Acculturation

I am choosing to write my paper on the difference between assimilation, accommodation and acculturation. I will be addressing how they are different and why each one is important and why we need them in our life.

Assimilation is the process whereby people of a culture learn to adapt to the ways of the majority culture. This means that they change the way they act so they will be able to fit in and no one will know that they come from a different culture. This is a huge thing in education because children just want to fit in and know that they are accepted. When you move to somewhere new you need to work hard to know that you are accepted and fit in with a majority. It is a good thing to be different everyone brings a special part to the classroom and helps teach others by the experiences that they have had. We are not the ones who tell people what group they belong in it is all how you chose to live your life. You are either a minority or a majority. Everyone has a social class that they fit in you just to know where you fit in.

Accommodations a room or group of rooms in which ever one may live or stay. In education, it is how you change or modify your lesson plans for autistic students or for students with IEP, 504 plans. It is all in how you handle a situation, it is defiantly a huge thing I have seen it as I have been in the schools. I saw how a teacher changed her lesson plan to be a little easier for one student and it was still the same amount of work just a different type for him. I loved seeing how teachers are willing to help their students succeed in any way they can. It was an eye opener for me because I have never been in a class where they have done that. Where I come from they put all the special people in a different class then the regular students. I know that in one of my classes I had a super smart person who drove everyone nuts and one day I was sick of hearing what he had to say because I had not the slightest idea of what was going on so I told him to shut up and the teacher thanked me later!

Acculturation is where you retain your own culture but cannot remain isolated and are affected by the majority of the culture. You adapt to some aspects of the majority culture. In America, we are mainly white and Hispanic. It is all how you find where you fit in the culture. You should try to adapt unless you don’t want to learn anything about where you are staying or the culture. Acculturation is very important in helping you better yourself and how you live. It is a great way to change the way you look at people.

I think that you have every right to try to fit in with the majority in the culture but I think you have the right to be who you are and express yourself. I would adapt to the way of the culture but I am not going to change who I am to become someone or something I am not. I know people who do that and I don’t understand because if you are not being true to you than you are not even living the life that you were born to live. You have the right to live like you want but one silly mistake could change that and take everything you have worked so hard for away. I also believe that you can do anything you put your mind to. You must make accommodations in everything that you do because if you don’t you will live a long hard life. When you move somewhere new for instance you need to accommodate the new changes and the new adventures that you are about to have. It isn’t going to be like what you have known. I moved to North Dakota when I was twenty-one and that was defiantly a culture shock to me because it wasn’t anything like I had ever known before. I had to adapt to the new way of living I had to accommodate my needs and the needs of another person who I was stuck with for who knew how long. It was amazing to me to see how once you just start seeing how they live and just changing your ways just a little to work with them. It makes life a whole lot easier.

Assimilation, accommodations and acculturation are very important in everyday living because it is around us all the time even though sometimes we don’t see it, it is there. It is a great eye opener. Just look around and you can see the difference in people. Don’t judge them because they are different everyone was raised differently and has a different background but together we can work together to be on the same page.