African Student Association addresses stereotypes at 'Culture Shock'
No matter where you live, most people have experienced culture shock in some way.
But, some say that many people only care about their culture that they live in and not any of the other different cultures that exist around the world when they become adults.
For those people that do travel the world and live in different cultures, life can be very different.?Tuesday night, the Central Michigan University chapter of the African Student Association tried to provide answers to many world wide cultural issues, during their presentation called "Culture Shock."
"My perception of culture shock is going to a place that's different and realizing that their cultures are different," said Canada junior Yemi Olumolade.
Short videos were shown that addressed what the definition of culture shock is, why stereotypes exist and which culture is stereotyped the worst.
"It is more of a social experience. We do things differently in South Africa when we hang out. You don't have to make it a big deal like it is here," said ZoZo Goduka, a South Africa sophomore.
"In South Africa, it's 'You want to come over to my house and hang out?'" he said. "Here, you have to plan it, like watching movies or playing video games."
One student asked why his parents have told him to bring home someone that is African if he were to get into a kind of serious relationship.
A video clip from the Tyra Banks Show addressed the issue of which culture has it worse showed.
China senior and broadcasting student Yuhan Liu said she thinks that the media is responsible for some of the stereotypical feelings that people have about different cultures.
"I think the media reports kind of go to the extreme," she said. "I think that is not good. Before we came here, we seldom watched so much negative news of America."
Mark Poindexter, director of international education, addressed the specific terrorist stereotype that Arabs face after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
"The anti-Arab bias didn't start with 9/11. The oil embargo of 1974 is when you started to see the real bias of anti-Arabs," he said. "There was intense reaction of 'those people have no right to mess with our oil.' You have this long history of stereotypes and I think its going to take a lot of effort to get rid of this."
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