Borat and Culture Shock

The film I selected to screen for this blog was the infamous 2006 comedy "Borat," which follows a man from a rural village in Kazakhstan who travels to the United States, or in his words "the greatest country in the world" in order to learn about the ways American society functions and bring bits and pieces of American culture back to Kazakhstan to improve his country. The film, while both wildly outrageous and often obscenely offensive, works in two fashions, as it is about a foreign citizen adapting to another culture, but also of the host culture adapting to the visitor. While the character Borat is an extreme parody of foreign citizens and should not be held as an accurate reference of Kazakhstan society in any form, "Borat" does offer unique insights into how American culture reacts to differing, outside cultures.

Culture shock is an apt concept to apply to this movie because it is something that most immigrants experience. According to Martin and Nakayama, culture shock is "a relatively short-term feeling of disorientation and discomfort due to the lack of familiar cues in the environment," (Martin & Nakayama). Essentially, culture shock results from two entirely different cultures interacting with each other without a shared set of cultural cues or social norms, therefore interactions with other cultures can often times become jarring, making intercultural communication difficult. However, Martin and Nakayama make the distinction that culture shock is much like a disease, having its own set of symptoms that, if treated correctly, can be cured.

To put it mildly, there is a lot of culture shock featured in the film "Borat." The main character Borat himself experiences a great deal of culture shock throughout the film, however since he is merely an exaggerated parody of actual Kazakhstan society, I will refrain from expanding upon his experience. With that being said, many of the Americans portrayed in the film experience their own culture shock when interacting with Borat, and even though his antics are absolutely absurd, it does shine light upon how Americans view cultures that are different from their own. One example is when Borat attends a classy dinner in order to learn western style table manners, having the other dinner guests essentially walk him through the dinner. Needless to say, Borat does some offensive things (openly commenting on the physical physiques of the women in attendance, defecating into a plastic bag and asking where to dispose of it, and finally, inviting a prostitute to the dinner), all of which enrage those in attendance. At first the unsuspecting hosts attempt to put up with such actions, however their patience soon grows thin and they kick him out, eventually calling the police. Now once again, it is important to understand that Borat is not representational of actual Kazakhstan society and it is unlikely that his actions are acceptable in Kazakhstan, however the culture shock the other dinner guests experience is very telling of our society as a whole. True, going to the bathroom in a plastic bag and asking where to dispose of it, as well as inviting a prostitute over to someone else's house, are unpleasant for anyone to sit through. However the dinner hosts become enraged at Borat's actions, completely forgetting that he is from an entirely different culture, punishing him as if he were familiar with the social norms of the USA. Essentially, through their own culture shock of not being familiar with Borat's cultural norms, the dinner guests demonstrate a certain intolerance towards those whose customs differ from theirs. Just as Martin and Nakayama pointed out, culture shock is very similar to a disease, not only that it has symptoms and can be treated, but also that when it is left untreated or treated incorrectly, it can lead to very damaging results, in this case the inability of two different cultures to effectively interact with each other.

References

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