and a person can concentrate on inner feelings and stimuli instead of the external ones.

To make myself feel more comfortable I ordered the food I used to order in other restaurants (fried salmon). This action reduced my culture shock. I asked my friend to share some facts about her favorite Cuban dishes and explain how the Cuban cuisine differs from the rest of the dishes we typically consume each day. Building the bridge from what I know (habitual dishes) to what is new (Cuban cuisine) was the second step in adaptation to the positive culture shock that I experienced in Xiomara.

Analysis of the Experience Using Theories and Concepts from the Course

Intercultural experience is a powerful tool in shaping one’s cultural identity and advancing cultural tolerance. I should accentuate that even positive culture shock may be quite intense, overwhelming, and stressful. In this respect, conscious involvement in cultural penetration increases the chances that adaptation to stressors occurs using beneficial strategies instead of maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as anger, rejection, and other negative reactions. In the above-described situation, culture shock was managed with the help of language, which is known to be the main remedy of cultural identity. For instance, once I started noticing the words that I understood, like “la casa del mojito”, I felt much more comfortable. This experience displays a valuable learning outcome: verbal and conscious cross-cultural interaction is an effective means to advance cultural intelligence and ensure facilitated culture shock and healthy adaptation to cultural diversity of the today’s world.

Another valuable learning outcome is that referring to positionality and the Standpoint Theory, it is necessary to identify common ground between two or more cultures. To be more precise, it is necessary to find any similarities that can be used to bridge the two cultures. In this way, a person may shape cultural identity and adjust to own cultural positionality in accordance with the new perceived information. Referring to the discussed experience, I can distinguish Spanish language and habitual dishes as the two factors that allowed me developing the sense of being comfortable in a Cuban culture setting.

Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account that the US people are used to live in the conditions of multiculturalism from the very beginning of this nation. In this respect, Moore and Barker suggest that in the conditions of multicultural diversity, an individual “builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any”. Nevertheless, despite the fact that multicultural symbols and dimensions may be assimilated in the cultural identity of such person, she/he reveals “the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background”. In my opinion, this idea can be applied to my urge to compare my responses with behaviors of other visitors in Xiomara restaurant.

Support for Field Research Through Library Resources

Advancing the understanding of my cross-cultural experience in Xiomara, it is appropriate to define the processes and notions that were involved. To begin with, it is necessary to refer to theoretical background of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural identity’. Sorrells defines culture as “the system of shared meanings”. Further, it is explained that culture is “a site of contestation where meanings are constantly negotiated”. These negotiations are simultaneously the result of cultural identity and the factors that shape this personal quality. That is why, one may rightfully assume that cultural identity is a situational notion. A person feels “situated sense of self that is shaped by our cultural experiences and social locations”. Another definition of cultural identity is proposed by Moore and Barker, who claim that this phenomenon is “the image of the self and the culture intertwined in the individual’s total conception of reality”. Moreover, the scholars explain that multiculturalism is the ability to “successfully hold two or more cultural identities”. Without a doubt, this capability is not innate, but it needs to be evolved.

The process of gaining multicultural identity greatly depends on the level of culture shock that a person experiences when she/he is exposed to overwhelming cultural symbols and impacts. Presbitero states that culture shock is the process of “adjusting to a new cultural environment”. Given that this reaction is directly linked to adaptation, it is natural to deduce that the underlying processes “either minimize or prolong the adaptation period of an individual in his or her new cultural environment”. Besides, the positivism of culture shock can be increased with the help of cultural intelligence, which is a personal characteristic that facilitates adaptation and assists in managing culture shock. In this respect, cultural intelligence can be viewed as a tool to enhance conscious participation in the process of gaining multicultural identity and adjusting to the culturally globalized world.

Cultural intelligence resonates with the notion of positionality which “refers to one’s social location or position within an intersecting web of socially constructed hierarchical categories such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, and physical abilities”. In other words, this term is “a relational concept”, which serves to define a place of a particular individual within the complex set of intersecting demographic determinants. In this way, cultural identity and positionality are related to the Standpoint Theory. This approach suggests that a social group to which certain individual attributes the self, impacts on his/her system of knowledge and beliefs, and shapes behavioral patterns. The ability to understand own positionality and define positive differences between personal position and other’s standing in a social environment is the sign of well-evolved cultural intelligence.

A Summary of Reflections on Learning Outcomes

Summing up the above-mentioned, it is necessary to stress that in the modern globalized world, cultural barriers become more and more vague. This premise was proven by visiting the Cuban restaurant, Xiomara, which contained mixed-culture interior and cuisine. Erased cultural barriers contribute to people gaining multicultural identity as an adaptive response towards being exposed to culturally diverse environment. Undoubtedly, these processes are not innate. Shaping one’s cultural identity, increasing cultural intelligence, managing culture shock, and aligning positionality with a range of demographic dimensions that are even more complex in the conditions of multiculturalism are the processes that occur daily during cross-cultural interactions. To increase positivism of outcomes that are generated by cross-cultural interpersonal relations, an individual needs to advance his/her awareness and engagement in these processes.