Explore the New World

Culture for people is like seasoning is for food. It adds flavor to life. Culture is a part of everyone. Each of us can share his or her culture with others. People adopt their own culture, and each culture has different meaning to each person. However, if people leave their country and move to another, they might change or lose their tradition. I have experienced this situation since I came to the USA. Moreover, the Japanese culture is very different from the American culture, so it was very hard to accustom the new culture such greeting style, job culture and how to spending time with friends.

Japanese are very polite and well mannered. Somehow their greetings are unlike the typical Americanˇs greetings. When people introduce each other in Japan, they always bow to each other without shaking hand and hugging. Itˇs because Japanese never touch people at the first time when they meet. Therefore, when I first go to the U.S, I felt embarrassed to shake hands when someone introduced some a new friend to me. After I arrived to the U.S, I was having a hard time to select the right greetings to the people who I just met.

I noticed that there are differences between the work environments of America and Japan. Once people enter the age of employment, they should be calm and willing to handle different situation in a mature way. People should treat their job as the most important routine in their lives and try to work as best as they can. In that case, the boss will only notice their performances at work. In addition, employees are not allowed to make eye contact with their bosses during conversations. On the contrary, it seems that the Americans have a very relaxing working environment. They can even make jokes to their bosses. Actually, I prefer this way. I feel more comfortable if I can treat my boss like a friend.

Moreover, spending time with friends in America is different from what I used to do in Japan. My friends and I usually went to karaoke, bowling, or even spent more time for eating together while I was in Japan. And now, I realized that I only see my friends at night because all my friends in the U.S. are addicted to alcohol. We will not study together and do something meaningful. For example, once I wanted to go to the movies with my international friends, and they just wanted to go to a bar. Sometimes, we all just want to get drunk and take the stress away since many of us are overwhelmed by the obstacles of living in this brand new culture.

In conclusion, since the eastern culture is extremely different from the western culture, I had many embarrassing happen when I first arrived and interacted with the American people. Even though I had hard time accustomed to American culture, it could possibly be one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. I learned that make physical contact with people I have just met; I can be more expressive with my coworkers, and relate differently with my friends. I always wondered when I would overcome the problems that I was having. There is still much for me to learn. However, now I am glad that I could stay in the U.S. to learn the diversity of the new culture. Moreover, I am glad to be a part of it.