have you ever lived in a foreign country
or moved away from your hometowns and
have you ever dealt with known Americans
most of you live in Los Angeles one of
the most culturally diverse cities in
the world
so chances are that you have but for
those of you who haven’t well you’re
about to because I’m clearly not from
here
and while interacting with people from
other cultures would you say you felt
excited and energized or challenged and
slightly uncomfortable or maybe all of
the above what you’ve experienced is
pretty usual and totally acceptable and
is commonly known as culture shock
culture shock is the feeling of
disorientation experienced by someone
who is suddenly subjected to an
unfamiliar culture way of life or set of
attitudes it can take many forms and
consist of multiple stages but it
usually starts with a honeymoon when
cultural differences are seen in a
romantic light this is when I first
moved to Los Angeles and I only saw palm
trees and silhouettes against the cherry
sky or when you think that my Greek
accent is kind of cute but like most
honeymoon periods this stage eventually
ends and this is when things get serious
excitement gives way to frustration and
anger and small discrepancies feel like
major catastrophes like asking for chips
and England and getting back french
fries language barriers stereotypes but
also generation and technology gaps are
only a few of the obstacles hindering
good communication among people from
different backgrounds imagine being at
your office’s annual Christmas party and
being sat next to that lonely kind of
misfit tech guy who you’ve never
exchanged a good morning with before or
visiting Los Angeles from Europe
and being on Sunset Boulevard at 1:00
a.m. with your phone dead only to
realize that raising your hand to stop a
cab is pointless what do you do you
first take a deep breath and then you
adapt now unless you’ve been an
international student a relocated
employee or some sort of cultural
sciences expert you’ve probably never
thought of adapting as something you’re
dealing with every day you might have
considered it a last resort a compromise
something we’re forced to do rather than
choose to do in Natural Sciences
adaptation is first and foremost a
matter of survival Darwin and his theory
of evolution implies that only the
organisms that maintain and evolve
certain traits in response to the
imposed conditions will be the ones able
to survive and reproduce Bactrian camels
for instance are a stunning example of
resource conservation in response to the
imposed conditions there – humps are
filled with fat which can be converted
into energy and water and they can
forego sweating until their body
temperature reaches a hundred Fahrenheit
humans in turn face the same adaptive
challenges as all other organisms
it was adaptation to climate change that
made tropical people tall and lean to
lose heat whereas our takin mountain
people short and white to conserve heat
when it comes to biological evolution
therefore there’s no question that
adaptation is a matter of life and death
what differentiates us from camels
however is that we can be conscious
about our ability to evolve we can
choose to resist change and risk
becoming obsolete or we can use
hereditability to grow even stronger and
this decision is not an easy one four
years ago I moved from Greece a
culturally speaking homogeneous country
to
than from a master’s degree and I found
myself within a class of 38 different
nationalities 38 different cultures
among 120 students add this to London’s
overall multiculturalism it was
exhilarating but also extremely
stressful demanding discomforting and in
the end exhausting suddenly
understanding someone was no longer
effortless speaking out was no longer
safe even telling a joke was impossible
I had to explain it so what was
happening to me and probably to many
other students was that I couldn’t
relate to my surroundings the way I did
back home so I had to either find a way
to cope with his new situation I’ll go
back I decided to stay and this is when
something interesting happened I started
to listen more intently and to
articulate my thoughts more precisely
and through this two-way process I was
able to rediscover myself new
environments demand new adapted
responses for instance I quickly started
imitating my surroundings saying cheers
to Londoners and that’s awesome to
Californians but how does this help us
grow well um in a way that we may not
even notice we start seeing things from
different perspectives and that makes us
inevitably straights or horizons because
when exposed to different worlds after
this initial phase of imitation we start
questioning ourselves we start realizing
that we don’t know everything and that
consequently there is room for
improvement and this is the key point in
the process that’s when we start to
really listen and each conversation
becomes a stimulus for change we
gradually develop new
teens challenge our existing points of
view and adopt new and unexpected ways
of seeing the world it’s a long and
laborious process it surely was for me
but resisting change felt far more
painful and adapting to it turned out to
be far more favorable and the benefits
of adaptation go beyond personal
development beyond overcoming the
discomfort of having a non-american
colleague or learning to use the iPad so
you can feel closer to your grandchild
adaptation is vital to the advancement
of an entire community or even a whole
nation in the United States in the early
nineteen hundreds thousands of people
from around the world came to an
unfamiliar environment with the sole
hope of making their dreams come true
