Struggling in the new culture
Every country has its own culture, so the cultural differences must exist between any two countries. When I studied foreign cultures and local customs from the book in Jimei University for the first time, I was very unfamiliar with them and I couldn’t adjust to the ideas. If you immigrate or transfer to a new country, maybe you will spend one month or more getting used to the daily life of the country or local customs. When I touched American life for the first time, I also struggled in the difficulties to conform to the different cultures in this new environment
When my family first came to America, we had some difficulties with eating habits because American people usually like eating meat such as chicken, beef, and some other food which has a lot of fat and calories. While the food of our country is lighter. We often eat vegetables, seafood and fruit. American fast food is often fried and cooked without a lot of taste. And Americans like different kinds of sauce which is made of tomato and onion. When they eat food, they mix sauce toghter and then put it on the food, but ours is not. We don’t have so much sauce. We just have some simple seasoning like salt, low sodium. Then we put them inside and eat directly. At the beginning, I nearly had nothing to eat because the meat was so greasy. Also I didn’t like the sauce very much because it was so sweet. And I didn’t like the food style or the taste.
My family also had a hard time getting used to paying taxes and the tips when my family first came to America. One day, my uncle took me to the restaurant to have dinner. When we finished, my uncle paid the bill. And then I took the receipt to have a look. I found that the first line was subtotal—the price of food, the second line was tax, the third line was tips—for the server and the last one was total. I didn’t know why consumers have to pay the tax and tips at that moment. Then my uncle told me that we must pay the tax here when we buy anything. In addition, every year we may pay some tax for the federal statetaxer because it is an American law. As for the tips, it is a kind of local customs in America. On the contrary, we don't need to pay taxes and tips in China. At the beginning, I could’t accept to pay them. Every time I bought something, I only saw the original price. And when I paid the bill, I just found that it was very expensive to buy one thing. So I would spend some time considering to buy it or not.
We also had some difficulties in accepting that there were not so many activities here. And I found that American people don't have a lot of activities in the spare time. They only have some big dinner with their family members and have some parties with their best friends or barbecue. However, in China we have a lot of activities. We usually go to KTV to sing songs and dance crazily. Every day when Americans go home from work, maybe they will stay at home and they will not go outside, but we like to go shopping at night, and we can go to the house of our friends or neighbour. We know of our neighbour and get on well with each other. Maybe in America, some neighbors don't know each other. Maybe I was in a new environment and I was very unfamiliar with it, and I have been in America just three months, and I haven't had many friends here. So I have felt that American life was a little boring and uncomfortable because I didn’t have a lot of entertainment, and I couldn’t relax myslf through taking part in the activities.
Despite all these challenges, I have slowly begun to adapt to American life style more and more. And I have overcome some of the difficulties about the cultural differences individually, especially when one person touch the culture of a new country for the first time, it will take he or she more time to struggle or conform to it. In my opinion, new immigrantes should try their best to adapt to the differences in a short time instead of complaining about it because every country has its own history and origions. . No matter which country we live in or visit, we should study how to respect it’s culture and customs.
My family also had a hard time getting used to paying taxes and the tips when my family first came to America. One day, my uncle took me to the restaurant to have dinner. When we finished, my uncle paid the bill. And then I took the receipt to have a look. I found that the first line was subtotal—the price of food, the second line was tax, the third line was tips—for the server and the last one was total. I didn’t know why consumers have to pay the tax and tips at that moment. Then my uncle told me that we must pay the tax here when we buy anything. In addition, every year we may pay some tax for the federal statetaxer because it is an American law. As for the tips, it is a kind of local customs in America. On the contrary, we don't need to pay taxes and tips in China. At the beginning, I could’t accept to pay them. Every time I bought something, I only saw the original price. And when I paid the bill, I just found that it was very expensive to buy one thing. So I would spend some time considering to buy it or not.
We also had some difficulties in accepting that there were not so many activities here. And I found that American people don't have a lot of activities in the spare time. They only have some big dinner with their family members and have some parties with their best friends or barbecue. However, in China we have a lot of activities. We usually go to KTV to sing songs and dance crazily. Every day when Americans go home from work, maybe they will stay at home and they will not go outside, but we like to go shopping at night, and we can go to the house of our friends or neighbour. We know of our neighbour and get on well with each other. Maybe in America, some neighbors don't know each other. Maybe I was in a new environment and I was very unfamiliar with it, and I have been in America just three months, and I haven't had many friends here. So I have felt that American life was a little boring and uncomfortable because I didn’t have a lot of entertainment, and I couldn’t relax myslf through taking part in the activities.
Despite all these challenges, I have slowly begun to adapt to American life style more and more. And I have overcome some of the difficulties about the cultural differences individually, especially when one person touch the culture of a new country for the first time, it will take he or she more time to struggle or conform to it. In my opinion, new immigrantes should try their best to adapt to the differences in a short time instead of complaining about it because every country has its own history and origions. . No matter which country we live in or visit, we should study how to respect it’s culture and customs.
2 comments:
I found interesting how in your own experiences you mentioned that some food in this country is often fried, but I have to say that you don’t need to generalize in every topic you write. For instance, I think that you shouldn’t say ‘American food’ since United States is like a melting pot with different dishes from all over around the world.
I also think is funny that I wasn’t the one who thought it was kind of weird that here everyone has to pay taxes everywhere! I remember a few years ago in my first touch with America I was very impress that people pay a lot of taxes no matter how much you spent in.
You mentioned that an immigrant should try to adapt into the new differences, would you give us some advices to know how we can do that?
I think your experiences are very interesting. The American food and the tax are difficult to practice.
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