FREE ESSAY ON DIFFERENCES IN TRADITION AND CULTURE

DIFFERENCES IN TRADITION AND CULTURE

Differences in Tradition and Culture
The word Tradition is a very vast one. Every country, city, and land has its own
tradition and culture that is entirely different from each other. People, generally after
they have picked up a certain tradition, find it very difficult to adapt to another
tradition or culture. This reluctance to easily adapt a new tradition is the main reason
as to why there are many differences among people, due to their tradition. Some people,
refuse to accept another tradition because their views are different and they treat all
basic activities differently, If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it
is because he hears a different drummer. (Robert Levine, p. 84) In another country if a
person feels out of place, it is because his traditional activities are completely
different from those of the new country, therefore he moves around according to his own
tradition. 
The main traditional and cultural differences are Language, Non-Verbal signs and Symbols,
Preconceptions and Stereotypes, Evaluation and High anxiety. Language poses a great
problem to people from different cultural backgrounds as they do not clearly understand
what is being said, they only listen to the words said interpret their meaning, instead
of relating it to the context of what is being said. Nonverbal signs and symbols are also
an important cause of traditional differences, because people only see and hear what they
think is important and therefore they ignore the other person's signs and actions even if
it is of great importance. Preconceptions and Stereotypes are one of the major reasons as
to why there is an intercultural and traditional gap. People stay away from other
cultural people and they also behave differently mainly because of the stereotypes,
Stereotypes are overgeneralised beliefs that provide conceptual bases from which to 'make
sense' out of what goes on around us (Levine, p. 80). People easily evaluate others on
the basis of their actions and statements rather than trying to understand the feelings
that are being conveyed. People also feel high anxiety when they communicate to
foreigners, because he is unaware of the foreigner's background and tradition. Even time
is given different levels of importance in every country. Not everyone treats time the
same way, importance of time varies from place to place and from person to person. 
All these traditional differences greatly effect all the various cultures and prevent
them from mingling with each other and building a strong and healthy relationship.
Therefore, people stick to their own group or people without trying to reach out to the
others. They do not even try to build a bond between the different cultures and therefore
they unaware about the activities of the others. I strongly feel that people must let
themselves free and open up to other cultures and learn more about them to be able to
relate and communicate to them in a better way, which will definitely reduce
intercultural and traditional differences