facing an acculturation process, Communications Assignment Homework help

Claim: Meimei Ham is primarily facing an acculturation process when entering the United States to live and work, from her home-land, Beijing China.

Definition: In Ting Toomey’s “Understanding Intercultural Communication”, he defines acculturation as, “ The degree of identity change that occurs when an individual moves from a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one.” While he defines enculturation as, “The sustained primary socialization process of strangers in their original home (or natal) culture where in they have internalized their primary cultural values” The four distinctive levels of factors that are relevant to both process include: System Level Factors, Individual level Factors, Interpersonal Face to Face & Network Factors, and Mass Media Level Factors.

Example: Local institutions as a sub factor for system level factors as her new place of work within a new country is where she is being introduced and according to Ting Toomey, system level factors are the host environment that influence newcomer’s adaptation to the new culture. Within individual level factors, as she has relocated internationally, and Ting Toomey states that “the sense of transitory stay” vs. “ no return, produces a different motivated drives for newcomers to acquire the new car ritual symbols and scripts suited to their new home”. Therefore, in this case, the sub factor may be motivational as she is moving for her job. She may feel the move is a step in the right direction for her career. As for interpersonal face to face factors & network level factors, social networks within a ethic community she feels connected with would apply. Mass media level factors would include ethnic media she connects to.

Explanation: I think a bicultural identity will be the most reasonable goal for Han Meimei to develop because she has spent her entire live in her homeland, but will obviously has a desire to try a new culture (because she relocated) so it is likely and reasonable to assume she will try to fit in to a new culture while respecting and identifying with her origins. AndI would recommend the film Brooklyn (2015) to Meimei because she is a woman and I find it comes from a woman’s perspective vs. Outsourced which comes from (mostly) a man’s perspective. 

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