How culture drives behavior?

How culture drives behavior?


Culture always affects how people act and think; basically influencing the behavior of a person. And if we noticed, most of the people in all the world use cultural glasses which is the action of viewing the world and reacting towards it based on the culture each individual belongs to. We have the following situation as an example, that was mentioned in the video we've seen in the class. A man from Canada had traveled with his foreign friend to a region of Spain, where he got the opportunity to visit a place where they made sparkling wine. During the tour, the guide explained with a great passion to the visitants and she suddenly stopped. The reason was because of the expression of a man's friend. The guide had thought, his friend was not interested in what she was saying because his reaction and his face didn't seem to be. Since she (guide)  get the facial expression she used to and was viewing this situation through her own cultural glasses, she had interpreted the fact that he had a certain (neutral) face in a negative manner. As we saw in the example, people live wearing those cultural glasses because they have been raised, surrounded by all the factors such as values, beliefs, expressions, etc which would surely affect an individual's behavior and thoughts.

Three ways we can relate to the culture: 

1) Confront: Believing that their own behaviors are the right behaviors.  

2) Complain: Isolating themselves into social bubbles of foreigners in society
3) Conform: Adapting their own way to behave, so it fits on the society they are. 

My experience: 


To start, even though I was born in Costa Rica and lived my whole life in a foreign country, I think and view the world as Koreans do. Since I was born until to this moment, at my home I just talked in Korean with my family and all the things that surround such as the church, tv programs, food, friends, books, posters, academies are actually related to Korea. We still practice its culture such as taking off the shoes, eating with chopsticks, greeting adults bowing and respecting them, etc. Due to this reason, even though I'm living in Latin American countries, most of the time I wear cultural glasses and view the situations that occur based on what I've learned from my parents, which is basically Korean thought. For example, sometimes when I am in school and see that one person is disrespecting an adult, like replying to what are they saying instead of accepting the error, I can not understand due to my culture, where it is very polite.
Also, I've gone through all those three aspects (confront, complain, conform) since I moved from one country and another more than others (three times). First, when I was living in Costa Rica, even though I was born there, I always felt like a foreigner so I used to complain. When I was in school, I isolate myself in society and made my own wall whenever someone would come to talk to me. But then, I moved to Peru where my personality and behavior started to change. I thought that if I continued to be like in CostaRica and I wouldn't change, then I would be alone. So, I started to conform. Trying to adapt their own way to behave, so later I could fit on the society. While I was living there, I understood the way of behavior of the Peruvians and I also followed them to be part of that society. Later, when I had grown up more, I moved to Nicaragua and tried to practice the same thing I had practiced in Peru but suddenly I also started with the confront. Believed my own behavior was the right behavior, so I had problems at the beginning, which it took me time to adapt. However, now that time had passed I am practicing conform to this new country also, in order, I could enjoy my life in this country.