Culture Shocks in the Movie Bend it like Beckham

Wei+Guo

The movie Bend it like Beckham describes an Indian girl experiencing difficult struggling for her dream， in which different culture values and ethnocentrism as well as culture shock are reflected.

To begin with， in the movie we can see that Indian culture differs from British culture in power distance. In the movie， the main character， an Indian girl named Jess， is gifted for playing football， and eager to be an excellent football player. However， it is not allowed in her Indian family， and she is expected to behave like a good girl in family who can make perfect charpati. On the contrary， Jesss good friend， also her best football partner， is a British girl. In spite of the fact that her mother is strongly opposed to her playing football， she insists and wins her fathers support.

It is apparent that children raised in high power distance cultures are expected to obey their parents without challenging or posing a threat to the parents authority， while children raised in low power distance put less value on obedience and are taught to seek reasons or justifications for their parents actions. Fortunately， Jess won the support of her family and can go to America with her British friend to pursue the dream.

In addition， ethnocentrism is also clearly indicated in the movie. Jess father used to be the champion of the east Africa tournament and became a promising player. However， to his disappointment， he was denied in the English team when he settled in Britain. Whats more， when Jess was striving for a goal in the match， one of the players in the opposite team violated the game rule， and cursed at Jess， which is an insult to Indian people. But the British referee got Jess sent off rather than the rule violator. This is all because she is a British team player. The existence of ethnocentrism hurt the Indian girl. She was depressed and disappointed.

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to identify with our in-group （e.g.， ethnic or racial group， culture） and to evaluate out-groups and their members according to its standard. Some people may reject people from different ethnics， thinking that the people in that culture have inferior ways. In short， they look down on the culture of certain ethnics and act ethnocentrically. The perceptions and subsequent communication behavior are characterized by the narrow and rigid ethnocentrism orientation. They would behave like excessive irritation， angry outbursts， defensiveness， or frustration over minor things. Actually， no one cultural trait is right or wrong. It is merely different from each other. Fortunately， Jesss father did not want her daughter to repeat his life， and agreed to send Jess to learn playing football in America， which indicated although the ethnocentrism as well as culture differences do exist， people would live to adapt to culture differences and do what he or she dreams to do.

Furthermore， culture shock appears in the movie. For instance， in the football team， Jess is the only one non-native. During the break， the players were changing clothes while talking about Jesss life. When the British girls heard about the Indian girls marriage， they all felt surprised. Jess said they would not marry a white man as well as a Muslim. Traditionally， they would marry Indian man. Sometimes， their parents would arrange the marriage for their child， which seems incredible to all the British girls.

As is shown in the movie， ethnocentrism and culture shock may happen to almost everyone in intercultural communication. It is normal to experience some level of culture shock， which may occur in varying degrees. As a matter of fact， there is no right or wrong experiencing culture shock. Knowing how to cope with culture shock would assist us in handling these feeling. We should suspend judgment when dealing with people of a culture different from our own. Adequate information about the nature of the cultural differences between peoples， their roots and their consequences， should precede judgment and action. Think twice before applying the norms of our culture to other culture.