American Culture Shock

American Culture Shock

                Coming to America is a film about a young prince who has just turned 21. This prince has been given everything he has desired since birth. He has several female servants that bathe him and even throw roses at his feet. Although he is surrounded by women that would do anything to be with him, he wants a woman who has her own mind. His father and mother have arranged for him to be married but he decides to go against tradition and find his own wife. His loyal assistant follows the young prince to Queens, New York in order to find a woman he loves. The prince chooses a run-down apartment to stay in and does not want to reveal to others that he is royalty. He gets a job at McDonalds where he meets the girl that he will eventually fall in love with. He continues to conceal his identity when he finds out that the woman’s current boyfriend is an unpleasant wealthy man. She eventually finds out that he is royalty and after much explaining she decides to accept him for whom he is.

Intercultural migrants can assimilate, separate, or integrate to the culture that they are entering into. In Coming to America, the prince and his assistant experience assimilation and separation. Assimilation is a type of cultural adaptation in which an individual gives up his or her own cultural heritage and adopts the mainstream cultural identity (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). Separation is a type of cultural adaptation in which an individual retains his or her original culture while interacting minimally with other groups (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).  Eventually the prince becomes culturally adapted to America. Cultural adaptation is the long-term process of adjusting to and finally feeling comfortable in the new environment (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). The prince copes with the new situation by diving right in, he decides to fight. The fight approach is a strategy to cope with a new situation, being hesitant or withdrawn from the new environment (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). There are a few concepts that stood out in this movie that relate to what was discussed in chapter 8.

            First off the prince came to America on his own making him a voluntary immigrant. He would be labeled as a sojourner because he is only staying for a limited time until he finds the woman he is looking for. The relationship between the prince and the Americans that he interacts with is viewed positively in the prince’s eyes because he assimilated into the American culture. As soon as the prince enters America he decides to give up everything from his home country. He wants to live in poverty, get a job, and wear regular clothes. He gives up his money, jewels, mansion, and his social status. The media also influenced his decision to cut his hair when he saw a commercial. He jumped right into the cultural environment of America and decided to Fight instead of flee the situation. Even though he gives up all of his own cultural ways, he is not received warmly by the New Yorkers. At first the prince acts as he did in his homeland and people cursed at him and took advantage of his gullibility. Also his language is different which lead to some misunderstandings in the beginning. He tried to adapt to the language by speaking loudly and saying “Amen” as others did at a celebration of Black Week. He eventually learned the proper way to speak without being noticed although he still spoke with his native accent.

 The prince is very open to living in a low class way and working in a low end job. His assistant however, is not enjoying the working class life. Several times the prince’s assistant speaks of how wrong it is for them to be living this way. The assistant separates from the American culture when he goes behind the prince’s back and purchases several luxurious items. After the prince finds out he is upset that the girl he loves will not accept him and refuses to let her see his home. After staying in America for a while longer both the prince and his assistant got used to the culture and accepted it. The woman that the prince was pursuing eventually found out his true identity and wanted nothing to do with him. The woman did not accept him because he lied, not because he was a rich prince. The whole time the prince had the notion that he needed to appear to be poor when he could have been himself the whole time. The prince eventually returned back to his kingdom but he learned about the differences between his culture and American culture.

References

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural communication in context. (6th ed.). New             York, NY: McGraw-Hill.