Assimilation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assimilation - Essay Example In this manner I will be able to better adapt, and in return will be better accepted by local people. Further on, adopting a foreign language and learning about a foreign culture can be viewed as broadening my views and enriching my personality. Assimilation, of course, has its negative implications. First, it is associated with losing touch with those characteristics that are tokens of my own culture. It is one thing to understand and acknowledge differences, and quite another to accept the established country's cultural norms as my own. This will break the relationship I have with my Native American culture and will make me less secure in the new social environment. The American culture has many tokens that are if not unique, then at least emblematic - like individualism, equality, democracy and patriotism (Wikipedia, 2006). These represent bits of influences that have shaped my value system, attitudes and viewpoints. Both consciously, and subconsciously it will be very difficult for me to give up those values, because they have been part of my cultural world all my life. It is difficult to identify that one element that is of greatest importance to me, probably it's the idea of social equality and equal opportunities. Many cultural systems are built on different social statuses, like the Indian castes for example.