Final Reporter Blog

Jamison Viera

4/11/13

 

Cultural Reporter: Summary Blog

 

For this 3^rd and final blog I will be summarizing my report entirely, including the research I have done. Personally, my cultural identity really does have a large impact on this project. Where I am from, there are many Jamaican immigrants and their families around and this really gave me a leg up on research and observation. Although I could not travel back to Massachusetts to do observational research, I do know quite a lot about the integration of Jamaican Americans just from having many close friends that were such. Also, a few over the phone interviews really allowed me to tap into the details of what it means to move to America from Jamaica. Although we are obviously different in many ways, we (Jamaican Americans that I know) have similarities. For one, I was born and raised on an island (Nantucket,MA). I also have moved all the way out here to Lincoln, NE, a whole other world compared to my little island town. Jamaican Americans face a different kind of adversity though, whether it be educational, lingual, or just adapting to a new country in general. They have picked up and moved to a entirely different country with different values and laws.

                I chose integration as my class concept to apply to this particular culture because I feel that this group fits the definition, as well as many other peoples that have moved from another country to America. When I began interviewing my friends I found that they too also found that being a functional integrated member of American culture was important. One key thing that I found was through interviews was that America was a great place to move to for them. Our melting pot community allowed for a much smoother transition for my friends. They were fairly well accepted from day one, and were allowed to be themselves. One of my older friends, Kino, stated “Moving to the US was fine. Especially Nantucket where there were many Jamaicans and Jamaican parties at clubs. It was not hard to find friends.” I would attribute this to “Community Engagement”. Another thing I found was that all of my interviewees said that local people were quite friendly to them. The language barrier was not much of a problem because Patwa is just basically a form of broken English so they caught on quite quickly. They had no trouble conversing with local people and actually found it quite welcoming. I would associate this with the term “Conscious Competence” because my friends all said that their conversations mainly went well, and because local people were generally interested in their story. Finally, “Tolerance of ambiguity”. This is probably the most important part of my friends integration. “The ease with which an individual copes with situations in which a great deal is unknown.” This is special to Jamaican people I believe and is probably why many of them found moving to the US such an easy transition. Jamaican people by nature are laidback individuals. They do not sweat the small stuff and take on everything with a positive attitude. Nothing put this into perspective more than my friend Delroy’s comment, “I was pretty nervous about moving away from home, but my mom told me not to worry and just keep my head up so that’s what I did. I went to school for the first time in America with a smile on and just tried to make friends with everybody and it was pretty easy. Everyone was accepting”. Jamaicans tendencies to just go with the flow was a key factor in my friends integration into the US and is something I am kind of jealous of, because I stress about everything.

                I believe that these themes are the best possible things for an immigrant to have/embody. Not many other types of people could have made such a smooth transition from one country to the next, its almost as if all the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly. I think that these themes, although great for my friends and fellow Jamaicans, do not entirely represent intercultural communication to the fullest. Many types of peoples have an extremely difficult time moving from one country to the next for a number of reasons. Race, politics, language, and many other things can be a huge hindrance on making a good transition. I learned, even though I only mentioned the positives earlier, there are some things that make for an uneasy move. Homesickness and a slight case of culture shock made the initial stages of moving a bit uncomfortable. If there is one thing that I learned regarding intercultural communication its that some have a much easier time moving to another country than others. My personal report of Jamaican Americans found that they have a particularily easy time, but reading the textbook proves that many, if not most, do not have an easy time at all. All in all, the right time/situation/location can make all the difference.