Community Development: Cultural Reflections at Murdoch University

This essay, written by a student, provides a detailed reflection on their experience with community development and cultural integration at Murdoch University. The author, originally from Bhutan, contrasts their home culture with the diverse environment of Murdoch, highlighting differences in language, social rules, and expectations. The essay chronicles the student's initial challenges in adapting to a new cultural setting, their strategies for building relationships, and their evolving understanding of community. It also delves into the art of entering a new community, drawing on relevant literature to discuss factors such as language, open-mindedness, and cross-cultural communication. The student outlines their future goals, emphasizing the importance of unity, self-development, and contributing to a safer and more culturally intelligent campus environment. The essay concludes with a discussion of the challenges and strategies for adapting to a new cultural environment, emphasizing the significance of cultural understanding and open-mindedness.

Running head: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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1. Reflections of Murdoch culture
1.1 Difference of culture of Murdoch and the home culture
I come from Bhutan where the culture is very different from the culture of Murdoch. The
difference is that the places are situated across two different parts of the world. The Murdoch
community is located in Perth in Western Australia whereas I come from Bhutan, located in the
Himalayan region of Asia, more proximate to South Asia and China. Due to the great distances
there are some essential differences in culture. The language used in the Murdoch University is
English, however in my home country the language is Bhutanese or Tibetan. Bhutan is not a
diverse community with large number of Asian and particularly Ethnic Bhutanese and Tibetan
people. In Perth however, I got to find that the cultural diversity is much more than Bhutan.
However, I saw that in the Murdoch community people from various backgrounds are present.
There is an environment of intermixing that is very good in Murdoch. The formal rules in
Murdoch are different in the sense that they focus on the better life organization of the students.
The rules are more focused towards helping the students develop a more responsible outlook. In
Bhutan, the formal rules were more flexible and study was more an individual endeavor. The
informal rules in Bhutan reflected a national and royal spirit. In the Murdoch community the
informal rules are more focused towards building a safe environment for all community
members. Members are supposed to lead the newer people towards better intermixing within the
community. The expectations in Bhutan was that I would have to take care of my studies
individually with not much help from peers. In Bhutan people are cooperative but the
opportunity to study is much lower than in Australia. In the Murdoch community an essential
factor is present that promotes community intermixing and cooperation. I now expect help from

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other as well as help others myself. The systems are effective and promote harmony and cultural
diversity.
1.2 Reflections on the First month at Murdoch
The first month in Murdoch has been a great experience for me. In the University I have
got to meet people that are really inspirational personalities. I got to attend classes of professors
that were the most knowledgeable and inspirational. The first month has been an important
learning experience for me. I got to know more about the Murdoch community, the inner and
outer campus areas. The Perth campus of the university is also aesthetically pleasing. I got to
witness a community that was filled with diversity, cooperation and group value. The most
important thing that I experienced in Murdoch was the culture of helping others. The facilities
for the foreign students are very good. The CSR activities of the organization are good and
effective in bringing out the best from the people. The organization offers essential support to the
people that are affected by various problems in the community. Murdoch has truly lived up to
my perception of a global center for learning and teaching. An important factor that I noticed
was that the faculty was very much focused on the development of the students. Moreover, the
peers are very much inclined toward helping their fellow students develop in their academic
lives. There is a very good setting in the entire campus community.
1.3 Dealing with cultural differences
At first dealing with the cultural differences became very difficult. I was nervous as I saw
that there were people from diverse cultural backgrounds in the campus premises. The first few
days I was unable to intermix effectively with the fellow students. However, then I was able to
gather strength to speak with many of my peers after one or two classes. I decided to initiate

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conversations. I visited the off campus and on campus areas. I visited some of the most popular
canteens in the campus with some of my initial friends with whom I developed good
relationships. As much as possible I began to mix with the people that seemed friendly enough.
In class I began to interact more with the people among whom I got to sit. Moreover, I began to
attend the off campus and on campus celebratory or charity events. I began talking with some of
the teachers to get to know them personally. I also tried to form essential relationships with the
professors. I joined some of the clubs and study groups that were set up by my peers. There were
many people that were culturally diverse. I decided to lend them my helping hand and helped
them in understanding the study in better ways. I went personally to talk with the culturally
diverse students. I gave them respect and inquired more about their cultures and cultural
backgrounds. I never ridiculed anyone’s culture or made any racist remarks. A helped in the
creation of diverse students groups with students from various cultural backgrounds.
1.4 Future course of actions for life at Murdoch
The future course of actions at Murdoch would be focused towards achieving a sense of
unity despite the various cultural backgrounds of the students. I would be focused towards
essential self-development that would help me to tackle all the issues that I might face in the life
outside Murdoch. I will help in the creation of safer environments in the campus of Murdoch in
Perth. I would uphold the value of the Murdoch till I am attached with the community. After I
complete the course I will still be using whatever I was able to learn through Murdoch. I saw that
in the Murdoch community people from various backgrounds are present. This helped me to
learn that living in a culturally diverse community helps a person to develop essential outlook
about life and humanity. The cultural studies that I would engage in would make me an
optimally efficient person in regards to cross-cultural intelligence and understanding. I want to

