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Cultural Immersion Analysis

Decent Essays

Valery Nix
“Cultural Immersion” Throughout my UCIE meetings, I found that every culture and society is different in various ways. Saudi Arabia was the country I met most people from, therefore it is also the country I learned the most about. I talked to several students about their experiences while in America and the difference in the cultures. My partner came to the United States to study and earn a degree. Her country provided her with a scholarship to receive a degree in the United States and then return back to Saudi Arabia.
 My partner shed light on the cultural traditions in Saudi Arabia. She revealed that many Americans are misinformed on her country’s way of life. She shared what her day-to-day life was like in Saudi Arabia compared …show more content…

Exploitation and marginalization go hand-in-hand, but any discrimination she faced was little to none at all. She actually shared that she feels more accepted and conformable here than she does in her home country. In the United States, she is able to dress, act, talk, and be however she wants. In her home country, the social standards were so high that she felt as if she always had to hide how she truly felt and conform to the norms of society. The indirect discrimination comes when she chooses to wear the hijab. As soon as she puts the hijab on, she can feel people staring at her. She notices that people are less likely to approach her and start a conversation. She has never had someone be deliberately rude or violent toward her, but she has felt the cold shoulder mentality that so many people give toward Muslims. The direct discrimination she has faced so far was not by any of the students at Wright State, but the faculty. She was in a class with six other Arabian students. The students noticed that discriminatory actions were taking place in the classroom, so they got together to compare grades and discuss the problem. They found that the professor had given them all the same grade, which was a D. She did not go into further detail on how this was resolved, but she did expressed that this experience was one she will never forget. This experience, along with all the other experiences that my partner shared with me, goes to show that crossing international boarders has positive and negative outcomes. My partner has loved her time in America, but she has also felt the repercussions of being a Muslim in the United

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