Adapting a new culture and understanding the interplay between one’s cultural background and their new engagement requires introspection and redefining how one relates with others. Cultural values could affect how people perceive others and their interactions. Thus, living in the diaspora exposes one to culture shocks and a learning experience. As a Chinese student, living in Canada is challenging because of the cultural differences between the two countries. In the contemporary globalized world, it is important to understand intercultural communication and how to engage people from various cultures. The current treatise explains my experiences in Canada, my adaptation, and my current status. My cultural blending involved observing and learning how Canadians live.
The Canadian culture has distinct values that make it outstanding. The first one is that Canadians are more individualistic than collectivists. According to Gallois et al. (2023), Canada is among the individualistic countries, together with the US, Great Britain, New Zealand, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy, among others. This characteristic means that people in Canada prefer to focus on individual rather than group achievements. As Gallois et al. (2023) explain, people in the individualistic culture portray personal behaviors and concentrate on personal goals, sometimes at the expense of others. The other feature is that Canada has a mosaic culture. In other words, people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds coexist in Canada (McCormack, 2020). For instance, there are many indigenous groups, immigrants, and other groups in the country. Canada also has a rich art culture, a unique food cuisine, a vibrant music scene, and a polite social value. Lastly, Canada has a short power distance, which means that people with authority are available at the workers’ level, and there is less respect for authority than in China (Oyibo & Morita, 2023). Canadians also prefer direct communication, and saving face is not important. Some of these cultural perspectives contradict my beliefs.
My cultural beliefs are based on the Chinese culture. One feature is collectivism. In China, we practice collectivism, which means group success receives more attention than individual success (Gallois et al., 2023). For instance, we avoid taking credit when success occurs but acknowledge everybody’s effort. Chinese culture also involves different foods. Most foods have low lactose because of its high intolerance in the country. According to Gamureac and Chirlici (2021), lactose intolerance in China affects 90% of the population. Power distance is long in China, implying that people in authority are greatly respected. Buddhism is the main religion in China, and the Chinese have unique arts and music. Saving face is important, meaning the Chinese prefer indirect communication.
My cultural background affects my understanding of and interaction with Canadians and people from other cultures. For instance, my collectivist cultural value affects my interactions with others because I focus on group success, while Canadians focus on individual success. The power distance difference also affects my interactions. For instance, I respect people in authority and cannot interact freely with them. Also, I use indirect communication and always focus on saving face, while my Canadian counterparts use direct communication, which I may consider rude and disrespectful.
Many cultural dimensions affect intercultural communication. First, the use of direct or indirect communication styles directly impacts interactions. For instance, in a direct communication style, the Canadians use explicit meanings, which means Canadians express their views freely, while in the indirect communication style in China, we use implicit communication, whereby we use coded languages to imply what we mean. Ge et al. (2022) explain that in Japan and China, people avoid direct expressions because they sound blunt and rude. Instead, intentions are hinted at and implied (Gallois et al., 2023). Also, my collectivist cultural dimension affects my intercultural interaction by determining how I engage others within social groups. For instance, I avoid taking credit when we succeed as a team, but my Canadian counterparts do not hesitate to self-praise. This difference affects how we interact in groups. Facial expressions and gestures are more common in China but less emphasized in Canada. As Kita (2020) clarifies, gestures nature and meaning vary across cultures. Thus, my expressions and gestures may not be interpreted effectively by Canadians. I also avoid close interactions with people in authority, including teachers, while Canadians interact freely with people in authority. Social norms like greetings and interpersonal contact also affect my interactions.
My experiences in Canada show local and globalized cultural features that affect daily interactions. For instance, Canadian culture involves culturally accepted values like individualism and the use of self-esteem as a sign of well-being. I observe direct communication approaches in daily interactions, with people expressing their ideas freely. I also encounter a short power distance, whereby people in Canada interact with minimal limitations based on differences in authority levels. Globalized cultural trends are also visible in Canada. For instance, the Chinese people in Canada show a high adaptation of short orientation, seeking short-term results, low focus on saving or the future, and consuming to match social pressure. I also see integrated languages, whereby people from different regions communicate in one common language, English. According to Siregar (2022), language is critical to cultural integration and globalization. Thus, having a common language in Canada implies cultural globalization. Also, Canadian cities are melting pots of different cultures. Immigrants in Canada maintain their original heritage and coexist in the mainstream culture by blending into the Canadian culture.
My interactions with the Canadian culture align with the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS spectrum) explanations. The spectrum explains that people’s experience of cultural differences gets more complex as one’s competence in intercultural relations increases (Gallois et al., 2023). Currently, I am at the adaptation stage in the DMIS spectrum. In this stage, one’s experiences of the new culture replace perceptions and behavior associated with the new culture, and their worldview expands to accommodate others’ views. Also, people may change their behavior to enhance communication and interaction with people from the new culture (Gallois et al., 2023). Based on this analysis, I fit in this stage because I have accepted other people’s cultural perspectives and sometimes adjust my behavior to enhance interactions. Wu et al. (2020) explain that people’s sensitivity to other cultures reduces as experience increases. My sensitivity to cultural differences between Canada and China has reduced over time. For instance, I have learned to communicate freely with people with a higher authority than me. I adapted to the Canadian culture by observing, interpreting, and practicing Canadian cultural practices. I also interacted freely, tolerated the new culture, learned from online sources, and remained cautious and flexible. These approaches enabled me to learn about Canadian culture and how to blend in.
Conclusively, cultural differences play a pivotal role in human interactions, and understanding cultural differences helps people adapt to new environments. This analysis depicts the cultural differences affecting my assimilation into the Canadian culture from my Chinese background. The primary cultural differences I had to adapt to fit into Canadian culture are the contradicting cultural values, like the power distance, direct versus indirect, and the use of gestures. My position in the DMIS spectrum shows that I am in the adaptation stage, which implies that I have embraced and appreciated other cultures and do not consider them inappropriate. Through observational learning, interactions, and tolerance, one can learn about and become part of a new culture. Thus, in today’s globalized world, people from various regions can interact freely and accommodate each other, regardless of their cultural heritages.
References
Gallois, C., Volcic, Z., & Liu, S. (2023). Introducing intercultural communication: Global cultures and contexts 4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Gamureac, D., & Chirlici, A. (2021). Lactose intolerance depending on age and geographical regions. In Cercetarea în biomedicină și sănătate: calitate, excelență și performanță (pp. 75-75).
Ge, F., Park, J., & Pietromonaco, P. R. (2022). How you talk about it matters. Cultural variation in communication directness in romantic relationships. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 53(6), 583-602.
Kita, S. (2020). Cross-cultural variation of speech-accompanying gesture: A review. Speech Accompanying-Gesture, pp. 145–167.
McCormack, B. (2020). Red tiles, white mosaic: Indigeneity and the institutionalization of multiculturalism in Canada and Canadian literature—towards a literary and political history (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).
Oyibo, K., & Morita, P. P. (2023, June). The Influence of Culture in Contact Tracing App Design: A Comparative Analysis of Canada’s COVID Alert vs. India’s Aarogya Setu. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 165–173).
Siregar, I. (2022). Language response as a cultural element to globalization. Lakhomi Journal Scientific Journal of Culture, 3(1), 8–18.
Wu, Z., Chen, B., & Chen, X. (2020). Sensitivity Analysis of Intercultural Relationship Based on DMIS Model. In Advances in Social and Occupational Ergonomics: Proceedings of the AHFE 2019 International Conference on Social and Occupational Ergonomics, July 24-28, 2019, Washington DC, USA 10 (pp. 598-608). Springer International Publishing.
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