In this lesson, you watched two videos and read an essay about some of the challenges faced by Peace Corps volunteers. One volunteer learned to be more respectful of his host parents’ customs by asking for permission to go out. Another adapted cheerfully to a lack of indoor plumbing. Yet another felt that she couldn’t take on all the chores that her host siblings expected of her. In the essay you read, a teacher gained valuable insight into multicultural learning.

Words in the social studies domain can help you describe issues related to the meeting of cultures. For example, the writer of “Thunder and Enlightenment” uses the word folklore, (traditional stories and customs of a people) to refer to his students’ cultural understanding of lightning.

Here are some words that may help you complete the journal assignment below. Click each word to review its definition.

heritage	customs and traditions passed down from one generation to the next
cultural	relating to culture
cultural conflict	the kind of conflict that occurs when different cultural values and beliefs clash
diversity	including many different types of people
coexistence	ability to live in peace with one another despite differences

Locate your file containing this module’s journal assignment, paste the prompt below at the end of the document, and label the entry with this lesson’s title. Then, type a response to the prompt.

Journal

Use some of the new words you learned in this lesson to describe the benefits and challenges of living in a multicultural society.

When you have written a complete and detailed answer to the journal prompt, save the file so that you can open it again for the next lesson with a journal assignment. (You will submit your journal to your teacher for grading once or twice during the module.)