{"id":34442,"date":"2014-04-01T01:43:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T05:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=34442"},"modified":"2014-04-01T01:48:22","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T05:48:22","slug":"bitting-into-the-big-apple-reflections-on-culture-shock-and-diversity-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/01\/bitting-into-the-big-apple-reflections-on-culture-shock-and-diversity-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitting Into The Big Apple – Reflections on Culture Shock and Diversity in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by\u00a0Jayme Tsutsuse<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Kyoto<\/a>-fu, 2013-Present), job poster for JETwit and\u00a0<\/em>organizer of\u00a0Cross-Cultural Kansai<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

\n

I recently returned to Kyoto after spending a week in New York City. \u00a0Before my trip, I worried that I would experience what is called\u00a0reverse<\/em>\u00a0culture shock<\/em>, but shortly after returning to American soil, I realized the mistake in my worries. \u00a0What I experienced wasn\u2019t the\u00a0culture shock<\/em>\u00a0of returning to a home that feels strangely between familiar and foreign. \u00a0It was the\u00a0culture shock<\/em>\u00a0of a completely novel experience.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

It really didn\u2019t take long after landing for this\u00a0culture shock<\/em>\u00a0to set in. \u00a0My boyfriend, Jeff, and I, both half-Japanese, born and raised in America, were riding an escalator up from JFK\u2019s international arrivals lobby to the Airtram terminal. \u00a0We were caught up in each other presence, having been apart for months, when suddenly, the lady on the downward escalator turned to us with a larger-than-life smile and enthusiastically called out, \u201cChinese<\/em>\u201c, waving her hand in our direction. \u00a0We locked eyes with her, stunned, as she gradually disappeared down the escalator. \u00a0Jeff and I stared each other up and down, searching for something that would have brought on the lady\u2019s quick judgement. \u00a0The man behind us rhetorically remarked, \u201cWhat the hell was that about?\u201d<\/p>\n

The act itself wasn\u2019t offensive or hurtful, but I could\u2019t quite shake it from my thoughts. \u00a0Granted a large international airport may be an easy place to act on an assumption that someone is foreign, but wouldn\u2019t a simple\u00a0hello<\/em>\u00a0suffice? \u00a0Or\u00a0Welcome to America<\/em>\u00a0if you must.<\/p>\n

For months, I had been telling the people I met in Japan about America\u2019s diversity \u2013 about how easy it is to blend in in the bigger cities, about how it is impossible to make judgements on whether or not someone is American. \u00a0I\u2019ve always claimed that on the subway in America, you can\u2019t guess who is foreign on the basis of their race, appearance, language, or actions. \u00a0But there we were in what\u2019s said to be one of America\u2019s most diverse cities, being incorrectly called out for our\u2026 ethnicity? nationality? identity?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Maybe this incident proved my point. \u00a0After all, this lady attempted what I would consider to be impossible, to act on a judgement of ethnic\/national identity, and failed to garner a positive response. \u00a0It\u2019s a great example of why these type of assumptions are futile.<\/p>\n

It would be unfair for me to leave the discussion at this point. \u00a0The truth is that the rest of my experiences in New York City made me realize what I miss about living amongst so many different yet congruent cultures. \u00a0The city\u2019s diversity was more palpable than I had expected. \u00a0I heard so many different languages, constantly encountered people of different ethnicities and mixes, and could eat delicious food from all over the world! \u00a0My\u00a0culture shock<\/em>\u00a0was being\u00a0shocked\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0by the\u00a0culture\u00a0<\/em>of diversity.<\/p>\n

One morning, we ran to New York\u2019s Chinatown for\u00a0dim sum<\/em>. \u00a0As we wandered through the bustling streets of shops and restaurants, I thought about the escalator lady\u2019s sterling smile. \u00a0I asked Jeff if he thought she knew about this part of the city. \u00a0We both laughed as we imagined how thrilled she would be to greet everyone.<\/p>\n

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This article was reposted from my blog, Cross-Cultural Kansai<\/a>. \u00a0Check it out to find out more about the cultural events, discussions, and projects organized in Kansai.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by\u00a0Jayme Tsutsuse\u00a0(Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), job poster for JETwit and\u00a0organizer of\u00a0Cross-Cultural Kansai,\u00a0seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014! I recently returned to Kyoto after spending a week in New York City. \u00a0Before my trip, I worried that I would experience what is called\u00a0reverse\u00a0culture shock, but shortly after returning to American soil, I realized the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-writers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-8Xw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34442"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34451,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34442\/revisions\/34451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}