Running head: COUNSELING THEORIES



Running head: ASIAN CULTURAL IMMERSION 1

Asian Cultural Immersion Project

Leia Miller

CNDV 5320 Multicultural Counseling

Lamar University

Asian Cultural Immersion Project

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences that I have had throughout the past few weeks with the Asian American Culture. I will identify and describe the Asian population including my perceptions, differences, and past assumptions. I will reflect on the immersion activities that I experienced and the immersion dialog that took place. Finally, I will reflect on my reaction and analysis of this experience.

Identification and Description of Population

For this project, I decided to select the diverse Asian culture. According to Baruth and Manning (2012), “Asian” refers to people with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including people from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam,” (p. 159). This diversified culture consists of many groups that differ in language, culture, beliefs, traditions, characteristics and traits. The Asian American population is continuing to grow in the United States with Texas being the third largest state with significant numbers of Asian Americans for a total of 814,000. (Baruth & Manning, 2012, p. 159).

There are three reasons why I chose this cultural group for this project. My first reason is because of the large number of Asian Americans in the state of Texas. As a future counselor, I want to be knowledgeable about the population of students that I serve. Since, this culture is rapidly growing, I felt it to be important for me to gather as much information as possible. The second reason I selected the Asian culture is because it is one of the cultures that I have been had very little interactions with and know much about. The third reason I chose this culture is because I feel it is the most different from my European American background.

As far as perceptions of groups of different cultures, I feel that I have been raised in a family that has been very unbiased and non-judgmental. I don’t remember my parents ever making prejudice comments towards groups. In the school setting, I remember going to school competitions where there were a higher population of Asian American students and hearing comments about those students winning the math and science events because “they excelled in those subjects”. I have learned in this course that is called “model minority; that is they are all intellectually superior, hardworking, and academically successful, with superior mathematical skills,” (Baruth & Manning, 2012, p. 179). I really didn’t pay much attention to it back then, but over the years I have been more aware of cultural bias and prejudices.

There are many difference between my European American background and the Asian culture from visual to the not so obvious. The obvious is the different color of skin. European Americans have various shades of hair and eyes while Asian American typically have black hair and brown eyes. I speak the English language and there are many different languages spoken in the diverse Asian culture. As far as religion, I am Christian, while the Asian culture consists of many religions including Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism, as well as many other beliefs.

I feel that the Asian Culture was the best choice for this project because of my lack of knowledge and experiences with the culture thus far in my life. Also, I know that the Asian American population is continuing to grow in the United States, and I want to be culturally competent in order to assist all students that I serve. Lastly, I wanted to challenge myself to experience a culture that I haven’t had much experience with.

Reflection on Immersion Observations

I completed three observational activities of the Asian Culture that consisted of a Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration and Parade in Houston, shopping at Hong Kong Mall in Houston, and eating sushi at Sushi Zushi in Austin, Texas. Each activity was very insightful and exciting. By actively experiencing these activities and events, I feel that I have a better understanding of the Asian culture.

First, I visiting the Chinese Community Center in Houston where they were having the Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration. It is the year of the Horse. As I drove up to the community center, I was nervous and I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if I was going to be the only European American there. As I started to examine the different people walking up to the center, my nerves started to fade because there were people of all races attending this event. As I walked in, there were smiling faces and excited people taking in this event. I realized immediately that this is was a multi-cultural Asian celebration showcasing East and West and the diversity of the City of Houston. I learned that it is determined by the Lunar Calendar and the Chinese aren't the only ones who observe it. From late January to mid-February, Korea, Vietnam and other countries celebrate Lunar New Year. Actually, the Lunar New Year lasts 15 days, this year starting from January 31, 2014 and its last day falls on Valentine's Day. This year is the year of the horse. My favorite part of the entire celebrations was the Dragon Dance. The dragon was made of silk, paper, and bamboo. The Children of the Chinese School carried the dragon by poles and lifted and dipped the dragon around the stage. It was a great experience. The community center had lantern making, origami, traditional food and cultural items for sale. I thought it was interesting that this Chinese-American community added a parade with floats which is an American element. In listening to people at the event, especially ones who had young children, they were trying to explain what was happening in the events that were going on. They wanted their children to understand these traditional events and what they meant. It was truly a great experience and I felt welcomed by all in attendance.

I also shopped at the Hong Kong City Mall in Houston’s China Town which consists of a variety of restaurants, retail stores and service stores. I enjoyed visiting the Hong Kong Food Market which is an Asian specialty grocery store. It was interesting to see items that are not in an American grocery store such as nori (seaweed), kimchi (pickled vegetables with spices), various Teas, spices and seasonings, interesting breads and cakes, and various meats and fish. I didn’t feel out of place at the Hong Kong City Mall. The mall was filled with a diverse group of people shopping for all different kinds of items. I wish they had one closer to my town so that I could shop there on a more frequently and experience different Asian foods.

