How to adapt to different culture

How to adapt to different culture

Many people aspire to come to America because America is the developed country in the world. But if you are really living in America, you will find that it’s not easy for a foreigner to live. I think language, food and festival are the key that need time to adapt to the different culture.

The language is important obstacle if you live in the new country. When I first came to the United States, I couldn’t understand people saying as if I went to the new world. I went everywhere with my electronic dictionary like everyday, when I want to say something, I use it to translate from Chinese to English. But sometimes it made me awkward because some words you can’t translate. I remembered one day in class teacher let us to make a topic, and my classmate tell me a topic, I think it’s not good and a little laughable. I translated into English and tell her “this topic is stupid.” She suddenly got angry. I don’t know what happened because in China, it’s just like joke means not good. But in America, it’s more serious. So I apologized to her and I feel so embarrassed. Sometimes your language can’t say by translation in different country; you have to know their culture and said their language.

The food is the part of culture and can reflect food culture of a country. When you ask someone about culture of country, they will think about the food of this country first. I was living America for sometimes I have to eat American food though I like Chinese food. There are many restaurants in America, but I still can’t find a traditional Chinese restaurant. If you really want to eat traditional Chinese food, I think there is only one way and that means going to China. But I ate the traditional food one time in America, because my mother cooked for me last mouth when she toured in America. When I ate my mother’s cooking as if returned to my hometown. It reminded me a lot of interesting things at the time of my childhood.

The festival is also important part of culture. People who come from different country have different ways to celebrate festivals. It’s like some Chinese festival American do not celebrate. Last year, I had to go school on the Spring Festival in America because Americans doesn’t celebrate it. That day made me feel lonely and yearn for family. And in china we do a lot of things for preparing Spring Festival such as hanging up couplets and lanterns, and making dumplings and fireworks. I live in America now, I also celebrate American Festival. Last Christmas day, my friend who is American took me to his grandparents’ house and celebrated Christmas. It was a big party and a lot of people got together eating just like Chinese Spring Festival.

Adapting to a new culture can be difficult, maybe need time to fix the culture. The culture is the symbolizing of a country or a nation, so it reflects history of a country. It’s like I am Chinese, so I eat Chinese food, I speak Chinese and I celebrate Chinese festivals. If you want to adapt new culture, you need more time to know the culture and solve the obstacles what are hard parts of cultures for you to fit.