Global Village: Individualist Culture

Full name: Tang Thi Quynh Nga

Class: 14E19

Student Code: 14040567

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Project 2: The movie “SPANGLISH”

Introduction

“Global village” (McLuhan, 1964) is no longer a new concept in the 21st century. This refers to a place where all cultures integrate and cultural boundaries seem to be eliminated. Besides offering new opportunities for people all over the world to learn about foreign cultures, global village also presents such challenges as cultural conflicts, cultural diverging or assimilation. In such context, learning how to become a competent intercultural communicator in this century has never been more urgent. Therefore, this essay would like to focus on analyzing “Spanglish” – a cross-cultural movie, which may

Specifically, collectivist cultures highly value loyalty to the group and emphasis on belonging. On the contrary, people in individualist cultures are expected to think for themselves and to be self –reliant. Perhaps, the United States is the most notable example of individualist culture since individualism, freedom and self – reliance are fundamental American values that are deeply ingrained in heart and mind of every single American. This value was well – illustrated in the quarrel between Flor and Christina. As soon as Flor realized that Deborah was trying to interfere with their life by taking Christina shopping, buying her gifts and sending her to a private school and Christina was on the verge of being assimilated, Flor quit the job and didn’t allow Christina to go to that school. This unfortunately made Christina desperate and shattered because she would loss a wonderful educational opportunity that every American child desired to have. She creamed, constantly and publicly criticized her mother for being treated so unfair to her. In this fight, she behaved like a very typical American when she constantly used words “MY and I” to assert her needs and desire to go to the private school without caring her mother feelings. The peak of the confrontation was when Christina used a very common American phrase “I need some space.” The cultural oppositeness was demonstrated in the way Flor reacted. She quickly responded “No space between us”, and then she asked Christina a very common but also tough question “Is what you want for yourself to become someone very different than me?” All the things that Flor did, from the beginning to the end, was just because she wanted to preserve her Mexican root and hoped her