Italian cooks brother craft to the new
world and suddenly the states became the
number one country in pizza consumption
and of course this is about much more
than pizza or sushi or tackles the
identity of an entire country as the
land of countless possibilities known
the worldwide as the great melting pot
is formed on the basis of individual
aspirations being mixed together and
adapted to one another in new previously
unexplored ways adaptation is a process
a process of change by which we become
better suited to our environment
camels did humans do it even companies
do it all the time when I was working as
a communications consultant and
researcher in London I saw that the
companies which were able to maintain
the edge over time were the ones willing
to change and this could mean adjusting
their products to the needs of different
markets or refreshing their visual
identity to look modern or incorporating
new technologies to improve their
customers experience
but what if instead of waiting for our
environment to force us to change we
could stimulate our own growth what if
next time we go to work we try
interacting more with our colleagues
even if making small talk is not our
greatest strength major Silicon Valley
companies have already adopted unusual
techniques to spark personal interaction
and maximize chance encounters in the
work space like putting all their
employees into a single my long room as
Facebook have done in their headquarters
because they’re convinced that some of
the best ideas and insights come from
hallway in cafeteria discussions where
people from across the company collide
and adapt diversity and adaptation can
be challenging and the times we’ve seen
them bringing out the worst in us they
can lead us to be fearful of the other
angry even hostile toward each other but
they may also bring out the best in us
and if we want to really defend
diversity and adaptation we need to
accept them not just as inevitable
natural processes but also as two very
conscious paths because it is a choice
to be adaptable and open to diversity
especially here in the United States
especially right now so don’t be afraid
of change in all the forms it can take
be ready to embrace the hostility of the
buzzing city the exotic quirks of your
neighbors the addition of new colleagues
to your team every other month maybe
even go and sit next to that lonely kind
of misfit a guy who you’ve never
exchanged a good morning with before at
your office is next Christmas party do
not be afraid of the changes that happen
to yourself or to the environment around
you because it is
through this change that you will see
yourself evolve adapting to this all but
static world do that sit back and watch
this world change and its turn after all
it will be thanks to you okay
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
or moved away from your hometowns and
have you ever dealt with known Americans
most of you live in Los Angeles one of
the most culturally diverse cities in
the world
so chances are that you have but for
those of you who haven’t well you’re
about to because I’m clearly not from
here
and while interacting with people from
other cultures would you say you felt
excited and energized or challenged and
slightly uncomfortable or maybe all of
the above what you’ve experienced is
pretty usual and totally acceptable and
is commonly known as culture shock
culture shock is the feeling of
disorientation experienced by someone
who is suddenly subjected to an
unfamiliar culture way of life or set of
attitudes it can take many forms and
consist of multiple stages but it
usually starts with a honeymoon when
cultural differences are seen in a
romantic light this is when I first
moved to Los Angeles and I only saw palm
trees and silhouettes against the cherry
sky or when you think that my Greek
accent is kind of cute but like most
honeymoon periods this stage eventually
ends and this is when things get serious
excitement gives way to frustration and
anger and small discrepancies feel like
major catastrophes like asking for chips
and England and getting back french
fries language barriers stereotypes but
also generation and technology gaps are
only a few of the obstacles hindering
good communication among people from
different backgrounds imagine being at
your office’s annual Christmas party and
being sat next to that lonely kind of
misfit tech guy who you’ve never
exchanged a good morning with before or
visiting Los Angeles from Europe
and being on Sunset Boulevard at 1:00
a.m. with your phone dead only to
realize that raising your hand to stop a
cab is pointless what do you do you
first take a deep breath and then you
adapt now unless you’ve been an
international student a relocated
employee or some sort of cultural
sciences expert you’ve probably never
thought of adapting as something you’re
dealing with every day you might have
considered it a last resort a compromise
something we’re forced to do rather than
choose to do in Natural Sciences
adaptation is first and foremost a
matter of survival Darwin and his theory
of evolution implies that only the
organisms that maintain and evolve
certain traits in response to the
imposed conditions will be the ones able
to survive and reproduce Bactrian camels
for instance are a stunning example of
resource conservation in response to the
imposed conditions there – humps are
filled with fat which can be converted
into energy and water and they can
forego sweating until their body
temperature reaches a hundred Fahrenheit
humans in turn face the same adaptive
challenges as all other organisms
it was adaptation to climate change that
