Personal Testimony Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal Testimony - Essay Example In China, for example, there some marked differences in the way people act based on where they come from, their level of education and even social class. For example, the lifestyle of people in cities is very different from the provinces; in the former, people are materialistic and always focused on getting blue-collar jobs and other trappings of western life. While this applies to some extent in the villages, people tend to concentrate more and agricultural production and less on modernization making a journey from the heart of Shanghai to my parent’s rural home quiet an exciting stimulation for my cultural palate. A key difference I noticed in one of the visits is that people in the countryside tend to have a more communal mentality than those in towns. The community comes first then the individual; however, the urban mindset is quite different with people giving preference to their needs before they consider those of the community. From these experiences, I learnt that people are different from place to place and it is always good to understand how they think since it makes it easier to interact with them. Consequently, I would say my lesson in culture despite by unawareness of its important has proven very useful in helping me adapt to life when I found myself in a radically different cultural environment. In the United States, everything seemed so distinctly different, and I felt as if I had traveled into a different dimension altogether. My understanding of culture was exponentially broadened by this experience as I realized that even the small things I used to take for granted were an essential aspect of culture. Food, language mannerism and much other distinction that differentiate different peoples from each other are can all contribute to the concept of culture. My objective for travelling to the US was to further my education, my parents wanted me to expand both my intellectual and social-cultural hori zons. To them, there was no better way of doing