Tags
American Dream, changes, Cultural assimilation, England, Melting pot, realizations, Republican Party (United States), Sears, Singapore, United States
Here at NUS I have to say that the university is doing a great job of organizing functions that allow us international students to mingle and meet new people. Being from America which is considered the cultural melting pot by many we often believe that we have met every person from every walk of life. The problem with meeting people of diverse cultures and life experiences in America, is that more often then not, they have either been assimilated into our American lifestyle for quite sometime which causes some aspects of their heritage to dissipate or we don’t give them the time of day because they may seem to be too different. My parents are a prime example of what cultural assimilation is in action. Living in America now over 30+ years they still do have accents and definitely more times than I can count make ridiculous comments about our American lifestyle which makes me wonder if we are related but with that being said they are fully immersed in what being an American is. They shop at Sears and drove Ford. Live in a suburban neighborhood and pay taxes, for all intensive purposes they are the American dream if there has ever been one and to top it all off they came here from a different country with virtually nothing. So, where is this going? Here at NUS I’ve realized that I need to be more open minded and I need to learn that everyone is not going to come from even a remotely close version of my life. I have to realize that also I can not relate to everyone. I often find myself trying to create a connection with people which sometimes just is not there and making the realization that there is nothing I can really do about it, which for me is something difficult to accept. All I can do at that point is just listen attentively and be polite. This whole experience is opening my eyes wider and wider everyday and I am so excited to continue this adventure one day at a time.
I wish I had some cliche Singapore saying to end all my posts with but here they just speak English.
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