made tropical people tall and lean to
lose heat whereas our takin mountain
people short and white to conserve heat
when it comes to biological evolution
therefore there’s no question that
adaptation is a matter of life and death
what differentiates us from camels
however is that we can be conscious
about our ability to evolve we can
choose to resist change and risk
becoming obsolete or we can use
hereditability to grow even stronger and
this decision is not an easy one four
years ago I moved from Greece a
culturally speaking homogeneous country
to
than from a master’s degree and I found
myself within a class of 38 different
nationalities 38 different cultures
among 120 students add this to London’s
overall multiculturalism it was
exhilarating but also extremely
stressful demanding discomforting and in
the end exhausting suddenly
understanding someone was no longer
effortless speaking out was no longer
safe even telling a joke was impossible
I had to explain it so what was
happening to me and probably to many
other students was that I couldn’t
relate to my surroundings the way I did
back home so I had to either find a way
to cope with his new situation I’ll go
back I decided to stay and this is when
something interesting happened I started
to listen more intently and to
articulate my thoughts more precisely
and through this two-way process I was
able to rediscover myself new
environments demand new adapted
responses for instance I quickly started
imitating my surroundings saying cheers
to Londoners and that’s awesome to
Californians but how does this help us
grow well um in a way that we may not
even notice we start seeing things from
different perspectives and that makes us
inevitably straights or horizons because
when exposed to different worlds after
this initial phase of imitation we start
questioning ourselves we start realizing
that we don’t know everything and that
consequently there is room for
improvement and this is the key point in
the process that’s when we start to
really listen and each conversation
becomes a stimulus for change we
gradually develop new
teens challenge our existing points of
view and adopt new and unexpected ways
of seeing the world it’s a long and
laborious process it surely was for me
but resisting change felt far more
painful and adapting to it turned out to
be far more favorable and the benefits
of adaptation go beyond personal
development beyond overcoming the
discomfort of having a non-american
colleague or learning to use the iPad so
you can feel closer to your grandchild
adaptation is vital to the advancement
of an entire community or even a whole
nation in the United States in the early
nineteen hundreds thousands of people
from around the world came to an
unfamiliar environment with the sole
hope of making their dreams come true
Italian cooks brother craft to the new
world and suddenly the states became the
number one country in pizza consumption
and of course this is about much more
than pizza or sushi or tackles the
identity of an entire country as the
land of countless possibilities known
the worldwide as the great melting pot
is formed on the basis of individual
aspirations being mixed together and
adapted to one another in new previously
unexplored ways adaptation is a process
a process of change by which we become
better suited to our environment
camels did humans do it even companies
do it all the time when I was working as
a communications consultant and
researcher in London I saw that the
companies which were able to maintain
the edge over time were the ones willing
to change and this could mean adjusting
their products to the needs of different
markets or refreshing their visual
identity to look modern or incorporating
new technologies to improve their
customers experience
but what if instead of waiting for our
environment to force us to change we
could stimulate our own growth what if
next time we go to work we try
interacting more with our colleagues
even if making small talk is not our
greatest strength major Silicon Valley
companies have already adopted unusual
techniques to spark personal interaction
and maximize chance encounters in the
work space like putting all their
employees into a single my long room as
Facebook have done in their headquarters
because they’re convinced that some of
the best ideas and insights come from
hallway in cafeteria discussions where
people from across the company collide
and adapt diversity and adaptation can
be challenging and the times we’ve seen
them bringing out the worst in us they
can lead us to be fearful of the other
angry even hostile toward each other but
they may also bring out the best in us
and if we want to really defend
diversity and adaptation we need to
accept them not just as inevitable
natural processes but also as two very
conscious paths because it is a choice
to be adaptable and open to diversity
especially here in the United States
especially right now so don’t be afraid
of change in all the forms it can take
be ready to embrace the hostility of the
buzzing city the exotic quirks of your
neighbors the addition of new colleagues
to your team every other month maybe
even go and sit next to that lonely kind
of misfit a guy who you’ve never
exchanged a good morning with before at
your office is next Christmas party do
not be afraid of the changes that happen
to yourself or to the environment around
you because it is
through this change that you will see
yourself evolve adapting to this all but
static world do that sit back and watch
this world change and its turn after all
it will be thanks to you okay
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: