Assimilation vs Acculturation
Summary
TLDRThis script explores the concepts of assimilation and acculturation, explaining how assimilation involves fully adopting a new culture, while acculturation is the adoption of cultural traits without losing one's original culture. It discusses the historical preference for assimilation in the U.S., where immigrants were encouraged to become 'American' at the expense of their heritage. Today, there's a shift towards embracing multiculturalism, with examples of bilingual parents teaching their children to maintain both their native and host culture. The script uses the metaphor of a salad to illustrate the blending of cultures in acculturation, versus the 'melting pot' of assimilation, and encourages finding personal connections and understanding the historical context of these terms.
Takeaways
- 📚 Assimilation is the process of adopting a new culture as one's own, leading to identification with that culture.
- 🌐 Acculturation involves adopting traits from another culture while still maintaining one's original culture.
- 📉 Historically, immigrants were encouraged to assimilate to be more accepted in American society, often by suppressing their native culture.
- 🌈 Today, there is a growing appreciation for multiculturalism and pride in one's cultural heritage.
- 👨👩👧👦 Bilingual parents may practice acculturation by teaching their children both their native language and the language of the host country.
- 🥗 Acculturation can be metaphorically compared to a salad, where different cultural elements are mixed together.
- 🍲 Assimilation, in contrast, is likened to a soup, where the individual's original culture is absorbed and lost.
- 🌟 The script suggests that being bicultural may require navigating between one's native culture and the dominant culture of the host country.
- 🔄 Bicultural individuals often switch between cultures, for example, speaking their native language at home and the host country's language at school.
- 💡 The script implies that embracing multiple cultures is becoming more acceptable, which may reduce the need for strong distinctions between assimilation and acculturation.
- 🤝 Finding personal connections and understanding historical context can help in appreciating and adopting elements from different cultures.
Q & A
What is the main difference between assimilation and acculturation according to the script?
-Assimilation refers to the process of taking on a new culture as one's own and being identified by that new culture, while acculturation involves adopting traits of a culture while still maintaining one's original culture.
Why was assimilation more desirable in the past for immigrants in America?
-In the past, assimilation was seen as more acceptable because it was deemed necessary for survival and acceptance in American society. Immigrants often tried to appear more American by getting rid of their accents and not teaching their children their native language.
What is the current trend regarding the maintenance of one's original culture in the context of immigration?
-The current trend is moving towards being more prideful about one's cultural origins and maintaining those cultures, even while adopting traits of the host culture.
Can you provide an example of how bilingual parents might practice acculturation with their children?
-An example is a couple where one speaks Spanish and the other English. They might speak to their children in their respective languages, requiring the children to respond in the other language, thus maintaining both cultures.
What metaphor is used in the script to describe the process of acculturation?
-The script uses the metaphor of a salad, where different elements like tomatoes and cucumbers represent the adoption of different cultural traits.
What does the script suggest about the future use of the terms 'assimilation' and 'acculturation'?
-The script suggests that as society becomes more accepting of multiple cultures, the terms 'assimilation' and 'acculturation' may not be as strongly emphasized in the future.
How does the script relate the concepts of assimilation and acculturation to bicultural individuals?
-Bicultural individuals often have to navigate between their native culture and the host culture, stepping in and out of each depending on the context, such as at school or at home.
What advice does the script give for understanding and embracing different cultures?
-The script advises finding personal connections and common values, as well as understanding the historical context of assimilation and acculturation.
Why is it important to understand the historical context when discussing assimilation and acculturation?
-Understanding the historical context helps to recognize the evolution of societal attitudes towards cultural integration and the impact these attitudes have had on different generations.
How can the concepts of assimilation and acculturation be applied in a family setting with children of different cultural backgrounds?
-Parents can apply these concepts by teaching their children about their own cultural heritage while also exposing them to the host culture, fostering an environment of mutual respect and understanding.
Outlines
🌐 Understanding Assimilation and Acculturation
This paragraph introduces the concepts of assimilation and acculturation, explaining the difference between adopting a new culture as one's own (assimilation) and adopting traits of a new culture while maintaining one's original culture (acculturation). It discusses the historical context of these terms, noting a shift from an emphasis on assimilation to a growing appreciation for maintaining cultural heritage. The speaker uses the metaphor of a salad to illustrate the idea of a multicultural identity, as opposed to a 'melting pot' or 'soup' approach where the original culture is lost.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Assimilation
💡Acculturation
💡Multicultural
💡Cultural Identity
💡Sociology
💡Survival
💡Bicultural
💡Language
💡Tradition
💡Acceptance
💡Historical Context
Highlights
Assimilation is taking on a new culture as your own and becoming identified by it.
Acculturation is adopting traits of a culture while maintaining your original culture.
In the past, immigrants often tried to assimilate for survival and acceptance.
Nowadays, there is more pride in maintaining one's original culture.
Bicultural individuals may step in and out of their native and adopted cultures.
Multiculturalism is becoming more acceptable and trendy.
Parents can teach their children multiple languages as an example of acculturation.
Acculturation can be visualized as a salad, picking up different cultural elements.
Assimilation is like a soup, absorbing and getting rid of the old culture.
Bicultural people often have to switch between cultures, especially in school and home environments.
Embracing multiple cultures is becoming more common as people marry from different backgrounds.
The terms assimilation and acculturation may become less strongly used in the future.
Finding personal connections and common values can help understand cultural adoption.
Understanding the historical context is important when discussing assimilation and acculturation.
Assimilation was deemed more acceptable in the past for immigrants to fit into American society.
Parents who are bilingual can teach their children both languages as a form of acculturation.
The shift from assimilation to acculturation reflects changing societal attitudes towards cultural diversity.
Transcripts
[Music]
so the terms assimilation and
acculturation you may have heard before
and unless you're an expert on kind of
sociology you might not fully understand
what the difference is so I just want to
break it down so you understand kind of
how to use them or if you hear them what
they mean so assimilation is a term that
is used when you kind of take on a new
culture as your own so you're absorbing
yourself into it and you really kind of
become identified by that new culture
and acculturation is adopting traits and
pieces of a culture but still
maintaining your original culture as
well so when you want to focus on you
know if someone identifies as
multicultural or by cultural some people
who may have emigrated earlier on a few
decades ago it wasn't really trendy to
kind of maintain your culture it really
it came down to survival you wanted to
appear as American they may have tried
to get rid of their accent they may have
tried to not want their children to
learn England or to learn you know their
old language they wanted them to learn
English because they really wanted them
to feel assimilated because just to be
frank it was it was deemed more more
acceptable to want to be this version of
American and nowadays it seems like
we're really starting to step back a
little bit and being more prideful about
where people are coming from and holding
on to those cultures so nowadays you
might find that parents who are
bilingual they're teaching their kids I
know a couple that one woman she speaks
Spanish and her husband you know is
black and they speak to their kids one
might speak in Spanish the child has to
respond in English the dad he speaks in
English the child has to respond in
Spanish so that is an example of a cult
eration of maintaining and adopting at
different parts of cultures and another
kind of metaphor that works this thing
of it as a salad you throw in tomatoes
you throw in you know cucumbers
different elements and
you're kind of picking up different
cultures here and there so say if you're
immigrating from you know Korea and you
want your kids to be acculturated to
American culture but not lose their
Korean culture you'll you'll teach them
about the food you'll want them to learn
Korean but you'll also understand that
they're gonna pick up on things at
school but assimilation would be someone
who would be like you don't speak Korean
at all you have to speak English and
that's sort of an older way of thinking
it does still exist for certain cultures
but just keep that in mind that you know
assimilation is more like a soup you're
kind of absorbing and getting rid of the
old culture where acculturation is
adopting different traits but also
maintaining around so this comes into
play for people who are bicultural
because they oftentimes have to kind of
step in and out of their native culture
and then American kind of traditional
culture and they do that by going to
school if you grow up in a public school
you're going to learn English you're
gonna make friends with people who come
from different backgrounds but when you
go home if your parents don't speak the
language you're gonna have to kind of
switch back so that's where these terms
kind of come into play for people who
kind of have to live in both cultures
but we just want to make sure that those
terms are clear whenever you read them
or if you use them but I think that
we're starting to enter an era that it's
becoming more acceptable to kind of
embrace multiple different cultures you
know people are starting to kind of you
know get married to people of different
cultures so I think that those terms
will probably not be asked strongly used
in the future but just as context for
you depending on whether you're talking
to older generations or younger that are
bicultural those terms might pop up so
in terms of you know practically what
can you do with these terms and how can
you know what is appropriate to use or
or what is not I would say always look
for that personal connection
what are interests that you share if you
have kids and
kids what are those common values that
you're trying to teach your children and
finding those similarities will kind of
help you better understand different
things that they're adopting and maybe
you can start adopting some things from
their culture as well so yeah always
find those personal connections and
understand the historical context when
it comes to assimilation versus
acculturation
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