Cultural Questioning

Acclimatising to a new culture can be daunting at first. Whilst on one hand there is the initial excitement of discovering the new values and traditions, there is also the feeling of complete uncertainty.

by ALEXIA COSTACHE

ndoubtedly, there will

Ube times when you are thriving within this new environment, but equally there will be times when you miss your friends, family and your old life.

One of the bigger struggles that I had not anticipated before moving away from home was the feeling of not belonging in either place. At times, I felt so bogged down reminiscing about my old life that it almost hindered my ability to meet new people and try new activities. Whilst I was still in the process of getting used to my new life, I found myself feeling like an outsider in my home country as well because immersion in a new culture changes a person. Without realising, I found myself changing parts of myself in order to fit in with the new norm and going back home after living abroad was overwhelming.

I spent my first few years feeling like I didn’t belong in either place because I felt like I needed to change to fit in as I was never taught how to fuse the cultures together. I was always conscious of how far you can allow one culture to take root without it overshadowing the other. However, with the benefit of hindsight, I realise that I don’t have to lose one culture to be able to be part of another culture: the clash of cultures and everything I went through was eye opening and it helped me develop a multifaceted/new perspective and ultimately become who I am today. I realise now that even though there are a range of cultures/traditions that live within me, there is not one ‘correct’ way of carrying them on/ expressing them, instead I just concentrate on finding a balance that suits me.

In my opinion, one of the more important aspects of cultural adjustment is mastering the more minimalistic aspects of a certain culture. Whilst the food, the traditions make up the culture one sees from the outside looking in, I think understanding the social behaviours of a culture allows someone to truly fit in. To some extent, culture dictates behaviour, but culture is also relative. When I moved to England, I brought my own background and life experiences with me and these shaped how I perceived and adjusted to my new environment. Even though the values, the social norms and the traditions were distinctly different to how everything used to be in the country I grew up in, it was important to remind myself that the way people collectively behaved was not in any way meant to be personally insulting (although somewhat insensitive at times) and that it was all a result of the different upbringing. Understanding why people do what they do and how you can adapt to it is crucial to adapting to a new environment.

Five years later, even though I still have not adjusted all of my eating habits or the way I celebrate certain traditions, I fit in. Although I still don’t have the traditional Christmas dinners or Sunday roasts, it doesn’t make me stand out from the crowd and it doesn’t make me any less ‘English’ – but isn’t celebrating each other’s uniqueness a key part of any forward-thinking nation?