Going Native: Reading Response 3

My initial reading of this paper honestly confused the hell out of me. Whether this was due to the fact I was falling in and out of sleep while reading it, or that it was a little more complex than I expected is entirely irrelevant. Yet, upon my second reading of this paper, I really enjoyed the different examples that the author used. In my group I think we came up with a pretty good thesis or at least an assertion regarding the reason for the generally negative view is due to the different levels of actual understanding that the culturally mobile individual has for the culture they are enveloping themselves in.

I really liked the author's first example. While it was about children, and it is understandable that they would do this, they represent the first level of cultural mobility. This first example is the reason that it is seen as a negative, degrading thing. The children that were  trying to become engulfed in the African-American culture simply took on the aspects of the culture that were popular and the aspects that they liked, rather than the entire culture which indefinitely includes the negative, painful aspects as well. This is what the majority of people who attempt to become culturally mobile tend to do. Because they only take on the surface aspects of the culture, it makes the individual seem shallow and fake. Unfortunately because this level is the one most commonly seen by the masses, it gives the entire institution of cultural mobility a bad rap.

Another example she uses shows the next level that is a little more knowledgeable, yet still not the essence and deepest level of cultural mobility that can be achieved. She explains her own experience with cultural mobility in the context of her time in India. She explains how even the bad parts of Indian culture, such as the treachery of the caste system and the mass poverty, were still a part of the culture she acknowledged and still attempted to soak in the culture. This awareness, while it may seem minor, is a major jump from the superficiality of the first level. Even though she possessed this other aspect, she still wasn't capable of entirely enveloping herself in that other culture.

The author then refers to a man who actually attained the final level of cultural mobility. This man moved to Japan and became completely engulfed in the culture. The good, the bad and the weird. He became a family man of a Japanese woman and adopted their cultural ways. He lived this way because he felt that he was simply born into the wrong culture. I really liked her example of trans-gender people. Many trans-gender people say they had always felt like they were born in the wrong skin, in the wrong context and the man that moved to Japan expressed the same sort of feeling.

 I really enjoyed this reading I think because I can relate but not directly. I think an underlying text of this paper was that all cultures should be acknowledged, but not necessarily accepted. I do not think she's asserting that just because the culture is there one has to agree with it, I simply think that she's asserting that a culture should not be completely denied relevance because it is different or odd. I agree. Learning about other cultures has been one of the most interesting and driving aspects of my life so far so I do agree.