Accepting Cultural Changes

In the old days, most cultures were strong on ethocentrism but today, many cultures still are strong but have learned to be humbled in order to live in a society that have many cultures. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own culture is superior to that of other cultures. Various cultures will always be running against the prevailing movement of society with individualistic values. We just can't have that and we have to remember that cultural experiences evolve over decades that over the years, the number of culturally Deaf people will get smaller worldwide while at the same time, the usage of ASL may become more acceptable and growing. Rather than have the culture be in isolation, Deaf culture will expand to everyone who accept the culture. There will be fewer repressions because the society are not ignorant of the Deaf culture and there will be more successes for Deaf individuals who are emerging into their careers. Every human generation potentially can discover new things and invent better technologies. The new cultural skills and knowledge are added onto what was learned in previous generations.

In this world, I have seen many cultures change over the years and the Deaf culture will not be immune to change. We have had and will still have hard-of-hearing people wearing hearing aids. Recently, over the years, we have hard-of-hearing people wearing cochlear implants who are still legally deaf. There will be more and more of us who will use speech and sign.

Culture is a shared set of beliefs, practices, attitudes and behaviors that are passed down from one generation to the next. Culture changes over time. It is constantly responding and adapting to society and the world around it. We will no longer consider certain groups be "outcasts" because we will be modifying our cultures in order to live together. Different cultural groups think, feel, and act differently. Culture is learned wherever we live, we learn culture and accept it as his or her own. The way that we interact and do things in our everyday lives seems "natural" to us. We are unaware of our culture because we are so close to it and know it so well.

It is very clear that we are to make an effort to understand one another and respect our differences. Culture basically means "a way of life" to me, in another word, "different". Due to life's circumstances, we are living certain ways of life according to our way of living.

Change is part of life and cultural changes will change whether you like it or not. I am accepting the changes and moving on.