Culture and adaptation
Culture decides what feels obvious before you have had a chance to consider it.
What counts as success. How you talk about feelings, or whether you do. Who you owe, and how much. These are cultural settings rather than personal preferences, and most of us do not notice them until we meet someone whose settings differ.
Adaptation means acquiring a second set of instincts without discarding the first. Our guests describe doing this constantly: in a foreign workplace, in a marriage, in a profession with its own culture, in a country that has changed faster than the assumptions built for it.
We also examine where the translation fails. The parts of yourself that do not survive the crossing. The jokes that do not land. The care that is expressed in a way the other person cannot read. Adaptation is a skill, and like any skill it has a cost that is rarely accounted for.
Episodes on this theme
The Story Behind the Strings.
With Nadine Mhanna
The Strength to Ask for Help.
With Maya Nassar
One Person. One Idea. A Lasting Impact.
With Lisa Sofian
The Painkiller Society.
With Mike Harb
The Starting Point.
With Youmna Baladi
The Weight of Vision.
With Nadim
Questions we get about this
How does Lebanese culture affect mental health conversations?▾
It prizes endurance, which is protective and also silencing. Getting through things is admired, so needing support can be experienced as a personal failure rather than an ordinary human requirement.
What does cultural adaptation cost?▾
Effort that is invisible to everyone around you. Guests describe constant low-level translation of humour, expectation and emotional expression, and the fatigue that accumulates from doing it well.
Can you adapt without losing yourself?▾
Most of our guests say yes, with a caveat: it requires deciding in advance which parts are not negotiable. The people who struggled most were the ones who adapted reactively.