In the Figuring Foreigners Out, the author talks about the two ends of how different cultures identify themselves, communicate and perceive things. While discussing these two opposite poles, Storti repeatedly mentions how individuals in these cultures are more likely to identify with the pole that their culture identifies with. To me this statement seems like a generalization. Storti does not take into consideration the fact that cultures are more permeable and malleable due to increased mobility. He only accounts for those individuals who are born and raised in their country surrounded by their culture which influences how they identify themselves and perceive the world around them.
With the globalization more and more people are likely to live in different countries throughout their lives and experience different cultures. The contact with other cultures changes and enriches one’s self-identity and perception, so that they no longer believe in the same things as their collective culture does. More and more people identify as multi-cultural not because their ancestors are from different countries but because they have absorbed aspects of different cultures in order to form a unique identity just for themselves. These people don’t identify with a specific cultural group or country. They belong to neither of the cultures but at the same time to some extinct they can identify with all of them. I am one of those people. Throughout my 19 years I have lived in 5 different countries absorbing aspects of each culture and forming my own identity. I don’t identify with the collective Afghani culture but at the same time I am not completely American or Uzbeki. I am somewhere in between were the Storti’s statement does not apply.
Comments
How about if you moved to a very different culture? Would you experience some kind of "culture shock" despite your multicultural background?