“There are
no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
As we learned this semester, humans learn from one another
and pass information along through joint attentional scenes where we share
meaning and value. We do this in our daily lives with our peers who have
similar backgrounds and speak our language. However, when you enter a country
where the culture is different and a foreign language is spoken, this two-way
communication and sharing becomes very difficult. The visitor is forced to
quickly learn how information is shared in their new surroundings and pick up
on the nuances of communication and culture in the new country.
How information is shared among groups of people is also an
important factor in a well functioning community of practice. We are all part of a number of communities of
practice in our daily lives but what happens when we leave those communities
behind and travel to a different country? Immediately we are thrust into new
communities of practice with classifications like tourists, immigrants,
visiting students, working holiday makers, and so on. We are usually forced to
make this distinction before we even arrive in the country on a customs card.
Before we land in the country we are aware of which new community of practice
we will be classified under. As new members of these different communities of
practice we must quickly learn the new reifications that are shared among
members of the group and learn how to use boundary objects appropriately,
hoping that we don’t impart a wayward boundary object from an outside community
of practice we’re a part of in an inappropriate way. We may even encounter
people who are interested in learning more about our home country and then
become a broker of information, sharing insight into what it’s like to be from
our homeland.
Once we start making these connections and share information
with people, we can start to figure out how to have our identity needs met and
what activities we need to take part in to feel like we belong in the new
country. We meet people from our home
country and share a sense of belonging and learn about the new country through
a shared lens. In class a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Plumb explained that we care
about things in our lives because we are all vulnerable. We cannot control
different aspects of our lives that affect our identity so we care about them
to try to reduce the pain that would be caused if something caused harm to our
sense of self. Imagine then, what would happen to you if you were thrust into
unfamiliar situations in a foreign country.
Likely, you would try to control your situation in some way because you
would feel vulnerable in your new environment. The more you felt insecure, the
more you would try to control different situations to keep your sense of self
intact. In some cases, people may experience culture shock where they may not adjust to
the new country for six to twelve months (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock).
 |
| The cycle of culture shock |
“Traveling
is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that
familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing
is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky –
all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese
Luckily, I can say that Australia’s culture isn’t so
different from Canadian culture and that I’m not feeling my identity threatened
at all. It also helps that I have friends from my hometown here that I can
share experiences with and one friend that has given me the inside scoop from
his perspective after living here for over a year. Having the security of a
friend in a new country has made a big difference in keeping my sense of self
intact. Also, I don’t have a language barrier to compete with and can easily share
meaning with the locals. I’m still finding my place within the “tourist with a
working holiday visa” community of practice but there seems to be a lot of
support for people in this group here. However, having an easy transition has
made me appreciate just how hard it would be to enter a new country and have to
learn a new language, learn how to negotiate meaning, learn where to fit in,
and learn how to have your identity needs met. Through our readings and
discussions, I have much better insight on how people from other countries may
feel in a different country, especially one very different from theirs. This is
important for gaining insight on what may motivate their behaviour and allow me
to be patient and considerate in my interactions with them as learners either
in a scholarly classroom or in the classroom of life.
“If you
reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people,
you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
 |
| Here I am with two of the 12 Apostles on the Gibson Step beach on Great Ocean Road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ocean_Road). This was taken minutes before my friend stepped on a venomous snake. Thankfully it didn't bite her. Talk about learning curve! |
References
Bracher,
M. (2006). Radical pedagogy: Identity, generativity, and social transformation.
New York: Palgrave.
Tomasello,
M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Wenger,
E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