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take initiatives in the Murdoch community that can actually help me to become a strong
performer when I go into my professional endeavors after leaving the community. I want to take
my learning with me wherever I go. I will be creating groups that help in the establishment of
culturally intelligent, environmentally concerned and humanistic inclined people. I would like to
use whatever I have learnt towards my own benefit and the benefit of the society.
2. The Art of coming into a new community
Coming into a new community is never easy. There are various factors that can cause
significant barriers to communication whenever a person comes in contact with a different
culture. The essay is focused towards evaluating the various themes, literatures and previous
studies that are related to the art of coming into a new community. People are born and brought
up in accordance with the part of the world where they are from. This creates a cultural
understanding that is intrinsic to that part of the world. Hence they do not actually gain an idea of
people or communities that can be diverse. The challenges and factors that affect the effective
intermixing of individuals when they visit new cultures are discussed in the study.
Coming into a culture is difficult. The difficulty varies with the proximity of a person
from a new culture. A person coming into a new culture that is not very different from the
previous culture might not face the same issues as a person coming from an entirely different
culture. Hence, the factors that affect the intermixing into a new culture is subjective to a certain
extent. It is important to remember that it is quite natural for a person to have lower confidence
to interact with the surrounding environment of a new culture. The art of coming into a new
culture hence focuses on improving the prospects of better assimilation into a new culture. The
relevant literatures have pointed towards some essential aspects of better approaching a newer

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society (Chu, 2016). It is found that some of the most important factors that guide cultural
mixing are language, cultural differences, food, environment and other essential factors. It is
important that when a person is coming to a new culture, he or she must do some things very
importantly. First, most literatures on cultural intermixing have stressed on the requirement for
learning the language. Secondly, people have to focus on the cultural differences. Thirdly, it
becomes much important that one is open-minded if one is going to intermix in a new culture.
Conservative people can have far more difficulty in intermixing in a given culture than people
with more open minded and free attitudes. Fourthly, the literatures have pointed to the fact that
one needs to be patient enough to intermix in a new culture. Language becomes an important
factor as communication becomes very important in these cases. Knowing the language or
developing significant communicative effectiveness in the language becomes very much
important (Ting-Toomey & Dorjee, 2018). This is because mixing in a different culture depends
very much on communication levels of an individual. Knowing the languages provides the
confidence that is required to mix with the people. It is important that open mindedness is there
in the person that is entering the new culture. This is because one cannot simple adapt a new
culture without having a significant level of open-mindedness. It is important to develop a
cosmopolitan outlook. The key is to develop an important relationship with the local culture.
Coming into a new culture is as much challenging as anything else. A person has to leaver ones
comfort zone to come to a place and intermix with people. It has been found through various
important literatures that standards of education, language efficiency, cross-cultural outlook and
effective communication have historically helped people to interact freely and effectively in a
new culture. The cultural aspects of the new place should be given importance (Steer & Sánchez‐
Runde, 2017). Without having significant levels of cultural understanding about the culture of

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the given place one cannot simply come into a culture and intermix freely. It becomes important
that one is inclined towards understanding how people of the culture interact. Attending special
events, dining at popular eateries and restaurants and mixing with people of good cultural
heritage is a way in which the culture of the place can be learnt. However, it needs to be
remembered that people are born and brought up in accordance with cultures and customs of the
parts of the world where they are from. This creates a cultural understanding that is intrinsic to
that part of the world. People generally do not tend to develop essential cultural understanding.
Hence they do not actually gain an idea of people or communities that can be diverse (Ting-
Toomey & Dorjee, 2018). This creates a gap in the understanding of different culture. It is
important not to have great expectations from an entire new culture. The culture shock factors
should be avoided very importantly. It is important to understand that people are interesting only
because they are culturally diverse. Cross-cultural communication becomes much necessary in
this case (Deephouse, Newburry & Soleimani, 2016). People need to work together towards
developing better culture oriented outlooks this can help them to tackle the cultural difference.
The best thing is to develop a cultural inclination that focuses on adapting to change at a faster
rate. Conservative people can have far more difficulty in intermixing in a given culture than
people with more open minded and free attitudes. They fail to identify with the given culture
leading to unfair management of the situations.
It can be seen that most of the literatures and commonly recommended intercultural
activities are focused towards cross cultural understandings. The implications that can be derived
are focused towards the fact that it is very difficult to actually mix in a different culture if factors
such as language, understanding and open mindedness are not present. One needs to develop

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essential understandings of a given culture. Coming into a new culture demands cross cultural
understanding and language knowledge.
References
Chu, Y. T. (2016). The Influence of the Indy International Festival on Visitors' Attitudes Toward
Diverse Cultures(Doctoral dissertation).
Deephouse, D. L., Newburry, W., & Soleimani, A. (2016). The effects of institutional
development and national culture on cross-national differences in corporate
reputation. Journal of World Business, 51(3), 463-473.
Sorokin, P. (2017). Social and cultural dynamics: A study of change in major systems of art,
truth, ethics, law and social relationships. Routledge.
Steers, R. M., & Sánchez‐Runde, C. J. (2017). Culture, motivation, and work behavior. The
Blackwell Handbook of Cross‐Cultural Management, 190-216.
Ting-Toomey, S., & Dorjee, T. (2018). Communicating across cultures. Guilford Publications.