Bennett's Phases of Intercultural Sensitivity

So far, during my time in Thailand, I believe that I have grown in my level of intercultural understanding. Although I have many friends from different countries at my school back home, being immersed in another culture has opened my eyes even more than I expected.

When I first arrived in Thailand, I definitely fell into the stage of denial. I found it very hard to see any real difference between my own culture and Thai culture. This changed very quickly, though. Once I was settled in, I started noticing that there were many cultural differences that I faced on a daily basis. The first experience I had that really pushed me out of the stage of denial--that shoved difference right in my face--happened only a few days after my arrival. I was sitting in my room on my bed, checking my email. My roommate had turned the air conditioner on earlier that day, and I hadn't changed it because I thought she wanted it up as high as it was, even though I was freezing. Suddenly, my roommate came over to my side of the room and shivered. Instead of changing the temperature or asking if I wanted to turn the air conditioner off, she showed me in a more indirect way that she uncomfortable with the temperature. I immediately asked if it was too cold and proceeded to turn off the air conditioner, realizing that I was experiencing a different form of communication than I was used to. Although many people had previously told me that it was unlikely that our roommates would tell us their opinions bluntly, I had been unable to accept that difference until I experienced this form of communication myself.

I think that I have now moved past the stages of ethnocentrism. I'm not quite sure where I fall in the stages or if maybe I'm between acceptance and adaptation. Though I find myself regularly thinking of the appropriate way to behave in a situation, I think that my ability to communicate verbally is still not as advanced as it needs to be to always produce the result I feel is necessary. I do accept that there are differences between Thai culture and my home culture, and I have learned to understand situations with knowledge I have gained about Thai culture.

For instance, while I have been volunteering, both through my supervisor and the book about the organization, I have learned a great deal about the perception of people with disabilities in Thailand. With the understanding that in Thai culture, having a disability or having someone in your family with a disability is seen as bad karma. Though from my own culture and my own beliefs, I find this very upsetting, it helps me understand why I see people with disabilities begging in the streets. It also helped me understand the case study we discussed in class involving a homestay where a girl was frightened to find a man living in a shed behind the house she was staying in. Had I not become more open to other cultural beliefs, and had I not learned about the Thai understanding of karma, I probably would have reacted to the case study in a very angry manner, not able to comprehend why it would ever be considered okay to lock a man in a shed. I also was able to understand more of the repercussions of the girl's reaction to the situation because of my new knowledge about karma and people with disabilities. In the case study, the village head did not have knowledge of the man living in the shed. I can see that this would be logical for the family because public knowledge of the man being in the family could lead to the entire family being labeled as outcasts.

At the same time, because I am from basically the same cultural background as the girl in the homestay, I can also see why she reacted in the way she did to the situation. By being able to understand the event from both sides, it becomes easier to think of a solution that would be sensitive to both the host culture and the visiting girl. Of course, it would have been more helpful if the girl in the situation had been in an ethnorelative stage at the time of the incident, as looking back on the situation solves nothing. It only explains what could be a better solution for someone who might fall into a similar situation.

Hopefully my level of intercultural understanding will grow even more in the bit of time that I have left here in Thailand, allowing me to have an even more enjoyable experience and preparing me, to some extent, for future experiences, perhaps in other cultures.