Communication Accommodation Theory

When I first came to South Carolina in the fall of 2011 it was such a culture shock. I was born and raised in Kapolei, Hawaii and was brought up, I would consider, very culturally versatile. My ethnicities are Hawaiian, Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino and pretty much practice all of those cultures. I mostly practice the Hawaiian culture and dabble in the Chinese and Filipino traditions, but I know a lot about other cultures such as: the Japanese and Korean art because Hawaii is so diverse. In Hawaii we speak many different versions of English or slangs; there is Hawaiian Creole, Pidgen, Moke, and Haole English, which are all pretty much a broken style of english mixed with other ethnicities’ lingo. Before I came to South Carolina, I would say I spoke proper English for someone who was from Hawaii. Then once I arrived in South Carolina I was completely out of my element. I struggled a lot while communicating with my classmates, teammates, coaches, and professors. Listening to the different country accents and slang I felt like I was from another country. People had a difficult time understanding me as well. They would laugh at the way I pronounced things and I would have to ask them continuously if they could repeat what they had said. I had to figure out a different way to communicate with my peers and be able to get my ideas and thoughts across to them so we would understand each other more easily. This communication between me and my peers is an example of communication accommodation theory because it shows how people change their communication habits to help benefit others during a first-encounter and future meetings. Due to my different background and upbringing with a variety of cultures I had to adapt to the western/southern culture and style of speaking. There are two different types of accommodation procedures that occur in this theory. Convergence indicates the methods through which people use to adapt to other’s communicative practices. For example, after my first year here in South Carolina I had adapted to the style and slang they used here. When I went back to Hawaii my family