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  • Essay / A Reflection of Culture Shock in Richard Rodriguez's Scholarship Boy and ED Hirsch's Cultural Literacy

    Being in a country where people don't speak the same language as you is one of the most difficult problems a person can face. Another solution is to leave your family for the first time at the age of 18. It can also be difficult. Every person who moves outside of their home country will likely experience some form of culture shock, but mine happened before I even arrived in the United States. I received mine when I was on the plane. I told myself that this was only the beginning and that it was going to be much worse once we got there. After arriving, I realized that culture shock would not be the only problem I would encounter, but several others as well. After reading the selections in class, I feel like I can relate better to the story “Scholarship Boy” by Richard Rodriguez and “Cultural Literacy” by ED Hirsch. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Any kid that age can experience culture shock as easily as I did. This is what I learned from my experience. People experience culture shock when they arrive in a new country, but something weird happened to me on the plane. This caused me to experience culture shock sooner. However, it really can happen at any time. In both stories, the authors also experienced a little culture shock. In Saudi Arabia, there is something called Alabah for women and Thowb for men. These are the traditional clothing of the Saudi people. Everyone on the plane with me wore these clothes when we left Saudi Arabia. Three hours before we landed in Washington DC, I took a short nap but it was a really bad time to take a nap. Since I took my nap, my problems have only just begun. While I was sleeping, everyone on the plane went to change their clothes from traditional Saudi clothing to American style. I woke up after a nap and saw different people. I thought at that point I had fallen asleep and they had changed planes. I understood that they had just changed clothes. I knew this because of the person sitting next to me. Since I said this nap was a bad idea, I didn't know that when I was taking my nap, the flight attendants handed me immigration papers and I didn't receive any. We landed in Washington DC and I went to immigration with only my passport. When it was my turn, I just gave the passport to the agent, then he looked at me and he was speaking in English. He didn't know that I didn't speak English. I couldn't even understand his body language, but he was pointing to a table at the back of the hall. I didn't know what he meant. I was looking for someone who could help me, but there was no one who spoke Arabic in the hall. After three hours there was a guy with his mother and he looked Arab. He was coming to see the same officer I was with. I went to ask him if he spoke Arabic. To which he replied yes. I asked for help because I really needed advice. He looked me in the eyes then laughed; he said you looked so tired. I laughed then told him what was happening to me. After that he figured out what the problem was, then he took my passport and filled in my information. After all that, security finally allowed me access. After going through immigration and grabbing my bags, I boarded my other flight to Columbia SC. The problem was how do I find my other flight? I was looking for the same guy who helped me.