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ntries encompassing many different and diverse cultures intervened in Lebanon imposing their language (that is, French and English), and their principles. For example, Lebanese children attending French schools were forbidden the practice of Arabic language within the school walls.

 

In a way, this is the basis of what gave the Lebanese individual the easiness to adapt. The Lebanese got this acceptance of adaptation when he immigrated to other foreign destinations where life promised to be better.

 

Corm (1986: 20) describes a typical Lebanese person as a citizen of the Lebanese capital, Beirut city of “patricians”, “merchants”, “artisans”, and “jurists” ready to serve any new “conqueror”. Whether the conqueror was Egyptian, Iranian, Byzantine, French, American or British, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered to a Lebanese person was that business was stable and always on the run (Corm, 1986: 29).

 

Because of the influence of the West in a country considered as being Oriental, Lebanon was thereof called this junction between the Orient and the Occident (Corm, 1986: 15).

 

1.1 The area of study:

Culture can be defined as “a body of learned behavior, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shared by a group of people and successively learned by people who enter the society” (Joynt and Warner, 1996: 33). “Society in this context can apply to any level of culture, like nation, organization or profession. While in most instances, a person’s nationality is a sufficient indicator of their culture (where the culture is the norm of that nationality), many societies now contain a variety of ethnic groups and individuals may easily be influenced by cultures other than their apparent nationality” (Joynt and Warner, 1996: 33). A specific ethnic group can be characterized by its “language, politics, attitudes, economy, religion, values, customs, education, etc…” (Joynt and Warner, 1996: 34).

 

A specific ethnic group can also be called a ‘Diaspora’. Many definitions were given as to the word Diaspora. Generally, Diasporas are “communities that define themselves by reference to a distant homeland from which they once originated” (Coles and Timothy, 2004: 1). When an ethnic group or a group belonging to a specific “ethnicity, culture, religion, national identity and sometimes race” (Coles and Timothy, 2004: 3) are dispersed (that is, dislocated and then relocated voluntarily or not) around the globe, this is what can be called a ‘Diaspora’. Coles and Timothy (2004: 4) mention Sheffer’s notion of a modern Diaspora as “residing and acting in host countries while still maintaining strong sentimental and material links with their countries of origin”. They therefore have “collective memories” (Coles and Timothy, 2004: 5) of their traditional country, and they face the same situation as their “co-ethnic members” (Coles and 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。