Post 5

In American culture I believe that one of the values that Americans hold as one of the highest is that of success and work. In my short time in America this has become known to me that Americans base their opinions on one another off of that persons successes and people generally gravitate to people of success such as movie stars and musicians and hold them as their idols normally off of their achievements in their work. Americans are taught from a young age that in order to be successful in life it is based off of what college you attend and what job you get that is why when Americans meet they normally ask "what do you do" where as in other cultures such as mine from New Zealand we ask "where have you been" as we value experiences over jobs as you can be rich from experience which lasts a lifetime compared to being rich in possessions, as possessions are only fleeting. This is shown in Tuesday's with Morrie where Mitch is so focussed on his success in work he is not realizing what he is pushing away in the process until Morrie opened his eyes to how unhappy he was from this false sense of success. Morrie was successful in his experiences which he held more important when he was looking back on his life. America is obsessed with the value of success in work and people's careers which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Post 4

Culture is different throughout the entire world. My eyes got opened to this when I first moved to America the culture shock was immediate from when you first step out of the plane into the airport everything changes from what I was used to in New Zealand. The first thing I noticed was how the pace of life in America was so much faster, it is part of the American culture that time is of the essence and can not be wasted and everyday you must follow a strict routine. For me this was quite a change in my life as I was used to a much slower pace of life where you take in what is happening around you.

Americans tend to be very ethnocentric as when I explain how how I used to do things in New Zealand which are not the same they tend for find these things weird or wrong because they do not align with the American culture. Another example of being ethnocentric is when we watched the movie God grew tired of where the lost boys thought that it was weird that in America you are only allowed one wife because in the Sudanese culture it is not strange to have more than one.

This unit has really opened my eyes to how we view other people's cultures and beliefs especially if they vary from our own because moving to America has made me more accepting to other counties cultures and also allowed me to take parts of other cultures and make it part of my own individual culture.