going native
Embracing local ways
Going native is adopting the customs, habits, or lifestyle of a local culture after living among its people—often used when outsiders assimilate more than expected or intended.
The phrase originated in colonial contexts, where European administrators or missionaries abandoned Western ways for indigenous practices.
Today it applies more broadly: After three years in Tokyo, she's gone native—takes her shoes off everywhere.
The expression can carry condescension or admiration depending on context.
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
- acculturationAdopting another group's customs
- integrationCombining into a whole
- identity crisisLoss of personal certainty
- liminalityTransitional ambiguity between phases
cognitive dissonance · immersion · when in Rome · local customs · culture shock · lost in translation · mimicry · colonial encounters · white savior · belonging · cultural identity · adaptation · fieldwork · hybridity · cultural immersion · cultural relativism · social conformity · cultural exchange
- conversionsconvert, exchange rate, encoding, transcoding, reformatting
- fieldworkfieldwork, field work, field journal, field guide, field study
going nativecultural isolation
Separation from outside societies
cultural preservation · cultural imperialism · ethnocentrism · keeping apart · cultural resistance
going, native, goes, gone, goer, nation, nations, national, nationally