Lastly, while on a trip to Austin, Texas for a convention, I ate at Sushi Zushi for a traditional Japanese meal of sushi and noodles. I have had Japanese cuisine before, but this was a unique experience in that you could watch the chef hand-prepare your sushi rolls. In speaking with my waiter, I learned that sushi was developed in Japan as a means to preserve fish in rice due to the lack of refrigeration. Sushi has spread to different Asian countries. There was a wide variety of raw and cooked sushi on the menu. I did try some of both, and I did enjoy the different flavors of the two rolls that I tried. The noodles were also very good. I found this experience to be insightful and enjoyable.

Throughout these activities, I was surprised at how open I was to try new things and speak to different people. I truly enjoyed attending the Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration and Parade. That was by far my favorite experience and learned so much from that one day about the Asian culture.

Reflection on Immersion Dialog

My dialog took place at the school that I work at with a teacher that I work with. Her name is Erny. She teaches history at my school. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind participating in a multiculturalism project for my master’s program. She was more than willing to share her experiences with me.

During the dialogue, I was comfortable. This is my first year at this school, and I haven’t had many interactions with Erny before this experience, but I felt that we were both comfortable and willing to share experiences. Erny’s family is from the Philippines and that is where she was born. Her mother came to America in 1988 by herself to work as a nurse. The rest of her immediate family came in 1993 when she was 6. She was the youngest child in her family and only girl. She didn’t know any English and spoke Tagalog, which is a language of the Philippines. She then became fluent in English and no longer spoke Tagalog. She spoke of growing up with a lot of white kids and becoming Americanized. Because she had mostly white kids, she often felt conflict between being respectful to her parent’s wishes and wanting to be an individual. Her older brothers had more freedom than she did which made things harder for her. She stated that because her immediate family lived in Texas and the rest lived in the Philippines, they tended not to practice common traditions such as a Philippine Debute, which is a girls 18th birthday coming of age celebration. She also said that while she has become more Americanized, her parents still do cook traditional food and practice Catholic Traditions. Her parents also were reluctant to accept her choice of a teaching career. They preferred their children to have more lucrative careers.

I learned so much from speaking with Erny about her culture and experiences in coming to America. I could relate to her family coming to America because I have heard stories my entire life about my Great-grandparents coming from Czechoslovakia. My grandfather began school without knowing English and was beaten up every day on his way home from school. There are still traditions that my family takes part in that part of the Czechoslovakian culture. It was interesting to see how our cultures are different in those traditions.

Hearing the stories first hand was different from just going to a cultural celebration. It was insightful to hear specific details of her life and experiences she had during the travels to America. I think that speaking with someone and asking specific questions provides more information than attending an event.

Reaction and Critical Analysis of Experience

The Asian culture consists of a very diverse population of people. I have learned about certain problems that Asian American clients may face such as: “failure to develop a strong Asian American cultural identity and a positive self-concept; the perception that they constitute a model minority; differing cultural characteristics; the inability to reconcile loyalties with conflicting Asian and majority cultures; pressures to excel in the majority-culture society yet maintain old-world Asian values; communication difficulties, which may hamper academic achievement and socialization; adverse effects of overt or covert racism, injustice, discrimination and cultural history of oppression,” (Baruth & Manning, 2012, p. 179). Actively being involved in different cultures will be the most beneficial for understanding the different cultures of the clients that we serve. The specific items that I learned about counseling Asian Americans are “(a) understanding the Asian American culture and its tradition of individuals and families caring for those with mental health problems, (b) understanding Asian American cultural mannerisms (e.g. silence) and cherished cultural beliefs (e.g. filial duty); (c) understanding the adverse effects of racism, injustice, and discrimination among Asian Americans; and (d) understanding Asian Americans’ unique problems, such as communication barriers, portrayal as a model minority, and the stress caused by younger generations acculturating toward individualistic perspectives and the older generations expecting to be cared for,” (Baruth & Manning, 2012, p. 196). In order to be an effective counselor, I must take these items into account.

After studying this cultural group over the past month, the most important things that I have learned is that it is very diverse and there are specific beliefs and traditions within the different subcultures. I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about the Asian culture, but I know that I have much more to learn. At the beginning of this course, I was nervous about attending different events of different cultures. Now, after going to these events, I have learned that I am accepted at different cultural events and that people want to share their experiences and culture with you.

Glogster

I created an Asian Immersion Gloster poster that consists of pictures of the Chinese Lunar New Year event at the Chinese Community Center in Houston and the Hong Kong City Mall in Houston. I included a picture of the dragon dance. Also, I included a picture of a float that was in the Chinese Lunar New Year parade. I have a picture of me with Erny who I completed my dialog with. I also took a picture of my sushi rolls from Sushi Zushi. After completing the Glogster poster, I was able to see all of the different experiences that I had within the last month. I truly enjoyed learning about the Asian Culture. My Glogster poster can be found at

References

Baruth, L. G. & Manning, M. L. T. (2012). Multicultural counseling and psychotherapy. Boston,

MA: Pearson.

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