Cultural Immersion Experience

Cultural immersion can be simply defined by placing yourself out of your comfort zone and becoming surrounded by an unfamiliar environment and culture. Through cultural immersion a person can gain insights and characteristics into a community far different than their own. These experiences can truly open a person’s mind and views to others that are different than themselves. Through this experience I placed myself in an environment I knew that I would transform from a majority to a minority. I became an outside looking in on an unfamiliar culture. For this experience I chose to visit the Monastery Of The Holy Spirit, which is located in Conyers, Ga. I chose this location because it offered me the opportunity to experience a new culture and
Monks pray at least five times a day ranging from the hours of 4:00a.m.which is called Vigils until 7:30 p.m. Compline. They also have multiple worship times throughout the day, with the church bells ringing to announce prayer. As we were going through the prayer walk, I noticed how silent the whole grounds of the Monastery was. Once we were finished at this site, we found a bench by a pond to talk more about the monastic lifestyle. One of my first questions was to clarify why people commonly believe all monks are silent when I witnessed multiple monks talking through out my visit? Father Telnack described the different types of monks and their vows of silence. He said monks take three vows, stability, obedience to an abbot, and a vow of conversions, which consist of fasting, manual labor, separation from the world, and silence. The reason for silence as he explained, is that continual prayer and faithfulness to God is easier done when all surroundings are silent and peaceful. He also said they don’t speak in the common buildings and none during the times after the 7:30 p.m. worship until 4:00 a.m. I asked Father Telnack if he believed others thought of him differently once they found out how he lives his life, he responded by saying, “Yes, most are shocked but they find it interesting and commemorable
The serenity and peacefulness I felt while being at this Monastery was something I have never felt. I was able to step back from my very fast paced life to enjoy time of quietness, reflection, and turned it into a life changing experience. As soon as I arrived I was warmly welcomed to their community and was able to step inside of their daily lives. Discussing religion and cultures are commonly avoided due to the fact of a person being offended or not open minded to how others live. I did the complete opposite, although I may have different beliefs, I gained so much respect for Father Telnack along with all the other monks living there. Committing their lives 100% to God and his word, living in silence to constantly reflect and pray, appreciating all of God’s creation, and vowing to live a life for God and not yourself is something most individuals could never fathom. Although I was an outside looking in, I felt so welcomed here, and me being a minority had no affect on how they treated me. However, this is not always the case, there are many instances that a minority will feel hate or isolation due to their culture. If every culture could be as welcoming to one another as my experience was and respectful to one another minorities would feel less intimidated or unappreciated. This is definitely something I am taking away and will apply into my own classroom. I know I will have students from cultures